Phoenix Suns put focus where it should be, on the court
Sep 30, 2014, 6:34 PM | Updated: Oct 1, 2014, 12:55 am
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — It’s all about the Xs and Os. No more talk of dollars and cents.
With the Phoenix Suns holding training camp in Flagstaff for the second straight year, the emphasis, the sole emphasis, can now be about how to build upon last season’s success, when they were one of the biggest surprises in the NBA.
The Suns won 48 games. A 23-win increase over the year before, which marked the largest season-to-season turnaround in 2013-14. Unfortunately, it left them one victory shy of qualifying for postseason play.
What followed was the “summer of business” as described by Lon Babby, team president of basketball operations.
Starters Eric Bledsoe (five years, $70 million) and PJ Tucker (three years, $16.5 million) were re-signed, key reserves Marcus (four years, $20 million) and Markieff (four years, $32 million) were locked up and Isaiah Thomas (four years, $27 million) was added to strengthen an already stellar backcourt.
The Bledsoe and Morris deals were reached within a week of the start of camp.
“All of this was designed to make sure we had no distractions and that we were able to move forward from that higher level and give ourselves the best chance of having another great season,” Babby said.
Yes, starter Channing Frye was lost, bolting for Orlando and the lure of a four-year contract worth $32 million. At 31, he was not going to receive the same financial commitment from the Suns, who, after flirting with big-name free agents LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh, turned toward securing the players already on the roster.
“Our core is young, and I feel like the nucleus of the team is sustainable and I feel like we’ll continue to grow together over time,” general manager Ryan McDonough said. “When we were healthy last year, our numbers are pretty good. We do value stability. We don’t want to be a team that turns over the roster every year, especially unnecessarily. We wanted to get our core taken care of and locked up and I feel like we did that.”
The Suns return 10 players, including four starters, three regular rotation pieces plus Archie Goodwin and Alex Len, who each got their feet wet as rookies.
All are in their 20s.
“So if you look at our roster — I think Shavlik (Randolph) is ‘old man river’ as we call him; I think he’s like 30 and then the rest of it is down to a few guys who aren’t old enough to drink yet, right, in Tyler (Ennis) and Archie,” McDonough said. “We have a group that’s not real young, and I think we’re old enough to win, but at the same time I think and I hope that we’re young enough to grow together and develop together over the next five to eight or 10 years.”
And that’s how, from the day he was hired, McDonough said he wanted to construct the Suns, a team that has not made the playoffs since their 2010 run to the Western Conference Finals.
It’s about drafting well and improving internally “rather than just kind of waiting for cap space and hoping lightning strikes and hoping that a great player wants to come here. Because even if you do that,” he said, “if you gut your roster and a great player comes, then you still have to build around him and that takes some time.”