Kudos to the Phoenix Suns’ front office for making offseason interesting
Jul 2, 2015, 9:48 AM | Updated: Jul 7, 2015, 3:47 pm
I’ve got to give credit where credit is due — I like what the Phoenix Suns have accomplished already this offseason.
I didn’t expect to say that this summer.
Beaten down by a full year of things going awry — the Eric Bledsoe negotiations, the Isaiah Thomas signing, the Goran Dragic saga, etc. — I figured June and July of 2015 would be very low-key for the Suns.
I was wrong. I really like what Phoenix has done and is trying to do.
They severely lacked shooting last season (maybe the first time in team history one could make that claim), so they addressed it in the draft, nabbing 18-year-old guard Devin Booker from Kentucky.
They longed for defensive presence and veteran leadership. They signed former Defensive Player of the Year Tyson Chandler to a four-year deal to provide a lot of both ingredients.
Since the NBA started giving out the DPOY Award in 1983, 20 different players have won it. Do you know how many of those 20 ever wore a Phoenix Suns uniform at any point of their career?
Zero.
Chandler brings a toughness in the middle that Phoenix has lacked for a long time, and he can provide much-needed guidance for young players who need it from a teammate.
Entering this offseason, I did roll my eyes a bit when the Suns announced they’d be aggressive in their pursuit of coveted free-agent forwards Kevin Love and LaMarcus Aldridge.
“Neither one of those guys will come here, but shoot, I guess they’ve got to make their pitch,” I thought.
Love surprised some when he went back to Cleveland on a long-term deal, but as of Thursday, Aldridge is still unsigned. Reports are that Phoenix impressed the former Portland Trail Blazer enough to put them into the “serious contender” category along with the five-time champion San Antonio Spurs.
Should Aldridge choose to play for the Spurs, yeah, it’ll be another gut-punch to Suns fans delivered from an Alamo City fist.
But if he shocks the world and picks Phoenix, it will go down as one of the biggest free-agent signings in franchise history.
You’ve got to admire what general manager Ryan McDonough and the rest of the Suns brass are cooking up this offseason. They recognize the (self-created) problems with the roster, and they’re thinking outside the box to address them.
And that’s what Suns fans needed to see this offseason because, let’s face it, the status quo wasn’t going to cut it.
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