Babby wants to know, are you falling in love with this team?

[WhamBamSlamm]

From an article dated 10/27

“The franchise has not made it to the postseason during the duo’s two-year tenure in Phoenix, but the organization’s two architects are admittedly anxious and excited with where the team sits just days before its season opener against Golden State on Wednesday.

Call it misguided optimism or admirable hubris, but from where they sit, things for lack of a better word are sunny heading into 2012-13.

"I am confident this group will make fans fall in love with the franchise again," Babby said. "It’s a bright, sunny day in Phoenix."
…
For the first time, this team is completely the brainchild of Babby and Blanks. And trust me, the two of them are more than aware of that fact.

"I really like this group," said Babby. "That isn’t two saying anything bad about what we’ve had here previously, but we selected these guys. However they got here it’s because this front office brought them here. We take responsibility for that.
…
"When you look at our roster, all of our bases are covered," said Blanks. "We have seasoned veterans in Jermaine O’Neal and Luis Scola. We have young veterans trending upwards in Goran Dragic and Michael Beasley. So, we have that middle area covered. We have even younger guys in the league who have only been around for a year or two. Guys like Markieff Morris and P.J. Tucker, who are showing a lot of promise and potential. And we also have succession planning, which would be guys like Luke Zeller and Diante Garrett. Almost like having a farm team within your organization."

While Blanks made sure to highlight the roster as it currently stands, if the perceived sense of optimism within the organization is going to be maintained from October through April, it starts and really ends with Michael Beasley.
…
"I have to be careful, and I don’t say this figuratively, but I love the guy," Blanks said. "He is a great, great kid. I enjoy being around him. We spend random time together, going to games or doing whatever.
…
"There is no better opportunity for Michael Beasley, because he has people here who want him to succeed and help him," said Babby. "We all are invested in him, but particularly Lance is, and Alvin is as well. He knows it’s his best chance at success."

So are you, like Lon Babby thought, falling in love with this team?

http://valleyofthesuns.com/2012/10/27/m ... z2H4NWIi9Z

[Dragic13]

Dragic/Telfair/Garrett
Tucker
Dudley
Scola
Gortat

Thats what I like atm.

What we need is a star SG and Tucker should be the fire off our bench.

What I dont Like:

Gentry
Brown
Beasley

Players that dont Matter:

O'Neal
Frye
Zeller
Johnson

Questionable players:

Marshall
Morris


To bad this isnt the roster to a bright future....So to answer your question, No.

[phrazbit]

That should be read allowed to open the press conference after they are both fired.

I do like what Babby said at the end, basically "Hey everyone, Beasley was Blanks idea, dont blame me!"

[phrazbit]

Also, use this article as a reference for anyone who does not think that Beasley's continued presence in the rotation has a LOT to do with front office mandates.

[RunDogGun]

Also, use this article as a reference for anyone who does not think that Beasley's continued presence in the rotation has a LOT to do with front office mandates.

Yep, no GM has ever talked up a FA signing.

But I think you are right. The other night I saw Gentry with his hand up to his ear and then quickly put Beasley in the game. Maybe we can blame the horrid offensive sets and terrible out of bounds plays on Blabby as well. WTH do we even have a coach then. We could just have Blabby mandate who plays and when. Heck they could do that from home, and just phone that chit in.

It's very tough to read between the lines, and use that as support for your premise. It wouldn't hold up in any argument.

[phrazbit]

Also, use this article as a reference for anyone who does not think that Beasley's continued presence in the rotation has a LOT to do with front office mandates.

Yep, no GM has ever talked up a FA signing.

But I think you are right. The other night I saw Gentry with his hand up to his ear and then quickly put Beasley in the game. Maybe we can blame the horrid offensive sets and terrible out of bounds plays on Blabby as well. WTH do we even have a coach then. We could just have Blabby mandate who plays and when. Heck they could do that from home, and just phone that chit in.

It's very tough to read between the lines, and use that as support for your premise. It wouldn't hold up in any argument.

