Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 48
  1. #1
    Take the fcking keys away baseline bum's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Post Count
    93,157
    https://sports.yahoo.com/report-phoe...230902081.html
    Report: Phoenix Suns organization is in 'a spiral in almost every way'
    Ryan Young
    Yahoo SportsFeb 27, 2019, 5:09 PM

    The Phoenix Suns have held steady at the bottom of the NBA in recent years, and this season is no exception.

    The Suns currently boast a 12-50 record, by far the worst record in the Western Conference and the worst in the NBA as a whole.

    Apparently, however, the organizations struggles go far beyond any on-court issues. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, speaking on the latest “The Woj Report,” detailed the dysfunction throughout the Suns organization that is reportedly turning heads throughout the entire league.

    “This is an organization that is in a spiral in almost every way,” Wojnarowski said. “It’s a concern for the NBA. Owner Robert Sarver has not seemed to learn a lot of lessons through the years about his management style, his hands-on nature and his ability to put an infrastructure in place and allow it to build an organization.”

    On the surface, that’s a bold statement to make. Claiming that an owner’s leadership is truly that bad that it is causing other prominent leaders in the NBA to have concern isn’t something heard very often.

    However when looking at the Suns’ success, or lack thereof, under Sarver, it’s not that crazy of a statement.

    Sarver bought the Suns in 2004. While they had a good stretch initially — reaching the playoffs consistently behind Steve Nash, Shaquille O’Neal and Amar’e Stoudemire under coach Mike D’Antoni — it’s been rough since. Phoenix has had just one winning season since 2010, and will miss the playoffs this year for the ninth-straight season. They are on their fifth coach since D’Antoni left in 2008, and their third general manager.

    Phoenix haven’t won more than 24 games in a season in the past three years, either, and the team could easily miss that mark again this year with just 20 games left on their schedule.

    They aren’t just consistently losing, however. Phoenix has had ample opportunity to bring in quality players to turn the organization around, yet there has been little-to-no improvement. They had the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NBA draft, the No. 4 pick in both 2016 and 2017, and the No. 13 pick in 2015.

    While James Jones is currently the interim general manager — he replaced Ryan McDonough this year — and can’t be blamed fully for the team’s struggles, it sounds like he isn’t scouting much at all in preparation of having what will likely be an extremely high pick in the 2019 draft.

    “Jones has had a rather unorthodox view toward the NBA draft,” Wojnarowski said. “There’s not a lot of scouting going on in Phoenix. He’s not on the road a lot.

    “I’m told that (Sarver has) considered the idea of hiring a president of basketball operations that would perhaps oversee James Jones. He hasn’t started on interviewing candidates for that, but it certainly is a consideration and probably a pathway to at least get somebody in Phoenix with the experience, the resume, of running an NBA organization, running it successfully.”

    Sarver certainly can turn the Suns around and bring them back to prevalence in the NBA. But that without a doubt starts with hiring a qualified president of basketball operations and making a great selection in the draft this summer. Researching the draft class thoroughly before hand seems like a given.

    If they don’t, however, it could be more of the same in Phoenix next season — and for the foreseeable future.

    “There’s no question from the league office to teams around the league, there’s a lot of raised eyebrows at Phoenix and how they’re operating right now,” Wojnarowski said. “This is another crossroads for Robert Sarver to figure out how to get this team from really a state of disrepair back on the path to relevancy even before they consider the idea of being contenders again.”

  2. #2
    Enemy of the System Millennial_Messiah's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Post Count
    24,579
    James Jones is the general manager and scout no wonder... that guy was a scrub with below average intelligence that was best known for pantyriding contenders from the back of the bench.

    And the author of the article is a dumbass for citing Shaq as the second name after Nash. The heyday of this era was with Nash, Amare, and Marion... not Shaq. Shaq was the beginning of the end of that run. Was always a dumb and weird trade. That said, they probably deserved to win the le in 2007 and got cheated a bit by the league.

