In the only two trades that co-interim GM James Jones has made this season for the Phoenix Suns, he may as well have gotten away with theft.
The Phoenix Suns have not had a very good season and James Jones has not been very good playing GM on several levels. However, there have been bright spots to the season and there have been some things Jones has done very well.
Tyler Johnson is arguably the best point guard on the roster and his “veteran” leadership has really helped this team. Kelly Oubre is arguably the best two way small forward on this roster and his “swag” has done wonders for this team.
Johnson and Oubre are both key players to the late stretch of very good basketball that the team has played, even though the injury bug has bitten both of them.
How each one got here is the focal point of this story. James Jones, though he definitely has some down sides, pulled off some highway robbery to get each guy.
Ryan Anderson, the stretch four that was brought in to help make this team competitive but left his jump shot in Houston when he left the Rockets and who had no desire to play any defense at all was pinned to the end of the bench.
His albatross contract made him nearly untradeable but Jones took that as a challenge and sent him to the Miami Heat for a player with a similarly large contract but who played a position of need and Tyler stepped right in and helped this young team.
Trevor Ariza, who was paid $15 million on a one-year deal in the summer to help make this team competitive but decided not to be much of a factor or really care much at all while on this club, showed a desire to play elsewhere.
He was sent to the Washington Wizards for another wing but a young one that had shown promise and brought his full game to this franchise. Oubre was behind John Wall, Bradley Beal and Otto Porter in Washington and took his game to another level in Phoenix.
No draft picks were given up in either deal, just a straight up swap. Well, Austin Rivers was included in the deal with the Wizards but he’s an expiring contract and the Suns let him go to play with the Houston Rockets.
Who would you rather have? Anderson or Johnson? Ariza or Oubre? Two veterans that didn’t care much while here and weren’t really providing much or two younger players under team control that have helped give this team the mentality that the other two were supposed to bring but didn’t? Those are very easy choices.
Jones isn’t the answer long term at general manager. However, one must give credit where credit is due and he pulled off two acts of theft in these two trades.