Things you want the rest of the NBA to know

[blacksun]

Over the years, I’ve always thought that the Suns fanbase is up there being one of the classier fanbases around. However, this five year stretch of being bad has tested our resolve, and shortened our collective fuses when dealing with other people. Given our current state, and the newsworthy approach we took to get here at the bottom, the Phoenix Suns have been talked about around the league more than we’ve been in quite a while. And certainly, people have a lot of things to say about how the Suns, informed, biased, dumb, and anywhere in between. I’d like to ask you guys, what are the things you want the rest of the NBA, or at least to those who are curious enough to visit our board, to know?

Here’s mine.

1. I like Tyson Chandler. I know he would be hard to move if we try. But I’m not even sure we want to. I see what’s going on in Philadelphia now, and what happened here when Dragic left, when the locker room is left with no leaders. Its not a situation I would want on the Suns. Sure, 13M per year for a 33 year old is a lot of money, but we are rebuilding anyway and we wont be needing a ton of capspace for a team having a lot of guys on rookie-scale contracts.

2. Ryan McDonough is alright. Some call him McMiracle, some call him McDontKnow. He has his fair share of doubters around these parts. It terms of his record as GM, its a mixed bag but overall trending towards the positive IMO. I guess the thing that I like about him is that he’s a go-big-or-go-home kind of guy, but never the type to sacrifice the long-term in his pursuits. And with that, I think that he has the support (mostly) of this board going forward.

3. The Suns didn’t do wrong by the Morris twins. The notion that the Suns “betrayed” the twins is asinine. Do a quick skim on this (http://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2016/2/18/11054838/foolishness-timeline-of-morris-destruction-phoenix-suns) from Bright Side and you’ll see that these two were nothing but trouble, and deservedly two of the most hated Suns players of all time. They took a “paycut” to stay together then proceeded **** on everything near them soon after.

4. We’re okay with Jeff Hornacek gone. The cinderella season of ’14 is history. And it may have been an accident. He ended up being fired two years later. Truth is, most of us here were expecting that the Suns wouldn’t resign Hornacek when his contract finishes this summer. I can talk about the X’s and O’s of his firing, but the bottomline is that the players stopped responding to him. He lost the locker room. And the fact is, he is partially responsible for what has happened with the Suns over the last few years. I wish the best for him though. And I hope that his next team would be one with a lot of veterans, where he can be more effective. As for us, we’re happy with the thought of heading into next season with a new coach.

5. We are not in as bad a position as people think. Sure, we suck really bad. But remember that we dont have our top three scorers in Bledsoe, Knight, and Warren. Do that to any .500 team and this is what you’ll get. There are reasons to be optimistic, number one being the departure of the Morris twins. Tales of our GM being insane are exaggerated. And no, we didnt fire the wrong people. We have 10 first round picks in the next 6 years. We have young guys in Len, Warren, Bogdanovic and Booker to be excited about. And we have good veterans leading them in Chandler, Tucker and Bled. Our training staff is still here, though they seem to have tanked the season along with the team. I still think were in a better position than a lot of other teams going forward. The only thing I'm worried about is Robert Sarver, and I’m hoping he sells the team sooner rather than later.

[bwgood77]

I agree with pretty much everything you said. I wouldn't mind Chandler sticking around. I have pointed out what I've liked and not liked about McD, but I'd rather keep him around. As I've mentioned, I like continuity and think it is important, but I do think his communication skills improving would help. I wouldn't mind if his position changed as jcsunsfan mentioned in a thread about McD (he mentioned promotion) and someone mentioned that GS had a bad GM but great talent evaluator, and rather than fire him, they moved him to Director of Player Personnel or something....or maybe scouting, and brought in a new GM, and it worked perfectly.

I'm glad the twins are gone, and we didn't owe them anything.

As for Hornacek, I could have gone either way here. I think things may have started out and gone quite a bit differently without the Morris situation lingering, or especially if we had gotten Aldridge, but constant roster turnover and injuries isn't easy, especially with a team that is full of mostly young and/or journeymen type players. I think he is probably a very smart and good coach that was in a tough situation and had plays break down or dumb mistakes by players exacerbating the problem, and leading to often times head scratching substitutions because of trust, mistakes, or trying to teach with discipline.

Ultimately I'm fine going with someone new but there is no guarantee we hire the right person which could be really bad. I also think, had we kept him, and kept the continuity, by the time our players were ready to compete, we would have had that continuity and chemistry that most good teams and players with experience playing together have. Teams with constant coaching changes rarely, if at all, improve quickly.

As for your last point, I think we are in a good position with picks and for the long term future. I think we are set up to look pretty good in about 4 years. As for now, I don't see us being in a better position than many teams. Brooklyn for sure, but Denver has a bunch of picks, and most of the other young teams have good young talent and/or a high pick this year. I probably like our outlook better than the Lakers, but I'd expect them to make a FA splash within the next couple of years too.

Teams like Dallas or older competitive teams without many young assets we will likely be better than in 2-3 years and inch toward the playoffs, and really compete in that 4-5 year time frame.

If I have anything else to add, besides responding to your post, I'll make sure to do so.

[Mulhollanddrive]

I'm the opposite, I'd rather them know we are dealing with the consequences of bad FO strategy and execution, and want to know how it will be different from now on. Fans aren't the ones in denial.

[saintEscaton]

I don't think many are wasting their breath to acknowledge that the Suns even exist, this team is an invisible shell of its form self

[bwgood77]

Yeah, the rest of the nba, or at least other fans and analysts and many here think McD has made terrible trades and signings at and since the last trade deadline. Our war chest of picks is the best thing to point out. Some think Booker is a nice pick. I don't think anyone outside of Suns fans think much of Warren or Len, if at all.

[bwgood77]

I want them to know we just signed Chase freaking Budinger! Watch out for the Suns!

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/241117/Chase-Budinger-Signs-With-Suns

[Gorilla Warfare]

I want them to know we just signed Chase freaking Budinger! Watch out for the Suns!

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/241117/Chase-Budinger-Signs-With-Suns

POWER MOVE BY THE SUNS.

In all seriousness, I think playing on the Suns will raise his averages and he'll be alright here. Even though I'm an ASU fan I've always hoped for the best with Budinger.