  3. #3
    4-25-20 Will Hunting's Avatar
    My Team
    Boston Celtics
    Post Count
    22,310
    James Jones doesn’t have an “unorthodox” approach, he has no approach at all. He’s a lameduck interim GM who’s losing his job so he’s not going to bust his ass doing any work. Sarver having him as an interim GM for this long is inexcusable.

    The Suns have a team to get excited about now, Ayton and Booker are not a bad core to build around at all, the morale of that entire franchise is so low though that talent doesn’t matter. Sarver has run off all the good front office guys they had (David Griffin, Rick Welts, Steve Kerr, etc) and no one wants to work for him anymore.

  4. #4
    non-essential Chris's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Post Count
    39,908
    Pop and Duncan set that organization back decades. Sarver hates Pop for it.

  5. #5
    Take the fcking keys away baseline bum's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Post Count
    93,157
    Pop and Duncan set that organization back decades. Sarver hates Pop for it.
    The Suns could have gotten over that hump but Sarver was so cheap he was just giving away lottery picks. I can't imagine how filthy that Suns team with Joe Johnson, Marion, Stoudemire, and Nash could have been after signing Diaw and with Andre Iguodala as a sixth man. Or even Luol Deng. Most other owners would have gotten that franchise a couple of banners.

  6. #6
    NostraSpurMus phxspurfan's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Post Count
    14,364
    The Suns could have gotten over that hump but Sarver was so cheap he was just giving away lottery picks. I can't imagine how filthy that Suns team with Joe Johnson, Marion, Stoudemire, and Nash could have been after signing Diaw and with Andre Iguodala as a sixth man. Or even Luol Deng. Most other owners would have gotten that franchise a couple of banners.
    They even looked ok when they had the Morris Twins, IT and Dragic. But I think they then fired the coach and traded everyone. They also don’t draft well.

  7. #7
    Veteran
    My Team
    Phoenix Suns
    Post Count
    1,316
    It just gets worse LOL:

    Suns GM James Jones buys fans beer after Josh Jackson skips autograph signing

    https://ftw.usatoday.com/2019/02/jam...n-signing-beer

  8. #8
    non-essential Chris's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Post Count
    39,908
    The Suns could have gotten over that hump but Sarver was so cheap he was just giving away lottery picks. I can't imagine how filthy that Suns team with Joe Johnson, Marion, Stoudemire, and Nash could have been after signing Diaw and with Andre Iguodala as a sixth man. Or even Luol Deng. Most other owners would have gotten that franchise a couple of banners.
    Crazy to think D'Antoni was one Horry hipcheck away from winning a ring.

  9. #9
    Take the fcking keys away baseline bum's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Post Count
    93,157
    Crazy to think D'Antoni was one Horry hipcheck away from winning a ring.
    Big Shot Rob doing the Lord's work

  10. #10
    coffee's for closers FrostKing's Avatar
    My Team
    Chicago Bulls
    Post Count
    17,535
    2007 was a wild Playoff
    - Baby Bulls sweep defending champs
    - 67 win Mavs upset
    - Warriors then meltdown against Utah
    - Jazz reach WCF
    - Cavs kill off Pistons

    Typical becareful what you wish for. All the upsets were memorable but when the dust settled it was a horrific Finale

  11. #11
    non-essential Chris's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Post Count
    39,908
    Big Shot Rob doing the Lord's work
    Doing it the right way, not Zaza Pacheapshot

  12. #12
    Believe. Kobe'sAchilles's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Post Count
    1,130
    I just submitted my resume to be the next GM. You're welcome in advance Sun fans (all 3 of you).

  13. #13
    Take the fcking keys away baseline bum's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Post Count
    93,157
    - Warriors then meltdown against Utah
    Warriors were barely a .500 team. That's what they were supposed to do in the playoffs. Don Nelson coached the series of his life in that first round.

