Phoenix Suns acquiring assets while producing a ‘great product’
Jul 17, 2014, 5:54 PM | Updated: 5:54 pm
The Phoenix Suns’ offseason has been quiet, at least considering how much cap space and assets they entered the period with.
Armed with three first-round draft picks, they selected North Carolina State scorer T.J. Warren, Syracuse point guard Tyler Ennis and Serbian swingman Bogdan Bogdanovic.
Flush with cap space, the team has thus far re-signed P.J. Tucker and added point guard Isaiah Thomas and forward Anthony Tolliver, while losing forward Channing Frye and waiving guard Ish Smith.
They swung and missed on LeBron James and apparently also made a run at Chris Bosh, but were unable to convince either to come to the desert.
All that makes for a disappointing summer, right? Not exactly.
According to ESPN.com’s Kevin Arnovitz, the buzz around the Las Vegas Summer League has been that the Suns have had a successful offseason.
It’s rare to sit with a team strategist or scout without a reference to the San Antonio Spurs as the model, which has been the case each of the past three summers. So let’s set them aside, because this is the closest subjective opinion to empirical fact.
More than a couple insiders cited the Phoenix Suns as a managerial success. “They keep acquiring high-value assets,” said one general manger, “But the big thing is that they’re putting a great product on the floor while they do it. A lot of people in our business forget that part of the job.”
The Suns still have to come to a resolution with restricted free agent Eric Bledsoe, and given that they still have plenty of draft picks and cap space may not be quite done making moves.
But if they are, it would seem the team that surprised the NBA by winning 48 games last season is still very much on the path that had people excited about them to begin with.
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