Lance Blanks had served five seasons as an assistant general manger with the Cleveland Cavaliers prior to coming to the Suns.
In his almost three season, Blanks’ Suns were 98-132 and never made the playoffs. The worst season, coming in 2012-2013 had the Suns sitting at 15th in the West, only winning 25 games.
Blanks’ time with the Suns was rough; he took the blame for a lot of things.
Before he was even started the Suns had allowed Amar’e Stoudemire leave in free agency, made mind bogging trades that gotten them little in return, and signed Hakim Warrick and Josh Childress to deals that in retrospect were laughable.
Blanks did have Steve Nash, and what fans thought was a competitive team, but after making Michael Beasley and Goran Dragic the major offseason acquisitions, things went south.
He traded for Wesley Johnson, named Lindsey Hunter interim head coach over some more experienced assistant coaches, and Blanks took the brunt of what many would call the ownership’s faults. In April of 2013 Blanks was fired, and since then has not resurfaced in the NBA.
Note that Lon Babby would also serve briefly as the Phoenix Suns general manager, before passing the torch off to Ryan McDonough.
Next: Suns Current GM, Ryan McDonough