| The Suns' Sarver-Saver Draft Authored by Brent Diggins - June 29, 2007 - 5:00 pm
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Coming off Mike D’Antoni’s horrendous run as GM, the Suns needed to show some penchant for the future. They also need to fill positions in both the frontcourt and in the backcourt, and they need to do it with minimum salary cap impact. So what do they do?
They trade what may end up being this draft’s best shooting guard in Rudy Fernandez, and they draft a marginal NBA prospect in Alando Tucker. Now they’ll be forced to spend some money on veteran stiffs.
To put it frankly, the Suns front office is in disarray and has been nothing but mismanaged since Bryan Colangelo has left and not coincidentally, since Robert Sarver has arrived.
This draft stinks of D’Antoni’s decision making or perhaps they’re Sarver’s directives. Suns’ fans can only hope that Steve Kerr is truly the boss and can make independent decisions, but either way, a pattern not akin to NBA success is forming within the Suns’ organization.
To recap, let’s look at some of the Suns moves over the past four years:
2007
Trading Rudy Fernandez to Portland: This move will come back to haunt them very shortly. Fernandez is going to be a viable NBA starter when he comes over in a year or two. Portland knows what they are doing these days, and the Blazers have found the Suns an easy target to rob. The Suns wouldn’t even have had to pay this guy for a while, which fits their current financial situation.
Drafting Alando Tucker: Okay, so he’s a 6-5 guard who plays good defense, can’t create his own shot and isn’t that good of a good shooter. He is Raja Bell “light” without shooting ability. He’ll be a good role player at best, but he’ll need to work at even becoming that.
2006
Trading Rajon Rondo to Boston: Woops. Don’t they need a back-up PG who can actually play? This one isn’t as bad as it looks because they got rid of Brian Grant, but still.
Trading Sergio Rodriguez to Portland: Woops x 2. Rodriguez will emerge as a solid starter for the Blazers. He is smart, can run an offense and would be ideal to groom under Steve Nash. He will be great paired with his Spanish countryman Rudy Fernandez, which is what the Blazers are thinking.
Signing Marcus Banks: Five years, $21 million. Fantastic…
Extending Boris Diaw: Five years, $45 million for a one year wonder. The Suns are stuck with him. He isn’t going to get much better, and he ISN’T worth anywhere close to $9 million a year. No other NBA GM is touching that contract until its final year.
2005
Trading Nate Robinson to the Knicks: Eh, it’s Nate Robinson, but isn’t he just a younger Marcus Banks that could be had for millions less?
2004
Trading Luol Deng to the Bulls: A future multiple All-Star selection. The Suns traded the rights to Deng for Jackson Vroman and two late first-round picks, which they then traded away.
The Future
We know what the Suns are now, which is an overworked, shallow 55-60 win regular season team that can’t get to the Finals. With the West getting better and Nash getting older, it’s only going to be harder to get there so they need to show some inkling of plans for their post-Nash future.
And what is their post-Nash (and Marion) future, which will be in two-three years? Over the past four drafts, the only thing that the Suns have to show is Alando Tucker. Four drafts and all they come away with is Alando Tucker while parting with Deng, Rondo, Rodriguez, Fernandez and Robinson. Has any team done worse?
The sound of “Banks passes to Barbosa, over to Diaw,” is frightening. That looks like an undersized, overpaid, no defense playing, no young talent team. Sure they’ll have Amare, but he’ll be asked to be their leader and will be asked to score without Nash’s help, both scary propositions. That team won’t make the playoffs in the West, they’ll have no young players coming up, and with the Suns winning now, don’t expect them to have any high draft picks over the next two years to alleviate that problem. Even the pick they are getting from Atlanta next year isn’t looking as good as it once did, but they’ll probably trade it away anyways.
If the Suns do continue to miss the NBA Finals over their two to three remaining years of opportunity, both they and their fans will be left with nothing to show and no hope thereafter.
Brent Diggins is a freelance writer, an avid NBA fan, and the President of Diggs Communications, a Phoenix based marketing firm. You can reach him at brentd@diggspr.com. |
