James Jones: Suns have lots of issues, but still early in season
Nov 8, 2018, 7:23 AM
Phoenix Suns Vice President of Basketball Operations James Jones does an interview with The Doug & Wolf Show on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (Matt Layman/Arizona Sports)
(Matt Layman/Arizona Sports)
The Phoenix Suns have a whole lot of problems through 10 games.
After a 104-82 loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday that saw the team booed off the floor, the group’s overall effort is at the top of the list.
Vice president of basketball operations and co-interim general manager James Jones sees it just like everybody else.
“We’re not pleased with the sustained effort,” he told Burns & Gambo on Wednesday. “I thought in spurts we played well but you have to take your hat off to Brooklyn.”
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As far as a solution to the problem, Jones thinks it’s on the players working through it on their own.
“This is an issue that young guys have to fight through,” he said. “I think when the expectation of winning is placed on them and when the fans expect you to play a certain way, you have to settle in and you have to accept that and you have to chase it.”
Jones called the booing by the fans “justified” and sees where the holes are defensively.
“I think overall as a group collectively, we’re just not as active as we need to be,” Jones said. “There’s a lot of space, if you’re looking from a high vantage point, you can see the floor is completely open and we’re just a step slow in our rotations as far as our defensive anticipation.”
When it comes down to how this works itself out, Jones believes there’s time left in the season for his team to figure things out.
“There are a lot of issues but we’re slowly plugging away at it,” he said. “It’s still early in the season and ultimately for us to be able to take a step forward we definitely need our guys on the ball and Deandre (Ayton) to play at a better clip.”
