Bill Simmons on the Suns

This weekend I spent a lot of time recommending a book I have been reading by Bill Simmons called the The Big Book of Basketball. I read this passage last night and thought I would share it as proof of the book's awesome-ness...

Topic:
What if the Suns didn't screw up a potential Nash dynasty with some of the cheapest and most perplexing moves ever made?

I wanted to avoid playing the "What if the front office did this instead of this?" game because it's so subjective, but Phoenix's bipolar game plan from 2004-2008 had to be commemorated in some way. Here's a detailed look.

1. During the same summer they signed Nash, Phoenix traded the seventh pick in the 04 Draft (and a chance to take either Luol Deng or Andre Iguodala) to Chicago for 3 million and a 2006 number one. One week later, they signed Quentin Richardson to a six year, 42.6 million deal, even though they could have drafted Deng or Iguodala and paid either of them one-third what Richardson was getting. They kept Richardson for one year before swapping Q and their twenty-first pick (Nate Robinson) in the 05 draft to the Knicks for Kurt Thomas. Two summers later, they dumped Thomas on Seattle along with two number ones just to shed him off their cap for tax purposes. As astounding as this sounds, Bryan Colangelo's decision to sign Richardson instead of just drafting Deng or Iggie-which was dumb at the time, by the way-ended up costing them four first-round picks! Would you rather have Richardson, or would you rather have the number 7 pick in 04, the number 21 pick in 2005, and first rounders in 08 and 10? I thought so (Hold on, this gets better. Your 2005 NBA Exec of the year? That's right, Mr. Bryan Colangelo! I love the NBA.)

2. Phoenix low balled Joe Johnson so insultingly that he asked them not to match Atlanta's 70 million free agent offer, leading to Phoenix accepting Boris Diaw and two future first-rounders for him. So the Suns had just come within two wins of the 05 Finals and built a run-and-gun identity; suddenly they were dealing a twenty-four-year old potential All-Star, the perfect swing man for their system and a deadly shooter who could even play backup point guard, and they were only getting back a bench player and two future picks? Also, how could they botch the Johnson situation so badly that he asked to leave? With Nasth, Amare, Marion and Johnson, you're set for the rest of the decade. That's it. That's your core. That's your guarantee for 57-plus wins a year and a specific style that can work. Surround them with role players and veteran buyout guys and you're contending until Nash breaks down, and even then, you can just shift the offense over to Johnson as the main creator. How can you give that guy up? So what if he's insulted and doesn't want to come back? He'll get over it! You're paying him 14 million a year and he gets to play with Steve Nash!

3. Instead of picking Rajon Rondo with the 21st pick in 06 (the pick acquired from Chicago), they shipped the right to Boston for Cleveland's 2007 number 1 and 1.9million. A few weeks later, they gave Marcus Banks 24 million. Would you rather have a potential up-and-comer like Rondo for cheap money or a proven turd like Banks for five times as much? Tough call. If you just had a head injury....

4. They gave Diaw a five-year 45 million extension that summer, which meant that Diaw/Banks combo now earned as much money every year as Joe Johnson. Awesome.

5. So the Iggie/Deng/Rondo pick became number 24 in the 07 draft...and naturally, the Suns sold it to Portland for 3 million. Why didn't they just take Spanish star Rudy Fernandez? You can't play the luxury tax card because Fernandez wasn't planning on joining the NBA for at least a year; it would have been savvy if Phoenix had stashed him in Europe as an asset down the road. Instead, owner Sarver announced to his fans, "Screw you, I'd rather have the 3 million, I"m taking the cash." One year later, Fernandez would have been a top-ten pick after lighting up in Spain, he even gave the Redeem Team everything it could handle in the 08 Olympics. Can you quantify the damage there? (they downgraded from Deng to Iggie to Rondo to Fernandez to nothing..which means they traded a number 7 pick in a loaded draft for 4.9 million, less than they paid Banks to sit on their bench in 07. Well done!)

I hate delving into the Marty McFly Zone when many of the aforementioned screw ups were interrelated, but let's figure out how the Suns could have turned out if cheapskate owner Robert Sarver didn't sign off on the aforementioned bipolar game plan in 04. We know for sure that they could have had a six-man nucleus of Nash, Marion, Stoudemire, Johnson, Barbosa and Deng/Iggie from 04 to the present that shouldn't have been touched, and we know they dumped first rounders in 05, 06 and 08 for tax purposes. Even if they surrounded that nucleus with draft picks, minimum-wage vets and February buyout guys and did nothing else, wouldn't they have been positioned for the short term and long term better than any franchise in the latter half of this decade? The bigger question: why own an NBA team if you're going to cut costs? What's the point? Why would that be fun? So people could stare at you during dinner and whisper, "Hey, that's the cheap-ass who owns the Suns?" This pisses me off, what a wasted chance, and what a waste of Nash's prime.

(Note to Phoenix fans: You can now light yourselves on fire.)