We are only three games into the new NBA season, and already the wheels are coming off for the Phoenix Suns. They've been the league's worst defense, and locker room leaks to NBA Insider Chris Haynes could spell disaster, as that kind of information getting out has never been a staple of a Devin Booker-led team. The Suns do clearly need a point guard to steady the ship during this troubling time, but former Sun Ty Jerome is not the answer.
Jerome was always going to be traded years before hitting prime
It is clear that Booker and the Suns, as a team, need a traditional point guard in the backcourt to set the offense. Head Coach Jordan Ott hasn't come around to that way of thinking just yet, as he recently revealed that Jalen Green will continue as a lead playmaker for now. Fans have been quick to throw out names such as Dejounte Murray as a potential solution, while our own Ben Leibowitz believes it could be time to give Lonzo Ball a call.
Ty Jerome is another who brings back painful memories for Suns fans, because he played 31 games for the franchise in his rookie season. He has started this season as one of the most in-form players in the league, and is averaging a whopping 25.8 points while also giving the Memphis Grizzlies 5.6 assists. The kind of contributions and steadying presence the Suns could only dream of.
But to think the organization let him get away is foolish. Jerome was part of the package that landed the Suns Chris Paul, which in turn led to an NBA Finals appearance. Unlike Toumani Camara, who was a throw-in to the Deandre Ayton for Jusuf Nurkic deal and who continues to make the Suns pay for letting him go, the Oklahoma City Thunder wanted as many assets and picks as possible at the time.
Jerome fit that bill and was never going to be a contributor for the Suns as they tried to contend. Even if he had somehow stuck around up to the point Kevin Durant landed, he still would have been used in another deal to make the roster better, or perhaps buried on the bench. The front office eventually flipped Paul for Bradley Beal (although we're now calling this the Jordan Goodwin trade), and there is every chance Jerome would have been included in that trade as well.
Jerome would never have been given time to become player he now is
Now 29 years old, it has taken Jerome stops with the Thunder, Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers, and finally the Grizzlies to turn him into the player we now see. Had he been given the time to grow and make mistakes with the Suns, it would have meant they weren't close to contending; a far worse alternative than what actually happened.
The reason they can afford to be so patient with 20-year-old center Khaman Maluach is that they have no alternative. If they were again one of the top teams and were able to turn him into the final piece to get over the hump, the Suns would do that. Just like they did with Ty Jerome over half a decade ago, which is why it is pointless to look back at what might have been. That was never going to happen, and it is a good thing that it did not.
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