The Phoenix Suns promote Brian Gregory to General Manager

[JeremyG]

[TOO]

Brian Gregory is the new GM. Womp womp.

[Split T]

[Split T]

Well I hope Gregory is smart. I’m worried he’s just a yes man…was Ishbia’s assistant coach at MSU

[The Bobster]

Is he the answer or is it just cronyism?

Time will tell.

[ShelC]

Can't say I'm confident.

[Superbone]

Can't say I'm confident.

I'll give him a chance. Going to hold off opinion until I see what affect he has.

[Split T]

If player development is the plan, does that mean we are going young in a KD trade?

[TOO]

It's going to be hard to more disappointing than the Suns were this year, I don't know if one off-season with the new GM will show much, but also, I don't know that I have any real excitement for this rearranging.

[iLLmatic]

Can't say I'm confident.

I'll give him a chance. Going to hold off opinion until I see what affect he has.

New ownership's track record has shown it's probably best to expect a bad decision. We'll see though.

[Superbone]

Suns name Brian Gregory as GM, make James Jones senior adviser
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/449 ... or-advisor

Phoenix also elevated Oronde Taliaferro to assistant general manager and added basketball operations responsibilities to Chief Innovation Officer Paul Rivers' duties.

After two decades as an NCAA head coach, Gregory worked closely with Suns officials in the front office over the past two years, was a key part of the selections of 2024 draft picks Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro, and he now assumes a more prominent, day-to-day position.

"Brian has been a valuable member of our front office, playing an integral role in drafting and developing our young players," Suns owner Mat Ishbia said in a statement. "I am excited for him to step in to the role of general manager. He is a brilliant basketball mind, and he will transform and elevate our team."

[Superbone]

Suns promote Brian Gregory to GM, James Jones reassigned
https://arizonasports.com/nba/phoenix-s ... y/3582392/

Gregory was hired by Phoenix as the new vice president of player programming last June, a part of the new front office hires that included assistant general manager Matt Tellem.

This past season was Gregory’s first in not only an NBA front office but the league in general. The majority of Gregory’s basketball background is in coaching at the collegiate level. That most notably began at Michigan State from 1990-96 starting as a graduate assistant and then rejoined as an assistant coach from 1999-2003, time he spent coaching Suns owner Mat Ishbia for three seasons when Ishbia played for the Spartans.

Gregory left Michigan State in 2003 to become the head coach of Dayton for eight years, posting a 172-94 record. He was then hired by Georgia Tech in 2011, where he struggled, going 76-86 and was not retained after five seasons.

Gregory spent the 2016-17 season as a consultant at Michigan State before taking on his third head coaching gig, this time at South Florida. It was another stop without much results, with six years resulting in a 79-107 record before he was fired in March 2023.

This Kellan Olson piece is well worth reading. Lot's of stuff about what did and didn't work under Jones' tunure and his avoidance of athletic players in favor of basketball IQ.

James Jones era appears to sunset

The 2021 NBA Executive of the Year’s tenure atop the totem pole comes to an end after working with five head coaches, two owners and one interim governor since he made the immediate jump from a playing career (2003-17) to a high-ranking executive position in 2017.

“James’ contributions have been instrumental to our organization, and we appreciate everything he has done for the Suns on and off the court,” Ishbia said in a statement. “We are grateful to continue to have his experience and insight.”

Jones was hired by prior owner Robert Sarver under former GM Ryan McDonough. The placement of Jones as GM in 2019, his hiring of head coach Monty Williams and eventually trading for point guard Chris Paul were some of the more pivotal moves in franchise history.

Prior to the 2019-20 season and Williams’ involvement, Phoenix was coming off four seasons with a combined record of 87-241 (.265). With Williams and Jones aligning on a style of play and type of players who gave the organization a clear basketball culture, Phoenix went 194-115 the next four years.

[Split T]

I’ll wait and see, but I’m not exactly optimistic about this hire. 1 season in the nba and now he’s the GM? I want to know what he did that was so impressive…didn’t do that much for the team seeing as we sucked

[Superbone]

I’ll wait and see, but I’m not exactly optimistic about this hire. 1 season in the nba and now he’s the GM? I want to know what he did that was so impressive…didn’t do that much for the team seeing as we sucked

He's good friends with Ishbia. How is that not enough for you?!

[JeremyG]

I’ll wait and see, but I’m not exactly optimistic about this hire. 1 season in the nba and now he’s the GM? I want to know what he did that was so impressive…didn’t do that much for the team seeing as we sucked

I feel about the same…but to play devil’s advocate: he apparently helped draft/develop Dunn and Ighodaro, and James Jones only had a year in the front office before becoming GM.

[Split T]

I read we hired him June 10th, the draft was June 26th…that doesn’t seem like a lot of time to make the draft decision.

[ShelC]

Optics aren't great here obviously and it's at least concerning heading into a pretty important offseason. And getting rid of Jones, who at least had proper connections and relationships around the league...You'd have to think Bartelstein will be at least as involved in basketball matters as before given his connections.

[TOO]

Optics aren't great here obviously and it's at least concerning heading into a pretty important offseason. And getting rid of Jones, who at least had proper connections and relationships around the league...You'd have to think Bartelstein will be at least as involved in basketball matters as before given his connections.

We don't know how involved he is now, everyone seemed to insinuate it was Jones leading the basketball end, and now it'll be Gregory. They didn't get rid of Jones, they are just moving him to a different spot, I'm sure his connections will be just as useful.

[Mori Chu]

More nepotistic bullshit. Ishbia hiring his friends from Michigan again. Gotta say I'm pretty disappointed with him as owner at this point. We're well on track to be a shitty franchise for the next decade. I hope Seattle gets an NBA team soon.

[ShelC]

Optics aren't great here obviously and it's at least concerning heading into a pretty important offseason. And getting rid of Jones, who at least had proper connections and relationships around the league...You'd have to think Bartelstein will be at least as involved in basketball matters as before given his connections.

We don't know how involved he is now, everyone seemed to insinuate it was Jones leading the basketball end, and now it'll be Gregory. They didn't get rid of Jones, they are just moving him to a different spot, I'm sure his connections will be just as useful.

Jones is out once his contract is up.