OUR FANHOUSE TOOLBAR INTEGRATES THE LATEST SPORTS NEWS INTO YOUR WEB BROWSER AND INSTALLS IN SECONDS.
YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE TOOLBAR HERE.

NBA

Suns Pay Ben Wallace $10 Million to Go Away

Posted Jul 14, 2009 11:28AM By Tom Ziller (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Cavaliers, Hornets, Pistons, Suns, NBA Transactions

Text SizeAAA
The trade of Shaquille O'Neal was just as intriguing from the Phoenix side as it was the Cleveland end, even though the Cavs got the best player (by far) in the exchange. While clearly a cap-cutting move for the Suns, the return package of Sasha Pavlovic and Ben Wallace provided a flexible cap situation in which Phoenix had the potential to offer a retiring Wallace to a cash-hurt team needing to unload a well-paid player.

That particular avenue was closed Monday, however, as Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic reports the Suns bought out Wallace's $14 million contract for $10 million. Coro reports Phoenix went forward with the buy-out in order to maintain a reasonable payroll after signing Channing Frye ($2 million) and Grant Hill ($3 million) last week. But in the process, a long-rumored Wallace-for-Tyson Chandler deal goes kaput.

Since New Orleans agreed to send Chandler to Oklahoma City for expiring contracts in February -- a trade that was rescinded when OKC's doctor didn't like the looks of Chandler's ankle -- various something-for-nothing deals have been rumored, deals in which New Orleans takes back as little salary as possible. Wallace pretty much made sense, in that Phoenix needs a center following the departure of Shaq, and that Big Ben had made noise about potentially retiring (and leaving his $14 million on the table) after the Cavs' disappointing 2008-09 finish.

But apparently either Wallace overstated his disappointment, or the rumor had no legs. The buy-out means the Suns can no longer trade Wallace's contract. It's a boon to Robert Sarver's bottom line -- if you believe Phoenix will remain over the luxury tax threshold this season, the $4 million in salary saved in the buy-out equates to net savings of $8 million when you count the tax hit -- but won't help the talent base of a team that finished the season outside the playoff picture. (Of course, it's apparent the Suns would have had reservations about signing both Frye and Hill without having these Wallace savings in the pipeline.)

Under all this wonky cap talk, there's plenty to talk about with regard to Wallace himself, given the likelihood we might have seen his final professional game. He went undrafted 13 years ago, cut his teeth in Italy and on the bench in Washington and Orlando. Then, when he got a chance to shine in a city built on the back of hard work, the blue-collar beast ended up as a four-time All-Star, a four-time Defensive Player of the Year, and an NBA champion. Big Ben is one of the marvels of this era, and a real testament to the value of toughness over talent in certain roles.

Tags: Ben+Wallace, BenWallace, Channing+Frye, ChanningFrye, Grant+Hill, GrantHill, Shaquille+ONeal, ShaquilleOneal, Tyson+Chandler, TysonChandler

Related Articles

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)