  14. #14
    faggy opinion + certainty Mark Celibate's Avatar
    My Team
    Dallas Mavericks
    Post Count
    4,362
    The Warriors - Jazz series was compe ive from what I remember. The real snoozefest was slow, methodical Utah advancing to play the Spurs team who were just as boring but better in all areas of the game. Seeing the helter skelter Warriors vs San Antonio would've generated tons of ratings

  15. #15
    Take the fcking keys away baseline bum's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Post Count
    93,157
    The Warriors - Jazz series was compe ive from what I remember.
    There was only one game of the series that was decided by single digits (the first game).

  16. #16
    Watching the collapse benefactor's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Post Count
    40,683
    Today I attempted to insert a whole cantaloupe melon into my anus because the local shops had run out of apricots (I buy a lot). Using about a gallon of butter, breathing techniques and a few hours I managed to finally get it inside. However it was too uncomfortable so I tried to it back out. This is where things got confusing because rather than a melon sliding out half a dozen apricots did. Now there is a chance that I just blacked out upon excreting the cantaloupe and it rolled away somewhere and that I happened to have a dozen or so left over apricots lying around my rectum from earlier but I cannot for the life of me find the melon anywhere. I think I may have the power to anally turn melons into apricots. Further experimentation will be required of course (once my rectum has recovered) but if this turns out to be true then I may be able to solve world hunger.

  17. #17
    4-25-20 Will Hunting's Avatar
    My Team
    Boston Celtics
    Post Count
    22,310
    The Suns could have gotten over that hump but Sarver was so cheap he was just giving away lottery picks. I can't imagine how filthy that Suns team with Joe Johnson, Marion, Stoudemire, and Nash could have been after signing Diaw and with Andre Iguodala as a sixth man. Or even Luol Deng. Most other owners would have gotten that franchise a couple of banners.
    Would have never had Diaw with Joe Johnson - they got him in the Joe Johnson trade.

    The dumbest part of them selling the 7th overall pick in 2004 was that D'antoni gave the go ahead to sell it because he didn't think Iguodala would be available by that pick and sure enough he was available.

    D'antoni had the most re ed draft philosophy ever. He had a short list of 2-4 players he wanted and if they weren't there by the time it was their turn to pick, he told Sarver that he was fine with the pick being sold.

    The 05 Suns with Iggy probably still lose to the 05 Spurs (maybe the most stacked Spurs team of all time, made it through the playoffs with Duncan playing on a bum ankle), but the 07 Suns with Joe Johnson and Iggy would have run over the league.

  18. #18
    Take the fcking keys away baseline bum's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Post Count
    93,157
    Would have never had Diaw with Joe Johnson - they got him in the Joe Johnson trade.

    The dumbest part of them selling the 7th overall pick in 2004 was that D'antoni gave the go ahead to sell it because he didn't think Iguodala would be available by that pick and sure enough he was available.

    D'antoni had the most re ed draft philosophy ever. He had a short list of 2-4 players he wanted and if they weren't there by the time it was their turn to pick, he told Sarver that he was fine with the pick being sold.

    The 05 Suns with Iggy probably still lose to the 05 Spurs (maybe the most stacked Spurs team of all time, made it through the playoffs with Duncan playing on a bum ankle), but the 07 Suns with Joe Johnson and Iggy would have run over the league.
    , forgot about that. I thought he was a FA signing. LMAO @ Pringles. I always thought selling off the Iguodala pick was all Sarver. Yeah the 07 team with Johnson+Iguodala would have easily rang and no way they wouldn't have gotten at least one more in 2008 through 2010.

