Remember Lance Blanks

bigfoot · Post #1 » by **bigfoot** » Sun Mar 30, 2014 2:30 am

I remember last year as the season wound down there was a lot of hating on Blanks. Here's where I think the responsibility lies for some of the recent Suns decisions

Robert Sarver
Hiring Ryan McD
Signing Dragic
Signing Frye

Lance Blanks
Markieff Morris
Marcus Morris
PJ Tucker
Lower of Miami/Lakers 2013 1st round pick (Nash trade netted Archie Goodwin)
Lakers 2015 1st round pick (Nash trade)
Minny 1st round pick (Lopez trade)

Ryan McD
Gerald Green
Miles Plumlee
Eric Bledsoe
Indy 2014 1st round pick
Washington 2014 1st round pick
Hiring Horny

Really, how bad was Lance? Obviously bad choices on Hunter and Beasley. Still a lot of our success this year and in the future can be attributed to him. Thoughts?

SDC · Post #2 » by **SDC** » Sun Mar 30, 2014 2:41 am

lance is bad, but not that bad. mcdo is overrated.

Big NBA Fan · Post #3 » by **Big NBA Fan** » Sun Mar 30, 2014 2:54 am

Sarver said that one of Blanks' main strengths was the draft.

Markieff has turned into a really good player, Marcus is solid, and Kendall Marshall is averaging 9 assists a game for the Lakers.

His main problem was he was a poor communicator.

DRK · Post #4 » by **DRK** » Sun Mar 30, 2014 4:53 am

Well he also traded Dragic and a 1st for Brooks, which probably was one of the most terrible trades Ive seen in a while.

Revived · Post #5 » by **Revived** » Sun Mar 30, 2014 6:17 am

Lance gets too much hate imo.

He was the one responsible for trading Turkoglu and Richardson into Gortat & a 1st rd pick.

There aren't many GMs in this league who could turn a bad contract & borderline starter into a franchise C who is on a very team friendly contract & in his prime.

DirtyDez · Post #6 » by **DirtyDez** » Sun Mar 30, 2014 6:31 am

Lance butchered the HC position his entire time here. He and Gentry didn't even talk for like 2 months. I think Lance had talent but he's not a people person. Better served as a scout or FO personal but not GM.

phx#7 · Post #7 » by **phx#7** » Sun Mar 30, 2014 8:18 am

Unreal how anyone could even attempt to defend Blanks he an absolute train wreck. His job was talent evaluation and he was terrible. In 3 years his best move was bringing in a good role player on a minimum contract, not what I'd want from the top decision maker.

Jdiddy701 · Post #8 » by **Jdiddy701** » Sun Mar 30, 2014 8:54 am

Let's not forget those three players are playing well due to Hornacek (Tucker, Marcus, Markieff).

NaturalBuns · Post #9 » by **NaturalBuns** » Sun Mar 30, 2014 9:02 am

phx#7 wrote:Unreal how anyone could even attempt to defend Blanks he an absolute train wreck. His job was talent evaluation and he was terrible. In 3 years his best move was bringing in a good role player on a minimum contract, not what I'd want from the top decision maker.

He wasn't that bad..
He came into it with Hedu, Childress, warrick contract.
It was a mess...

Like the OP mentioned
Markieff (drafted)
Marcus (traded)
PJ tucker (FA)
Cashed in on Nash at the perfect time (screwed LA)
Traded Lopez for a 1st round pick.
He also flipped Hedu and jrich for Vince carter, Gortat and a 1st
For what it's worth Kendall Marshall is not the scrub we thought.

Almost any GM was gonna be setup to fail
Once Nash leaves your pressured to bring something in to sell..
That was EG, Beasley, Dragic.

And I thought Beasley was babbys guy.
And dragic was sarvers.

What he failed todo was get a coach.
But even that you should get a pass gentry was fired 30 or so games in you can't really replace a coach at that point until the offseason. It would be like the lakers firing dantoni like 2 months ago.
The results would be the same.. Do you fire Mitch? You have to go into the offseason to see what coaches are available.

