The Charlotte Bobcats and Phoenix Suns trade seems to have caused confusion amongst basketball fans. For the Bobcats, Boris Diaw and Larry Brown appear to be on the way to a horrible player/coach relationship. For the Suns, it’s hard to figure out what Steve Kerr's plan is. Obviously Jason Richardson is talented, but Kerr could be risking his franchise's future, over what would amount to a few extra wins this year.When Steve Kerr was hired as the Sun's General Manager in June of 2007, he was expected to be a top GM. He was part of the a great announcing duo on TNT with Marv Alberts and had a great column at Yahoo!. It was hard to imagine a guy who was clearly very knowledgeable about the NBA could be anything less than good. While it’s a bit early to judge his skills as a GM, unless he is thinking on a level our brains can't comprehend, he seems to be off to a rough start.
Last season, Kerr made headlines for his acquisition of Shaq. He gave up a disgruntled role player and wannabe star Shawn Marion for the Big Diesel. This threw a major wrench in the Suns offense and last year's 1st round playoff exit could only be described as a failure. This year, Shaq has had some downright dominant games, but the Suns are not as good as they have been the past few years. The Suns catered their style of play this year around Shaq, so its no surprise he is doing well. However, other Suns, including Steve Nash, are now struggling in this new slowed down pace.
This year's acquisition obviously brings in a very talented player in Jason Richardson. His athleticism, as well as comparative youth (28 years old), will be helpful to the Suns. The only problem is now the Suns are stuck in a slow down offense filled with scorers. Amare Stoudemire is already complaining about wanting to be "the man" and this in no way is going to make him any happier. Shawn Marion was traded last year partly because he wanted the ball more often and the front office was afraid he would tear apart the team. How is this going to be any different?
In the past, there have been rumors of Amare Stoudemire, obviously the gem of the Suns's future, being traded. In the crazy chase for Kevin Garnett, Stoudemire was rumored to be involved. He has also been linked to the Pistons in the past, and recently talk radio in Detroit has been abuzz about him potentially being traded to the Pistons, possibly for Allen Iverson. Now, Stoudemire is the one guy the Suns cannot afford to trade or anger. He will be a part of the already highly anticipated 2010 free agent class. Will adding another scorer cause Stoudemire to leave in 2010 or force the Suns into trading him before then? It’s possible, and it would quite frankly be a disaster.
Is Richardson really hurting the Suns long term plans though? Maybe and maybe not. He is not a free agent until 2011, the year after LeBron, DWade, Chris Bosh, and Amare hit the market. Steve Nash and Shaq are already hitting the market that year (2010) and will be allowed to go to another team. The Suns could potentially re-sign Amare Stoudemire and maybe bring in another one of the top free agents. From that perspective, Richardson is not hurting the Suns in any way. However, an already disgruntled Amare Stoudemire is bound to be even more disappointed when the ball is in his hands less now that Richardson is around. Jason Richardson is not going to make the Suns a title contender, so why make the move?
This appears to be a panic move by Steve Kerr, much like the one he made last year when he acquired Shaq. If the Suns win a few more games and Amare Stoudemire can live with a few less shots then the trade is certainly worth it. If Stoudemire becomes even more angered by his role in the Suns's offense, then this trade is not worth it, even if they do pick up a few more wins with it. Hopefully, for his own sake, Kerr realizes that Stoudemire is the future of the Suns and needs to be treated as such. There are few teams who have the potential to be pretty good at the current moment and already have their future in place. The Suns are one of those, unless they lose Stoudemire.
but nevertheless, they were going to be eliminated again by the Spurs and call it a day.
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