Bear Down Wildcats

Starting the season off with some sad news:

Read Foul! One of my favorite biographies ever.

From the Washington Post:

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Mr. Hawkins, nicknamed “The Hawk” for his soaring repertoire of acrobatic shots, was shadowed by a college point-shaving scandal that led to the National Basketball Association to blackball him for years, even though he was never directly linked to any wrongdoing....

He didn’t play in the NBA until he was 27 because of his supposed connection to a college point-shaving scandal in New York City while he was a freshman at the University of Iowa in 1961. Mr. Hawkins was never directly associated with the scandal, and the principal figures always contended he had nothing to do with it, but the NBA barred him nonetheless.

“It was totally devastating,” Mr. Hawkins said in a 2009 interview with NBA.com. “I was innocent, but no one would listen to me. Plus, coming from a poor family, no one even thought about trying to get a lawyer to fight it. We just weren’t that sophisticated.”

Mr. Hawkins eventually sued the NBA and, according to his biography on NBA.com, reached a settlement of more than $1 million. Then-commissioner J. Walter Kennedy lifted the ban in 1969.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/ob ... 0dc88b12bf" target="_blank
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Sound familiar?

I know, I know. "Take it to the Arizona Basketball board!"

Locker Room Tour: https://www.facebook.com/suns/videos/10155765236578996/" target="_blank

Are the Suns going wear these unis all year?

azgreg wrote:Are the Suns going wear these unis all year?

Yeah, they're part of the new Nike revamp. I like them more than the old set.

Edit: never mind, these aren't the new whites. They look super nice, hopefully an alternate. Throwback to the 80's is a great look.

Edit 2, here's a story that explains:

https://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2017 ... back-retro" target="_blank

Currently losing by 49 points at home

DeAndre Ayton, come on down!

glitch in the matrix

At least they have a good chance at Ayton...

Shot:

Chicat wrote:

Chaser:

Well when you start 0-3 with 2 of the worst losses in franchise history...

What's our slogan ala "Suck for Luck" for this season?

Playing Badly for Bagley?

Hatin' for Ayton?

Only a game back of the Warriors

glass half full moment... Tickets can be had for $6 each.

Does this organization have the remotest idea what they're doing?

would be nice to want to care about the suns again.

Bledsoe sent home after meeting, not playing tonight. Trade coming

I would have given Earl 4 games.

my buddy lives in the same apartments in downtown phx as earl and said he was always a dick to people in the elevator

On CBS Sports I just read this headline:

Report: Eric Bledsoe sent home as Suns are engaged in trade talks after cryptic tweet

His tweet was "I don't wanna be here"

I don't know how much more straightforward he could have been!

lol "cryptic"

Jefe wrote:Bledsoe sent home after meeting, not playing tonight. Trade coming

And the Suns will be on the losing end again. Because they've made this mess. It wasn't always like this.

Bledsoe told McDonough he was "in a hair salon." McDonough didnt believe him.

scumdevils86 wrote:lol "cryptic"

Cryptic as in an allusion to an actual crypt, as in a place where they are laid to rest when they no longer support life.

Yes, cryptic since it effectively laid to rest his time.

To get traded from the Suns:

Throw a towel in coaches face.
Tweet disdain.

Fun times!

Stop winning!

Too late. They already called up their G League head coach, Ty Ellis, as an assistant.

Maybe they can trade Bledsoe to the Coyotes.

Alieberman wrote:On CBS Sports I just read this headline:

Report: Eric Bledsoe sent home as Suns are engaged in trade talks after cryptic tweet

His tweet was "I don't wanna be here"

I don't know how much more straightforward he could have been!

Maybe he was at the Arcadia Tavern and really didn't want to be there.

This organization has absolutely no idea what they're doing. None. It's the culture Sarver has been building for 12 years.

The way a functional organization handles the Bledsoe situation is to downplay it and call upon everyone's sense of professionalism, allowing you to maintain the (legitimately) demoralized player's trade value. Instead, McDonough publicly threw Bledsoe under the bus. Good luck with that.

The way a functional organization fires its head coach is at the end of a season or during the off-season, not three (!) games into a new season.

No free agent is going to want to come play for this horrible organization and its horrible owner.

My only fear now is that I'm going to grow to love an Arizona player who will get drafted by the Suns.

And since Sarver has no idea how to get this team out of the gutter so he can sell it, my only hope is he'll try to resolve his mess by moving the Suns to a less deserving city. Maybe one day, decades from now, Phoenix can start over again with another shot.

Well put LH. It all begins and ends with Sarver. Even during the Nash years, when the Suns were good in spite of him, he fucked it all up by lowballing Joe Johnson and continually selling away draft picks, amongst other things, ie acting like a moron and ruining the franchise’s reputation.

Jmark has expanded on this eloquently in the past, but it is just fucking sad to see this franchise go from a premier free agent destination with one of the NBA’s best winning percentages, to now being a toxic laughingstock with no plans for the future.

That said, get lucky and hit on a few draft picks in the next couple years, and anything can happen. Could win some games in spite of Sarver yet again.

Yeap. I was obsessed with the suns in the 90s. I've said it countless times before but there has been nothing but a clusterfuck since I was in high school. Depressing.

2001 World Series was the payoff for Jerry Colangelo selling his Soul (Suns) by mortgaging his Empire. All those contracts that built the Diamondbacks forced him to sell the Suns in a moment of weakness, no leverage, and Sarver entered a savior.

Awfulness all around.

Literally allowed Kendrick and Sarver to rise to ownership power.

