Zach Lowe: Suns a viable place for Lebron James

[Superbone]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fanc ... right-now/

[wpmiller42]

It's a dream, but what an off-season it would be to add LeBron. We're an instant championship contender with him on board.

[carey]

It's a dream, but what an off-season it would be to add LeBron. We're an instant championship contender with him on board.

I just wish he'd give us a look. Come in, have a visit. Meet with Hornacek & McDonough. Meet with Aaron Nelson and his staff. Talk with Bledsoe. Realize that in 2015 we have even more money to add another piece, maybe even max money depending on what we do with Goran. If he then passes, no big deal, but at least just check everything out first.

[Shabazz]

Sign LeBron outright. Trade for Love. Bam!

[TOO]

It's a dream, but what an off-season it would be to add LeBron. We're an instant championship contender with him on board.

I just wish he'd give us a look. Come in, have a visit. Meet with Hornacek & McDonough. Meet with Aaron Nelson and his staff. Talk with Bledsoe. Realize that in 2015 we have even more money to add another piece, maybe even max money depending on what we do with Goran. If he then passes, no big deal, but at least just check everything out first.

This. Really, what does he have to lose? I think he'd be impressed with everything the Suns have to offer. Man how things have changed.

[SDC]

According to Spotrac, only five teams other than the Heat have the cap space to offer James the maximum $23.7 million per year without making any additional moves: the Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, Utah Jazz, Philadelphia 76ers and Los Angeles Lakers.

wow! let's eliminate philly, lakers and jazz from consideration. (even lebron knows the lakers is a lost cause for the next 2 yrs).

that leaves lebron with miami, dallas, AND PHOENIX!

if we manage to sign lebron, frye will be back and will take a slight paycut (albeit with a longer term contract).

[SDC]

"what if" moment.

what if we did sign lebron, should he play at PF or SF?

i say, let's go "smallball" even tho there's nothing small about LBJ at PF.

dragic, bleds, stopper PJ, lebron, Frye

off the bench: plumlee (sweet lou role), markieff, marcus at SF, green, goodwin.

[Superbone]

"what if" moment.

what if we did sign lebron, should he play at PF or SF?

i say, let's go "smallball" even tho there's nothing small about LBJ at PF.

dragic, bleds, stopper PJ, lebron, Frye

off the bench: plumlee (sweet lou role), markieff, marcus at SF, green, goodwin.

Why not get Love too while we're at it? With LeBron here, Love would sign in an instant.

Bledsoe
Dragic
LBJ
Love
Plumlee

[Ring_Wanted]

According to Spotrac, only five teams other than the Heat have the cap space to offer James the maximum $23.7 million per year without making any additional moves: the Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, Utah Jazz, Philadelphia 76ers and Los Angeles Lakers.

wow! let's eliminate philly, lakers and jazz from consideration. (even lebron knows the lakers is a lost cause for the next 2 yrs).

that leaves lebron with miami, dallas, AND PHOENIX!

if we manage to sign lebron, frye will be back and will take a slight paycut (albeit with a longer term contract).

If we manage to sign LeBron at those 24M there is no more cap space to sign anyone but Bledsoe. In order to achieve that figure you need to give up everybody else's rights and won't have any money to spend but the min, unless you move other players.

[SDC]

bledsoe and frye will take slightly less money to keep the team intact + lebron.

[SDC]

According to Spotrac, only five teams other than the Heat have the cap space to offer James the maximum $23.7 million per year without making any additional moves: the Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, Utah Jazz, Philadelphia 76ers and Los Angeles Lakers.

wow! let's eliminate philly, lakers and jazz from consideration. (even lebron knows the lakers is a lost cause for the next 2 yrs).

that leaves lebron with miami, dallas, AND PHOENIX!

if we manage to sign lebron, frye will be back and will take a slight paycut (albeit with a longer term contract).

If we manage to sign LeBron at those 24M there is no more cap space to sign anyone but Bledsoe. In order to achieve that figure you need to give up everybody else's rights and won't have any money to spend but the min, unless you move other players.

good thing we didnt tank last season, right? #VIABLE

[Ring_Wanted]

That's not the issue. The most Phoenix can get under the cap without trading the likes of Green or the twins is basically what LeBron would make, give or take, but only after they renounce to Frye's rights, because he means a cap hold of 9.6M.

Bledsoe's rights are retained no matter what as his value is way greater than his cap hold, so you give him his money after LeBron is inked.

But with or without Bledsoe, you don't have any money left after LeBron, so Frye would have to take the vet min or leave.

[Superbone]

[Ring_Wanted]

Depending on the source PJ's cap hold is 2.8M and the estimated salary cap is also higher (63.2M), but the difference is not relevant for what we are discussing in this LeBron scenario.

Btw, yesterday I updated the Suns Salary Cap thread after Frye opted out. If you renounce to his rights you have $22.7M of cap space.

[Mori Chu]

I will happily take a bet that Steve Nash will not average 10 points, not average 5 assists, and not average 20 minutes next season. He will do none of those things.

EDIT: Although I believe I took a similar bet once about Amare, and he did end up beating my expectations, because he played so few games that his average was unnaturally high. So I guess Nash might play 2 games and have 5+ assists in them. I just don't see him averaging those numbers over a large number of games.

[Ring_Wanted]

Just set a minimum number of games played. 25, for instance.

[virtual9mm]

Mori, if you're talking about Amare vs. Kenyon Martin, didn't you actually win that one even though Amare did much better than you thought? IIRC, I got stuck with a Byron Scott avatar for a while...

[Aztec Sunsfan]

That's not the issue. The most Phoenix can get under the cap without trading the likes of Green or the twins is basically what LeBron would make, give or take, but only after they renounce to Frye's rights, because he means a cap hold of 9.6M.

Bledsoe's rights are retained no matter what as his value is way greater than his cap hold, so you give him his money after LeBron is inked.

But with or without Bledsoe, you don't have any money left after LeBron, so Frye would have to take the vet min or leave.

Can we offer Frye a portion of the Mid Level Exception, since we would be over the cap?

[Ring_Wanted]

Can't do that either. In order to use the cap space, first you have to renounce to exceptions. The golden rule is cap space OR exceptions, wichever suits you better. This doesn't include veteran min, rookie scale contracts (technically exceptions if over the cap) and disabled player exceptions.

[carey]

Yea, you have to treat the exceptions just like cap holds.