The Shaq

(Editor's note: I came across this piece I wrote just after Shaq retired, but never posted it it. Just think of this as free bonus blog.)

Shaquille O’Neal announced his retirement Wednesday. He was for all intents and purposes the most dominant center in my lifetime. Shaq came into the league as the number one overall pick in the 1992 NBA draft to the Orlando Magic and didn’t disappoint (just check out some Youtube videos of Shaq’s time with the Magic). Within two years, he had led the Magic, with the help of Penny Hardaway, to the NBA Finals where he lost to another all-time great center, Hakeem Olajuwon and the Houston Rockets. Shaq finished his career ranked in the top 15 in points (fifth), blocks (seventh), rebounds (twelfth), and field goal percentage (second), which, of course, are the most important statistics when categorizing centers in the NBA. When compared to all centers Shaq ranked third in points, seventh in blocks, tenth in rebounds and second in field goal percentage. Shaq was one of the best players in NBA history. Personally I have him as the third best center of all-time behind, Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-jabbar and just in front of Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson and Bill Russell. I know that some people will want to crucify me for putting Bill Russell so low on this list, but I just don’t see how playing with a team full of Hall of Fame players to win eleven championships should make Russell a better player than Shaq. Also, Russell was a bad free throw shooter, which is Shaq-haters biggest knock against him, and he also was not a good scorer, averaging only 15 points and shooting .440 from the field. That’s not impressive. Hence Shaq’s higher placement on the all-time list.

Now, despite all of this, Shaq’s career was still somewhat of a disappointment. His raw size and athleticism may never be duplicated in the NBA. When he came into the league he measured 7’1” and 303 pounds with a 7’7” wingspan and an incredible 36” vertical leap. Shaq showcased that wonderful talent in his first ten years in the league, reaching his apex in 2000 when he was voted Most Valuable Player and winning three championships with the Lakers and one with the Heat. Honestly, it should have been more, especially considering the talent that played alongside of him.

Shaq never learned to take care of his body. After his MVP season in 2000, Shaq only averaged nearly 20 games missed every season. Jared Dudley gave a little insight into Shaq’s work disciplinary habits via twitter when he said that he lost wait after Shaq left because he stopped going to eat chicken and waffles before plane rides. In another tweet Dudley reminisces about the times where Shaq would make the rest of his teammates rehearse their starting lineup introductions, which needed to be perfect, according to Shaq. His increasing size contributed to foot and toe problems. Shaq also never put in the time to master his free throw shooting. He was a career 52.7% free throw shooter. Shaq claimed that he made them when they mattered most, which isn’t really true since his average dropped to 50.4% during his career in the playoffs. With work, Shaq could have been inarguably the most dominant force the game of basketball has ever seen, a true unstoppable player.

The what-could-have-beens of Shaq’s career may not be any more apparent than they are to Suns fans. Shaq was the first major step in the downfall of the “seven seconds or less” Suns. The Suns traded for Shaq in February of 2008 in part to shore up their defense against Tim Duncan and the Spurs for the playoffs, but also to rid the locker room of Shawn Marion’s whiny, woebegone attitude. When the trade happened the Suns were sitting at first place in the Western Conference. After they acquired Shaq they fell to the sixth seed in the Western Conference and were matched up against their arch nemesis, the San Antonio Spurs. Suffice it to say, the trade did not bear the intended fruits of a playoff win against the Spurs. The next year Shaq gave an inspired effort by playing in 75 games and averaging 17.8 points while making the All-Star Game which was held in Phoenix. Unfortunately, the highlight of his time in Phoenix was when he was introduced to the crowd at the All-Star game and danced with the Jabbawockeez.

Even as the first step in a painful process that saw the Suns go from championship contenders to lottery team, Shaq still cannot be blamed for what happened. He was brought in to do a job, and the Suns should have known what they were getting when he came over from Miami: an aging star who never showed the Steve Nash-like discipline it took to keep his body at an elite level. It’s no wonder that Shaq and Nash butted heads on more than just on-court philosophy. It’s just too bad for Suns fans that we only got to see the Shaq in the beginning of his twilight years, because an in-shape, motivated Shaq was truly one of the most dominating players to ever play the game.

Season Preview

The Suns will finally tipoff the season tonight against the New Orleans Hornets. The starting lineup will be full of familiar faces as this is the first time the Suns’ opening day starting lineup is the same as the previous season’s end of season starting lineup since Jeff Hornacek and Kurt Rambis were in purple and orange 21 years ago. Unfortunately for the Suns, that cohesiveness may not be a good thing. The Suns missed the playoffs last season finishing in 10th place in the Western Conference and negative efficiency differential at -0.4 (difference between offensive efficiency and defensive efficiency per 100 possessions) finishing 16th in the NBA in that category.

Without any significant improvements and an additional year on the legs and backs of Grant Hill and Steve Nash as well as a lockout-condensed 66 game schedule, this year’s team does not appear to have much hope for a return to glory. Most prognosticators have the Suns finishing toward the bottom of the Western Conference. John Hollinger’s analysis has the Suns finishing 14th in the West with a 24-42 record. Considering the fact that Hollinger uses analytics to make his predictions and his Vegas-beating history, he has some credibility toward his predictions.

ESPN’s Bill Simmons, who has significantly less credibility, but is entertaining to listen to nonetheless has a much nicer prediction of 33-33. Most likely this will still not be good enough to make the playoffs, but it does make for a rosier season and at least something to play for.

Using David Berri’s Wins Produced stat, I calculated my own quick predictions. Unfortunately, this also has the Suns finishing with a poor record at 21-45, preparing for the lottery. To find these numbers, I used last season’s WP48 with my own quick estimation of minutes played to come up with each person’s contribution of wins. Of course, we do not have a last season for Markieff Morris, so I used a rough estimate based on previous power forwards’ rookie seasons to come up with about one win attributed to Morris. Now, if Morris turns into a rookie of the year candidate and fulfills the Suns’ wildest dreams and therefore takes more minutes from Frye, I predict he adds an additional six wins for a 27-39 finish. And again, the Suns will still finish in the lottery.

Player WP48 Min. Wins Produced
Steve Nash 0.244 2046 10.401
Jared Dudley 0.173 1848 6.661
Grant Hill 0.102 1914 4.067
Channing Frye 0.017 2046 0.725
Marcin Gortat 0.176 1980 7.260
Shannon Brown 0.056 1320 1.540
Markieff Morris 0.037 1188 0.916
Robin Lopez -0.031 1056 -0.682
Josh Childress 0.202 660 2.778
Ronnie Price -0.094 1254 -2.456
Hakim Warrick 0.092 198 0.380
Seb. Telfair -0.037 132 -0.102
Garret Siler -0.014 198 -0.058


The Suns are still feeling the departure of Amare Stoudemire. They do not have a go-to scorer that can score on isolation plays and get to the free throw line. They went into last season hoping Jason Richardson and Hedo Turkoglu could fill that role but had to part with Richardson in order to dump the Turkoglu disaster. After that, Vince Carter also could not live up to expectations of a go-to scorer and the Suns were left without someone who could score when the offense went stagnant.

