Suns Attempt to Fill Stoudemire Void
With the departure of Amare Stoudemire, the Phoenix Suns have quite a bit of room left to fill in their roster. Sources report that Phoenix is attempting to fill this void through the acquisition of the Toronto Raptors’ Hedo Turkoglu and former Atlanta Hawk Josh Childress.
The two players will be acquired in separate trades, and will radically reshape a franchise that made an impressive Western Conference Finals run last season. In order to get Turkoglu, the Suns will be sending speedy Brazilian guard Leandro Barbosa and journeyman forward Dwayne Jones to Toronto.
Turkoglu had an extremely disappointing season in Toronto after being signed to a lucrative deal and both parties would prefer to part ways. Upon receiving Barbosa, Toronto will then use the trade exception from the Chris Bosh sign-and-trade deal with Miami to send Jones to the Charlotte Bobcats in exchange for Boris Diaw.
Barbosa and Diaw originally played together in Phoenix under current Raptors president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo. Colangelo seems to like the duo and thinks it would bode well for the Raptors. The Raptors lack any sort of dominant back court presence and Barbosa’s speed and Diaw’s versatility could definitely help.
Toronto receives Josh Childress in a sign-and-trade from the Atlanta Hawks. Childress, who had spent the last two years playing in Greece, was a restricted free agent. Childress is to receive a five-year, $34 million contract with the Suns, and the Hawks get a 2012 second-round draft pick out of the deal.
The deal benefits Atlanta as they have absolutely no needs to Childress’s rights nor do the Hawks have the means to ever pay him if he did return to the team. The Hawks just offered star Joe Johnson a six-year deal worth nearly $120 million, and have very little monetary flexibility.
It will be interesting to see the manner in which the Suns use the 6’10” Turkoglu. He has often played the role of an oversized point guard, but playing with Steve Nash means he’ll have to adjust to a different role. As a power forward with a legitimate long-distance shot and impressive handling, Turkoglu could thrive with Nash at the helm. His struggles in Toronto were the result of needing to carry the offence. As Turkoglu’s time with the Orlando Magic showed, he needs to be a support player to be of most efficiency.
Improvement should not be too hard for Turkoglu as he managed to average only 11.3 points per game last season on 40.9 percent shooting, his lowest scoring average and shooting percentage in six years.
The Suns would like to see the Turkoglu of the 2007-08 season. That year he won the NBA's Most Improved Player award by averaging 19.5 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.6 assists with Orlando. He was also an integral part of the Magic reaching the NBA Finals in 2009 by averaging 16.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.9 assists in the post season.
Turkoglu is taking a cut in wages and is waiving a trade bonus in his contract to play for Phoenix. After the fallout from last season, Turkoglu is right in doing what he has to do to increase the possibility of putting up better statistics.
Childress used the National Basketball Association opt-out option in his contract with Greek team Olympiacos. He leaves completing part of a three-year, $20 million deal that he signed with the team in 2008.
Childress was an average NBA player during his tenure with the Hawks, where he averaged 11.1 points per game over the course of four seasons. He average 15.2 points per game for Olympiacos, where team basketball is often more heavily emphasized than individual scoring. Childress will initially be a substitute, but look for him to make an impact off the bench.
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