You’re the Suns’ GM. What are you looking to address via the draft?
The NBA Draft is on the horizon. June 25 is when everything shakes loose. Names will be called, young men will stroll across that stage, slap on a hat they didn’t pick, and shake the hand of a commissioner they’ll likely never speak to again.
It’s a seminal moment. The culmination of a lifelong obsession packaged neatly into a 30-second handshake and a photo op under blinding lights. And then, like clockwork, they’ll be ushered backstage and peppered with the same assembly line questions we’ve heard a thousand times before.
“What does it feel like?” “What should your new team know about you?” “Tell me about your jacket.”
Who cares?
Maybe I’m jaded. No…I know I am. I’m also the guy who can’t stomach those sideline interviews with coaches mid-game. What are we expecting here? An impromptu monologue on the human condition? A masterclass in tactical philosophy? The truth is, these moments don’t reveal anything real. They’re filler. Noise. Theater disguised as access.
And on draft night, it’s no different. Nobody’s mind was ever changed by what a 19-year-old kid said five minutes after his name got called. No fan has ever thought, “Well, I liked him until he thanked his high school coach and promised to ‘work hard every day.’ Now I’m out.” It’s ritual for ritual’s sake.
But we watch anyway. Because maybe buried in the monotony, there’s a glimpse of something unscripted. A crack in the polish. And if not? Well, the jackets are usually cool.
My apologies. I digress. It’s been a rough offseason. Trying to figure out how to fix these Phoenix Suns feels like trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle where half the pieces are missing and the rest are soaked in kerosene. I’ve been in the lab, scribbling my opus, my painstaking thesis on how to unearth a future for this franchise. Step by painful, sanity-testing step. It makes you grumpy. Cynical. Probably insufferable at parties.
And part of that grand, maddening equation is the NBA Draft.
This year, the Suns have two picks. The 29th and the 52nd. Not exactly the keys to the kingdom, but they’re assets nonetheless. Pieces on the chessboard. The question, though — the one I keep coming back to at 1:37 AM with bad coffee and worse ideas — is what should they do with them? Who should they target? What kind of player fits the blueprint of a team still pretending it’s on the doorstep of contention, while the hinges on that door are hanging by a single screw?
That’s what we’re going to dig into today.
Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be neck-deep in draft prep. Tossing out different prospects for you to chew on, getting you familiar with some of the names that’ll be called on draft night. Names you’ll pretend you knew about all along when you’re sitting at the bar two months from now. But before we dive headfirst into that, I’m starting with a question. And it’s a tough one. A maddening, squishy, unknowable question.
What do you think the Suns need to address in this draft?
I get it. It’s a fool’s errand. We don’t know which direction this front office is going to pivot. We don’t know if one of the stars gets shipped out. We don’t know if one of those no-trade-clause assets gets bought out in a back-alley deal with a handshake and a gentle pat on the back. Maybe this whole exercise is a giant waste of mental bandwidth. But I’m still going to ask it. Because that’s what we do when we care too much about a team that has no idea who we are.
Click your votes. Make your calls. And if someone shoves a mic in your face afterward to ask why you voted the way you did, give ‘em the canned “Just trying to help the team” answer and move on with your day.
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