As far as the additions are concerned, both Sebastian Telfair and Ronnie Price are a step down from Aaron Brooks who is stuck in China after signing a contract a week before the lockout ended. And Shannon Brown, while talented, has not shown the ability to create his own shot and will not give the Suns the consistent firepower that they need.

As it is now, the lockout-shortened season may be one of the bright spots on the year, as it will mean less misery for a bottom-feeding team than in a normal 82-game season. Steve Nash will still be Steve Nash and will be the main reason why the Suns will be competitive in many of their games, but overall will just come up short too many times. This season will provide a good opportunity to get better through a deep draft in 2012. If it were up to me I would try to keep Nash as healthy as possible through this season by significantly reducing his minutes on back to backs and stretches with three games in four nights. This will keep the Suns competitive for a high lottery pick as well as a big-time free agent next summer. Showing that loyalty to Nash can hopefully bring him back with a retooled roster in 2012 and one last run or two to the promised land.

Lockout Solutions

I’ve been inspired to write again. This happens much too infrequently so savor this while you have it. Part of my inspiration comes from the devoted effort by the NBA owners and the players association to meet for three consecutive days with federal mediator George Cohen (who is not to be confused with Webster, Webster & Cohen of Cool Runnings Fame). Luckily for all of us NBA fans it has only taken the cancellation of the first 100 regular season games and the threat of the Christmas Day games for these sides to show some real effort. We can only hope that these two sides will come to their senses and find an agreement to share their billions. Here is what I hope to see as a result of these meetings:

1.) Increased Revenue Sharing
This will be the biggest move the owners can make toward long-term financial success for all teams. The NBA has said that up to 23 teams are losing money. Forbes estimates that number at 19. Either way, that’s ridiculous. There is no way any teams should be losing money. Share the pie, folks.

Now I’m sure some people will point fingers and call names saying that this is an injustice towards those teams that are doing well financially. Listen, the NBA does not work under normal market conditions. If it did, then we’d have eight teams in New York, six in L.A. and three in Chicago, because that is where the money is. We’d also have a huge influx of start-up teams. But, the NBA as a whole is a business and they make the rules. Teams aren’t allowed to just up and leave their city unless they have the blessing of the Commish (This is where we could rehash some of the Clay Bennett/Seattle Supersonics fiasco, but we won’t for the sake of time). If they could, I’m sure Jerry Colangelo would have never sold the Suns to that over-leveraged, under-loved Robert Sarver, and would have moved them to his hometown, Chicago. And don’t try and tell me that those teams are responsible for themselves and if they can’t hack it with the big boys then they should close up shop or sell to someone else. The NBA needs lots of teams. The big markets rely on the smaller markets too. You can’t have a five-team league of Boston, New York, Chicago, Dallas and LA. They all need each other.

According to The Nielsen Company, Phoenix has the twelfth largest TV market. That sounds pretty good, that means we’re in the top half and moving up. But wait, even as the twelfth largest TV market in the country Phoenix is still four times smaller than New York, and three times smaller than Los Angeles with over 7.5 million and 5.6 million TV homes respectively. Phoenix comes in at 1.8 million and that market stretches all the way to Prescott! And that doesn’t even mention the marketing advantage the big cities have. Arizona has seven Fortune 500 companies. New York has 57. Illinois has 31. California has 53. Now remember, this is only in comparison to Phoenix, which is nearly in the top third of largest NBA markets. Just think how Charlotte, Indiana and Utah stack up against these juggernauts. It’s clear they’re not because they are all losing money according to Forbes.

Okay, the biggest hurdle has now been cleared. The owners have agreed to share the majority of their revenues to secure the long-term financial viability of every team in the league.

2.) Revenue Split
I was watching a segment on the lockout on SportsCenter the other day with my 11-year old brother. He asked me why they were in a lockout. I explained that they couldn’t agree on a split of the Basketball Related Revenue. I explained that under the previous deal the players had gotten 57% and that now the owners were offering a 53-47 split in favor of the owners. My brother got a puzzled look on his face and asked disdainfully, “Why don’t they just split it 50-50?” I could only chuckle. It just made too much sense and would be far too easy. Can’t happen.

Despite the wisdom of my brother, I still think that if there is going to be anything other than a 50-50 split the larger portion needs to go to the players. They make the league. There really isn’t any arguing this either. If we completely scrapped the league and started over fresh with either 100% new owners or 100% new players, it’s pretty obvious which league would succeed. The owners are completely interchangeable with the next overly-rich-nerd-who-wants-to-show-how-cool-he-is guy. Owning an NBA team is not a business venture as much as it is a hobby for the uber-wealthy.

Whether its 50-50 or 53-47 in favor of the players, let’s just make it happen. Suck it up owners, we don’t watch basketball for you…well maybe a little for Mark Cuban.

3.) Salary cap
This shouldn’t be a hard one to figure out either, especially now that we have shared revenues. Set the cap at a friendly place for everyone, and make it just a little harder. We wouldn’t even need a luxury tax threshold. We just need to limit the Bird Rights to one per team, as Bill Simmons has suggested (And undoubtedly other people as well. I’m just too lazy to search for them. I’m not a real journalist; I don’t need to follow proper citation etiquette). This way teams can still keep their star player IF they create an environment that people want to play in, unlike a franchise tag that doesn’t give the player a choice, but it won’t allow the Lakers to make a sham trade for Pau Gasol and then give huge contracts to Kobe, Gasol, Odom and Bynum. If you re-signed a player whose contract you over the salary cap, you cannot add any further salaries unless you cut from someplace else. Which leads to the next item on my wish list.

4.) Guaranteed Contracts
This one is a little sticky for me. I tend to side with the players, if the owners gave you the contract, then they should stick with it. But, this is where some compromise comes into play. Owners want fully unguaranteed contracts to get out from underneath any poor decision they made or poor performance by a player following a big deal. Personally, I think that might be a bit too far. Let’s make it three-year max guarantee and anything after three years is unguaranteed. This way players can negotiate a front-loaded contract if they want the security right away and if they want a seven-year max deal, then they will just need to continue to earn that salary year-in and year-out. Under these circumstances teams cannot dump their entire roster to make a move on a few key free agents, and players cannot stuff their faces with cream puffs during the offseason. Shrewd front office moves will still be a necessity.

This is what I want to see. Will I see it? Probably not tomorrow. I just hope it happens sometime soon. Steve Nash and Grant Hill only have so many good years left.

