Suns News: Week 8 12/3-12/9

[The Bobster]

at least when philly dumped hinkie, they transitioned to byran colangelo, a two time executive of the year winner.

How did that work out for them?

they made it to the 2nd round of the playoffs in his first full season with the sixers

And ultimately what happened with the Colangelos there?

bill simmons blogsite sabotaged the sixers. its nice they waited after phillys playoff run to reveal this

If you don;t do it in the first place and give them ammunition, it's not an issue. You can't pin it on the messenger.

[azsportsfan]

From Bob Young at The Athletic...small snippet but man does it irritate me.

And the Suns have other young players, their own first-round pick (which now looks awfully attractive) and a Milwaukee first-round pick from the Eric Bledsoe trade that the Bucks would convey only if they are picking from No. 4 to 16 in 2019 or Nos. 1-7 in 2020. It is unprotected in 2021.

It’s worth noting that the Suns wouldn’t be in this fix if Robert Sarver, the club’s managing partner, had not reportedly overruled his then-general manager, Ryan McDonough, on draft night.

McDonough reportedly planned to package the club’s pick from Milwaukee and a player taken with the 16th pick to move up and draft Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a point guard from Kentucky.

When Philadelphia offered the rights to Mikal Bridges for the rights to Zhaire Smith and Miami’s unprotected 2021 first-round pick, Sarver pushed for that deal. So the Suns moved up six spots to add their fourth young wing player.

Even the choice to move up for SGA was not the preferred strategy.

Another NBA team had an offer on the table for the Suns’ 16th pick in exchange for a future unprotected first-round pick. That would have given the Suns two future unprotected picks and Milwaukee’s future pick to use in a deal for an established point guard.

Instead, Sarver preferred to move up. So imagine for a moment Gilgeous-Alexander in a future lineup with Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton, T.J. Warren and Josh Jackson.

Except that timeline doesn't make sense. SGA was gone at 11. You think Philly was asking to trade before 11? I don't buy that at all. I think that this is somewhat BS. I don't like Sarver, but it is the cool thing to trash him and I think glorified bloggers are getting ahead of themselves.

[iLLmatic]

From Bob Young at The Athletic...small snippet but man does it irritate me.

And the Suns have other young players, their own first-round pick (which now looks awfully attractive) and a Milwaukee first-round pick from the Eric Bledsoe trade that the Bucks would convey only if they are picking from No. 4 to 16 in 2019 or Nos. 1-7 in 2020. It is unprotected in 2021.

It’s worth noting that the Suns wouldn’t be in this fix if Robert Sarver, the club’s managing partner, had not reportedly overruled his then-general manager, Ryan McDonough, on draft night.

McDonough reportedly planned to package the club’s pick from Milwaukee and a player taken with the 16th pick to move up and draft Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a point guard from Kentucky.

When Philadelphia offered the rights to Mikal Bridges for the rights to Zhaire Smith and Miami’s unprotected 2021 first-round pick, Sarver pushed for that deal. So the Suns moved up six spots to add their fourth young wing player.

Even the choice to move up for SGA was not the preferred strategy.

Another NBA team had an offer on the table for the Suns’ 16th pick in exchange for a future unprotected first-round pick. That would have given the Suns two future unprotected picks and Milwaukee’s future pick to use in a deal for an established point guard.

Instead, Sarver preferred to move up. So imagine for a moment Gilgeous-Alexander in a future lineup with Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton, T.J. Warren and Josh Jackson.

Except that timeline doesn't make sense. SGA was gone at 11. You think Philly was asking to trade before 11? I don't buy that at all. I think that this is somewhat BS. I don't like Sarver, but it is the cool thing to trash him and I think glorified bloggers are getting ahead of themselves.

Pretty sure it's been confirmed by multiple media outlets.

[azsportsfan]

From Bob Young at The Athletic...small snippet but man does it irritate me.

And the Suns have other young players, their own first-round pick (which now looks awfully attractive) and a Milwaukee first-round pick from the Eric Bledsoe trade that the Bucks would convey only if they are picking from No. 4 to 16 in 2019 or Nos. 1-7 in 2020. It is unprotected in 2021.

It’s worth noting that the Suns wouldn’t be in this fix if Robert Sarver, the club’s managing partner, had not reportedly overruled his then-general manager, Ryan McDonough, on draft night.

McDonough reportedly planned to package the club’s pick from Milwaukee and a player taken with the 16th pick to move up and draft Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a point guard from Kentucky.

When Philadelphia offered the rights to Mikal Bridges for the rights to Zhaire Smith and Miami’s unprotected 2021 first-round pick, Sarver pushed for that deal. So the Suns moved up six spots to add their fourth young wing player.

Even the choice to move up for SGA was not the preferred strategy.

Another NBA team had an offer on the table for the Suns’ 16th pick in exchange for a future unprotected first-round pick. That would have given the Suns two future unprotected picks and Milwaukee’s future pick to use in a deal for an established point guard.

Instead, Sarver preferred to move up. So imagine for a moment Gilgeous-Alexander in a future lineup with Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton, T.J. Warren and Josh Jackson.

