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Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives... as Suns fans.
Every year, new storylines, but same level of drama.
One of the league’s laughingstocks has handed over one more joke for comedians to consume, shape and regurgitate to their hearts’ content.
Nine days before the start of the 2018-19 season, after watching a grand total of three preseason games, the Suns’ owner decided to fire his General Manager, Assistant General Manager and Head Scout for putting together such a bad-looking team. They’d gone 1-2, the only win coming over a team from New Zealand who shouldn’t have been able to make it a competitive game. Recent top-four draft picks Josh Jackson and Dragan Bender have been awful, the entire point guard rotation a mess. Veteran signings appeared to have little effect on the on court product.
Was the firing the right move to make?
Yes.
Was it the right time to make that move?
No.
Hell no.
Not even close to being a kinda-no.
Just hell no.
You’ve already let that front office hire the new coach and coaching staff (their THIRD chance, and fifth total under McDonough), draft the players (including the No. 1 overall pick), sign the free agents (including giving a max contract extension to Devin Booker) and make the trades to shape this roster and playing style. All of them are on guaranteed contracts. Most of them are long-term. Almost none of them can go anywhere soon.
So NOW you fire the crew, after all the money has been spent and the roster is (almost entirely) constructed?
Why now? Why today?
Some final straw must have broken the camel’s back.
What was that straw? The fact that they STILL have not acquired a starting-caliber point guard?
Ryan McDonough admitted six months ago he needed a point guard for next year’s team. He said it again in June. And again in July. And again in August.
No moves have been made.
Now, it’s all in James Jones’ hands.
Jones was hired a year ago as a Vice President of Basketball Operations to join the front office as a new voice, and it turns out suspicions were correct. Jones is now the decision-maker and will have to make all the moves going forward.
My guess is that Jones will keep the job all year after making a trade for a point guard in the coming days, if only to slap some lipstick on that pig.
Which point guard, and for what booty, is the question of the day.
There HAD to have been disagreement with how trade discussions were unfolding, and there HAD to have been a convincing argument made by Jones that someone else could negotiate better than McDonough.
What kind of point guard will Jones acquire? A veteran stabilizer like Patrick Beverley? Or a young potential stud who’s lost his minutes in his current situation (Spencer Dinwiddie, Tyus Jones)?
Whoever the Suns acquire, we can likely assume it will be a different point guard than McDonough would have acquired.
It’s on you, James Jones.
Make it happen. Make SOMETHING happen.