Random Thoughts

I feel like I have let down my community. I claim to be the azsportsmeister but haven’t said anything about the 2001…I mean 2011 Arizona Diamondbacks. I love this team! And the best part is, they are finally starting to get some national pub. With their 35th comeback win on Monday against the Phillies, the D-Backs now have a 3.5 game lead over the Giants. Now, part of this publicity is because ESPN is promoting a Wednesday night game to be aired on their network. Whatever the reason, I’ll take it. This team deserves some credit and will certainly be getting a lot of national attention over the years with the promising (and affordable) young players that they have. Take a look at the list of young core players on this roster: Justin Upton, 23, $4 million; Chris Young, 27, $5 million; Gerardo Parra, 24, $400k; Miguel Montero, 28, $3 million, Stephen Drew, 28, $4.5 million; Paul Goldschmidt, 23; Ian Kennedy, 24, $400k; Daniel Hudson, 23; $400k. That is one heck of a young core. There isn’t a single everyday player over 30 years old, and this list doesn’t even mention the minor leaguers waiting in the wings. Consider this 2013 (possibly late 2012) starting rotation: Ian Kennedy, 27; Daniel Hudson, 26; Jarrod Parker, 25; Tyler Skaggs, 23; and Tyler Bauer, 23. All five of those players could realistically be in the starting rotation starting in 2013. The future is bright for this team, and I haven’t even mentioned the fact the Justin Upton, at age 23, is now becoming the player we all expected him to be when he was drafted as a 17 year-old high schooler. And the best part of that story is the fact that he is signed through 2015…giggidy.

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I’ve got a beef that I need to get off my chest. I don’t think I can take anymore of Dan Bickley. Like a lot of valley residents, Bickley is a transplant from the Midwest, Chicago to be exact. The problem with Bickley isn’t that he still holds onto his rooting interests from his youth. The problem is that tries to tell real Arizona sports fans how to support their teams. I don’t want to be lectured on how to be a fan by a guy who couldn’t hack it as a writer in his own town all the while continuing to root for his old teams. Dan Bickley, cool it on the lectures or go back and lecture your old pals in Chicago.

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My buddy John (That’s right John, you just got mentioned in a widely-read, masterful, sports blog) alerted me to Zach Lowe’s list of the top 100 NBA players and just how egregiously he ruined the list. After a careful review, Lowe’s biggest error was not putting The Jimmer in the top 5. (That was a joke…I promise. Actually, Lowe didn’t even have him on his list at all…and I’m okay with that.)
The problem with lists like these is that it is incredibly difficult to really accurately rate and compare players. Basketball is too reliant on matchups and specific roles. A better way to compare players might be their trade value, like Bill Simmons puts out every season; either way, its still fun to compare and argue. After looking at the list, the biggest problem I had was Blake Griffin rated #14. He is a great player, and under the trade value system he would be right at the top of the list because of his age and wow factor. On a list of the best NBA players, there is no way he ranks ahead of Tim Duncan, Steve Nash, Chris Bosh, Kevin Garnett, Amare Stoudemire and Paul Pierce.
This may be my homerism, but I can’t let Steve Nash stay at #18. Even at his age he has not slipped a bit. He should be right there in the top ten with Deron Williams and Chris Paul, at least for a few more seasons.
Next biggest issue is Dwight Howard at #2. Dwight Howard is great. As far as trade value goes, again, he is at the top of the list. However, he has been in the league for seven years and he is just barely beginning to develop an offensive game. I’ve written this before and I’ll write it again. Amare Stoudemire gets killed for his defense and rebounding, but Dwight Howard gets a free pass for his offensive skills because he’s got a million-dollar smile and McDonald’s commercial. Now, would I rather have Howard? Of course, but it still bothers me.
The last issue that I want to raise is Kevin Durant at #8. This guy is a scoring machine. Deron Williams and Chris Paul need other players around them to make a good team. Durant might be the closest thing to a one-man team next to LeBron.
With that said, here is my own top 10:
10. Dirk Nowitzki
9. Dwight Howard
8. Deron Williams
7. Steve Nash
6. Derrick Rose
5. Chris Paul
4. Kobe Bryant
3. Dwayne Wade
2. Kevin Durant
1. LeBron James

The U Did it Again

It should not be of any surprise to college sports fans that the University of Miami is being investigated on charges of NCAA violations. When I saw this headline I read it and immediately moved on and didn’t think twice about it. Miami is just another university in a long line of prominent athletic programs to get busted for rules violations. Just think about all of the players, coaches and universities in the past year that have been in the news for improprieties: Cam Newton, Terrell Pryor, Jim Tressel, Oregon, Chip Kelly, North Carolina, Georgia Tech, USC and now Miami. The difference with this story is that the charges are much bigger and broader. Many pundits are throwing around the possibility of the infamous “Death Penalty” which has only been doled out once to a football program (SMU back in the ‘80’s).
If the NCAA gives Miami the death penalty then they are opening the door to kill traditional college football as we know it. Think about this: there were many very prominent players and former players (now NFL players) on the list of people who received improper benefits from booster Nevin Shapiro. Now remember this, Miami hasn’t been any good since Butch Davis’s players left for the NFL. Shouldn’t Miami be dominating college football like they did in the 1980’s under Howard Schnellenberger, Jimmy Johnosn and Dennis Erickson? This begs the question: what are the top college teams doing that we don’t know about…yet? Actually, we have a decent idea of what the other teams are doing. Take the two teams in the BCS Championship game from last year, Auburn and Oregon. Auburn landed a star quarterback, Cam Newton, who was allegedly being shopped around in a pay-for-play agreement after Mississippi State said that they were told they needed to pay $180,000 to land Newton. Oregon, on the other hand, has had multiple run-ins with the law along with some shady connections with a recruiting service. It seems pretty intuitive that to become a national powerhouse in college football that you need to break the rules. I refuse to believe that these kids are passing on the Miami’s of the world in favor of other top programs because they think facilities are better, or because the coach knows his X’s and O’s better. Now, if Miami does in fact receive the death penalty then it leads me to believe that there are many other top college programs that could potentially receive the same penalty.
There are a few different ways the NCAA can take this. The first is to just go on without changing anything, pretending most programs are clean until a news source brings them to light and punishing the newfound offenders. Second, they can drastically increase their investigative staff and vociferously go after every single rules violation on the books and punish them accordingly. Those two are probably the most likely scenarios, because they keep the cash flow from boosters to universities moving. Even with increased oversight, schools and boosters are just going to put more resources and efforts into hiding their violations. My solutions are much more drastic. If the NCAA really wants to clean up college athletics then they need to get rid of boosters altogether. If the government can put caps on the amount of money people can give to political campaigns, why can’t the NCAA limit or dispel contributions to athletic departments? If wealthy alumni want to make contributions to a school then make sure the university presidents have the ability to put all or part of that money toward actual education. Put everyone on a level playing field. Reduce the number of dollars going into the business. Share television revenue among all Division I schools. Base athletic budgets entirely off of ticket sales and merchandise revenue. Right now there are many schools that are operating athletic departments without big donations from boosters. If they can do it, then everyone can do it. The solution is to make the business of college athletics as less of a business as possible.
The other option is to completely take college athletics out of colleges. Turn them into profession or semi-professional club teams. If universities want to participate than that is fine, let them sponsor a team by offering their name, colors, tradition and whatever facilities they currently have. But, these club teams will operate entirely out of the purview of the university. There can be a club team in each university city and the club can offer a tuition stipend as part of any compensation the market dictates. This way, we can solve the problem of player compensation, minor league football, and still let the majority of athletes who are not going to make the NFL still receive money for college to gain a valuable education. And if we make these teams non-profit organizations than boosters can still receive tax deductions for any charitable contributions. Boosters can supply all the money they want and educational institutions do not need to have reputations tarnished because of impropriety. This solution will shift the charade of college athletics from the notion of amateurism to the feeling of tradition and history.

