Last year the Phoenix Suns traded Goran Dragic, best known for torching the San Antonio Spurs for 23 points IN A QUARTER during the 2010 NBA Playoffs, for Houston’s Aaron Brooks. The trade really didn’t make a ton of sense because the Suns already had a starting point guard and Dragic was a great spark off the bench. To make matters worse, when the lockout dragged on in to the fall, Brooks decided to sign with the Guangdong Foshan Dralions (say that three times fast) of the Chinese Basketball Association. Brooks’ team lost to Stephon Marbury’s Beijing Shougang Ducks and he is now free of his Chinese basketball obligations. As Paul Coro of AZ Central.com writes, the Suns and Brooks, who is a restricted free agent face a tough decision on whether they should bring Brooks back to Phoenix this season.
“The Suns remain unsettled on how to act on Brooks, although it seems doubtful that he will join a team with three point guards and play at this stage. The Suns could sign Brooks to a multi year contract while they have exclusive negotiating rights, but that would cut into their July salary-cap flexibility for free agency.
They could let him go into free agency and still be able to match any team’s offer if they elect to keep him.”
I’m indifferent about Brooks and the Suns bringing him back. As Coro mentioned, they’ve got three point guards on their roster right now but Brooks is probably better then Sebastian Telfair and Ronnie Price. If they did sign Brooks he could help them get to the playoffs but then they wouldn’t be able to use him once they got to the playoffs because the deadline to sign players and have them eligible for the postseason passed a couple weeks ago. Long term, Steve Nash has stated he’d like to play another three years. The Suns have about around $15 million in cap room this summer. If they sign Brooks now they lose some cap space and I imagine they don’t want to do that if they’re trying to keep Nash around.
If they’re worried about getting outbid for Brooks, well I can’t imagine that happening. He followed up a season where he averaged around 20 points a game by seeing his stats drop across the board (in part because of injury) and then getting traded to a team so he could back someone else up. Then the lockout happened and he went to China. In that time the NBA became as deep at the point guard spot as it has been maybe ever. Brooks isn’t going to get a gigantic pay day from anyone this offseason. They’ve got plenty of time to figure out if he’s a part of their long term plans.
