Suns News: Offseason

[Superbone]

Good stuff, Laz. I didn't know all those details about the Chambers acquisition.

[Mori Chu]

There's also the 1975 offseason where they drafted Alvan Adams and Ricky Sobers and traded for Paul Westphal.

Wow, that's another great one. Set up part of the core of our first ever Finals team!

[The Bobster]

There's also the 1975 offseason where they drafted Alvan Adams and Ricky Sobers and traded for Paul Westphal.

Wow, that's another great one. Set up part of the core of our first ever Finals team!

Three of the five starters. Curtis Perry was already on hand and Gar Heard was picked up from Buffalo during the season.

[LazarusLong]

There's also the 1975 offseason where they drafted Alvan Adams and Ricky Sobers and traded for Paul Westphal.

Wow, that's another great one. Set up part of the core of our first ever Finals team!

Three of the five starters. Curtis Perry was already on hand and Gar Heard was picked up from Buffalo during the season.

It was the Heard trade that ignited the Suns' playoff run that season.
Phoenix dealt John Shumate, a talented but traditional low-block center-forward that clogged MacLeod's offensive flow.
MacLeod had coached Heard in college and knew exactly what he was getting.
With Perry and Heard working the trenches on D and rebounding, Adams could realize his potential as a high post center.
Westphal could free lance a bit more and Keith Erickson could sharpshoot from perimeter.

[ShelC]

[Mori Chu]

I think Crowder is the first guy to wear #99 in Suns history, right? The previous highest numbered-Sun ever was Hamed Haddadi, who wore #98.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_P ... _by_number

[ShelC]

[Indy]

So Ayton is not guaranteed a starting spot? Or just nobody knows who/what he is?

[ShelC]

Damn I meant to put that quote in the training camp thread.

I would think it's safe to assume Ayton has the starting spot and Jones is just trying to play up competition. The position battles would most likely be the starting SF and PF spots plus backup roles/minutes. I think Jones meant generally that the rest of the group collectively doesn't have an identity - are we an offensive juggernaut? Will we become a tough defensive team? Mikal, Cam, DA are young and hungry but that only gets you so far.

[Indy]

Damn I meant to put that quote in the training camp thread.

I would think it's safe to assume Ayton has the starting spot and Jones is just trying to play up competition. The position battles would most likely be the starting SF and PF spots plus backup roles/minutes. I think Jones meant generally that the rest of the group collectively doesn't have an identity - are we an offensive juggernaut? Will we become a tough defensive team? Mikal, Cam, DA are young and hungry but that only gets you so far.

It feels like we are built to be a team that wants to play even throughout the game without expending too much energy from Devin or Paul, and then let them take over in the last 5 minutes (whichever has it going), with shooters all around to bail them out.

[ShelC]

I could see us being so deep, with so many threats from 3, plus solid to above average defenders throughout the lineup, we could really go on spurts with our shooting and then lock teams up for stretches. Book's probably our worst defender. Even tho Paul's lost a step he's still one of the better defensive guards and has always been strong and physical. Crowder adds to that, we know what we have with Mikal, and Cam showed some nice defense in the bubble. Ayton is the anchor plus whatever we get from Smith. Saric is sound, if unathletic.

Previous SSOL teams would sometimes let teams back in games with cold shooting or poor defense. This could be one of our better defensive teams and not just 1 dimensional shooters.

[Split T]

[AmareIsGod]

James Jones is a very competent GM. I'm glad the asset collecting is now being done by OKC. That seemed to be our MO for with McD and it never amounted to anything at all.

[ShelC]

Really sucks, especially for someone who's the public/fan facing personality. If she was furloughed and she's the one who's on camera, a bunch of people behind the scenes were furloughed/let go as well.

And while we're excited about the personnel moves, it makes Sarver look especially bad adding CP and Crowder at their salaries while furloughing and cutting people making substantially less.

[Indy]

Really sucks, especially for someone who's the public/fan facing personality. If she was furloughed and she's the one who's on camera, a bunch of people behind the scene were furloughed/let go as well.

And while we're excited about the personnel moves, it makes Sarver look especially bad adding CP and Crowder at their salaries while furloughing and cutting people making substantially less.

Yeah, so now that makes sense when insiders were saying the fans were not going to be happy about the layoffs.

By the way, not sure I mentioned it. But the Suns have officially said that any season tickets sold for this season are just being rolled over to 21-22. I am pretty sure they are announcing very soon that no fans will be in attendance in Phoenix (at least for most of the season). Their hope is that they will have fans in attendance for the post-season (after a vaccine).

[Mori Chu]

Too bad about Lindsey Smith. She seemed to do a good job in her role. You never know the real circumstances when somebody is let go, but I do still think that Sarver's record is really spotty on these kinds of things. Gives out some big contracts, then cuts a bunch of lower-salaried personnel. Trade for CP3, but then jettison our G-League team. One step forward, one step back.

[Cap]

[Split T]

I’m sure his reasoning is we don’t need a sideline reporter when we don’t have fans, but Lindsey does a whole lot more than that. People can say it’s a business and he should be able to run it like one, but I’d argue, like many do, that it needs to be looked at more as an investment. He’s quadrupled his money since he bought the team. If he can’t afford the operation costs, he needs to sell.

[The Bobster]

Other teams (like the Lakers) are making similar cuts, so I don't see it as simply a "Sarver thing".

I like Lindsey Smith as much as the next guy, but when revenues are down, and salaries are staying the same throughout the league, this type of belt-tightening is to be expected.

And when you get to the bottom line I'd rather see the money spent on players than one pretty much anything else.

[ShelC]

Sarver's definitely not the first and isn't the only one making cuts. Sports in general will probably be seeing a lot more staff cuts the longer games go without fans. But cutting a fan facing staffer just isn't good optics IMO.