Coyote Ugly

Okay, I need to confess something. I have been reading a lot of blogs and message boards lately. I know it’s not good for me, but sometimes you just can’t help yourself. The thing just keeps bringing me back in. It’s like train wreck, reality TV. You’ve probably guessed it by now. I just cannot stop reading about the Phoenix Coyotes – Matthew Hulsizer – Goldwater Institute fiasco. It’s fascinating and mind bogglingly irritating at the same time.

Every piece I read is bashing the Goldwater institute and calling for a rally to arms, almost, to save the sacred Coyotes franchise. Now it’s possible that many of my copious hoards of readers are not familiar with the details surrounding this controversy. I’ll give a little background.

The Coyotes are currently owned by the NHL because the previous ownership went into bankruptcy in 2009 and they could not find a buyer. NHL commissioner, Gary Bettman, stepped in to save the franchise because he needed to save hockey south of the Mason-Dixon Line, which, unfortunately for him, is going to end up as a major part of his legacy. The NHL has been trying to find a buyer for the franchise that would agree to keep the team in Glendale, since the city just spent an awful lot of money to build a brand new arena in 2003. Enter Matthew Hulsizer. Hulsizer is a Chicago businessman who put together an investment group to buy the team under the condition that he would sign a lease to keep the team in Glendale for at least 30 years. If the Hulsizer group cannot finish a deal, then the team will all but definitely relocate to Winnipeg, Canada.

Here is where the problem begins. There are questions about the legality of the deal. The city of Glendale has promised large incentives to Hulsizer’s group because the city fears that the loss of the team would be a major economic burden on the city, which of course is feasible because they are still on the hook about $300 million for the initial cost of the arena. The expected sales-tax revenues in the surrounding retail centers are a major source of income for the city in repaying some that debt.

Now enter the Goldwater Institute. The Goldwater Institute, named after former Arizona Senator and fiscal conservative Barry Goldwater, is a conservative think tank that sees itself as the watchdog for the taxpayers of Arizona. The Goldwater Institute is challenging the deal with Hulsizer because they say that the deal is illegal because it puts taxpayers at risk.

Personally, I believe that the Goldwater Institute is getting a bad rap for all of this. They make some very valid points, and even if the deal is considered legal by the courts, I think we still need to take a long look at how these economic incentives are being handled. Let’s look at the deal piece by piece.

-Hulsizer agreed to buy the team from the NHL for an estimated $160 million
-The City of Glendale agreed to pay Hulsizer $97 million to operate Jobing.com Arena
-Glendale also agreed to pay $100 million for the right to charge for parking, by selling bonds which the team will pay back over time at an estimated 6% interest.
-Hulsizer will pay the city rent for the arena of around $54 million over the 30 year lease
-Hulsizer can then purchase the arena from Glendale for $40 million at the end of the 30 years

Glendale city officials claim that this is all a great deal for Glendale because the team brings in around $500 million in overall economic surplus for the city. I am not really going to address this claim, but just know that every impartial economist who has looked at the impact of sports subsidies agrees that economic impact studies are enormously exaggerated.

Sounds like a good deal, right? Pay $197 million for “$500 million” in economic output? Wrong. (Okay, I couldn’t help myself. This $500 million is describing lost revenue if the team left, but it accounts for nearly all of Westgate’s tax revenue. Westgate will still continue to operate and will still bring in money) First off, Forbes estimates that the Coyotes are worth $134 million. Wow, that’s only about 70% of what the Glendale is planning on GIVING to Hulsizer. Maybe Glendale could just buy the team themselves (Which is another story for another time, I personally think there is something to this idea. Packers anyone?). Oh wait, they really don’t want to do that because they probably won’t make very much money owning this franchise since no one else has either. Since the Coyotes came to the Valley of the Sun in 1996 they have lost money every single year, culminating in the previous ownership declaring bankruptcy and bailing. Everyone thought that once they had their own, brand new arena they would start making money. Guess not.

Next we have the issue of the parking rights. Glendale has agreed to buy the rights to charge for parking. I don’t understand. Glendale owns the arena. How do they not have the rights to charge for parking? Oh yes, it’s because they needed to find a clever way to pay Hulsizer to buy this sorry franchise. This is the main issue behind Goldwater’s lawsuit. Hulsizer did promise to pay back any unmet parking revenues, but that still doesn’t solve the initial problem. Glendale should already own these rights. It’s their arena!

This is all added to the $300 million already owed on the arena’s initial construction. Adding this altogether and we realize that the city has already put themselves in a bad spot by desperately trying to put themselves on the map, an now is trying to fix the problem by paying for a private businessman to come buy a team that’s worth less than what they are paying him. It just doesn’t make sense. And what’s to stop Hulsizer from declaring bankruptcy when the team just doesn’t bring in enough revenue? Another $200 million subsidy?

Now I have heard some people make the claim that it’s not all about money. There is something special about a kid falling in love with a sport. No really, I actually read this…by a real writer. We live in Arizona. No one plays hockey. No one really likes hockey. That is evident by the consistently bottom-feeding attendance records that the Coyotes boast; another reason why the team is losing money. We just don’t support hockey. But, do you know what we should support? I have the perfect fit to put another professional sports franchise in Glendale near Westgate. It’s a sport that kids actually play in Arizona, and can be played outside, without thousands of dollars in equipment. Glendale, it’s time to start putting together a bid for an MLS team!

Suns Season Recap

The Suns season ended on a high note on Wednesday night as they beat rival San Antonio Spurs 106-103. The win staved off what would have been a season sweep for the Spurs less than a year removed from the Suns’ own four game sweep of the Spurs in last year’s playoffs. Although it was good to see a victory against the top seed in the Western Conference, the win cannot take the stink off the season that was a far cry from last year which had the Suns only two games away from a trip to the NBA Finals.

