The top-five options for the Phoenix Suns at General Manager

Dave Griffin

While Dave Griffin wouldn’t necessarily be a situation of keeping it in house like James Jones would be, Griffin is an Arizona guy, having gone to Arizona State University, and was the former Senior Vice President of Basketball Operations with the Suns during the Seven Seconds or Less heyday.

He since was the General Manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers and oversaw the franchise’s only NBA Championship in 2016.

Griffin is now a highly respected former executive and a brilliant radio personality on NBA Radio on Sirius/XM, and the man who many people believed to have been the potential front-runner for the Philadelphia 76ers’ job this summer, a job that eventually went to another under-prepared former player, Elton Brand.

If you have ever listened to Griff on his radio show, you will notice one thing: not only does he have a brilliant basketball mind, but he too is a player’s-manager who not only keeps the player’s happiness in mind, but has a particular philosophy when building a roster that I have never heard spoken of by any other GM either former or current: do not have the ages of the star core players any farther apart than four years.

He even admitted that he believed that was the downfall of his Cleveland Cavaliers because the ages of LeBron James and Kevin Love were far too apart from the age of Kyrie Irving.

There is a generational gap there that impeded the core from working well together, an issue that the Golden State Warriors do not have with their big-four only being two years apart.

Dave Griffin would check off three huge boxes for the Phoenix Suns: he is a local guy, he is has a brilliant basketball mind, and he is a player’s-manager.

There is only one box that he would have to have Sarver check off if he were to even consider a job in Phoenix: would Sarver leave him alone?