As a Phoenix Suns blogger, it feels like the offseason is just now starting. That’s quite the contrast from last season when there was a major lull in mid-April, but with the conference finals run followed by a June and July chock full of breaking news pertaining to the Suns’ front office and roster, the news cycle has never really stopped.

Although there’s still a general manager to hire, the bulk of the Phoenix Suns news is now behind us for this offseason (although who could ever count out another trade?). So today I bring you a handful of links to stuff going on that has some kind of bearing on the Suns:

• So now all of a sudden once he hits New York, Amare Stoudemire might have some Jewish roots? How convenient. Stoudemire told The Associated Press he’s “soaking up the culture” on his current trip to Israel. He also said of his mother that “she studied the Scriptures and history and she believes she is a Hebrew. I grew up in a very spiritual home. It’s not about religion, it’s about spirituality for me.”  He tweeted: “2 clear everything up: I’m studying history & want 2 learn about all religions. I think I might have some Hebrew Roots & i’m researching it.” This isn’t completely out of nowhere because STAT has been tweeting Hebrew words such as “shalom” and “laila tov” for quite some time now, but as his agent Happy Walters told AOL FanHouse, that doesn’t exactly mean he’s Jewish: “I think he’s excited about learning more about his roots, but it’s not like he had a Bar Mitzvah. If he finds out that his mother’s great grandmother was Jewish, then hey it’s possible. I haven’t checked to see if he’s circumcised, but regardless, it’s a stretch to call him Jewish at this point.”
• Since this has kind of been Wages of Wins week at ValleyoftheSuns, one more Wins Produced-related tidbit for you. In his analysis of the offseason based on this metric, WoW writer Arturo Galletti gives the Suns a B+: “Classic Suns pantsing the league on Childress and cutting payroll. The only reason I withhold an A is Frye. Looking at their roster they may not be done yet.” According to this analysis, the Suns had the fifth-best offseason of any NBA team, bringing in $6.35 million more value than they paid for. Not surprisingly, Miami has brought in the most value by a landslide (+$47.55 mil).
• I’m excited for the World Championships that start at the end of August largely to see how Goran Dragic’s improvement translates to his national team. We may have gotten an early sneak peak when he threw up a triple-double against China earlier this week. The official box score has Dragic with 15 points, 10 boards, and 10 assists, leading his team in each statistical category.
• The New York Times took a look at “the new generation of NBA executives,” particularly focusing on the Suns’ new president of basketball operations Lon Babby and Portland’s new GM Rich Cho. Both Babby and Cho come from legal backgrounds, and this story details the potential shift in how teams may build their front offices in the future that Suns owner Robert Sarver was talking about at Babby’s introductory press conference. “You use that background and knowledge to help you make trades, in contract negotiations,” Cho said. “That’s one thing where it helps me and Lon.” [Read more →]

Cleveland Cavaliers assistant GM Lance Blanks

After losing out on Dell Demps and getting turned down by Jeff Weltman, the Phoenix Suns have now targeted Cleveland Cavaliers assistant general manager Lance Blanks for their vacant GM post.

According to a Yahoo! Sports report, Blanks will interview with the Suns Friday. The Cavs executive got bumped up when former GM Danny Ferry left the organization pre-LeBacle. The report states that the 43-year-old Blanks is highly valued by Cleveland GM Chris Grant, which could make prying him away a bit tougher.

As the report notes,  candidates have been hesitant about the Suns’ job because it may come with limited power due to the very involved nature of owner Robert Sarver and the newly anointed president of basketball operations Lon Babby.

Demps, a former Spurs executive, turned down the Suns’ hard push to take the same job with the New Orleans Hornets, and Weltman — the Milwaukee Bucks’ assistant GM — decided to stay in Wisconsin.

Blanks played for the Detroit Pistons and Minnesota Timberwolves in the early 1990s before taking on a scouting role with the San Antonio Spurs. He became director of scouting for the team and also served as a TV analyst before leaving to join the Cavaliers in 2005.

Sarver has to be a better/more stable owner than Dan Gilbert, right?

This week’s two-part Q and A with Stumbling on Wins‘ David Berri provided a perfect time to ponder how we evaluate the game of basketball.

From the looks of the comments section, many people on this site were introduced to Berri’s efficiency-driven Wins Produced stat for the first time this week. As you may have guessed, I do find great merit in Prof. Berri’s work and the advanced stats movement at large.

The biggest thing I like about Wins Produced is exactly what many of you commenters dislike about it — it defies conventional wisdom because it’s free of biases.

When you see Jason Kidd, Gerald Wallace and Marcus Camby in the top 10 and Kobe Bryant and Brandon Roy below the top 30, the first thought is that this system is insane. Of course, before jumping off the deep end it’s important to consider the fact that Kobe and B-Roy both suffered injuries throughout the year and this is a cumulative stat, but the beauty of this stat is that it can’t be swayed by SportsCenter.