Most of the team’s struggles have been well documented as the year has progressed. Those issues range from poor rebounding, porous defense and inconsistency. However, there is one difference between this year’s team and last year’s team that has impacted the team the most. That one thing is Amare Stoudemire.

Amare Stoudemire was a dynamic scorer for the Suns, which were only accentuated by Steve Nash’s amazing point guardiness (eventually I plan to make this into a new advanced metric a la John Hollinger’s PER stat; just watch it will catch on). The overall makeup of the team is very similar to last year. They played an up-tempo style, high efficiency team that relied on a lot of jump shots to outscore their opponents. The major difference is that when the jump shots weren’t falling, they could rely on Stoudemire to create shots be taking a slower defender off the dribble and getting to the free throw line.

Once Robert Sarver decided not to invest in Amare’s knees the Suns dropped from 9th in free throws attempted to 20th. The loss of Stoudemire started a series of acquisitions that gave the Suns six wing players, and that’s being generous by considering Hakim Warrick is a power forward. The front office hoped that a combination of Hedo Turkoglu, Grant Hill, Channing Frye and Robin Lopez could all pitch in and fill the void that Amare left upon his departure to the Knicks. They were wrong.

As I have already written, the Turkoglu experiment was a massive disaster that Lon Babby humbly quit on after only two and a half months. Robin Lopez turned out to be the biggest letdown since the Obama campaign turned into the Obama administration (I kid, I kid). And although Grant Hill, Jared Dudley and Channing Frye have had good seasons they just couldn’t bring the consistency and scoring dependability that Stoudemire brought.

Moving on from the Turkoglu disaster, on paper, the Suns found a great remedy for the problem in the trade for Marcin Gortat, Vince Carter and Mickael Pietrus. Gortat was the rebounding defender they lacked inside. Pietrus was an athletic wing defender who could shoot from outside, and Carter was going to be the dynamic scorer the team could depend on for twenty points a night. It turns out that Carter may have been a more egregious miscalculation than the Turkoglu acquisition.

The Phoenix fans found out, what everybody in the NBA seemed to already know: Vince Carter is a lousy sandbagger. Don’t get me wrong, he seems like he is probably a nice, easy going guy who would be fun to hang out with, but if you are depending on him to be a consistent force in the NBA then you will want to light yourself on fire. The most frustrating part is that he still has loads of talent. There were times where he would get up and throw down an alley-oop just like the Vincanity of old. There were games where he would continually drive the lane and get to the free throw line, but those were few and far between. For the vast majority of his time in Phoenix Carter was content on loitering around the three point line and jacking up a shot that anyone on the team could get at any point on the shot clock. This was evidenced by his 1.9 free throw attempts per game; well off his career average of 5.6. He just seemed indifferent. He cemented his legacy as a guy with tons of potential but who never was willing to do what it took to be the best. He just doesn’t love the game. Somehow, we need to find a way to steal talent, Space Jam style, and give it to someone else. Just think of what a player like Jared Dudley could have done if we mixed Vince Carter’s talent with Dudley’s basketball IQ and will to improve. I wonder if Phil Jackson already knows how to do this…

Now that the season is over, the Suns need to turn to the not-too-distant future in order to still find a way to capitalize on Nash’s talent. The team will certainly buy out Carter’s contract for $4 million. The Suns aren’t going to have much flexibility in the offseason to improve the roster, besides the 13th pick in the draft or whatever they can get in a trade by dangling one of their eleventeen wing players. Unfortunately neither of those options is likely to bring the Suns the dynamic scorer that they can depend on. After perusing the upcoming free agent class I can see a few options that might be intriguing for the Suns to look into that could come at a discount price. Both Greg Oden and Yao Ming will be free agents. The Suns training staff may be able to help resurrect their careers. Adding either of these two players could also free up Robin Lopez to be put on the trading block with Pietrus or Childress for a starting shooting guard. To fill the shooting guard slot, the Suns should look into Michael Redd, who is coming off a major injury or explore the possibility of bringing back Jason Richardson who certainly will not go for the $14 million that he was paid this season.

Whatever the case, the Suns should be back in the playoffs next year, even without significant upgrades. They just aren’t going to be championship contenders…but in the mean time I’m going to studying a little zen philosophy.

NCAA Rumblings

First off, I would like to congratulate the University of Connecticut for winning the 2011 Men’s Basketball National Championship. They certainly had a great run and they deserve to go down in history as champions for winning the NCAA Championship.

Secondly, I need to say that I love March Madness. The 64 team tournament field is perfect. I have so many good memories waiting until Monday morning after Selection Sunday to cut out “the bracket” out of the morning paper and keep it in front of the TV so I could fill it out as the games progressed. The first weekend of the tournament is easily the best time of the year. Honestly, I think Thursday and Friday should be national holidays (along with baseball’s opening day). Heck, I’ve even taped a hundred square foot bracket to my wall to get into the action.

Shirking responsibilities and family commitments in order to watch college hoops is pure bliss. It astonishes me how I can fall in love with a team and a coach that I have never even heard of previously as they try and take down a traditional power with back-door screens, gritty defense, and last second heroics and then immediately fall in love with four more teams who trying to do the very same thing.
This year was no different on that accord. We saw small schools upsetting goliaths like Kansas and Georgetown. However, this year was also the final blow that helped America realize that this tournament is not the same as it used to be.

Just take a look at the championship matchup, Butler versus UConn. UConn, a traditional power in the power conference of all power conferences, the Big East, finished ninth…NINTH! Most conferences don’t even have nine teams. UConn may have missed the tournament altogether if they hadn’t have started their tear by winning the Big East conference tournament. Don’t get me wrong, Kemba Walker is a great college player and Jim Calhoun is a hall of fame coach, but UConn is NOT a great team. They just aren’t.

Butler is much of the same, yet different. Butler showed us why their needs to be a playoff - a second straight championship game out of the Horizon League. Butler can and did play with anyone in the country, and to me, that’s where the problem lies. Butler is not a great team. They have some nice players who play hard and play smart, but those guys aren’t going to make it in the NBA. They can play with anyone, but UConn just overmatched them. Butler couldn’t buy a bucket inside (please excuse the cliché…although for all we know, maybe someone was buying buckets). UConn’s Alex Oriakhi was just a dominating presence inside. Butler’s bigs just couldn’t put the ball in the hoop, plain and simple, to the tune of 18.8% shooting.

