The Pelicans just took away a GM and trainer from the Phoenix Suns

With the latest moves by the New Orleans Pelicans, they have officially taken away not one but two guys that should be members of the Phoenix Suns.

The Phoenix Suns needed to hire a General Manager. They ended up promoting Interim-GM James Jones. The candidate a lot of fans wanted to get the position, David Griffin, ended up signing with the New Orleans Pelicans.

I can’t blame the Pelicans front office for getting Griffin. The fault goes on the Suns front office for not doing everything they could to bring him back to Phoenix.

I hope David does well in his new spot and helps New Orleans not just settle the Anthony Davis debacle but brings that city to life more than Mardi Gras.

Now, with the Suns deciding to apparently do a complete rebuild, even on positions that don’t often come up when you are thinking of shuffling a team, long-time head athletic trainer Aaron Nelson is also a Pelican. Looking at this tidbit on Marc Stein’s Twitter wasn’t easy to swallow.

Aaron has been a fixture with the Suns’ well respected athletic training staff for about 26 years, since 1993. He’s an awarded trainer as he was named Trainer of the Year in 2009.

It makes a lot of sense for Griffin and this was a great move for him. The relationship was there as they previously worked together on the Suns.

Nelson is known to work magic, extend careers and do wonders medically. He can get older players to find a fountain of youth, per se. Ask Steve Nash, Grant Hill and Shaquille O’Neal.

He became Phoenix’s head trainer in 2000 when the legendary Joe Proski stepped down.

Since the Phoenix Suns were founded in 1968, the franchise has had TWO head athletic trainers. You guessed correctly with those being Proski and Nelson.

This is a huge loss for the team. Even if his work hadn’t paid off over the last couple seasons, he leaves huge shoes to fill.

By taking Griffin and now Nelson, the Pelicans have THREE people in crucial positions on the team that used to be members of the Suns. Alvin Gentry is their head coach and he used to be head coach here.

Doesn’t a trio of Gentry at head coach, Griffin at GM and Nelson as trainer for the Suns sound so good? It really does but too bad, they are all in New Orleans now.

It makes you think. Is this personal at all? Does this have anything do with what happened on March 16 when the two clubs played each other and the Suns made the Pelicans just look absolutely horrible in the final moments of that game?

Gayle Benson, owner of the Pelicans, just yelled “Checkmate” in this game of chess, didn’t he?

Maybe I’m looking too much into it and there’s no agenda at all, other than the fact that New Orleans saw a duo of ways to seriously improve their franchise and they jumped all over it. Kudos to them. These were both great moves.

Maybe the Suns can somehow convince A.D. that he wants to come here to play next to Devin Booker and forces the Pelicans hand to trade him here for pennies on the dollar? It’s a pretty far fetched idea but you never know in this NBA.

Maybe the Pelicans feel some sympathy and we come to a deal to land Jrue Holiday?