Early on in this offseason, the Suns made it clear that getting Eric Gordon was their number one option in free agency. For a brief time it looked as though Gordon was going to be in a Suns uniform one way or another, but a sign and trade never materialized with New Orleans and Gordon was officially out as an option for the Suns two guard position.
Phoenix's front office then turned its attention to O.J. Mayo and Courtney Lee as options. After brief flirtation with both, the Suns decided that Mayo and Lee were too rich and wanted long-term deals that would have jeopardized their payroll flexibility. So the Suns turned to Plan D and signed Shannon Brown to a two-year, $7 million deal on Friday with half of the second year being guaranteed.
Brown had an up and down year in his first season in Phoenix. Like most of the Suns roster, he didn't play well in the first half of the season heading into the All-Star break, but really came on during the final stretch of the season. In his last 19 games as the starter, Brown averaged just under 16 points a game and shot 41 percent from three-point range. Brown average 11 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists for the season as a whole.
Who the starter at shooting guard will be could turn into one of the better battles in training camp. Brown played well as the Suns starter at the end of last season, but so has Jared Dudley over the course of his career in Phoenix. Goran Dragic could see some time at the two position as well with Sebastian Telfair and rookie Kendall Marshall earning some run at the point.
The Suns signing Brown was the right move because he was clearly the best option left with Mayo and Lee off the board. He also has a nice contract where the Suns could can still be big time players in free agency next year for guys like James Harden and Tyreke Evans. They could even trade him being that he is on a short-term deal, which is attractive to a lot of teams.
Lets just hope that we see the Brown that we saw in the second half of last season and not the one we saw in the first half.
Original Story:
http://www.sunsrising.com/articles/ro...
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July 20, 2012