That’s what brings me to my main point: this Butler team should not be able to play with anyone in the nation. They were severely overmatched by a good, but not great team that got hot, but only finished ninth in their conference. There are no great teams. Let’s look at some of the other teams in the past twenty years who have made consecutive Final Four appearances. 1990-’91 UNLV Runnin’ Rebels. 1990-’92 Duke teams featuring Grant Hill, Bobby Hurley and Christian Leattner. 1995, 1997-’98 North Carolina teams with loads of NBA talent. Even the Florida teams from 2006-’07 had deep NBA talent between Al Horford and Joakim Noah, who decided to stay a few extra years in college to win and develop their respective games.

I’m sure you have heard a thousand times before; there is so much parity in today’s game. Well…they’re right. There is. And to some extent it’s not bad, but to the extent that we are subject to games like we saw Monday night, with a combined 94 points it is almost too much to bear. I want my champions to be champions. I want to see superstars win the national title. And if every once in a blue moon some no name school shocks the world, then awesome. I want to see that. I want to see the Cinderella story. I just don’t want Christmas to come every morning. It loses its value. And I think that is what we saw the past two years with Butler. Now, if Brad Stevens can turn that program into a legitimate powerhouse, that attracts top talent, then that’s also great. I respect that and think that the tournament opens up the door to teams that may not have had a chance.

Now, the real crux of the problem is not the rise of some of these mid-major schools siphoning some good talent away from The UCLA’s and the Duke’s of the world. The real problem lies with the NBA. The NBA is continuing to harvest before the crop is ready. Kids are going to school with the knowledge, not just the idea, but the knowledge that they are going to declare for the draft as soon as their first season is over. Kentucky’s sixth man was drafted in the first round last year for crying out loud! That is ridiculous to me. Not only does that hurt college basketball, but it hurts the NBA as well. General managers and owners are too scared that they are going to miss the next big thing they overlook playing performance for potential. Brandon Knight, I think, is a prime example. He is nowhere near the level of John Wall and Derrick Rose were at when they left John Calipari’s system after one season. Yet, he will probably still be a top ten pick in this year’s draft, because some team will see his raw athleticism and the fact that he played for John Calipari.

The NBA can fix this problem quite easily. They just need to get the owners and the NBPA together and hash out an extended age limit to the one already in place. I would like to see the same rule as in the NFL: three years out of high school. Look, these players are still going to make it to the NBA, they are also going to be better prepared when they make the jump. They will have played against better competition in college. They will have had more time to work on some of the more fundamental aspects of the game, and the NBA decision makers will have a deeper understanding of how good a player is and how adept he is at handling many different circumstances.

Right now the NFL requires that a player be three years removed from high school in order to declare for the draft. The NBA requires a player to be at least 19 years old. Some argue that these limitations are neither fair nor legal. However, they are legal. Former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett lost in a lawsuit that would have allowed him to declare for the NFL draft after only one season at Ohio State.

Changing this rule would not only help both basketball in the NBA and the NCAA, but it would be more beneficial to these kids. Requiring them to stay at least three years requires them to take their education seriously. No longer can a player enroll in fall semester with 12 credits of English, baking, sports and dancing then skip class every day in the spring because he knows that his paycheck is coming in June and he doesn’t need those classes anymore.

It’s the right thing to do and not just for sports fans like me who might not be able to stomach another “championship” game like the one we just witnessed, but also for the good of the game and for the good of the children. Please, do it for the children!

If You Re-Build It...

There was certainly a lot of activity going on at the trade deadline on Thursday. And even after we heard over and over from “sources” in the organization that the Suns were not at all active in any trade discussions, we find out that the Suns were actually quite active. They traded PG Goran Dragic and a lottery-protected first round pick to Houston for guard Aaron Brooks.

First off, I like Brooks, and I thought that Dragic was the Suns’ best trade chip. Now, do I think this was a good deal? No, definitely not. If you are going to trade your best trade chip, then you need to get back either A) a future building block, or B) a quality contributor, plus another asset or two, or in other words a you, underdeveloped player with potential or draft picks. In this case, the Rockets did just that; they traded one of their many assets, a quality player, for a future building block in their eyes (or another tradable asset) and a first round pick. This is why Houston is always a dangerous team. General Manager Darryl Morey is very adept at acquiring coveted assets. You may ask: why is this such a good strategy, if Houston has just been a middling playoff team at best for the last decade? Good question, let me explain.

The NBA is all about star players. Teams only win championships with great, star players (Lakers, Spurs, Celtics Bulls…and in contention the Suns Mavs, Heat…all in the past 15 years). I know you will say something about Detroit, but that’s another issue regarding influence of media and the referees.

No why is trading for a slew of promising role players such a great strategy? Because star players don’t come around every day. I am always perplexed when fans want to “blow up” their team and “rebuild.” That is the most asinine idea I have ever heard! Yet, teams do it every year. People in Phoenix want to trade away arguably the best player in the history of the franchise at a time when he has never been statistically better!! WHY!?! For a chance to be a bottom-feeding, lottery team for a decade?! What team has successfully done this? Lakers? No. Celtics? No. Heat? No. What teams have tried this “rebuilding” strategy? Not a single championship team in the past 20 years rose the greatness after blowing up an existing good team.

Rockets – The Rockets already had Ralph Sampson when they drafted Hakeem Olajuwon and stuck with him for ten years before they won a championship.

Bulls – I am actually too young to remember what Chicago was doing before MJ got there. As far as I am concerned, basketball didn’t exist in The Windy City before Jordan got there…just kidding Jerry Sloan.

Spurs – The Spurs did the same thing with David Robinson and now with Tim Duncan. They stayed with their star players for more than a decade and in this case, lucked into a star player when Robinson missed a season due to injury. All of their other championship pieces came through smart decision making.

Lakers – The Lakers received Shaq all but gift-wrapped and still had The Diesel when Kobe Bryant came around. Now, in Kobe’s second championship run, he is still a Laker. They didn’t ship him off for young talent and draft picks. That would have been utterly foolish.

Now let’s look at the other side of things.

Cavaliers – They were irrelevant and/or bad from 1993-2003, until they tanked just hard enough to draft LeBron James. Did you read that right? They were bad for an entire decade!

Bulls – The Bulls were absolutely awful ever since Michael Jordan retired. They had a copious amount of top five draft picks and are just barely turning into a contending team again. And this is only after winning the lottery, literally, and drafting Derrick Rose.

Sacramento – The Kings have had success more recently. After losing to the Lakers in the 2002 playoffs, the Kings eventually “blew up” their team which landed them a franchise-worst 14 wins last season with no end in sight.

Just look at all of the other teams who had brief periods of success that were eventually ended when the men upstairs tried to rebuild: New Jersey (Kidd, Jefferson, Carter); Philadelphia (Iverson); Toronto (Vince Carter); Minnesota (Garnet). This doesn’t even include the teams who seem to be perpetually “blowing up” their roster: LA Clippers and Golden State Warriors.

