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

Fire GM

Then, nine days before the start of the regular season, just after he had gotten the smell of goat excrement out of his office, Ryan McDonough was unceremoniously fired and James Jones was promoted to interim general manager.

Most everybody was shocked and dismayed by the firing, not because McDnonough had built a tremendous roster and was never allowed to see it through, but because, if you are going to fire the general manager, why do it after he had already made all of the moves he had that offseason, hand-cuffing the next general manager with a roster that he had very little opportunity to adjust on the fly?

Some would say that McDonough received the raw end of the deal (Charles Barkley regularly remarked that McDonough should never have been fired) based on some of the moves he had made in his final offseason on the job which did seriously appear to have improved the roster in the long run.

There were rumors too that the missing point guard had been acquired by McDonough on draft day (instead of Bridges) and that the deal was nixed by Robert Sarver, the ever-present and ever-meddling owner who literally  can not get out of the franchise’s way.

Either way, this was a terrible look for the Suns, and initially made no sense. But it is what it was, and in the end, James Jones does seem to have done a very  good job re-shaping the roster in the 2019 offseason.