Does James Jones make a trade right away?
By Adam Maynes
The firing of Ryan McDonough might have been a sign that owner Robert Sarver wanted a starting guard. Does this mean that the first item of business for interim General Manager James Jones is to find one before the start of the regular season?
It is no secret that the Phoenix Suns have wanted and been looking for a starting point guard. It seems that there is an internal aversion to playing Devin Booker at point an would rather that in new head coach Igor Kokoskov’s offense Booker stay at the two.
However, for all of the many trades that McDonough has made, he has never pulled the trigger on a bonafied starting point guard, and thus the end of McDonough’s tenure with Phoenix was nigh.
So with James Jones, only one year removed from his playing career and only one year in the Phoenix Suns’ front office, is his first order of business from Sarver to find a starting point guard and make that trade immediately before the start of the regular season?
If this is so, then the reason for McDonough’s firing is fishy: had he not been attempting to do that for the past season himself?
Whether you loved it or hated it, Ryan McDonough made a lot of trades as General Manager of the Phoenix Suns. So to think that for some reason he was adverse to making a trade for one now just doesn’t make any sense.
Sure, it is possible that he saw the offense as running through Booker much like Houston’s runs through James Harden, but even so, he probably wanted to get a “Chris Paul” on the roster as well to help split the time.
The problem for McDonough and now for James Jones is that there aren’t a lot of “Chris Paul’s” out there to be had. In fact, there just aren’t a lot of point guards in general to be had and therefore a franchise that needs one has to be careful not to just pull off a trade willy-nilly and overpay one way or the other just to make claim to having one.
There had been a lot of rumors recently connecting the Phoenix Suns to Goran Dragic among others, but the reason that no trade was made does not necessarily mean that McDonough was inept or didn’t have the guts or foresight to make a deal.
Quite the opposite in fact.
Point guards are a hot commodity and so the cost is going to be high, whether it be in assets to make the acquisition, or salary for the future.
It is very likely that McDonough was wary to trade any assets for an aging point guard, for a point guard who is going to be an unrestricted free agent and then likely max player (Kemba Walker), or for a starter who just isn’t worthy of the cost in general.
It also takes two to tango and so any targets at point guard that McDonough might have had, the other team must not only be willing to trade that point guard, but then accept to the terms of a deal.
The same restrictions now fall on James Jones, who now has the exact assets that McDonough previously had, but less experience and potentially now a direct mandate from his owner to make such a move.
If Jones trades either Josh Jackson or Mikal Bridges for a veteran point guard not named Damian Lillard, will it have been worth it?
Next. Is Ryan McDonough's firing inadvertently Devin Booker's fault?. dark
If that happens, who will take the blame: Sarver or Jones?
Right now James Jones is in an unenviable situation having been thrust into a situation that presumes to include a mandate to find a point guard.
If this is so, the pressure on him might mean overpaying for a point guard just to get the team by, and just to keep Devin Booker out of the starting point guard position for this season.
These are very tenuous waters for the Phoenix Suns, and James Jones is in no better position than Ryan McDonough was to maneuver through them.