The road to nowhere

If you don't know by now, my Phoenix Suns have been all but eliminated from playoff contention. They're currently 5 games behind Dallas with 17 games to go and they still have tough games in Utah, NO, POR, DAL, and home games again HOU and Utah again. So yeah, basically the Mavs can play .500 ball for the rest of the season and still make it easily over the Suns. Season OVER!

I was going to write up a big 'ol post about the state of the Suns and what I hope they'll do in the offseason. But the reality is that there's really not much they can do and GM Kerr (as much as he tries) haven't proven himself to be either a shrewd drafter (see: Dragic, Lopez) nor an above average trader (see: Shaq trade, Bell/Diaw trade). Even worse, even if the Suns wanted to trade or draft, they have very few assets. This year they'll get the 14th pick, which unless you luck into a Granger type (17th pick, 2005), is probably gonna be a mediocre player. The Suns can tank next year, but they don't even have their 2010 pick as a result of the Kurt Thomas salary dump from a couple years ago.

And in terms of trades... Shaq is a large $20 mil expiring but I just don't think there'll be a real market for him unless the Suns want to take back longer/worse contacts (which they don't). I think a real possibility would be for the Suns to just buy Shaq out. Lets say Shaq swallows his ego a bit (haha, I know) and takes $15 out of $20 mil for the buyout. The Suns save $5 mil in salary and $5 mil in tax right away. If Shaq can get a MLE type deal around $5-6 mil (which I belive he can) then the Suns get half off that too (due to a "set off" provision). So overall, the Suns would save $12-13 mil and Shaq "only" looses $2-3 mil and can go play for a contender of his choice.

Besides Shaq... that's about it. J-Rich is owed $28 mil over the next two years. I doubt anybody touches that. Barbs is on a relatively cheap deal and won't bring back anything more than he's worth. Ditto that for Nash. Amare HAD value, but with the severity of his injefoury, I doubt any team will trade for him before he plays a game. So if anything, he'll be dealt during the next season and not during the summer.

Too bad. If the Suns HAD their 2010 pick, the plan would have been REALLY easy. Buyout Shaq. Let Hill and Barnes walk. Don't pick up the team option on Nash and try to do a sign and trade if possible for some youth and/or picks. Tank 2010 and hope for a high pick. Let Amare rehab even more in-season if necessary. Drot out a lineup Dragic, Barbs, J-Rich, Amundon, and Lopez and TANK. Then in 2010, rebuild around Amare + high pick(s) + ~$15 mil in cap space. 'Course then they wouldn't be my Suns anymore, considering I hate Amare and they don't have Shaq or Nash, but that would be the best course for the team. But alas, they don't have their 2010 so they still should try to win (not the championship, I'm realistic, just games) next year. How the hell Kerr & Sarver plan/hope to do that? I really can't even guess. Odds are, they stand pat and we end up being another middling team fighting for the 8th spot next season. (yay!)

Hmmph, so enough Suns prattling for now. It's just depressing. This is like my worst basketball fan season too. No Shaq in the playoffs, Oden has been constantly injured, and I just might miss my FIRST ever fantasy playoffs. I'm currently in 9th and 4 games back with two weeks to go. Basically, I gotta blow out my opponent both weeks and hope those ahead of me get some bad losses too. We'll see if I'm more clutch then the real life Suns.