The last 24 hours have been an interesting window into the new world order that James Jones has created for the Phoenix Suns.
As the Draft went along on June 20, a number of changes were rolled out leaving many Phoenix Suns fans with a sinking feeling of “meet new management, same as old management.”
As a result, the boo birds have grown fangs and are out for the blood of Robert Sarver.
All of this is totally justifiable and perfectly logical.
However, in having a night to think on it, you can start to see a method to the madness which looks a lot like this:
Deandre Ayton is the centerpiece of the organization.
Now, you’ll read that and rightfully recoil to a “But Devin Booker…” stance and you’ll be right. I’m not suggesting that Ayton is now the face of the franchise. That’s clearly Devin. What I am suggesting is that management isn’t building the team around Booker, they’re building it around Ayton.
If you look at the things they’ve said and the picks they’ve made, it’s clear they’re going full on 2008 Orlando Magic built around Dwight Howard on this team. They’re going to depend on the big fellow to get the ball in the post and surround him with four elite outside shooters and wish everyone else the best of luck guarding that.
Remember, that’s the one team that caught LeBron James‘ Cavs unable to defend.
Dwight had the ball in the post and when he looked up he had JJ Redick, Rashard Lewis, Hedo Turkoglu (oh Hedo), Courtney Lee, or Jameer Nelson all standing around waiting to drop bombs.
For everyone outside the Lakers, no had the size to stop Dwight or the speed to get back out to all those tall 3-point shooters when they crushed in on the center.
It seems clear that this is the kind of model the Suns are going for under James Jones.
And there’s a kind of mad hatter logic to the idea.
They’ve already got an elite shooter in Booker. Mikal Bridges is not elite yet, but he’s well on his way.
After that it gets ugly.
But then they brought in the two best 3-point shooters in the draft.
Ty Jerome took 48% of his shots from behind the 3pt line. Cam Johnson nearly 51%. And they made a lot of them.
Jerome shot 40% from deep, Johnson 46%.
If helpful, Devin Booker made 33% last year and Bridges 34%.
Last year, Ayton caught the ball and had this to look at: Johnson (32%), Booker (33%), Bridges (34%) Oubre (33%).
Without any other moves, this is what he has to look at now: Jerome (48%), Booker (33%), Bridges (34%) Dario Saric (38%).
Add to this what you keep hearing from John Gambadoro of 98.7 Arizona Sports about why Booker’s best buddy D’Angelo Russell isn’t going to come to town.
He keeps saying it’s because he can’t shoot.
Yet again, a guy shooting 32%.
So, even though Russell is a perfect guy to throw lobs to DA and is Book’s best friend and a young All-Star, they aren’t even looking his way because of his inability to shoot.
This all translates to a new world order in which Deandre is the star they’re building around.
If this trend holds, it might actually be hard to justify bringing back Kelly Oubre who shoots 32% but would explain why they’d look at Julius Randle shooting 35%.
It might also explain why they won’t go for DLo or Ricky Rubio, but will go for Patrick Beverly and Malcolm Brogdon.
I’d also expect to see them do just what Gambo said: throw all the money at 40% 3pt shooting Tobias Harris.
Now, let’s be clear: I don’t think this is a good or winning strategy. In fact, I think it borders on madness…but when you look at it from this lens it seems to make all of their maddening decisions make sense.
Therefore, while it might be madness, I do believe there is a method to it.