anyways, 2 suns insiders posted elsewhere (as well as a nets guy) that the suns and nets are in discussions for an amare deal.

this is the offer:

amare + admundson for yi + lee + simmons + 2 #1 picks...

I think this takes them out of Lebron running.

PHX is going to have to trade Nash if they rebuild.

The Spurs have researched and are debating pursuing Suns forward Amar'e Stoudemire, league sources have told Yahoo! Sports.

Questions remain about what San Antonio would be willing to give up, however, including whether or not they'd part with Manu Ginobili.

Also, will the Spurs be willing to sign Stoudemire to a lucrative contract extension and increase their payroll?

"They know they've got to do something," a source familiar with the front office's thinking said. "They feel like they've got to at least look at this ... and they are."

djsunyc wrote:or a steam of crap?

anyways, 2 suns insiders posted elsewhere (as well as a nets guy) that the suns and nets are in discussions for an amare deal.

this is the offer:

amare + admundson for yi + lee + simmons + 2 #1 picks...

Very interesting. Not a bad trade for both teams actually...Phoenix would be getting a nice package (Simmons is a throw-in but Yi's a big talented young forward that still has a chance to get better and Lee's a nice up-and-coming 2-guard, plus 2 #1s (no way it could be this year's pick I'm guessing. That'd be nuts, even for Amar'e -- they have a good chance of getting the #1 pick here. So say they're 2 future 1s -- those picks would boil down to whether Jersey ever got LeBron or not. If they did, along with Amar'e, those picks will be end of the 1st round. But if they didn't land LeBron, they could be halfway decent. Even #30-type picks have value.). I don't really see the Suns getting a better offer for Amar'e than this to be honest. Remember this is a guy who could bolt and leave them for nothing next summer..

And I like it for the Nets. It'd be a great splash-type move to try to lure LeBron to Jersey. Amar'e, Devin Harris, Lopez, CDR/T-Will (they have enough quality SG depth where they could afford to deal Courtney Lee), probably the #1 overall pick in June - definitely no worse than a top 3 pick you figure, a new billionaire owner, the eventual move to Brooklyn and his friendship with Jay Z...Quite a number of positives for 'Bron to consider if this move ever went down.

If you're Jersey, you gotta do this deal. And if I'm Phoenix, knowing what the Nets are trying to do here, I might actually try to milk Jersey for even more. If I'm Steve Kerr, maybe I insist on Devin Harris & cash instead of Simmons and I look to push this trade off to the off-season instead of pulling the trigger by the deadline, giving NJ a chance to see how they do in the lottery. Tell you what, that's more of a gamble for NJ but they might still do that if they ever got the #1 pick and planned on bringing in John Wall as a successor to Harris...

The New York Daily News reports that the Nets have conceded that they will not be able to sign LeBron James or Dwyane Wade this summer, which is one reason the team is pursuing a trade to land Amar'e Stoudemire.

The Knicks are not expected to be players for Stoudemire and Donnie Walsh is unsure the Suns' star will be changing addresses before the February trade deadline.

"I could see it happening," Walsh said. "But usually, with a player like that, a trade doesn't happen at midseason. But if [the Suns] are not happy with their team, or they think they're going to lose him this summer, then maybe it could happen."

SupremeCommander wrote:Harris/Lopez/Stoudemire is pretty good

it should be pretty good, harris/lopez should be good too. but it's not. why not? i think the nets are colluding to throw the season and lose games. there should be a criminal investigation. you really think adding amare "the eyeball" is gonna turn them into a winning team? they're 3-40 man, 3-40!!! if amare is all they need, then harris and lopez are THROWING the games man.

Finestrg wrote:

Moonangie wrote:

The New York Daily News reports that the Nets have conceded that they will not be able to sign LeBron James or Dwyane Wade this summer, which is one reason the team is pursuing a trade to land Amar'e Stoudemire.

The Knicks are not expected to be players for Stoudemire and Donnie Walsh is unsure the Suns' star will be changing addresses before the February trade deadline.

