Sarver is the de facto GM making basketball decisions. It's my worst nightmare. He's directly negotiating with free agents and the point man in trade discussions. Whomever becomes the next GM will be handed a team that Sarver constructed, with several long-term commitments that may or may not handicap the next GM.
The Suns are making a concerted effort to NOT overload the payroll and NOT be a major player in the market this summer, but the commitments to Frye and Warrick basically put them back up against the cap, so mission failed.
Sarver isn't cheap. I never said he was and people should get over that label. The Suns will again have a payroll in the upper half of the NBA even without Stoudemire. His philosophy is to obey the market, which is what upset so many people in the front office. Yes, he did give lots of raises early on in the exchange from Colangelo, but non-basketball ops haven't seen a pay raise in three years or any benefit from the largess of the unexpected playoff money windfall this year.
Sarver is vehemently opposed to starting from scratch as much as he's opposed to going for broke. He wants to field a playoff team every year and believes he can do this while being frugal. He doesn't necessarily believe a team needs a focal point superstar to be very competitive. This was a minor (and sometimes major) point of disagreement between him and basketball ops.
He believes he's modeling the organization after the Spurs. The difference here is Peter Holt doesn't get involved in operations. R.C. Buford and Pops make those decisions. They're given a budget, but they still make the calls. Sarver can't help himself but get involved because that's how he runs things, that's his management style.
Around the NBA he suddenly has the reputation of being the Jerry Jones of the NBA. That's not quite true because Jones' ego is much bigger. Jones doesn't have a management philosophy, per se; he just thinks he knows better. Sarver is trying to impose a management philosophy in an industry that is foreign to this kind of micromanagement, and it steps on toes. Sarver is absolutely baffled by the response. To him, this is just business, how it's done in every other industry, and he sees other owners giving hand jobs to superstars and that offends him. It's irresponsible, in his opinion.
Sarver is actually probably right in most regards. We certainly have shaken our heads at the absolute stupidity and basketball decisions made in a panic -- in the Suns organization and around the NBA. We certainly have bitched and moaned about the ridiculous contracts given to mediocre players and that handicap future Suns decision making. But where Sarver is wrong is assuming he should have any role in basketball ops. It's too specialized for him to be able to understand how a team should be constructed. You can't just throw a bunch of players on a roster and expect them to fit together. There has to be a thoughtful plan to team construction, philosophy, and chemistry.
This is probably the last the heady days as a Suns fan. All the momentum that turned this franchise around in the late 80s is gone and we are heading back to the DIAL days of vanilla basketball, hyper frugality, and possibly in the not too distant future, rumors of the team relocating. After a few seasons of half-filled arenas for a borderline playoff team, Sarver's wallet will start to hurt.
The Suns are making a concerted effort to NOT overload the payroll and NOT be a major player in the market this summer, but the commitments to Frye and Warrick basically put them back up against the cap, so mission failed.
Sarver isn't cheap. I never said he was and people should get over that label. The Suns will again have a payroll in the upper half of the NBA even without Stoudemire. His philosophy is to obey the market, which is what upset so many people in the front office. Yes, he did give lots of raises early on in the exchange from Colangelo, but non-basketball ops haven't seen a pay raise in three years or any benefit from the largess of the unexpected playoff money windfall this year.
Sarver is vehemently opposed to starting from scratch as much as he's opposed to going for broke. He wants to field a playoff team every year and believes he can do this while being frugal. He doesn't necessarily believe a team needs a focal point superstar to be very competitive. This was a minor (and sometimes major) point of disagreement between him and basketball ops.
He believes he's modeling the organization after the Spurs. The difference here is Peter Holt doesn't get involved in operations. R.C. Buford and Pops make those decisions. They're given a budget, but they still make the calls. Sarver can't help himself but get involved because that's how he runs things, that's his management style.
Around the NBA he suddenly has the reputation of being the Jerry Jones of the NBA. That's not quite true because Jones' ego is much bigger. Jones doesn't have a management philosophy, per se; he just thinks he knows better. Sarver is trying to impose a management philosophy in an industry that is foreign to this kind of micromanagement, and it steps on toes. Sarver is absolutely baffled by the response. To him, this is just business, how it's done in every other industry, and he sees other owners giving hand jobs to superstars and that offends him. It's irresponsible, in his opinion.
Sarver is actually probably right in most regards. We certainly have shaken our heads at the absolute stupidity and basketball decisions made in a panic -- in the Suns organization and around the NBA. We certainly have bitched and moaned about the ridiculous contracts given to mediocre players and that handicap future Suns decision making. But where Sarver is wrong is assuming he should have any role in basketball ops. It's too specialized for him to be able to understand how a team should be constructed. You can't just throw a bunch of players on a roster and expect them to fit together. There has to be a thoughtful plan to team construction, philosophy, and chemistry.
This is probably the last the heady days as a Suns fan. All the momentum that turned this franchise around in the late 80s is gone and we are heading back to the DIAL days of vanilla basketball, hyper frugality, and possibly in the not too distant future, rumors of the team relocating. After a few seasons of half-filled arenas for a borderline playoff team, Sarver's wallet will start to hurt.