Except that timeline doesn't make sense. SGA was gone at 11. You think Philly was asking to trade before 11? I don't buy that at all. I think that this is somewhat BS. I don't like Sarver, but it is the cool thing to trash him and I think glorified bloggers are getting ahead of themselves.

Pretty sure it's been confirmed by multiple media outlets.

I am sure all from the same "source", but whatever. I don't buy the "we had SGA but Sarver overrode it" story at all.

[gosuns]

If we had SGA we wouldn’t have Bridges. This argument is irrelevant. The Clippers are a much better more experienced team and SGA has a clear role there, which he plays well. There is no proof that he would produce on the Suns. Also yesterday’s game just proves that Booker and Warren are good players and that we obviously rely heavily on them. Ayton is a Rookie and he plays like a Rookie. He is playing on a bad team and is overwhelmed by the situation right now. I don’t think it’s fair to blame him for how bad we are. This Team has not one player in its prime, with the exception of Warren maybe. This is all on the front office for not realising this, and the main culprit is allready gone and the other main culprit can only leave if he sells the team. There is no quick fix to this, we have to get through this season and evaluate the young players we have and give some G Leaguers a shot and slowly build towards a better future. Keep our pick and be ready for free agency 2019 to get Veterans who know how to play.

[SDC]

10 more days...

[Shabazz]

What I referenced the other day. Sarver is a joke.

[AmareIsGod]

What I referenced the other day. Sarver is a joke.

“Not only have they not removed that interim tag (on Jones), they haven’t even added staff,” Elhassan said Tuesday. “There’s a lot of guys who got let go. One of the reasons why the timing (of McDonough’s firing) is terrible is because it’s hard to fill those positions once the season has started. Not many guys are going to their situation unless it was a massive, massive upgrade in pay or position.”

Jones fired several other executives in the basketball operations department after McDonough was let go. Assistant GM Pat Connelly, director of scouting Courtney Witte, director of international scouting Emilio Kovacic and Northern Arizona Suns GM Louis Lehman were all fired, according to Wojnarowski.

The red flags come months later as Phoenix has stumbled to another bad start. A 4-20 record through a quarter of the season means the Suns are on track to face another pivotal draft, one that carries more pressure as the teams’ past lottery picks struggle to meet early expectations.

Phoenix continues on through the season without a front office that will be in place heading into next season or — at the very least — one that simply doesn’t have the bodies and, arguably, the infrastructure to win a draft and a free agency period that it desperately needs to.

That leaves Sarver and the Suns with a problem they can’t easily navigate in the present — yet one they created and should have seen coming.

Per the Suns’ staff directory, only two people with the word “scout” in their titles remain: Jason Hervey, an advance scout, and John Shumate, a scout. They held those same positions a year ago and were joined by an additional scout, plus Kovacic and Witte.

Add in McDonough’s background as a video intern and director of scouting, plus similar specialties of Connelly, and Phoenix appears to be down five bodies, all of whom were in charge of evaluating talent.

“Now you’re running this weird, bare-bones basketball operations department where the guy in charge isn’t quite totally in charge,” Elhassan said.

Jones could have all the energy and the basketball insight in the world. But he can’t be everywhere at once.

My God. What a joke.

[The Bobster]

If Sarver isn’t the worst owner in sports he’s on a short list of candidates.

[SDC]

sell it back to the colangelos?

i wonder why wasnt jones let go. maybe his job is to buy out ariza so he can go to the lakers?

[SDC]

If Sarver isn’t the worst owner in sports he’s on a short list of candidates.

what about ryan mcdonough?

[The Bobster]

If Sarver isn’t the worst owner in sports he’s on a short list of candidates.

what about ryan mcdonough?

Since when is he an owner?

[SDC]

i dont think sarver is going to sell. he recently bought mallorca after failing to takeover rangers fc.

[AmareIsGod]

If Sarver isn’t the worst owner in sports he’s on a short list of candidates.

what about ryan mcdonough?

Since when is he an owner?

I'd respond and ask a similar question but I've noticed that recently, my messages have been getting moderated and deleted for some reason. Mods, que pasa?

[Ring_Wanted]

Wat

[Shabazz]

Good thread on Melton from last night:

[Superbone]

If Sarver isn’t the worst owner in sports he’s on a short list of candidates.

what about ryan mcdonough?

Since when is he an owner?

I'd respond and ask a similar question but I've noticed that recently, my messages have been getting moderated and deleted for some reason. Mods, que pasa?

Huh? News to me.

[AmareIsGod]

If Sarver isn’t the worst owner in sports he’s on a short list of candidates.

what about ryan mcdonough?

Since when is he an owner?

I'd respond and ask a similar question but I've noticed that recently, my messages have been getting moderated and deleted for some reason. Mods, que pasa?

Huh? News to me.

Maybe because they are replies to sdc? I previously had him on my ignore list but my tolerance had softened over the years and I removed him from ignore recently.

[JeremyG]

The Suns rank 28th in the league in defense, the only teams worse are Cleveland and...San Antonio.

[Cap]

The Suns rank 28th in the league in defense, the only teams worse are Cleveland and...San Antonio.

Fire Pop!