This is why guys like Darryl Morey, Sam Presti (Thunder) and Kevin Pritchard/Rich Cho (Trail Blazers) know what they are doing. Since transcendent talent doesn’t come around to every team all the time, you need to be stocked with talent that can be A) tradable assets and B) quality role players so that when this talent falls into your lap (i.e. KG, LeBron, Durant, Nash) you already have the pieces in place to take your team to the next level.

Some people will argue that the owners are being selfish if they don’t “blow up” the team, because they want to sneak into the playoffs as the eighth seed and keep people coming back in the seats even if they aren’t going to contend for a championship. Well then that’s great! Wow, what a novel idea. If people are going to the games, then they want to see that team! They don’t want to see a team win 15-20 games a year. Therefore, they don’t show up to those games. See, NOT “blowing up” your team even makes financial sense. My only hope is that someday, some impressionable GM will stumble across this blog, read this post and decide to keep his superstar. This is my hope…unless that GM happens to run the Los Angeles Lakers.

Dunk Contest Timeline

Okay, so today I’ve decided to straight up steal a column idea from Bill Simmons…the running diary. For fear of any possible copyright infractions, I’m going to call this post a timeline. So without further adieu, here is are my timeline thoughts from the 2011 NBA Slam Dunk Contest: (All times Mountain Standard Time)

8:08 - Introduction of contestants and their respective coaches. I think the addition of coaches is a really good idea for this event. It gives them enough time to concentrate on inventing new, creative dunks that we haven’t seen before, without distracting them from actual games that actually matter. This year’s contestants:
DeMar DeRozan (Coach: Darryl Dawkins) – At 6’7” DeRozan is the shortest competitor this year in the dunk contest. If only for his size, he should pose a serious threat to win the contest this year. Only Dwight Howard has put on a real show for someone over 6’10”.

Serge Ibaka (Coach: Kevin Durant) – Durant seems like an interesting guy to be Ibaka’s coach. He certainly isn’t known for his dunking prowess. Perhaps his role is more of a historical reference since Ibaka has only been playing basketball for about five years. Ibaka’s biggest hurdle is going to be finding some way to appear that he actually needs to jump to dunk. He is listed at 6’10” but looks like a Pterodactyl when his arms are spread.

Javale McGee (Coach: Chris Webber) – Two questions about McGee: 1.) Why is Chris Webber his coach? I just cannot figure out what the link is here, and 2.) How long has he had the nickname “Commander and Chief?” I understand the D.C. link there, but I’ve never heard that before, and it seems like that nickname should go to someone with a little bit more experience and is um…better than Javale McGee. Oh well, I guess this is the reason why we have the dunk contest; to answer these types of questions.

Blake Griffin (Coach: Kenny Smith) – This coach seems a little bit more understandable. He’s been in the dunk contest, works for TNT, and seems like he can really lobby for his candidate. Griffin is definitely the favorite heading in. I do have some worries about his potential for really putting on a show. Griffin is a tremendous in-game dunker, but I just don’t know how well that will translate to a dunk contest. Also, if you wanted any evidence heading in that Griffin is the NBA’s favorite for this event, just look at the competition. Ibaka is 6’10” and McGee is 7’0”. Nobody, except maybe DeRozan, has the size advantage. Let’s move on.

8:16 – Cheryl Miller asks Griffin what he and coach Kenny Smith have as tonight’s gameplan. Griffin’s straight-faced response: “He hasn’t really helped me at all. He’s just been talkin’ a lot.” Wow! Griffin just went way up on my board of favorite athletes.

8:19 – Demar DeRozan’s first attempt of the night: an alley-oop off the basket support, through the legs, one-handed slam…unfortunately he missed the dunk off the front of the rim.

8:19 – And again…

8:20 – Fifth time’s a charm. That many attempts will probably hurt his score…and it is…44 My score: 9.

8:21: Serge Ibaka walks onto the court with a hoard of supporters followers NBA Africa flags as 12 see a graphic telling us that Ibaka was the 2008 Spanish League Dunk Contest Champion. I’m not sure a Spanish League dunk championship is really something you want to keep on your resume once you reach the NBA. It’s like an Eagle Scout award. How long do you keep the Eagle Scout award on a resume? I think there is a point somewhere down the line, when your responsibility as a fifteen year-old no longer comes into play. I’m just not sure when that time is. Someone please let me know.

8:22 – And Ibaka brings…the free throw dunk. Wow, he is the first man to actually dunk from the free throw line. That would have been a legal free throw. Unfortunately, the free throw dunk is the most over-used gimmick in the dunk contest. That should bring down the score a little. Score: 45. My score: 8.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this contest is already better than last year’s very forgettable snoozefest.

8:23 – Charles Barkley just threatened to assault Kevin Harlan for saying Ibaka’s dunk was better than Dr. J’s.

8:28 – Confusing rant by Chris Webber. Again, why is he McGee’s coach? Wow! Rant was followed by a great dunk with McGee bringing in a second basket and dunking two basketballs on two different hoops. It took him six tries, but wow, that was amazing. I still think this deserves a ten regardless of how many tries it took. Score: 50. My score: 10.

8:30 – Blake Griffin makes his first appearance. There crowd is definitely pumped for this and it is very evident why Kenny Smith is Griffin’s coach. He is a hype machine. Griffin ferociously throws down a 360 two-handed slam. This is a great start-off dunk, and if Griffin wants to make this a Vince Carter style legendary contest he needs to limit his attempts. Score: 49 My Score: 9.

8:36: Whoa! We have our first successful first time dunk. DeRozan throws down a lob pass, alley-oop, one-handed scoop reverse dunk. That was great! And he did it on the first attempt; that’s key. Score: 50 My score: 9.

8:38 - Ibaka brings in a kid to set up his next dunk, who has lost his toy. I stuffed toy is hanging in the rim. It looks like he is going to try and grab it with his teeth while he throws down a dunk. This will only be successful if he nails it on the first try. Ouch…grabbed the toy, but missed the dunk.

8:40 – After a delay and a commercial break, Ibaka completes the dunk on the second try. Only would have been a good dunk on the first try. I understand it’s difficult to get high enough to grab the toy with his mouth, but he’s 6’10”, not good enough for me. Score: 45 My score: 7.

8:44 – After 7 tries Griffin throws down a windmill dunk off a alley-oop off the side of the backboard from Baron Davis. Unfortunately for Griffin, he had to resort to his plan B dunk. Plan A would have been a spinning reverse dunk off of the same alley-oop pass from Davis. That was a great dunk, but it was too many attempts and we’ve seen it before. Score: 46 My score: 8.

8:45 – Javale McGee just announced he is going to try and dunk three balls. This should be interesting. McGee’s mother came down from the stands to deliver the special third ball and proceeded to give Hollywood greeting kisses to all of the judges. Julius Erving tried to steal a little bit more than a cheek greeting kiss and went for the lips.

