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

Also forgot they gave away TJ Warren in one of the decade’s dumbest giveaway trades – The Suns did so many dumb things in one in year that i forgot two of them

(The typo’s were his, not mine, FYI).

I’ll tell you what – I wish I got paid to be as flippant about opinion that have no factual foundation as Bill Simmons. I mean, seriously: give me a break with this one.

Was it a surprise that Warren (plus their second round pick) was traded for nothing? Absolutely. Why James Jones couldn’t get a future first or something is beyond me.

However, it wasn’t Devin Booker  who was dumped off for nothing, it was T.J. Warren. A role player. A player who shouldn’t have even been a starter for a 19-win team.

Do not get me wrong – if you are a follower of Valley of the Suns, then you know that I was Warren’s biggest champion. I wrote more positivity about him than anyone else out there and I truly believe that he should have been kept (and utilized off the bench correctly) – if they could.

But what was more important to the Phoenix Suns this coming season: adding a front line starting point guard and a power forward, or keeping a redundant wing in Warren?

With Kelly Oubre and Mikal Bridges on the roster, and then soon the addition of Cameron Johnson (at the moment Warren was traded no one could have known that Johnson was Jones’ target, but his selection only puts Warren to Indiana into an even clearer perspective), Warren was expendable, and apparently to the degree that Jones wanted him gone now.

Not the next day, but now.

And truthfully, that might have been the only way to make the deal without acquiring a player in return that he didn’t want to who would have taken cap space away from his ability to make other, more pressing moves to improve the roster.

As you can see, I agreed with a number of critiques that Bill Simmons made (and to be fair, many fans of both the Phoenix Suns and the NBA in general), however a great number of the moves occurred under the McDonough regime which was an absolute mess, and the rest did not take any actual research or deep-thought to realize their intention and the positivity brought to a franchise who for nine years has been in the absolute dumps of the league.

Just remember: it is always important to understand context in all situations, and with the past year of the James Jones era as General Manager, context is not hard to find, and the reasons for such moves very easy to understand.