July 12, 2010
Gani Lawal
The Suns second rounder from last month should have a good chance to make the team, even with the addition of Hakim Warrick. Incidentally, even though Hakim is one of the most accurate like-for-like replacements for Amare Stoudemire that this league has, 4 years and $18 million is about 2 years and $12 million too much. For all his faults, Amare was the considerably better defensive player and rebounder. And that doesn't even include his offense, which was about 65 million times better. It's not a bad signing, but it's not a good price.
June 27, 2010
Pick 46: Steve Kerr is a good drafter, and he makes one more sensible pick before leaving the Suns. Gani Lawal is a talented player and great value at 46, a player who fell about 7 places too far due to the crazy nature of this second round. His athletic style suits the Suns, and he doesn't need to be a polished offensively player to run the court, get open, and dunk with authority. (Which is lucky, because he isn't.)
The Suns would also have benefited from drafting Stanley Robinson, who, as mentioned earlier, was born to run. In fact, if the draft gets the walk-up music it so badly needs, that must be Stanley's tune. And everyone else's must be The Final Countdown. Maybe we could actually book Europe for the night.