[Five-ofan]

I loved raja bell and still do. He is one of my favorite non-mavs. However this guy is what he is. He is a guy that is a solid 7-8-9th man on a good team. He is not a world-beater. As to his defensive rep, the mavs over the last several years have had several players who were average defenders get a rep on this board or other dallas based places as being stoppers. Griffin, bell, newman etc. None of them were that good. Also if they got him then even if we cut fin i think this means that they cant get finley. Now as much as people here dog fin and some love him(Im not really firmly in either camp) I think we can all agree that Fin is leaps and bounds better than raja bell. As to the suns look at their payroll in 2 years.
Amare-maxed
Marion-maxed
Nash-14 mil
Johnson-12 mil
Raja- 5 mil
Thomas - 9 mil
Jackson- think he will be gone but if not 5 mil

That is roughly 75 mil for 7 players. No resigning barbosa who i think will be pretty good and i was pretty cheap on johnson because with raises he will probably make more than 12. Guessed on what nash's deal would pay that year. Is that team enough to win a title with no other help? i doubt it and you have just made yourself one of the top 3 most expensive teams in the league. Also this means that stephen hunter is gone. He will get around the mle. As to the top 10 percent of defenders? Dont know about what you consider top 10% but that would mean being in the top 3 or 4 defenders at the two in the league. That he is not. Bowen, Hughes, pierce, wade, kobe, manu, rip just off the top of my head are clearly better defenders at the 2 spot than he is. Anyone that questions hughes on that list did not watch any wizards games last year. I know he had a lot of steals and thats why he made the all defensive team but thats not why i rated him so highly he is just that good.