The First Step
By feeding Gambo information that the Phoenix Suns have no interest in D’Angelo Russell, Jones could be protecting himself from any indirect connection to known information.
Even stating that the Suns could have interest, could eventually blow up into known interest, thwarting the entire thing, therefore the absolute “no interest” answer prevents any follow up questions that might eventually lead to the piecing together of what knowledge he truly has.
It is possible that James Jones knows that Kyrie Irving is going to sign with the Brooklyn Nets.
It is possible that he knows that D’Angelo Russell will be thus made an unrestricted free agent.
It is possible that he knows that Russell’s preference is to sign with the Phoenix Suns.
It is possible that since he knows all of this information, and since none of the dominoes have fallen or even can fall yet, that he is emphatically feeding incorrect information to Gambo to prevent any and all leaks that might be tied to collusion or calls of tampering.
It’s also not like Phoenix has the cap space at the moment to sign a player to the money with D’Angelo is expected to demand, as in order to do so, he Jones would have to trade Josh Jackson, likely trade or waive and stretch Tyler Johnson, and even possibly renounce Kelly Oubre‘s rights.
By leaking any potential interest in D’Angelo, those three players (and the league as a whole further hurting trade value) would know that they are likely out of the Suns’ future plans which would damage relationships if Russell ends up not leaving Brooklyn, thus Jackson, Johnson, and Oubre end up remaining in Phoenix.
Fortunately it will not be long until all of this information is known.
In regards to Gambo’s reporting, if he is truly only sharing what he is being told now, then should Phoenix eventually sign D’Angelo, he can fairly and honestly state that he was only telling Suns fans what was told to him. I see no reason to believe that he is being anything but honest, and at least from a fan’s perspective, hope that he is an unwitting accomplice to this conspiracy theory, so that fans so actually get the player they most want Phoenix to acquire this offseason: D’Angelo Russell.