Phoenix Suns: Good enough to be good, but not good enough to be good enough
January 20th, 2009
I hated the appointment of Steve Kerr as the Phoenix Suns General Manager. Hated it. I loved Steve Kerr as a player even if I did miss his best years, but I didn’t like his writing much, and he ruined my entire NBA Live 2006 experience with his insistence that Kirk Hinrich was in some way like Steve Nash. (They’re both white and keep their dribble alive when circling the baseline. Identical!) Why would a man whose take on the NBA was limited to the games he was commentating on suddenly be qualified to run an NBA franchise, short as he seemed on experience, the CBA know-how, and the depth of knowledge base that was surely required for such a position? How much can you learn about the prognosis of thousands of potential NBA basketball players worldwide when sitting alongside Marv Albert? I hated the entire idea. Similarly, I hated the Shaquille O’Neal trade when it happened. The Phoenix Suns’ style of play under Mike D’Antoni wasn’t really getting anywhere, but was the answer really to trade for a player who commits your team to a life of halfcourt play, yet who isn’t effective enough any more to build an offence around? And why would a team that had recently gifted away Rajon Rondo and Rudy Fernandez for immediate financial savings now be so willing to take on the huge contract of a declining player, committing them for the foreseeable future to the luxury tax that they had been so desperately trying to avoid? It was all the eggs in one basket, and the basket wasn’t worth it. However, as I am wont to do, I have since backtracked on both opinions. Acquiring Shaq has not affected the Suns’ ability to acquire talent, as I feared it might. No longer […]
2008 NBA Offseason Preview: Charlotte Bobcats
April 18th, 2008
The second in a new series of posts detailing teams financial outlooks for the upcoming free agency period, what cap room they have, what exceptions, what draft slots, etc. Should be fascinatingly fascinating, if you’re easily pleased. No information is 100% guaranteed accurate, but unless you’re privy to hitherto unknown information, or just better at this than I am (highly possible), then it’s probably more accurate than you’ve seen before. To be completed in an order best described as “Random”. Charlotte Bobcats Currently Committed Salary, 2008/09: Jason Richardson – $12,222,221 Gerald Wallace – $9,500,000 Nazr Mohammed – $6,049,400 Matt Carroll – $5,050,000 Adam Morrison – $4,159,200 Raymond Felton – $4,148,715 Sean May – $2,661,026 Jared Dudley – $1,222,320 Total: $45,012,882 Team options: Othella Harrington – $2,552,000 (no chance) Jermareo Davidson – $711,517 (probable) Total including options: $48,276,399 Unrestricted Free Agents: Derek Anderson (cap hold – $1,001,793) Earl Boykins (cap hold – $924,732) Restricted Free Agents: Emeka Okafor (qualifying offer – $7,082,635, cap hold – $13,568,268) Ryan Hollins (qualifying offer – $972,581, cap hold – $893,693) Draft picks: First round: 8th pick, subject to lottery results. (Cap hold – $2,002,600) Second round: 38th pick (no cap hold) Cap room/exceptions: None, unless they renounce Okafor….which they won’t. MLE and BAE, no trade exceptions. Depth chart if you take all the free agents away: PG – Felton SG – Richardson, Carroll SF – Dudley, Morrison PF – Wallace, May C – Mohammed Sensible things to do: Re-sign Okafor, but don’t overpay – let him find out how weak the market is the hard way. Get better backup guards, and whose presence the coach won’t hold against Felton. Keep Hollins or Davidson, but not really both because there’s not much point. Pray for a rainout.
30 teams in 524 or so days: Charlotte Bobcats
October 20th, 2007
Players acquired via free agency or trade: Jason Richardson (acquired from Golden State) Players acquired via draft: First round: Jared Dudley (22nd overall) Second round: Jermareo Davidson (36th overall) Players retained: Derek Anderson (re-signed, one year minimum) Jeff McInnis (re-signed, one year minimum) Matt Carroll (re-signed, six years, $26,900,000) Gerald Wallace (re-signed, six years, $57,000,000) Ryan Hollins (exercised team option) Walter Herrmann (exercised team option) Primoz Brezec (opted in) Players departed: Alan Anderson (signed in Italy) Jake Voskuhl (opted out, signed with Milwaukee) Brevin Knight (waived, signed with L.A. Clippers) Bobbins: In a recent debate with someone about who the eight playoff teams in the East are going to be this season, debate raged as to who would be the eighth team. We discussed the possibility of the eighth seed being Orlando, Washington, Milwaukee, and even Atlanta, before finally settling on one which I won’t mention (because it will spoil a later post). Neither of us debated the possibility of Charlotte being the eighth seed. This is because we had both already pencilled them as the seventh, with absolutely no contention from each other. There’s two possible conclusions that you can draw here. The first would be that the two of us basically don’t know what the hell we are talking about, which is a good point well made that I am unable to counter. The second would be to assume that, yes, Charlotte is a playoff-calibre team. And that point, I can defend. The franchise got off to a slow start after expansion, as you would expect, but slowly the Bobcats picked up pieces along the way. Starting around Emeka Okafor and building outwards, nothing much has gone right for the Bobcats before this summer. Mired deep in the lottery, and bound by the salary […]
