Suns favour Jones for new GM role
Two days after firing their general manager, the Phoenix Suns are favouring a move to promote interim general manager James Jones to the franchise’s permanent position, ESPN reported on Tuesday.
League sources told Adrian Wojnarowski that owner Robert Sarver is leaning toward handing the full-time GM Job to Jones, a former player who is sharing supervision of basketball operations with assistant GM Trevor Bukstein after the team fired Ryan McDonough on Sunday night. The Suns announced the move on Monday, just nine days before they tip off their season on Oct. 17 against the Dallas Mavericks.
Jones had been serving as the Suns Vice President of Basketball Operations after being hired by Sarver last year.
According to Wojnarowski, “Sarver has left little, if any, doubt that Jones will be leading Phoenix’s basketball operations into the future,” according to league sources.
In the interim Jones is charged with oversight basketball operations and Bukstein will handle player transactions.
The McDonough firing, which raised eyebrows around the NBA after he had scored a contract extension last summer and presided over a series of offseason moves and draft selections, was the latest in a current of atypical management decisions from Sarver.
Last season, the Suns fired head coach Earl Watson six days into the regular season. On Nov. 7, 2017, Sarver signed off on the team’s trade of disgruntled point guard Eric Bledsoe to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Jones played 14 seasons in the NBA, winning three NBA titles alongside LeBron James – two with the Miami Heat, one with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The sharpshooter knocked down 766 career 3-pointers in 709 games, averaging 5.2 points per game in playing for Indiana (2003-05), Phoenix (2005-07), Portland (2007-08), MIami (2008-14) and Cleveland (2014-17).
ROCKETS’ ZHOU SPRAINS KNEE IN PRE-SEASON GAME
Houston Rockets 7-foot-2 forward Zhou Qi left a home preseason game against the Shanghai Sharks on Tuesday because of a left knee sprain.
Following a collision with Sharks forward Luis Scola near the end of the first quarter, Zhou left the court in a wheelchair after he was aided by trainers and other staff members.
The 22-year-old Zhou played only four minutes Tuesday night in his first pre-season appearance, registering two rebounds and one blocked shot.
He is in his second season with the Rockets, having averaged 1.2 points and 1.2 rebounds in 18 games in 2017-18.
Zhou was a second-round draft pick out of the Chinese Basketball Association in 2016, and he made his NBA debut on Oct. 21, 2017, with the Rockets.