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Phoenix couldn't find middle ground with eight-year Sun Amar'e Stoudemire despite months and months of negotiation. Consider today's news that Phoenix has reached a three-year, $12 million agreement with Hakim Warrick a full acknowledgment that Stoudemire's Suns career is over. John Gambadoro of Phoenix's 620 AM reported the contract figures after Yahoo!'s Marc Spears initially reported the deal. The contract will apparently have a fourth-year team option at $6 million.Warrick, who spent four middling seasons with the Grizzlies before splitting last year between the Bucks and Bulls, joins a Phoenix frontcourt starring second-year center Robin Lopez and newly re-signed forward-center Channing Frye, who reportedly agreed to a five-year contract worth $30 million on Thursday.
Warrick will make much, much less than what Amar'e would have commanded. But Warrick also offers much, much less on the court. Whereas Amar'e scored in bunches at elite efficiency, Warrick scores decently on just above-average efficiency. Whereas Amar'e was a middling rebounder for a power forward, Warrick is a completely awful rebounder for a power forward. Whereas Amar'e was often a liability on defense, Warrick is typically just as bad.
Warrick is not an improvement on Amar'e in a single basketball sense. The only factor in which he beats Amar'e is in his price. On one hand, with the Suns capped out for this year after paying Frye, there weren't many options left. And Warrick's small salary should help the Suns become competitive in the 2011 free agent market, depending on what else shakes out and what happens with the new collective bargaining agreement.
But on the other hand, the Suns wouldn't have been capped out this year if they'd have let Frye play the market. The team could have at least gotten into the sign-and-trade mix for players like David Lee or even Carlos Boozer, especially by dangling Leandro Barbosa, who gets crowded out in Phoenix's deep backcourt.Perhaps signing Warrick doesn't preclude such a move, and perhaps we ought to hold off on grading the Suns' offseason until we're deeper into the summer. But as of right now, by skirting Amar'e and replacing him with a player as underwhelming as Warrick, even if this price is right and the price for Amar'e is not, it's a net loss on the basketball court for Phoenix, a team that a month ago found itself in the Western Conference finals.
Cube steak's a better value than filet mignon. But when you're trying to prepare a blue ribbon meal, you want to spring for the filet. A move like this indicates that instead of pushing for that blue ribbon next year, the Suns are content to save their money for future filet mignons. But the judges -- the fans in Phoenix -- have just tasted filet mignon, and they want more. And your amazing chef, Steve Nash, is pretty close to hanging up his knife set. With all that in mind, buying this cube steak is going to be pretty tough to justify at the end of the day.
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