Breaking down Bill Simmons’ breakdown of the Phoenix Suns’ offseason

Give Melton/J Jackson away

For starters: the Phoenix Suns gave  De’Anthony Melton away? As if he had value? He was a backup or third point guard on a 19-win team. He didn’t have value. This is nit-picking just to nit-pick at it’s most obsessive.

And they gave  Josh Jackson away because last season he was the worst player in the league.

He was a tremendous bust as the fourth overall pick (which goes back to the uncertainty that is the NBA Draft and how no one has any guarantee of being good out of college), and was a cancer on the roster between his pointing a finger gun at a fan; his New Year’s morning vomiting on the practice court which led to a suspension; his arrest in Florida after running from the police; and the acquisition that he was blowing marijuana smoke in his five-month-old daughter’s face.

James Jones did the franchise and it’s fanbase a favor by trading Josh Jackson, even if it was for nothing. He was finishing up his cleaning of Ryan McDonough’s draft mess and it had to be done.

The deal should be celebrated by all – it certainly is by Suns fans.

Pay Rubio/Oubre

Now seriously – what is wrong with paying Rubio and Oubre?

First off, Ricky Rubio is a legitimate starting point guard in the NBA, a fantastic and willing passer, is still in his late-20s, only signed for three-years, is a huge  upgrade over everyone they had/didn’t have last season at point, and let’s face it: they were never going to get Kyrie Irving or Kemba Walker, and apparently they didn’t want D’Angelo Russell, so they got the best available point guard – who isn’t bad at all.

Adding Rubio alone, even if James Jones had kept the like of Josh Jackson and Dragan Bender, would have made the team better.

But adding him to a re-vamped roster and the franchise is going to be much  better.

And then what would Simmons have liked the Suns to do with Kelly Oubre: let the single player who made the biggest positive  impact on the roster just…walk away?

Oubre was going to get paid by the Phoenix Suns no matter what, and while Simmons wrote this tweet weeks before he even signed, (and we now that we know it is a safe two-year deal that keeps arguably their 2018-19 MVP on the roster that also now includes  Ricky Rubio), so what if the Suns had decided to offer Oubre a four or five year contract?

They weren’t going to overpay  to keep him, obviously, and he played well enough to earn an extension with Phoenix.

There should be zero shade or judgement thrown in either Rubio or Oubre’s direction whatsoever.