jbeecham
ASFN Addict
The Suns had a mid-season event today for season ticket holders & Lon Babby had an hour long open forum with the fans. He was extremely honest about the state of the Suns. He talked about:
1) How they're trying to get better... not just as a team, but also as an organization.
2) How they're trying to change the perception of the organization to make this a premier free agent destination again.
3) A renewed importance on the draft & also on scouting in every level of the game. A new scouting system is in place rating players on ability level ( scrub, role player, rising star, star, all-star, MVP level), how they fit into the Suns scheme, & then finally on their character level.
4) He talked about poor business decisions the team has made before he arrived (trading 9 draft picks & only having 4, bad contracts in Warrick, Childress, etc, bad trades). He stressed that this would end & that they will no longer overspend for players that they don't rate as high level players, but that obviously those past deals were made with the best intentions. He obviously asked that we only judge him on the Orlando deal & the Dragic deal (which he basically admitted was a bust with Brooks playing in China).
5) He said that Sarver has given them full control to make any deal they want & has given them full approval to spend as much money as they want. He also said that Sarver has never told him that he couldn't make a deal or trade for money reasons.
He was pretty clear that their not happy with the state of the team & some of the players on the team (no names mentioned). He flat out said that he has felt that there have been games where the players have given up & how unacceptable that was. They're looking for players that continue to compete even when the team is down big... he called them high fiber players & that they're looking to add these kinds of players to the team.
He's really high on Morris & of course Gortat, Nash & Hill.
He talked about how hard it is to be a team bad enough to get the top picks in the draft... or how hard it would be to make the team that bad. Then he went on to say that he doesn't want to rely on ping pong balls and "Hope" in order to make the Suns better. He wants the team to make smart business decisions in every aspect every single day... knowing that some of those decisions will be wrong, but ultimately hoping for many more right decisions than wrong ones.
He also talked about how they have the money for 2 max free agents this summer and they're going to do everything they can to get 2 max quality players in here. He said that obviously he can't guarantee they would be able to get them here, but that is the goal. They won't spend the money if they don't have the guys available that they want just to spend the money. They want to spend wisely, be fair to the players & to the organization.
Nash - He said that their trying to rebuild the Suns reputation with how it handles it players by taking care of Nash & Hill. To help make free agents see the Suns as a premium organization again.
1) How they're trying to get better... not just as a team, but also as an organization.
2) How they're trying to change the perception of the organization to make this a premier free agent destination again.
3) A renewed importance on the draft & also on scouting in every level of the game. A new scouting system is in place rating players on ability level ( scrub, role player, rising star, star, all-star, MVP level), how they fit into the Suns scheme, & then finally on their character level.
4) He talked about poor business decisions the team has made before he arrived (trading 9 draft picks & only having 4, bad contracts in Warrick, Childress, etc, bad trades). He stressed that this would end & that they will no longer overspend for players that they don't rate as high level players, but that obviously those past deals were made with the best intentions. He obviously asked that we only judge him on the Orlando deal & the Dragic deal (which he basically admitted was a bust with Brooks playing in China).
5) He said that Sarver has given them full control to make any deal they want & has given them full approval to spend as much money as they want. He also said that Sarver has never told him that he couldn't make a deal or trade for money reasons.
He was pretty clear that their not happy with the state of the team & some of the players on the team (no names mentioned). He flat out said that he has felt that there have been games where the players have given up & how unacceptable that was. They're looking for players that continue to compete even when the team is down big... he called them high fiber players & that they're looking to add these kinds of players to the team.
He's really high on Morris & of course Gortat, Nash & Hill.
He talked about how hard it is to be a team bad enough to get the top picks in the draft... or how hard it would be to make the team that bad. Then he went on to say that he doesn't want to rely on ping pong balls and "Hope" in order to make the Suns better. He wants the team to make smart business decisions in every aspect every single day... knowing that some of those decisions will be wrong, but ultimately hoping for many more right decisions than wrong ones.
He also talked about how they have the money for 2 max free agents this summer and they're going to do everything they can to get 2 max quality players in here. He said that obviously he can't guarantee they would be able to get them here, but that is the goal. They won't spend the money if they don't have the guys available that they want just to spend the money. They want to spend wisely, be fair to the players & to the organization.
Nash - He said that their trying to rebuild the Suns reputation with how it handles it players by taking care of Nash & Hill. To help make free agents see the Suns as a premium organization again.
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