  19. #19
    4-25-20 Will Hunting's Avatar
    My Team
    Boston Celtics
    Post Count
    22,310
    , forgot about that. I thought he was a FA signing. LMAO @ Pringles. I always thought selling off the Iguodala pick was all Sarver. Yeah the 07 team with Johnson+Iguodala would have easily rang and no way they wouldn't have gotten at least one more in 2008 through 2010.
    The pick selling was half Pringles / half Sarver. Sarver was always looking for ways to cut costs and D'antoni believed that selling draft picks was the best way to do it. Sarver's fault for being cheap and D'antoni's fault for having an idiotic philosophy that draft picks (the things that lead to having talented players on cheap rookie deals) were the best way to cut costs.

  20. #20
    NostraSpurMus phxspurfan's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Post Count
    14,364
    , forgot about that. I thought he was a FA signing. LMAO @ Pringles. I always thought selling off the Iguodala pick was all Sarver. Yeah the 07 team with Johnson+Iguodala would have easily rang and no way they wouldn't have gotten at least one more in 2008 through 2010.
    07 Spurs and Mavs both were really good too.

  21. #21
    6X ST MVP
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Post Count
    81,091
    Suns #1 overall pick was not a bust (though they were stupid to not get Doncic). That's the win they wanted this season, tbh. They just get another great pick upcoming, too.

  22. #22
    NostraSpurMus phxspurfan's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Post Count
    14,364
    Suns #1 overall pick was not a bust (though they were stupid to not get Doncic). That's the win they wanted this season, tbh. They just get another great pick upcoming, too.
    I actually didn't agree that Ayton was the best consensus #1 last year. I'm not a scout of course, but to me, in Today's NBA a player like Doncic would have a much higher ceiling than a big lumbering center. I think teams get caught up in pre-draft rankings and believe scouts too much, making guys like Darko Milicic etc high picks based on scout opinions and group think, versus their own assessments (of course they evaluate players themselves, but those evaluations seem to lead toward group think as well).


    https://www.nbadraft.net/nba_final_draft/2018


    TBH without even looking at stats, I'd say for Today's wing-happy NBA, a player like JJ Jr. would be higher than Ayton in terms of potential (if he could turn into a PG13/LeBron/KD type of player, that would be more valuable than if Ayton could turn into an Embiid/Towns). Doncic (disregarding what we already see from stats/his play time in the NBA), would still be a risk, since he is coming from European leagues, which have produced a number of busts.

    Even a player like Mo Bamba, or Trae Young, seems better fitted for Today's NBA than Ayton. These types of players can't be chased off the court by an opposing coach going with small ball.

  23. #23
    Veteran
    My Team
    Dallas Mavericks
    Post Count
    14,539
    07 Spurs and Mavs both were really good too.
    Looking back, 07 Mavs are probably the worst team ever to win 65+ games in regular season.

  24. #24
    Body Of Work Mr. Body's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Post Count
    25,515
    Booker is trash. Massive mistake giving him that money.

  25. #25
    NostraSpurMus phxspurfan's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Post Count
    14,364
    Looking back, 07 Mavs are probably the worst team ever to win 65+ games in regular season.
    Not sure I agree... they had some good players at or near their prime:

    https://www.basketball-reference.com.../DAL/2007.html

    Dirk
    Stackhouse
    Jet Terry
    Dampier
    Devin Harris
    Josh Howard (during the 2 years he was good)

    solid role players

    Diop
    Croshere
    Devin George
    Buckner
    JJ Barea


    scrubs

    DJ Mbenga
    Kevin Willis
    Anthony Johnson
    Pops Mensah Bonsu



    I'd say in 2006-07, with Prime Dirk, that was a good team offensively and defensively. They had Dirk who was unguardable bc he had the 3ball and a midrange game + refs' respect, and had learned to post up those midgets (what Sir Charles was telling him to do after Spurs kept using Bowen to guard him). They also had Devin Harris, the Tony Parker kryptonite, and Josh Howard, who would put in good 3rd banana numbers (15 or so points, some rebounds), and Erica Dampier with the boards and blocks. Stackhouse was getting old but could still put up a decent game once in awhile IIRC. And Terry/Barea were just nuisances, which all championship teams need.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •