Media day: The Suns’ asset acquisition phase is over
PHOENIX — The Suns began throwing around “asset acquisition” as a phrase to define their stage of rebuilding more than two years ago, just after the franchise allowed its cornerstone, Steve Nash, to book a flight to Los Angeles. General manager Ryan McDonough took over to punch the asset acquisition process into overdrive last summer, and as quick as a Goran Dragic one-man fastbreak, the phase (and the phrase) appears to be over.
Call this next phase (and phrase) asset retention.
Phoenix followed up handing Eric Bledsoe a five-year contract by extending Markieff and Marcus Morris through the 2018-19 season on Monday, the team’s media day. The decision effectively ends the Suns’ rebuilding phase and marks the point which says this core can grow into a contender.
“Our core is young and I feel like the nucleus of the team is sustainable,” McDonough said at the team’s media day. “We do value stability. We don’t want to be a team that turns the roster over every year, especially unnecessarily.”
Then it must be questioned why the Suns banked on the current roster, one that missed the playoffs despite 48 wins last year. It doesn’t feel like a championship or bust mentality, even if the Morris twins are signed to bargain deals with a new TV contract expected to skyrocket the salary cap sooner or later.
Phoenix probably won’t be able to offer a max deal next year without a bit of maneuvering, but the basics are this: the Suns aren’t going to risk taking major steps backward simply to keep salary cap space open.
“We’ve targeted certain years that we think we can have max space or close to making max space if we make a few moves,” McDonough said. “If you study the history of basketball, there are very few great teams that have been made primarily because of cap space or free agent signings.
“We’d rather be pretty good and try to get to really good and do that with some internal improvement and drafting well,” he added, “and if we do make trades, try to be efficient with those rather than kind of waiting (with) cap space … hoping lightening strikes, and hoping that a great player wants to come here. Even if you do that … you still have to build around him. That takes some time.”
Maybe the roster has flaws.
McDonough won’t throw critics a bone by admitting a supposed lack of depth in the frontcourt. He thinks the center duo of Miles Plumlee and Alex Len could be the symbol for the Suns’ internal growth, and that combined with the extensions to the twins justify that Phoenix remains patient with the current roster.
Player development is being valued in Phoenix. It’s why Jeff Hornacek‘s staff is set up as is and why the Suns invested in the Bakersfield Jam agreement to make the D-League club their minor league team.
“The good thing (about) the guys we brought in and the guys we re-signed, to me, are their ages and their growth potential,” McDonough said. “If you look at our roster, I think Shavlik (Randolph) is Old Man River, he’s like 30. And then the rest of it is down to a few guys who aren’t old enough to drink yet, in Tyler and Archie.”
Banking on family
Two media days ago, Michael Beasley was talking about winning with Luis Scola. One year ago, nobody had a clue what to expect and the only positive spin surrounded Channing Frye‘s return to the court.
Monday, there wasn’t even tension with Eric Bledsoe holding his first press conference — he offered only that he always had wanted to return to Phoenix. The Suns oddly weren’t punching home the point about making the playoffs this season, even though their ambitions and expectations clearly include the postseason. It was about how they enjoyed playing with one another and improving. Credit was thrown back and forth between teammates regarding their willingness to improve and learn. The news of the twins’ extension and Zoran Dragic joining brother Goran tied together the obvious theme of the day — family over everything.
“College I think is more of a family atmosphere, at least at Syracuse it was,” said rookie Tyler Ennis. “Going to the NBA I think it would be more individual. At this team, at least, people are so vocal with one another. It’s more of a family atmosphere.”
A cynic could see the extension to Marcus Morris and the Zoran Dragic signing as attempts to keep their brothers happy, but it’s not just fluff. The Suns really do appreciate the culture. President of basketball operations Lon Babby likes to call it synergy.
More specifically, it was once a knock on the Morris twins that they needed to play with one another to succeed, but maybe the Suns aren’t as crazy as we thought by buying into it. Before being acquired in a February 2013 trade, Marcus Morris was with the Houston Rockets and still holding onto the twins’ dream of playing with one another in the NBA.
“Every day and every time we played the Suns, I would see Lon, and he’d tell me he’s coming to get me,” Morris said as Babby asked his comment to be off the record. “It’s always been family.”