That's an immensely inaccurate comparison. Amare is only 4 years older than Tyrus and considerably better as an offensive player. Wallace just turned 32 when we signed him while Tyson was 23, and the bulk of the difference between the two was their defensive reputation.

Jesus freaking Christ Balta, sorry I didn't get up to the minute updates on his stats. I'm pretty damn sure a week ago he was at 22/9.

In that case he's clearly trending downwards

I was just asking because I wanted to understand what you meant. You might have been including some of the time in the previous season after the Shaq trade or something I just didn't understand. Didn't mean to offend, just wanted to know where the # came from.

They were a hardcore run and gun team. They dealt for Shaq, making them a bit more half court oriented. Kerr comes in, wants to make it a better defensive team, D'Antoni leaves, Porter comes in with a more half-court style, defensive oriented theory, Bell/Diaw get traded, etc. That's what I mean by philosophy changes. I don't know how often you watch the Suns, but their offense goes through Nash and Shaq now.

How old are his knees? And I don't think anyone will sit here and tell you that Tyrus is better than Amare. But is (Tyrus and/or Noah + Sef + first round pick better than Amare? Well thats a much better question.

And he wipes out any hope of resigning Ben Gordon.

And he can jump ship in 2010.

And his defense is so bad even D'Antoni didn't like it.

And he has attitude problems.

That said I still think he is great, but with the way Tyrus and Noah have reacted to increased playing time... unless I'm certain Amare puts the bulls over the hump this year or next... I'm not sure I make the trade

-He had microfracture surgery 3 years ago and has been doing just fine since then.

-Yes, he's better than any package we can send that doesn't involve Rose. There's a reason the team is still only 23-29 on the year.

-All signs point to Gordon leaving anyways, and theoretically if they have a contender JR just may pay the luxury tax (purely hypothetical)

-Him leaving is a concern, but if you're winning and/or giving him the ball a ton he's far more likely to stay. Plus if he doesn't, then you have that much desired cap space in 2010. While not ideal, that's better than where we are now.

-His defense is bad, but it's not like the guys currently on the roster do a whole lot to stop opposing big men as it is.

-He didn't have attitude problems (or at least ones we knew about) until this season. Plus we're talking about a team that already has Larry Hughes on the roster and has had numerous flare-ups over the last two years, with none of the players involved having half the talent of Amare.


You're very rarely going to find an opportunity to get a player of his caliber in his prime, and it's not like the rumored package includes even one All-Star going the other way. You're basically trading potential for production, and in basketball the team getting the star player basically ALWAYS wins the deal. How many times have we griped about the lack of major moves in the past? Now we're flip-flopping on that because Tyrus and the Bulls have played well over the last 7 games or so?This team is not going to make any serious noise as constructed, has no flexibility to add a significant piece until MAYBE 2010, and may be losing their best scorer because they've pissed him off and don't want to go over the luxury tax to keep the current team together.

If you're going to pass on Amare, exactly who are you waiting for to be available to upgrade this team? Lebron, Wade or Bosh falling into your lap in 2010? Even if that were to happen, Gordon and at least one of Tyrus/Hinrich/Nocioni would have to be gone to make it feasible financially. Amare is one of the major targets for 2010 anyways, you might as well try to get him for 60 cents on the dollar while you still can.

From Hoopsworld Chat I guess.. Someone posted it a while ago. I have no idea what is going on I just thought it was interesting.

I'm now under the position that I would not give up both Joakim and Tyrus Thomas in a deal for Amare. Losing both of those two guys is too much for me, one of them HAS to stay or I say no to PHO if they want both. Noah would be a great counterpart to Amare's offense because he can rebound and has the potential to be an impact defensive player if he learns how to stay out of foul trouble.

If someone gets silly, I hope it's not us. The Tyrus/Thabo/Gooden/1st Rounder deal is a hell of a lot to give up on its own. If someone's going to beat that offer, then Steve Kerr is making a killing.

Your right. It is potential versus production. But we aren't talking about draft picks. We aren't talking about complete unknowns. We are talking about players that we are watching improve everyday, and they are improving. Something has clicked and we are watching them play much better. If you look at Thomas' per 36 numbers since Dec 1st and compare it against Amare's last season pre D'Antoni and Nash, they look pretty darn similar. (footnote: totally stole this last thought from a blogabull post)

Wow, can someone cherry-pick the stats a bit more? Not only are they making it a rate comparison when one player played more than the other (that's a serious factor because of sample size, it's easier to maintain rates over short periods), they're comparing a chunk of playing time of a little over two months from a player's third year in the NBA that played a year in college for one of them to a that of a a second year player straight out of high school that he has since improved upon to a significant degree. He's not even THAT close given the sizeable difference in scoring, if Tyrus took that many shots on a regular basis his percentage would be a lot worse.

And seriously, they've clicked? They've drastically improved? Before this recent 7-game stretch they lost 5 in a row, including losses to the T-Wolves, Raptors and Knicks. They haven't exactly been beating the greatest teams in the world either. We've seen how schizophrenic they can be in the past, I don't see any reason to expect significantly different results with most of the same roster.

No, these guys aren't completely unknown commodities, we've seen them play for a while now and have seen them underachieve and fail to get the job done on a regular basis. They're still 6 games under .500 on the season, it's not like they only need moderate improvements to be a contender. Amare is a better scorer than Tyrus will ever be, Thabo and Gooden are okay but not stellar, and a late-lotto pick at best in this draft is not worth a whole lot. This is going to represent our best chance to get a significant upgrade for a while, I'd hate to see us pass on it because of one stretch of 7 games.

It's not THAT much to give up, 3 of the pieces are totally expendable. Tyrus is the only solid piece they're giving up, and he's not exactly a proven, consistent impact player. After that you have a bench player that may/may not be useful in the future, a guy that's an okay offensive player but is a brutal defender and will probably be gone after this year, and a late-lotto or lower pick in a brutal draft. That looks a lot closer to 60 cents on the dollar to me, especially once Nash and Shaq are gone or done and they have to try to build a team around Tyrus, Jason Richardson and someone like Al-Farouq Aminu.

Apparently the Suns owner lost 250 million dollars in the stock market which is why Phoenix really wants some cap relief.

Are those stats only on day's that don't end in "Y" and also only on night's with a half-moon or less with a planetary axis tilt greater than 20.13359 degrees?

Portland Backs off Amare


No NJ Trades Imminent


Bulls, Heat Final Options?