NBA Rumor: Hedo Turkoglu & Josh Childress To Phoenix
The Phoenix Suns seem destined to make the desert a family affair. With NBA agent Lon Babby getting some looks as a candidate to be their future GM, the Suns went out and acquired two players that he’s involved with: Hedo Turkoglu (with Babby as his agent) and Josh Childress (whose agent James Tanner comes from the same law firm, Williams & Connolly, that Babby works out of). Oh yeah, and Babby also represents the Suns’ Grant Hill.
A flurry of action last night has the Suns close to netting both Childress – in a small sign and trade with Atlanta – and Turkoglu from Toronto. Leandro Barbosa is on his way to Toronto (I wonder if he is sobbing right now) as well as Boris Diaw. Here’s how the trades, very close to being done, would work out:
PHOENIX: Turkoglu, Childress
TORONTO: Barbosa, Diaw
CHARLOTTE: Dwayne Jones, Raptors’ trade exception from Chris Bosh trade
ATLANTA: 2012 second-round pick (from Phoenix)
Childress is finally being persuaded to come back to the States, getting five years and around $34 million from the Suns. Atlanta still owned his rights. Without the trade exception they got from the Amar’e Stoudemire deal, Phoenix would have been unable to do this deal with Atlanta.
The Suns have moved quickly to attempt to replace Stoudemire, re-signing Channing Frye and picking up Hakim Warrick. It looks like they are trying to improve their depth at forward to combat the loss of their star big man.
Babby, despite having no front office basketball background, could be hired into the Suns’ front office. Do you think it is a coincidence that Phoenix just acquired two of the players he represents with a third already on the roster?
With all of the talk this offseason concerning Chris Paul’s move to the same representation as LeBron James and how some of the reasoning behind these superstars teaming up might have something to do with agent power, it could be possible Babby is trying to do the same in Phoenix.
More importantly, how is Phoenix going to replace Stoudemire’s inside scoring? Turkoglu should have a bounce back year next to Steve Nash, but the Suns are now littered with small forwards and their big men might be energizers, but aren’t exactly Kevin McHale on the box.
What do you think?
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July 12th, 2010 at 11:21 am
control says:
Anything that gets Hedo out of Toronto is a good trade for Toronto. Not sure what BC is trying to do with the roster…I also heard some rumor about Tyson Chandler ending up in Toronto (which would be great and make sense) but hopefully BC actually does something to make Toronto not be shit.
July 12th, 2010 at 11:29 am
Diggity Dave says:
Eh, Sarver didn’t pay Amare for THIS? Wow.
July 12th, 2010 at 11:33 am
Spliff 2 My Lou says:
Good move for all teams it seems. The Suns are now even more deep although lacking inside scoring like you pointed out. But I think they’re collecting assets for a trade in the future.
July 12th, 2010 at 11:34 am
Spliff 2 My Lou says:
@diggity dave
I think Amare was leaving Phoenix even if Sarver would’ve offered more. The allure of NY was too much for somebody as egotistical as Amare.
July 12th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
patrick says:
Suns didn’t stand a chance of keeping Stoudamire no matter what. I wish they would have used some of that trade exception to pick up Beasely from Miami rather than Childress.
The Suns aren’t going to be challenging for the Western conference next year, but I still think they will make the playoffs. They are thin inside, but they played well without Amare in the past. I am a huge fan, but the dude doesn’t always play ard on the defensive end.
July 12th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Heckler says:
if this all goes thru, who do you think will have a better record next year and/or go further in the postseason:
Phoenix or Toronto?
July 12th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
Brown says:
I don’t understand Colangelo’s infatuation with former Suns players. All he can get for that huge trade exception is Boris Diaw???????? I do like the Barbosa pickup though.
July 12th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
K Dizzle says:
Pretty sad that Raptors got more for Hedo than they did for Carter, TMac and Bosh……wow
July 12th, 2010 at 3:13 pm
Stunnaboy09 says:
Suns management confuses me, so they make the west finals abd replace their second best player with rookies and Warrick? Now adding Turk? If they win anywhere close to the 54 games they had last year I say give Nash the MVP mofo deserves it.
July 12th, 2010 at 3:14 pm
karizmatic says:
Those are good pickups for the Suns and should make them a versatile team not to mention basically a euroleague team in the NBA
July 12th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
the cynic says:
Childress is going to be a steal for the suns