"I could see it happening," Walsh said. "But usually, with a player like that, a trade doesn't happen at midseason. But if [the Suns] are not happy with their team, or they think they're going to lose him this summer, then maybe it could happen."

Well I'm no capologist but how is NJ "conceding they will not be able to sign LeBron James or Dwyane Wade this summer"?? They're one of the teams that'll be in good shape money-wise this off-season. I got the NJ salaries up on Hoopshype right now -- they have $26.04 million dollars in committed salary for next season. And that's with Devin Harris and his almost $9 mil. dollar salary slot (who's to say he doesn't get worked into this hypothetical trade somehow -- if I were Kerr I might want Harris instead of Simmons' expiring - if NJ got the #1 pick and zeroed in on John Wall, maybe they'd part with Harris to get Amar'e. I don't think that would be that much of a stretch. Even though the deadline's approaching, this is something these teams could always agree to revisit later on after the lottery takes place and after the season. Phoenix could always agree to sign & trade Amar'e to the Nets after the season -- a little tricky 'cause then it would have to be Harris instead of Simmons I guess).

No matter though -- forget including Harris. Back to the original priniples: Simmons, Lee and Yi...Now with this trade, they'd export Yi and Lee (-5.4 million, so now we're looking at roughly $20.64) but inherit Amar'e (who you figure would be re-upped immediately to a new deal close to the max but not quite - say a new deal in the $14-15 mil. dollar range, for argument's sake say 15), so now they'd be looking at $35.64 million (Lou Amundson's an expiring contract so he has no bearing). If the cap gets adjusted to $57 million, that's over $21 million bucks left over for not only LeBron but even another player or two. Or even more for Amar'e if need be and Lebron for the max...Where did the Daily News come up with this??

because Lebron & D Wade don't wanna go to the league's worst team... even with Devin Harris & the cap space to sign 2 max FA's, they still play in Jersey & they're still a lame franchise that no one cares about... NJ is smart to target guys like Amare, pair him up w/Harris & you build up with supplementary FA signings to add depth... maybe add a David Lee, who would be absolutely perfect playing next to those guys.

s3231 wrote:If I'm a free agent, playing with Devin Harris, Brook Lopez, and Amare in Brooklyn is as appealing as any other option. Not to mention, the Nets have such a bad record that even if they trade for Amare they have essentially locked themselves into a top 3 pick in a strong draft.

People have this belief that the Knicks will automatically be at the top of every free agent's wish list. If you look at this situation objectively though, you will see that we (as a fanbase) have a lot to be concerned about if the Nets get Amare.

Yeah, I gotta agree with S3231 on this. If they ever got Amar'e on top of the other things they'll have to offer, that's suddenly a very attractive destination for a guy like LeBron. Even without Amar'e, they are huge competition for us in the LeBron sweepstakes. Getting Amar'e would only up the ante and give LeBron even more incentive to sign there. If they got Amar'e and then added James they instantly go from worst to first in the eastern conference, Celtics style. Easily.

5 - Brook Lopez
4 - Amar'e Stoudemire
3 - LeBron James
2 - Chris Douglas-Roberts
1 - Devin Harris
------------
Josh Boone (A capable backup center)
Terrance Williams (Not having a great year but he's a big strong 2 - he'll eventually find himself)
Keyon Dooling (A very good backup PG, one of the league's best)
Kris Humphries (Limited skill but a great hustler, good role player)

Fellas that's a 65 win team (probably even better) with a great chance for a title. Probably many titles...No question about it. And to think, if I did the math correctly and the cap does move up to $57-58 million, they might have another $4-5 million to add additional firepower to what you see above. The Nets very easily could put this together. For those that are dismissing the Nets in this LeBron thing, think again. Especially if this Amar'e trade ever went down. If Jersey got Amar'e, I'd say they automatically leapfrog over us as destination #1 for LBJ if he decided to skip out on Cleveland. Who knows - they might be ahead of us already.