A conspiracy theory between the Phoenix Suns, D’Angelo Russell, and John Gambadoro

Arizona Sports 98.7 talk show host and news-breaker extraordinaire John Gambadoro has stated he has been told the Phoenix Suns are currently not interested in D’Angelo Russell. I smell a conspiracy.

There is no star player who the Phoenix Suns could actually have a shot at acquiring this offseason than D’Angelo Russell.

He is young. He is best friends with Devin Booker. He is a point guard.  He improved his 3-point shooting last season.

He makes perfect sense.

And yet, John Gambadoro has said time and time again that the Phoenix Suns have no interest in Russell as a free agent.

That, makes no sense.

I just cannot get past how perfect the acquisition of Russell would be, how much better I could envision the Phoenix Suns being (especially following the draft), and therefore cannot understand how emphatically Gambo has stated that he is being told the Suns’ opinion on the matter is that they are not interested.

Which got me thinking: in this case, is it possible  (hence the conspiracy) that someone in the Suns organization is intentionally feeding Gambo false information?

The short answer is Yes, of course. Teams do that all the time to protect their plans.

But why in this case would they lie? Why would management tell Gambo that they do not have interest if there are far too many positives to the addition of Russell that can neither be ignored nor brushed off as minuscule – and the least they could do is say “we do not comment on player’s currently on other teams but would be interested in adding a player of his caliber of play?”

Vague, innocuous, and safe.

Obviously there could be some off-the-court issues that we are not aware which they believe would be detrimental to the future of the roster.

Russell was cited for Marijuana possession in New York recently, and while that alone is not a big  deal, it is something, and if anyone in the NBA would know more about Russell as a person than anyone else in the NBA, it would be Booker, who would hopefully put winning above friendship and at least let management know if there was something bigger which could be a red flag preventing his acquisition.

There is the theory too that Phoenix does not want to have over $40 million tied up between two players in their backcourt – although I find that argument entirely silly.

Obviously Golden State has far more than that tied up in their backcourt and it seems to have worked out just fine for them.

Phoenix should not lessen the potential acquisition of talent for one position based on some ill-conceived philosophy that money should be spread more equally around all five positions.

If the best available player for the Phoenix Suns happens to be a point guard, go get that player.

Socialism doesn’t work on a professional sports roster. The best players are paid the most, so pay them and improve the roster.

But what if Gambo is being told that Phoenix does not have interest because James Jones does not want to be accused in any way with tampering?

That this emphasis against signing Russell is pure subterfuge meant to deflect any and all known information by arguably the most well-connected General Manager in the league?

Let us try and logically piece this together.