The Phoenix Suns made a significant trade yesterday, moving Jason Richardson, arguably their second best player, along with the albatross contract of Hedo Turkoglu and Earl Clark to acquire Vince Carter, Marcin Gortat and a first round draft pick.
If reports are on target, they are not through dealing.
Marc Stein of ESPN reports that the Suns have discussed trading Josh Childress, acquired this summer in free agency after two years in Greece, to no avail. That Childress can’t get off Gentry’s bench is a little bizarre. It’s a matter of discipline, and that’s fine, but Childress is athletic enough, there should be a place for him. This team isn’t good enough to be benching a talent like Childress. And it’s not going to help with trying to move him.
Rebuilding teams should be taking a look at him. The problem is that Childress is on the books for $20 million more after this season. It may be easier to trade for him after the CBA talks are over if there are rollbacks. Moving him before then is going to be difficult unless the Suns sneak into a three-way deal with a team willing to take on massive amounts of salary. And that’s not exactly likely with everyone buckling down over the next few months.
You have to wonder how things would have progressed for Childress had he not bolted for Europe. I’m sure he got some quality experiences out of it, and the money he got when he came back was great, but his career is in a hole right now. It just could have been different, that’s all.