If you dont think that the front office can have a lot of influence over who gets featured and who does not then you're kidding yourself. There is no other reason Beasley is still getting to dress before games other than the front office being desperate for a return on their f-ing stupid investment. They spoke endlessly about Beasley, he was the largest face on their marketing campaign, the only guy who gets mentioned by name in their stupid "ALL FOR ORNG" ads... if you dont think his PT (even what little is left at this point) has a LOT to do with organization hopes for him then you are nuts.

[sunskerr]

Like:
Dragic/Sebastian Telfair
Tucker
Dudley
Scola/Markieff Morris
Gortat

Eh...:
Coach Gentry
O'Neal
Wes Johnson
Kendall Marshall
Channing Frye

The pits:
Shannon Brown
Michael Beasley (still I hope he succeeds)

Probably aint gonna be here next year anyway:
L. Zeller
Garrett

[RunDogGun]

If you dont think that the front office can have a lot of influence over who gets featured and who does not then you're kidding yourself. There is no other reason Beasley is still getting to dress before games other than the front office being desperate for a return on their f-ing stupid investment. They spoke endlessly about Beasley, he was the largest face on their marketing campaign, the only guy who gets mentioned by name in their stupid "ALL FOR ORNG" ads... if you dont think his PT (even what little is left at this point) has a LOT to do with organization hopes for him then you are nuts.

Wow, so much here. "No other reason"? There could be a bunch of other reasons. I still don't see why Blabby would be dictating when Beasley plays, and how the game would play through him. And why would they want Gentry to showcase him, when he was playing so poorly? To prove that they made a bad choice? They put more money into Goran. The only way I think your idea would be true, is if Blabby purposely wanted to make Gentry look bad, so they could fire him, but he would have been fired by now, because he himself has cost us many games this year (and the past two seasons as well.)

I'm nuts? You have absolutely no proof to this premise, and I'm nuts? Sure they had hopes for him, heck we all did. And he sure did sound like a changed man before the season started. Gentry has been making the substitutions. He has been choosing who and when. It's just a matter of time before you finally see how bad of a coach Gentry is.

However, none of this explains Gentry's poor rotations, terrible timeouts, horrid offensive sets, complete lack of plays, inept plays after timeouts, huge stretches where Gentry allows us to score very little points over stretches, allowing opposing teams to go on huge runs with no changes, allowing players to be chuckers and tons of one on one plays, and the list could go on and on. The worst for me was watching Gentry play our bench when Miami had in almost all of their starters in. Playing a whole bench squad with this "lack of talent" team is all on him. Yet many of you give him a pass, why?

When he took over for Porter, all he did was let Nash and Hill run the team. Now he doesn't have them, and now we get to see how well he coaches. We were in this game tonight, and the team looked like they didn't care.

[mybloodisorange]

He has to say things like that...thats just business. Did you really expect him to say that they have assembled a cheap roster filled with roleplayers to retain cap flexibility for next years FA market? That we have no stars or any real hope of winning but boy does next years draft looks good?

The quote is meaningless PR; I think its pretty obvious that we are in tank mode as year 1 of a 3 year rebuild project. The most exciting part of this season will be when it ends so we can watch the real action in the draft and free agency.

[TASTIC]

I'm becoming less and less interested in reading about this team, until they front up and do something intelligent that shows business smarts and an eye to the future, this team is circling the bathtub as another season goes down the hole...

Move Gortat + Beasley to PHI for Bynum
Move Brown + Marshall to MEM for Wroten

I have no idea what their thought pattern is, but mediocrity and getting 'nearly there' is NOT good enough

[TruthTelling]

Don't like anything in particular on this team.

Treadmill, where is the young exciting prospect a fan can root for and see develop?

Team is still boring, old as dirt and simply not talent. For all the talk of being younger we are still actually one of the 10 oldest teams in the NBA.