No matter how glamorous a player’s game is, he can’t hide from Berri’s system if he’s not as efficient at producing wins as another player.

Berri himself took the time to defend this approach on his site in light of the attack from people on my site: [Read more →]

Ryan Schwan over at Hornets 247 asked members of the TrueHoop Network to come up with our best offer for New Orleans star point guard Chris Paul.

Robert Sarver did say at the Lon Babby press conference that he feels the Suns’ best chance to add a blue chip player in the next few years is via a trade, but it’s doubtful it’s going to be this one. As perfect as it would be for Nash to pass the baton to Paul, a ball-handling trio of Nash-Paul-Hedo would likely impinge on the effectiveness of each player since they all need the ball in their hands so much. Paul or Nash guarding a two wouldn’t be ideal either.

Now don’t get me wrong, I would love to see such an experiment tried, but it doesn’t appear as if the teams would match up anyway. But I had to put my GM hat on nonetheless and gave it a try, so here’s what I came up with:

Suns receive:

Chris Paul

Emeka Okafor

Hornets receive:

Jason Richardson

Goran Dragic

Jared Dudley

Earl Clark

Dwayne Collins (AKA filler now that Griffin can’t be put in the offer to make it work in the trade machine)

2 protected first-round picks

Schwan ranked this as the fourth-worst offer he received in the “And that helps the Hornets rebuild … how?” category. [Read more →]

David Berri

In Part 2 of my interview with Stumbling on Wins author David Berri, the economics professor breaks down Amare Stoudemire’s previous and projected future values and analyzes whether the Phoenix Suns adequately replaced him this offseason. Be sure to also read Part 1, where Berri discusses advanced stats, chemistry and the value the Suns have gotten from their roster during the Nash era.

Michael Schwartz: We have fervently debated Amare Stoudemire’s value for years on this site, particularly in the lead up to this summer’s free agency period. What kind of value do you feel Stoudemire possesses and were the Suns smart in declining to match the Knicks’ max offer?

David Berri: The Suns were wise to let the Amare leave for New York.  Here is why I think this was a good decision (much of this was said at The Wages of Wins Journal on July 2).

• Stoudemire is generally considered one of the very best players in the NBA.   Stoudemire has been selected to five All-Star games and last year he ranked 10th in the NBA in points score per game.  This suggests Stoudemire should be paid like one of the very best players in the league.
• When we look at Wins Produced — or when we look past scoring — we see a somewhat different story.  Yes, Stoudemire is good.  But his production of 10.1 wins in 2009-10 only ranks 29th in the league. That’s quite good.  But relative to other top free agents (i.e. LeBron and Wade), Amare offers quite a bit less.

NBA Wins Produced 2009-10

• Furthermore, Amare is relatively old.  As the following table indicates, Amare produced 63.4 wins across his first eight seasons.  Players, though, only generally improve up until their mid-twenties (Amare’s best season was at age 25).  Given how player performance declines with age — and how minutes change with age — we can project what Amare’s production across the next five seasons might be.

• As one can see, Amare is only projected to produce 32.4 wins.  Part of this is due to a decline in per-minute production.  And part of this is due to the fact Amare has only played about 65 games per season.

Amare Stoudemire Wins Produced

• So the Knicks will be paying $100 million for an above average player, but not a player who is going to substantially change the team’s outcomes.   And that means fans of the Knicks are probably going to be disappointed.

Schwartz: So it appears the Suns made a smart decision not to sign Amare to a long-term max deal, according to your models. But now the question is have the Suns adequately replaced him this offseason by acquiring Hedo Turkoglu, Josh Childress and Hakim Warrick? [Read more →]

Taylor Griffin's time in Phoenix proved to be short-lived. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

In a shocking unexpected totally predictable personnel move Monday, the Phoenix Suns waived little-used reserve forward Taylor Griffin.

In what may have been among the shortest press releases in team history (all of two sentences), the Suns announced the move and provided Griffin’s rookie season stats:

Griffin appeared in just eight games for the Suns as a rookie in 2009-10, averaging 1.3 points in 4.0 minutes.

Not much time on the hardwood for the University of Oklahoma product, but still more experience and statistical accomplishment than his younger brother Blake, who was taken No. 1 overall by the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2009 NBA Draft and proceeded to miss the entire 2009-10 season with a knee injury.

This moves comes as no surprise, as Griffin hasn’t shown much growth in his time with the Suns, nor has he displayed that he brings any value to the team outside of practice. As expected entering Summer League play, Griffin was essentially playing for his roster spot and didn’t do enough to keep it. In five games, Griffin averaged 3.8 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 20.6 minutes per game.

Griffin was originally drafted by the Suns 48th overall in the 2009 NBA Draft. His exit could open up a roster spot for an undrafted Summer League player.