Suns kicked tires on Childress
July 29th, 2008, 4:20 pm · 2 Comments · posted by jerrybrown
The Suns confirmed a SportingNews.com report that the Suns made inquiries about a possible sign-and-trade deal with the Atlanta Hawks for Josh Childress before he decided to leave the NBA and sign a deal to play in Greece.
The Suns had the $8 million exception from the Kurt Thomas trade with Seattle to work with (which expired on July 21), but the deal almost certainly would have included either Leandro Barbosa or Boris Diaw in an attempt to balance the contract and keep the Suns from taking a further luxury-tax hit.
But Childress was looking for a contract similar to the one he got in Greece (well in excess of even the nearly $7 million a season offered by Atlanta), which was more than the Suns had anticipated. And the Hawks appeared to have little interest in a sign-and-trade deal, figuring they were still in the power position to sign the restricted free agent with the number of NBA teams with cap space shrinking around the league.
The Suns are still waiting and hoping that Goran Dragic will be a Sun this season but could make a move involving another point guard soon. The list of free agents still out there ranges from Sam Cassell to Carlos Arroyo to Jason Williams to Shaun Livingston. Both Arroyo and Williams are said to be drawing interest from Europe, while Livingston has yet to be cleared to play basketball as he recovers from a catastrophic knee injury that has kept him sidelined for the last 17 months.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Sam Cassell would be the worst of the alternatives. He has never played defense and spends far too much time dribbling.
August 3rd, 2008 at 10:09 am
Of the backup Point Guards available C. Arroyo is the best suited for the Suns. He is younger than Cassell and Williams, older than Livingston and without injuries, he is at peak age right now. He has starting PG experience, has a great Assist per minute ratio. And when given the confidence to play like he does when he plays internationally he fares very well and often is considered one of the best PG of the competitions. Besides that, I have always consider his play fits perfectly the Suns style.