The Suns are going to pursue Lebron James and Carmelo Anthony this week. We have talked about this on the show and on Sports360az.com since May. Today, Yahoo Sports NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski layed out the details.
1) The Suns front office is trying to get a meeting with James in Phoenix. Free agency starts at 9pm Monday night. Managing Partner Robert Sarver and General Manager Ryan McDonough want to meet with James to show they can put together a Lebron/Carmelo deal.
2)The Suns have $33.5 million in salary cap space and have the ability to give both Lebron and Carmelo max. contracts without gutting the rest of the roster. In fact, the Suns could pursue Chris Bosh or Kevin Love to put alongside of James if they so desired.
3)Rich Paul is a key name to remember in this process. He is the agent for Lebron and also represents Suns guard Eric Bledsoe. Paul would have to see that Phoenix would be set-up to have a long-run of success so that James marketing would continue to be strong. The days of only playing in New York or LA to push a world wide brand are over(see Kevin Durant or Lebron in Cleveland).
My view on this…There is no question that the Suns have the cap space, the credibility of Ryan McDonough and Jeff Hornacek, and a good roster to put out on the floor(Dragic and Bledsoe). They have several future first round draft picks and are coming off a class of three first rounders this past week. They can afford to pay Lebron and Carmelo to play together. No one else in the NBA can do all of those things.
I’ve already received notes today from fans asking about Carmelo. I’ve made no bones about my lack of interest in having a player who seems to not know how to spell the word “pass”. If this story were about the Suns pursuing just Anthony, I would have a much different tone. However, if it takes Carmelo to get Lebron, then I am in.
There is also the conspiracy theory that Sarver knows that he can’t get James, but he can use a story like this to repair his damaged image with the fans of Phoenix. I don’t buy that for one minute. Let’s see how the next few days play out…
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