[Biff]

What is there to love about a team that will pick in the middle/late lottery that is one of the top 10 oldest teams in the league? I haven't watched more than a few minutes of any game this season. Hell, I live within a stone's throw from the arena and would have no interest in going to a game even if they were giving away tickets. One of the off season highlights was signing Michael Beasley, a signing that I was 100% against because I knew he'd end up exactly where he is now. The dude is a complete bum. Dragic was a decent pickup, but he hasn't been nearly as good as everyone was expecting. Morris has shown little improvement. Gortat is a good trade piece. Scola is his same inconsistent self. He'll give you 30 points one night and 4 the next two games. Dudley has been about the same. Tucker has been a reasonably nice surprise, but nothing to get excited about. O'neal has been better than expected but he is on his way out of the league. I'd rather we start tanking and get some decent draft picks. I don't see anyone of consequence signing here while Sarver owns the team.

[mybloodisorange]

um...we are tanking. Thats why we suck so bad.

Guys the front office is executing a textbook rebuild; I dont know why everyone is so crazy that this year sucks. Rebuilding takes time.

[lebronjames6]

Rebuilding teams don't add garbage players via FA(Beasley, Brown, O'neal). They play draft picks and trade anyone with some type of value for more youth(Gortat, Dudley). As much as I enjoy watching Dragic, you don't even make that move in a rebuilding situation. For some reason this FO/Sarver thought this team can actually make the playoffs this season. Clueless if you ask me or anyone else for that matter.

[TruthTelling]

um...we are tanking. Thats why we suck so bad.

Guys the front office is executing a textbook rebuild; I dont know why everyone is so crazy that this year sucks. Rebuilding takes time.

we are not tanking, the FO thinks our roster is good enough to be a playoff team

[YFZblu]

"When you look at our roster, all of our bases are covered"

Dear lord. I don't think that word means what you think it means...

[mybloodisorange]

um...we are tanking. Thats why we suck so bad.

Guys the front office is executing a textbook rebuild; I dont know why everyone is so crazy that this year sucks. Rebuilding takes time.

we are not tanking, the FO thinks our roster is good enough to be a playoff team

No, they dont. But when its your job to sell a product that sucks you cant talk about how bad it sucks. Marketing 101.

Anyone who thinks the Suns are trying to win now and arent rebuilding has no idea what the business of basketball is about.

[Dragic13]

My problem is what like others have stated: Our FO isnt in a complete rebuild. They are delusional and see themselves as a playoff team. You think losing games is the work of our FO? Thats just our team being bad. They tried to put the pieces together to contend for that 8th spot this year. When they come up short of the playoffs this year I bet they make terrible choices like they do every year to try to contend for the 8th seed in 2014.

[TASTIC]

None of this half-arsed rebuilding then, slash and burn like when they shipped out penny and Marbury etc

Move players who have young asset/pick value and acquire pieces, don't strive for the 8 seed like its a genuine achievement for such a storied franchise...

[RunDogGun]

Not many teams can rebuild in an offseason, and even two to three years is tough. I thought we did acquire good pieces this past offseason save Brown and Beasley. We picked up multiple draft picks. We have three first rounders for this upcoming draft and what appears to be a decent second rounder as well. We have ten total draft picks for the next three years.

Goran is a tradable asset if needed, and Dudley being on such a great contract, is always a good trade chip. The real issue with going the draft route is our inability to choose the right guy at our draft pick. We have either flat out taken the wrong guy, drafted for need (and usually a backup need), or drafted a guy way too early. Our scouting staff needs to be working overtime, and/or add more guys to that staff to find the guys needed at the right space. In fact, some guys in the league are doing quite well even undrafted. Minny has two guys playing very well, who were undrafted (Shved and Barea).

I'm not too upset about the players. Beasley is really the only contract that is bad at the moment, and it isn't a killer. If Frye can't return, I'm sure we can get out of that contract, or have the insurance pay for most if not all of it. Scola is on an incredible deal for what he can produce, even at an older age, so after this season, he could be delt for some younger assets. Telfair is gone after this year, and either we keep Johnson at a really cheap price, or we let him walk. Brown we waive, and more than likely we resign Gortat, or sign and trade him for assets.

Overall, we have workable deals, and a ton of draft picks. It's now up to our scout staff to find the right guys for this team. Maybe we cab get Los Solos on the payroll to moneyball a contender.