I'm not defending or supporting blanks I'm just being reasonable.
McD is the man from now on

bigfoot · Post #10 » by **bigfoot** » Sun Mar 30, 2014 1:00 pm

Big NBA Fan wrote:Sarver said that one of Blanks' main strengths was the draft.

Markieff has turned into a really good player, Marcus is solid, and Kendall Marshall is averaging 9 assists a game for the Lakers.

His main problem was he was a poor communicator.

Yeah he could never connect with the fans. McD is really good at communication. So is Horny. I think that's what helps builds the culture for awesome team chemistry.

bigfoot · Post #11 » by **bigfoot** » Sun Mar 30, 2014 1:09 pm

phx#7 wrote:Unreal how anyone could even attempt to defend Blanks he an absolute train wreck. His job was talent evaluation and he was terrible. In 3 years his best move was bringing in a good role player on a minimum contract, not what I'd want from the top decision maker.

Unreal how anyone can't take a step back and look at a situation from a fresh perspective. I'm not saying Blanks was a great GM or even good. I'm glad he is gone. But your unwillingless to even think about the situation for a moment in regards to some of the basketball decisions he made makes me think your depth of thought is restricted to one-liners thrown out by Colbert.

GameSe7en · Post #12 » by **GameSe7en** » Sun Mar 30, 2014 1:26 pm

How could McD be over-rated? He hasn't even got one season under his belt yet. Fans are just being optimistic and he's done a decent job so far considering.

Frank Lee · Post #13 » by **Frank Lee** » Sun Mar 30, 2014 1:45 pm

Lance who ?

Thats where I stand.

Sunsdeuce · Post #14 » by **Sunsdeuce** » Sun Mar 30, 2014 3:04 pm

bigfoot wrote:I remember last year as the season wound down there was a lot of hating on Blanks. Here's where I think the responsibility lies for some of the recent Suns decisions

Lance Blanks
Markieff Morris
Marcus Morris
PJ Tucker
Lower of Miami/Lakers 2013 1st round pick (Nash trade netted Archie Goodwin)
Lakers 2015 1st round pick (Nash trade)
Minny 1st round pick (Lopez trade)

Really, how bad was Lance? Obviously bad choices on Hunter and Beasley. Still a lot of our success this year and in the future can be attributed to him. Thoughts?

You are giving blanks too much credit.

Nash forced his way to the lakers.
Ryan Mcd had to make a trade to net Archie.
Lopez was a free agent and didn't want to come back.
Marcus was basically given away.
#17 was out off the league for years. Plus he isn't a star.
Traded dragic PLUS a first for brooks. I mean come on.
Signed Beasley!
Drafted Kendall Marshall. Who is still terrible (read the lakers board)
Wanted Raymond Felton over dragic but was overruled by sarver.
Backdoored dan majerle and put hunter in charge.
Almost signed Eric Gordon too a max deal. Thankful his current team saved us from ourselves.

So yes he was terrible.

phx#7 · Post #15 » by **phx#7** » Sun Mar 30, 2014 3:10 pm

NaturalBuns wrote:
phx#7 wrote:Unreal how anyone could even attempt to defend Blanks he an absolute train wreck. His job was talent evaluation and he was terrible. In 3 years his best move was bringing in a good role player on a minimum contract, not what I'd want from the top decision maker.

He wasn't that bad..
He came into it with Hedu, Childress, warrick contract.
It was a mess...

Like the OP mentioned
Markieff (drafted)
Marcus (traded)
PJ tucker (FA)
Cashed in on Nash at the perfect time (screwed LA)
Traded Lopez for a 1st round pick.
He also flipped Hedu and jrich for Vince carter, Gortat and a 1st
For what it's worth Kendall Marshall is not the scrub we thought.

Almost any GM was gonna be setup to fail
Once Nash leaves your pressured to bring something in to sell..
That was EG, Beasley, Dragic.

And I thought Beasley was babbys guy.
And dragic was sarvers.

The Suns have billed their front office as a collaborative effort and Blanks' role was to be the talent evaluator and Babby handles negotiations. Based on what was reported at the time in addition to signing Beasley and Gordon he wanted Felton over Dragic, just think of where the Suns would be had he not been overruled by Sarver and matched by New Orleans.