UAEebs86 wrote:Stop winning!

lol you don't gotta worry about that, I'm pretty confident we finish with a bottom 2 record in the NBA

Longhorned wrote:This organization has absolutely no idea what they're doing. None. It's the culture Sarver has been building for 12 years.

The way a functional organization handles the Bledsoe situation is to downplay it and call upon everyone's sense of professionalism, allowing you to maintain the (legitimately) demoralized player's trade value. Instead, McDonough publicly threw Bledsoe under the bus. Good luck with that.

The way a functional organization fires its head coach is at the end of a season or during the off-season, not three (!) games into a new season.

No free agent is going to want to come play for this horrible organization and its horrible owner.

My only fear now is that I'm going to grow to love an Arizona player who will get drafted by the Suns.

And since Sarver has no idea how to get this team out of the gutter so he can sell it, my only hope is he'll try to resolve his mess by moving the Suns to a less deserving city. Maybe one day, decades from now, Phoenix can start over again with another shot.

Truth. Mishandling Bledsoe managed to separate him from the team and kill his trade value. Then they turned around and fired Watson 3 games in, which could have tempered the Bledsoe thing.

The sad part is that you have some decent young pieces in Booker, Jackson, Bender and Chriss. I think Booker and Jackson will be legit, and you'd think either Chriss or Bender might pay off into a nice 3 man young core.

Of course the chances that the Suns retain them or support them with a decent surrounding cast is virtually nil.

Owe him $14.5M this year and $15M next year. No one is going to offer anything close to that

Jefe wrote:Owe him $14.5M this year and $15M next year. No one is going to offer anything close to that

Yeah, but he doesn't want to be in Phoenix. Maybe Cleveland should try to get Bledsoe for Isaiah Thomas and his hip. Bledsoe's trade value is in the negative right now.

You both are undervaluing Bledsoe’s value.

It won’t be a haul, but it’s not a negative and the money he’s owed for just 2 years is a value compared to modern contracts.

Wasn't he demanding $23M a couple years ago and he wanted out then?

Jefe wrote:Owe him $14.5M this year and $15M next year. No one is going to offer anything close to that

Thats a steal for what Bledsoe brings to the table. Have to remember the non-taxpayer MLE is $8.4 mil.

JMarkJohns wrote:You both are undervaluing Bledsoe’s value.

It won’t be a haul, but it’s not a negative and the money he’s owed for just 2 years is a value compared to modern contracts.

For me, it's more about the Suns bargaining power. They've basically dismissed him from the team. What negotiating leverage do they have?

As it stands, it's just how bad they'll lose the trade, not if they will.

Spaceman Spiff wrote:

JMarkJohns wrote:You both are undervaluing Bledsoe’s value.

It won’t be a haul, but it’s not a negative and the money he’s owed for just 2 years is a value compared to modern contracts.

What negotiating leverage do they have?.

I dont think his value bottoms out, because he is on a great contract the next two years and there are playoff teams after him. Certainly wont receive what they could have last season, but they can at least target a young player they like. Catch is they will also have to take something back they dont like. They could always settle for a first, middling prospect in need of scenery change, and salary matching.

Cleveland is desperate to keep LeBron happy, and he and Bledsoe are buds, so, that’s one team, and Milwaukee sees an opportunity to make a serious, Boston-style jump in the standings and keep Bledsoe from Cleveland, maybe effectively ending James in the East after the year, and Denver needs vets to steady its talent and make a legit push now and build toward future.

That’s three teams interested with assets to play off each other.

Leverage isn’t what it once was on their own end, but situation is unique. Throw in Orlando wanting to make a jump, and maybe even Clippers, and you have competition for Services and competition creates leverage.

JMarkJohns wrote:Cleveland is desperate to keep LeBron happy, and he and Bledsoe are buds, so, that’s one team, and Milwaukee sees an opportunity to make a serious, Boston-style jump in the standings and keep Bledsoe from Cleveland, maybe effectively ending James in the East after the year, and Denver needs vets to steady its talent and make a legit push now and build toward future.

That’s three teams interested with assets to play off each other.

Leverage isn’t what it once was on their own end, but situation is unique. Throw in Orlando wanting to make a jump, and maybe even Clippers, and you have competition for Services and competition creates leverage.

They had a better shot at the Cavs when Kyrie was in play. Now, the Suns would have to take IT or Rose, and neither of those is a great haul for Bledsoe.

If they could pull Brogdon and a pick from Milwaukee, that would be good. Denver is a similar issue of return value. Mudiay is in a spiral and I think they want to keep Murray and Harris.

In hindsight, I tend to think they should have gone Jackson/Bledsoe for Kyrie.

Kyrie does nothing for the Suns and would leave in 2 years, and would have cost them Jackson, who is the team’s best athlete and is going to be the team’s best defender and transition finisher, both significant for this team, and more important than a non-defending, ball-dominant dribbler/slasher/shooter, who stops the ball on offense and does nothing to stop the ball on defense.

Brogdon/future 1st for Bledsoe is something I’d consider, even if it meant taking back Monroe, who will hold value as an expiring contract and who could help in practice with low-post defense.

Thankfully Gianni’s has struggled a bit this week. I’m hoping the Bucks lull a bit and Brogdon and a 1st emerge as likely return along with Henson. Then the Suns can look to trade Chandler for anything, and have assets to make it happen, or to acquire a better return.

Or Cleveland for Brooklyn 1st.

Teams need to be desperate first.

azgreg wrote:

That's not good. An expiring and a lottery protected 1st for Bledsoe...eesh.