Jared Cohen
There was one thing that stood out to me on Tuesday at Lon Babby’s press conference. It wasn’t what he had to say about parting with Lance Blanks, not about what the new GM search would entail, not what the future holds for Lindsey Hunter or whomever they name the head coach. It was this quote he made right at the end of the press conference.
“I think this is the first real year of rebuilding and from our perspective that’s important to understand.”
This in one line sums up why the Suns are not close to turning things around, why they seem to have lost the faith of fans and why they got into this position to begin with.
Pro franchises that have their stuff together win immediately with the core players they have with their peripheral vision on the future. In the final years of the Steve Nash era, there was no peripheral vision what so ever, leading them to no playoff appearances and no potential assets to work with by the time Nash left town.
Last off-season, life after Nash became a reality. But what Babby more-or-less said on Tuesday was that it was an off-season to fill a roster. Not build on the future, definitely not to win, it was to have a year that was just there and nothing really to show for it other than an 11% chance for the number one pick in the draft.
“We are at the beginning of it,” Babby added. “But I am not going to put a timeline on it because it can move quickly if circumstances happen and let say we get the number one pick. It can move quickly or slowly.”
This is what worries me. Yes you have to be bad to get marquee talent out of the draft. Everyone loves to compare the situation to the Oklahoma City Thunder and Kevin Durant or Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls. But all I can think about is how for so many years the Clippers has those high picks and they panned into nothing. The same goes for the Charlotte Bobcats since they became a franchise.
Once you get bad, there is no guarantee that you wont stay that way for a substantial amount of time. The Suns are there now and based on the way I see it, you better be prepared for it to be the case for the long haul. There is only one Lebron James and one Kevin Durant. No breaking news here, players at that caliber are not in this draft and next year except for the Canadian Andrew Wiggins.
The saddest part to this whole thing is that Babby is right, they are at the beginning. The thing that I have a big problem with is that they knew it was coming and hit literally rock bottom in the Western Conference to begin again but now also have the quest to gain confidence again in the community. Babby said it himself.
“We have got to do things this offseason that start to build trust and confidence that we’re headed in the right direction.”
Better late than never but it should have been initiated years ago.