It's not just the moves he made while with the Suns either, his fingerprints were on a dubious Cavs front office as well.

Sunsdeuce · Post #16 » by **Sunsdeuce** » Sun Mar 30, 2014 3:20 pm

Jdiddy701 wrote:Let's not forget those three players are playing well due to Hornacek (Tucker, Marcus, Markieff).

Bingo.

JDLAW · Post #17 » by **JDLAW** » Sun Mar 30, 2014 6:14 pm

Blanks was an awful GM. He gambled too much and his eye for talent was mediocre.

Blanks had nothing to do with the Nash trade to LA. Neither Blanks not Babby wanted Nash In LA they wanted him in the EC. Nash's personal appeal to Sarver convinced Sarver to let him go to LA and Babby negotiated the deal.

On two occasions, Blanks wanted to trade a 1st for Marcus Morris. Babby and Sarver vetoed the trade. Marcus became available later for a 2nd and was allowed to make the trade.

Blanks, for some reason, wanted nothing to do with Dragic. He traded him along with a 1st and for Brooks and then had to be over ruled when he wanted to bring in Felton.

He took extreme risks with Beasley and Gordon.

I so not know who was responsible for Lopez, but the combination of Babby and Blanks botched this up fairly significantly.

The promotion of Hunter was a disaster and it was all on Blanks and was probably the last straw.

Marshall is an enigma and probably destined to be a low ceiling back-up and occasional starter. He was not even astute enough to listen to his fellow idiot Chad Ford who said Marshall was drafted about 15 positions too high.

As for Tucker, don't give Blanks too much credit for this. Tucker was roster filler for the Summer League. Majerle was the one that pushed for him to be on the roster after Tucker's summer league play.

Blanks was also the one that brought in the least talented Zeller brother and proclaimed him to be one of the best shooters in the league.

NaturalBuns · Post #18 » by **NaturalBuns** » Sun Mar 30, 2014 6:46 pm

phx#7 wrote:
NaturalBuns wrote:
phx#7 wrote:Unreal how anyone could even attempt to defend Blanks he an absolute train wreck. His job was talent evaluation and he was terrible. In 3 years his best move was bringing in a good role player on a minimum contract, not what I'd want from the top decision maker.

He wasn't that bad..
He came into it with Hedu, Childress, warrick contract.
It was a mess...

Like the OP mentioned
Markieff (drafted)
Marcus (traded)
PJ tucker (FA)
Cashed in on Nash at the perfect time (screwed LA)
Traded Lopez for a 1st round pick.
He also flipped Hedu and jrich for Vince carter, Gortat and a 1st
For what it's worth Kendall Marshall is not the scrub we thought.

Almost any GM was gonna be setup to fail
Once Nash leaves your pressured to bring something in to sell..
That was EG, Beasley, Dragic.

And I thought Beasley was babbys guy.
And dragic was sarvers.

The Suns have billed their front office as a collaborative effort and Blanks' role was to be the talent evaluator and Babby handles negotiations. Based on what was reported at the time in addition to signing Beasley and Gordon he wanted Felton over Dragic, just think of where the Suns would be had he not been overruled by Sarver and matched by New Orleans.

It's not just the moves he made while with the Suns either, his fingerprints were on a dubious Cavs front office as well.

Babby used to be Beasley agent. It was his guy he brought him in.
I never heard about Felton to phx..

gaspar · Post #19 » by **gaspar** » Sun Mar 30, 2014 6:54 pm

NaturalBuns wrote:Babby used to be Beasley agent. It was his guy he brought him in.

Nope.

NaturalBuns wrote:I never heard about Felton to phx..

Just ask Amin Elhassan on twitter.

NaturalBuns · Post #20 » by **NaturalBuns** » Sun Mar 30, 2014 7:01 pm

gaspar wrote:
NaturalBuns wrote:Babby used to be Beasley agent. It was his guy he brought him in.

Nope.

NaturalBuns wrote:I never heard about Felton to phx..

Just ask Amin Elhassan on twitter.

Lol babby use to represent Beasley In the early yrs..
He convinced sarver just google it can probably pull up 100 articles of him being a agent