Suns Part 3: Trying to Trade Diaw

It's been three days now, and I still can’t get them out of my head. I was so angry when Marion got traded. And now, I feel so hopeless that all the fun and joy the Run-and-Gun Suns brought back to the league, has been destroyed with the happy-go-lucky crybaby D’Antoni probably going elsewhere and the burden that is Shaq sits clogging up all that freeflowing Nashty-ness.

My cousin guarantees me that the Suns won’t be trading Steve Nash and that they will be fine with an offseason of working together. I tried to remind him of Shaq’s usual offseason regimen, or the fact that he will be 37 next year, or the fact that Nash is pushing 35, or how D’Antoni looks like he’s out of town, how Nash has never functioned well within a halfcourt set. None of that seemed to deter him though. And he felt confident that if the Suns just added one more piece, they’d be contenders once more (assuming, that they even were contenders this year).

But what exactly is it that the Suns need? Depth? Yes. But you can’t just acquire depth, especially when Nash, Shaq, Amare, Diaw, and Barbosa will eat up $60.6 million next season. Oh yeah. There’s that too. The Suns will be lucky if the cap increases enough to still have them under it. And that’s with only five players. Thank Shaq’s $20 million. Just in case some people don’t understand this fact, every dollar the Suns spend after these five players will be taxed dollar-for-dollar. Yikes.

That doesn’t include the possibility of resigning Grant Hill, who, by the way, is no lock or guarantee to resign. Hill’s season ended with another injury and he took a huge pay cut in order to vie for a championship on a running team. While this squad may fancy themselves a championship caliber squad, Hill might not see it that way. Plus, they aren’t runners anymore and the halfcourt game might not be what Hill is looking for—especially if a hardass comes in and starts making people work at practice. Hill also may want a boost in salary (he did play 70 games this year)—and with his injury history and Sarver’s distaste for paying the luxury tax, that boost might scare the Suns away (and wouldn’t that be ironic if he jumped ship to San Antonio like Kurt Thomas).

Still, my cousin believes that Steve Kerr will find a way to trade either Barbosa or Diaw.
I’m thinking they have an opportunity to move the 25-year-old Barbosa. The newly dethroned Sixth Man of the year had a fairly nice season though he was worse in every statistical category across the board from last year. The problem with moving Barbosa is that leaves only Amare and the rookie non-players as kids 25 or under. It’s okay for the Spurs to be ancient, they’ve won 4 times in the past 9 years. But the Suns? They were, not two seasons ago, one of the youngest teams out there. To jump to one of the oldest without winning a title in only two years? Not a good plan. 

Besides, even if they do move Barbosa, what would they be looking for? What could possibly be an upgrade? Barbosa’s contract is a steal. For his talent level, he’s getting paid basically the midlevel exception. Good luck finding another midlevel exception that’s even lived up to his contract, let alone is more talented than Leandro.

And then there’s Diaw, the could-have-been hero of the San Antonio series. In back-to-back games, one Suns win, one Suns loss, Diaw put up near triple doubles while shooting a scalding 59 percent from the field. Needless to say, he became very effective in the last two games of the playoffs—unfortunately, it was to the detriment of Amare and Nash. Call me crazy, but I don’t think that’s the route the Suns want to travel.

So what team in the NBA needs a ball-handling small forward/power forward who can kind of shoot, oftentimes loses focus for stretches of games and stretches of seasons, doesn’t work out too hard in the offseason, and who is good at everything, but not really great at anything? Does Kerr sell him as a SF with rebounding abilities? An undersized PF who can defend point guards and pass? A severely undersized center who might give up 5 inches and 40 lbs, but can beat his man off the dribble and create from the high post? 

And who needs this sort of player? Most of the teams in the playoffs now do not need a Diaw. They either already have a talented SF or they simply don’t have the desire to trade for a player of Diaw’s caliber who gets paid $9 million for the next 3 years. The Lakers, Jazz, Celtics, Pistons, Magic, Cavs, Spurs and Wizards have no need for him. The T-Wolves are trying to shed contracts, not take them on. The Knicks don’t have anything to offer and don’t have Isaiah to push for bad trades. The Sonics and Grizzlies are in rebuilding mode and don’t have room for a 27-year old tweener with no veteran leadership skills. Young, playoff ready teams like Atlanta, Philly, and Portland have already got their SFs. Ditto for Indiana, New Jersey and the Raptors. Milwaukee’s a mess (Bobby Simmons makes similar money…). Chicago and Denver, if they are looking to trade, have got way better SFs in Deng and Melo (although Diaw might actually work on the Nugs, but no way Diaw and anybody for Melo goes down…unless it’s Nash). Houston’s got Battier, Golden State’s got Wacko Jacko, New Orleans has Peja.

That leaves the Clippers, Sacramento, Dallas and the Bobcats.  

Let’s start with Dallas, they will definitely be shopping Josh Howard, but they aren’t going to want to take Diaw in his place. The talent level just doesn’t match up and Diaw would be a poor fit on the Mavs who already have Jason Kidd who dominates the ball. Even if Sacramento decides to let Artest walk, they’ve got John Salmons and Francisco Garcia. Plus, the Suns wouldn’t find anything on their team that they would need. Besides, they’d have to take back a bad contract like Abdur-Rahim or Kenny Thomas’ in order to get a guy like Quincy Douby or Garcia. And, would that really be an upgrade?

The Bobcats, who will now be coached by Larry Brown the anti-Diaw kind of coach (Brown would drive Diaw into the fetal position mewing like a sick kitten). Plus, Gerald Wallace, Jared Dudley, Matt Carroll and Adam Morrison all play the same position. Sure, perhaps one or even two of those players (Carroll and Dudley?) might be worth it for the Suns, but would it be for the Cats? Diaw could move the ball better than anybody they have on their team, Raymond Felton included, but the lineup would have to go either really small with Diaw at the PF, or guys wouldn’t get to play (Morrison) and Diaw would come off the bench.

The last team, the Clippers, might actually be rather intriguing. They have no ballhandler, no true point guard, and despite the fact that Maggette says he wants to come back and is a Donald Sterling darling, the Clips might consider it, although, taking on 3 more years at $9 million for a player who is iffy is not the wisest move. Still, Maggette will be an unrestricted free agent after the season and will probably want in the $10-12 range regardless of if he deserves that money or not. Maggette, for the Suns, does not bring what Kerr wants—namely defense. He doesn’t pass and he gets a lot of his points in the paint and at the line. He’s also expanded his game to include a good 3 point shot. He could be a better fit for the Suns, but, it’s Corey Maggette, who’s a walking injury-waiting to happen. Not sure if he puts them into the championship conversation anyways.

So there you have it cousin. I went through the entire NBA and tried to think of feasible places for Diaw to go. The options I have laid forth you will undoubtedly not like and will believe there to be better ones out there. I leave that task to you now.

My opinion, more than ever, feels that the Suns, namely Kerr made his decision to focus the team around Amare when he went out and got Shaq. That isn’t necessarily a bad game plan (despite the fact that I hate it), but the truth, the reality of that decision is that Nash no longer has a real place on the Suns. It’s no longer his team. Sure, he might make for a decent complimentary player, but taking the ball out of his control, and putting him in a half-court play-oriented offense would be like telling Kurt Cobain to hum all his songs.

Just ain’t the same…