Jeff Hornacek is going to go small next year. Apparently.
The Phoenix Suns already have third team All-NBA player Goran Dragic under contract and have promised to match any offer for Eric Bledsoe (which has yet to come). Behind them they have promising rookie Tyler Ennis, breakout star Gerald Green, and Archie Goodwin.
And pretty soon Isaiah Thomas.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports broke the story and Sam Amick of the USA Today adds details
Sacramento restricted free agent Isaiah Thomas has reached agreement on an offer sheet with Phoenix, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 11, 2014
Can also confirm Isaiah Thomas deal: sign and trade with Phoenix and Sacto, four years, $27 million; Kings get $7.2 mil trade exception...
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) July 11, 2014
Kings also get draft rights to Alex Oriakhi, who you can read about here - http://t.co/SLvBDr6VPH
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) July 11, 2014
The Kings didn’t have a lot of leverage in this sign-and-trade because they had no intention of matching the offer. While the Kings brain trust was divided on Thomas’ worth, the people with the power were done with him — they didn’t want him to start and Thomas is tired of feeling jerked around in Sacramento. The era of the Pizza Guy ads are done and that makes me sad.
For the Suns, getting Thomas at basically $7 million a year is a good deal — he is small and lightning quick, he averaged 20 points a game with a very efficient .574 true shooting percentage because he can get to the rim and he knocks down shots. He’s not helping on defense much, to be fair. Now the Suns have some real trade assets available if they want. In the short term, they go small and it’s going to be entertaining to watch the Suns. (Plus they still have cap space and are expected to make a run at Luol Deng and others. They need to replace what Channing Frye brought.)
The Kings… this is confusing, honestly. If you have doubts about Thomas’ ceiling I can understand that but that is still a fair price considering the production. Thomas has done nothing but beat out every guy brought in to take his job, and somehow that pissed off someone in Sacramento, I guess. Their off-season has been haphazard, not sure what they are trying to build.