8:48 – Wow! McGee finishes the second round with the two best dunks after throwing in three balls on one dunk. He threw in one with each hand and then caught a third on a pass from fellow Wizard, John Wall. Score: 49. My score: 10.

8:49 - After two rounds we Griffin and McGee are moving on to the finals. Wow, I think we may have a little controversy here. Did Griffin deserve to make the finals? I think we may have shades of 2009 where Nate Robinson was sent to the finals only because he needed to complete his Krypto-Nate gimmick wearing all green to beat Dwight Howard’s Superman character. Does this surprise me? Not at all. This is the NBA. After all, David Stern let a Russian oligarch become owner of an NBA team. I don’t think the NBA can get much more shady than that.

8:53 – Wow, I just realized the finals are going to be decided by a fan vote. Do we even need to watch these dunks to decide a winner? I think David Stern should throw Blake Griffin’s trophy for an alley-oop dunk. He’s already wrapped this thing up.

8:56 – Blake Griffin does another rehash with a twist and hangs on the rim by his elbow a la Vince Carter. It was a really impressive dunk, but that is a dunk that should have been retired with Vince Carter. Fortunately for Griffin, he faired better than Richard Jefferson who tried that dunk and couldn’t follow through. My score: 8.

8:58 – McGee throws down another great dunk on a cradle reverse dunk, soaring away from the basket. Great dunk, my score: 9.

9:00 – Oh boy! Kenny Smith has really set the stage for Griffin’s final dunk. He’s brought out a car and a Baptist choir to sing “I Believe I Can Fly.” To top it all off, Baron Davis is inside the car to throw a pass from the sun roof. Griffin finishes off the dunk with a two-handed slam, and stays on top of the hood of the car after throwing it down. That was a great setup, but he only dunked it over the hood. I think there was definitely some potential there for a better dunk. I’m expecting Griffin to come back next year for an even better demonstration. My score: 9.5.

9:05 – Oh snap son! McGee just threw down a reverse windmill dunk going away from the basket. That dunk was Carter-esque! Uh…but apparently the judges aren’t going to count the dunk because it didn’t go in clean enough. McGee settles for a fairly simple alley-oop off of the backboard. First dunk: 9. Second dunk: 7.

9:09 – And now for the least anticipated surprise of the show…the results. Your winner: Blake Griffin.

All in all, this was a good dunk contest, a kajillion times more exciting than last year. Griffin almost lived up to the hype and Javale McGee had two dunks that had never been done before, and earning my title of Dunk of the Night with his two-balled dunk on two different hoops.

I’m expecting a lot from next year’s contest. There is a hoard of super-athletic point guards in the NBA now. I think we should get to see Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook or John Wall compete next year against Griffin and some of these other big guys. Until next year…

Trade Recap...In Hindsight

Well, my fans have been clamoring for another post. And, like always, I am here to please my fans. In my last post I gave a suggested the Suns make a run at Troy Murphy, an outside-shooting power forward who can stroke it from outside. Unfortunately, the Suns did not take my advice. I can’t imagine that Lon Babby does not read all of these posts, so my only conclusion is that they are just ignoring me. I’m okay with that, now let’s get down to business.

It turns out that the Suns were looking to make a deal, even if they didn’t go for my idea. On December 18 the Suns traded Jason Richardson, Hedo Turkoglu and Earl Clark to the Orlando Magic for Vince Carter, Mikael Pietrus, and Marcin Gortat.

At first glance, the deal is surprising, seeing as how Richardson was the Suns leading scorer and was the so-called “x-factor” on the team’s improbable run to the Western Conference Finals last season. At second glance, the trade looks terrific. I look at it this way: the Suns upgraded two positions and in the worst case scenario downgraded slightly at another.

Let’s evaluate. Earl Clark was not going to see the floor. It didn’t matter how hard he worked, he just wasn’t going to “get it” on the court. He had ideal size to be a great combo forward, but something was missing. The front office had already decided to decline his option for next season and he likely was not returning anyway. In return for Clark, the Suns picked up another wing in Pietrus, who is a good perimeter defender, something the Suns desperately needed, if only to give Grant Hill some much needed relief. Pietrus is also an above average spot up three-point shooter.

The hardest pill to swallow in the trade was definitely the loss of Jason Richardson. He was the Suns’ leading scorer and was well-liked by everyone on the team. Which cannot be understated based on last season’s success with a team built around chemistry. Insert Vince Carter. Carter, in my opinion, is the biggest waste of talent in my basketball memory. I know I hear a lot about Derrick Coleman and Vin Baker, but they were mostly before my time. Vince Carter has more physical talent than anyone who entered the league since Michael Jordan. I missed a lot of Jordan’s athletic prime, but I’m not convinced the Jordan was more physically gifted than Vince. I think I’ve commented on this before (take a peek at my archives, it’s in there somewhere). When you look at the two, Richardson is definitely better. He’s younger, has more left in the tank and is overall having a better statistical season. Now, there are two ways to justify this loss. One, all signs pointed to the front office not re-signing Richardson (who is under contract for over $13 million this season). Since he was not going to return, trading Richardson for a similar talent is justifiable. Add to that is Carter’s semi-expiring deal could be a very appealing trade asset to many teams looking to shed over $17 million in payroll. The Suns still might be able to flip Carter’s contract for some young, quality talent or picks. Second, the Suns probably wouldn’t have had a chance to get Gortat and Pietrus had they not helped Orlando get rid of Carter’s lackadaisical style.

Now the best part of the trade, Hedo Turkoglu for Marcin Gortat. Clearly, we can all agree that the Hedo Turkoglu experiment failed miserably. I’ll admit that I thought this would work. I thought Turkoglu could be Dirk Nowitzki to Steve Nash’s…well, Steve Nash. Oh, did it fail. I forgot (and I guess so did Alvin Gentry, Lon Babby and Robert Sarver for that matter) to look at his defensive and rebounding numbers. They are bad. From the start of the season it was clear that the Suns missed Stoudemire’s defense and rebounding, crazy huh? Turkoglu was getting beat on EVERY SINGLE rebound! Excuse my all caps. Trading Turkoglu for Gortat was a brilliant move. Even though Gortat is mostly used as a center, he can still back up Lopez and give the Suns some much needed depth, or even play alongside of Lopez at the four. He is agile enough to run the pick and roll with Nash as well as contribute on defense and rebounding.

There, on paper it looks like a good trade. Unfortunately the team has only gone 1-5 since the newly acquired players joined the team. So far the defense and rebounding are still quite poor with the only defense being the offense…which is now worse than it was before. As a life-long Suns fan, I am still holding out hope that this team can turn it around. With Steve Nash running the offense, I believe things will get better as the new players continue to acclimate themselves to the new system. And if not, then there’s always an expiring contract we can shop around…oh and another lottery pick. Go Suns!