The Phoenix Suns are working on a buyout with Vince Carter, per the Arizona Republic's Paul Coro. Carter averaged 14.0 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game this past season. Carter signed a four-year, $61.8 million deal in 2007. He's entering the final year of the contract, which will pay him $18.9 million next season. Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/articles/2011/06/18/20110618phoenix-suns-nba-draft.html
I won't complain if we sign him for the vet minimum, but Carter's a total dog. No D, terrible shot-selection, and he ran out of talent about 3 years ago. There's a reason the Suns are cutting him.
The thing with Vince is, yes he's lost it, but does he still have that prima dona attitude thats always been with him? Will he take the vet min or does he expect someone to over pay for him? Is he in ring chaser mode now? I think if he can give us a good 15-17 ppg (he avg 14 this past season), with avg 3pt % (career avg of 37%) then I think he'll help immensely since he's always been able to create his own shot and still has "throwback" moments when he goes off (even pulling off a few highlight worthy dunks).
How about we get the guy he was traded for? Jason Richardson scored 19.3 PPG in 32 MPG for Phoenix before the trade, on 47% FG and 42% from 3pt. He's 4 or 5 years younger than VC, too.
Richardson's a free agent coming off a $14.4MM salary. At 30 years old, what do you think his market value is?
Look at your thread about top 10 SGs. Where does Richardson fall on that list? He's probably worth at least $10MM in salary, but he may also take MLE to go to a situation where he's assured the starting SG spot and as many minutes as he wants, especially on a team that lost in the ECF and had the best record in the league. If the MLE doesn't do it, a S&T is possible.
Well, given that Richardson's numbers plummeted after the trade and his playoff performance was downright nightmarish, you'd think that Richardson would like to bolt Orlando, but that's not what he's saying. Looking at the Magic's roster, it sure looks like they have at least one too many high-priced SGs (Richardson, Arenas and Redick). The Magic's problem, of course, is that Arenas is basically untradeable and Redick is undersized and overpriced. Richardson is clearly the best SG they have so I assume that they'll do what they can to avoid seeing him just walk. However, in a fantasy world where Richardson wants the Bulls enough to accept the MLE, yeah, count me in.
What did Bibby sacrifice to join the Heat? I'm not saying every player would do it, but some who have made a ton of money in their careers without a title have. Karl Malone did it, too, as did (I think) Antoine Walker. How did the Heat sign Haslem? As for JRich, why his numbers dropped is pure speculation. But I believe he'd put up big numbers for us because we would need him to.
As you know, most of those players were in the twilight years. Richardson presumably has one more big contract coming. You're right about Haslem though. He showed concretely how much he wanted to stay in Miami.
Ok, if JRich has one more big contract coming (assuming by big you mean between 9-12 mil), how long is it worth? Honestly I dont know if he'll keep it up for too long after the contract. He does bring that extra punch we need though. I havent seen him play much lately, but ive heard he has bad ballhandling skills and plays meh defense.
I guess what I meant by big is well in excess of the MLE. $10MM/yr plus or minus a couple seems right. His agent will likely point to Joe Johnson's contract. They're the same age and have similar career numbers. I don't see JRich getting anything like what Johnson got, but come to think of it, I didn't think there was any way Johnson would get what he did. Personally, I don't see the Bulls in play for JRich unless the Magic was hot for Boozer...and then I don't think I'd make that trade.
I actually think there's a good chance JRich will sign somewhere on the cheap. Maybe his conventional "market value" (an over-used term in basketball) is somewhere between 8 and 10 million, but I don't actually see any teams out there that would pay him that. I'm not sure how much he's worth to a rebuilding team with his age, and they're most likely to be able to afford JRich at full price. And he's probably only worth 8-10 million for a few more years. If he doesn't sign with Orland or do a S&T, I think Jrich might end up signing for the MLE.
Well, if JRich is signing for MLE money and the MLE still exists, then I figure he's signing here 'cause it's the absolute best starting SG opportunity in the NBA. Thanks for the optimism guys...my offseason work is done.
The real problem for us getting JRich would be if Orlando has bird rights on him. They can go over the cap to sign him for $MLE + $1 which we couldn't match. They'd be good to sign him for $MLE + $3M even.
Orlando has Bird rights. They can pay him what they want. You could argue that JRich is the Magic's 2nd best player. The Magic FO doesn't want to do anything that indicates to Howard that the team is not fully committed to winning now. Dammit, I'm back to looking for a SG.
Ok so I guess we're back on the JR Smith topic? My thing with this whole SG dilemma is that no option we have is perfect cuz they all have some flaws that some of us cant completely look past
