The Phoenix Suns promote Brian Gregory to General Manager

[specialsauce]

Fucking clown show

[Split T]

Jones is an advisor…he’s not actually in the front office…he’s gone as soon as he finds another job

[Split T]

Good article on the changes with some info…found this interesting:

As for Rivers, who’s been the Suns’ chief innovation officer since 2023, he’ll now take on “an elevated role leading strategy and innovation across business and basketball operations.” He has over 25 years of experience as a sports executive, including working directly under Sam Presti for 9-10 years in various leadership roles with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

[Superbone]

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.

Even better. Decisive, quick decision maker.

[Superbone]

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.

Wow, holy jump to conclusions, Batman!

[Superbone]

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.

Says who?

[Superbone]

Fucking clown show

This is the kind of immediate reaction I expect from the TikTok generation.

[Superbone]

Jones is an advisor…he’s not actually in the front office…he’s gone as soon as he finds another job

Maybe. We'll see. Sounds like a cushy job to me still with some influence.

[Superbone]

Good article on the changes with some info…found this interesting:

As for Rivers, who’s been the Suns’ chief innovation officer since 2023, he’ll now take on “an elevated role leading strategy and innovation across business and basketball operations.” He has over 25 years of experience as a sports executive, including working directly under Sam Presti for 9-10 years in various leadership roles with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Bourguet nailed it in this first paragraph:

As is always the case with a high-profile job like this, the proof will be in the pudding. Until Brian Gregory starts making moves for the fanbase to judge him by, the perception that Ishbia is an overly involved owner who hired a Michigan State “yes man” as his GM will persist. If Gregory succeeds in this NBA executive role, no one will care about his past coaching history, his limited experience or his long-running connections to Sparty. If he fails, it’s all anyone will talk about, and those concerns will prove to be well-founded.

The first move that Gregory will be judged by is the hiring of a new head coach. That search has officially began in earnest now that the Suns have a GM, and according to a source, they’ll be interviewing around 10-15 candidates before narrowing the field down.

This wide-ranging search, however, is expected to favor a younger, or even a first-time head coaching candidate. The Suns are searching for new blood whose values align with the identity they’re trying to establish. That means that “retreads,” recently available coaches like Mike Brown, or potentially soon-to-be available coaches like Doc Rivers won’t draw consideration in Phoenix.

[JJ Slim]

Senior advisor is just a nice name for being put on administrative leave before you just disappear (officially fired).

[The Bobster]

It's not really that unusual that when a new owner takes over a team he eventually installs his "own guys" to run it, is it?

Yes, there may or may not be some cronyism involved (not nepotism BTW), but we should find out pretty soon because this'll be a busy summer.

[Superbone]

[Split T]

Would you rather have Gregory or Isiah?

[Mori Chu]

Would you rather have Gregory or Isiah?

Isiah is already in Ishbia's ear. He's on the Board of Ishbia's mortgage company, and they've been seen together at multiple NBA games. My guess is we will now have a de facto three-headed GM between Ishbia, Isiah, and Gregory. A GregorIshbiah.

[JeremyG]

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.

Wow, holy jump to conclusions, Batman!

I have to agree with Mori’s reading of the tea leaves. It’s not looking very hopeful.

Like Bickley said, this is the exact situation where you bring in a complete outsider like Bob Myers with an unbiased perspective to fix things, not reward the failures by promoting from within.

[specialsauce]

It's not really that unusual that when a new owner takes over a team he eventually installs his "own guys" to run it, is it?

Yes, there may or may not be some cronyism involved (not nepotism BTW), but we should find out pretty soon because this'll be a busy summer.

It is unusual when it's a dude that is grossly underqualified. There's not another team in the league that would have considered him for their opening

[specialsauce]

Fucking clown show

This is the kind of immediate reaction I expect from the TikTok generation.

how long did it take you to type that sentence old man

[Split T]

We hired a mediocre mid-major college coach with 1 year of FO experience to be our GM. I can’t imagine he has any real connections across the league. The best player he put into the nba was Brian Roberts like 15 years ago. It’s not like he’s some up and coming basketball mind…he’s 58 years old. My only hope is that these other two guys, Oronde and Rivers, who’ve been in nba front offices for 10+ years will do the work. I don’t have high expectations though.

[iLLmatic]

Fucking clown show

This is the kind of immediate reaction I expect from the TikTok generation.

Isn’t sauce like 40 something..? Dudes been on this board for 20 some years lol.

Ishbia has shown to be anything but patient.

[iLLmatic]

Fucking clown show

This is the kind of immediate reaction I expect from the TikTok generation.

how long did it take you to type that sentence old man

Typical boomer not knowing the difference between a millennial and generation z