The Phoenix Suns’ new hires should make fans excited

The Phoenix Suns are setting themselves up very nicely with their newly acquired front off and coaching staff. Fans should be excited with what they can do.

Aside from front office experience with both the New Orleans Hornets and Detroit Pistons, Jeff Bower, the Phoenix Suns’ new Vice President of Basketball Operations was also on staff of the surprising Marist Redfoxes surprise 1987 NCAA appearance.

While there, he helped develop a young center by the name of Rik Smits, who was drafted second overall in 1988, and went on to have a fairly decent NBA career.

Bower has made plenty of moves for franchises in the past, the some of the most important being a trade for Baron Davis and the drafting of Chris Paul. It does not hurt to mention too that he acquired Tyson Chandler from Chicago and Mo Peterson from Toronto as well as adding 3-point specialists like Rasual Butler and Jannero Pargo.

Seeing how Bower rose to the helm during the Katrina era and helped rebuild the Hornets, I’d say that Bower knows what it takes to scout talent and bring a winning culture to the team – and joy to a city.

He had a try at coaching when he was with the Hornets but it didn’t go very well. Finishing with a 34-39 record, he spent only one season as head coach before stepping down.

While in Detroit, his team made the playoffs in his second season as general manager.

Bower was released from his position as GM two years later, although after signing a contract extension.

Phoenix Suns

For the pistons, he’s signed players like Spencer Dinwiddie and Andre Drummond and traded for big names players such as Reggie Jackson, Tobias Harris and Blake Griffin.

He also helped the Suns once by sending them a second round pick in 2020 in the Marcus Morris trade (although that pick has since been shipped off to Sacramento).

James Jones does have the pedigree to know what it takes to be a champion, as he himself was a championship player for the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers – especially having been among the core players on those teams like Udonis Haslem, Mike Miller, Shane Battier and Norris Cole in South beach.

He and Trevor Bukstein shared the co-interim GM title last season, although Bukstein has now taken on the assistant GM role, as Jones has been promoted to the sole GM.

In their first year they swapped Trevor Ariza for Kelly Oubre Jr. and got rid of the Ryan Anderson‘s contract in return for Tyler Johnson.

Austin Rivers and Wayne Ellington were acquired as a part of those trades but were later traded themselves.

Signing Jimmer Ferdette was an interesting experience, and last but not least, they signed Jamal Crawford who continues to ‘cross’ his way ‘over’ to highlight reels to remind us of why he is who he is – including having a 51 point game on 18-30 shooting.

With speculations that Lou Williams is looking more like the modern-day Crawford, Jamal has shown that he is indeed forever.

Personally, I am a kind of a think-outside-the-box type of a guy, and with that being said, James Jones had the best numbers of his career in ‘05-‘06 playing for Phoenix.

Perhaps there’s something that Jones feels for the Suns and vice versa that drives him to perform as he does.

To contribute to a championship team is everyone’s dream, but where did you have the most success or joy personally? who believed in you the most? What was your favorite time as a pro athlete?

Prior to his runs in Miami, he was on a couple of Suns teams who made deep playoff runs.

He has seen the best of the suns and was there to tell the tales.

Both Bower and Jones seem to have made strides for the better within their respective franchises.

With Bower as VP of basketball operations drafting players like Paul and trading for Griffin, it seems like he indeed has the eye for talent

Jones, with a championship background, knows the perfect role for each individual player, and got it right by adding Crawford and getting a trade in line to acquire Oubre.

With Bower building the starting lineup and Jones building the bench, I firmly believe they can mesh well together in making moves and having discussions on player personnel.

They already have staples in place, with players like Booker, Ayton and the sixth overall pick in June.

For Jones to have been in a locker room full of stars and know what it takes to have egos work with each other for the betterment of a team, is also a plus for this young core.

The future is in question for some, but to us it’s only a matter of time.

Front Office: TBD.

Player Personnel: Check.

Coaching: Check … Monty is a well respected man and there couldn’t have been a better man for the job.

People get these jobs because of their resumes. Lets see what they’ve got!