Suns are the belle of the Ball family
Will Phoenix pull off move at the trade deadline?
Reports this week that the Suns were interested in trading for Lonzo Ball of the Lakers weren’t shocking since the Suns are lacking a point guard for the 34th consecutive season.
Or maybe it just seems that long. What was surprising is that Ball is interested in the Suns, or at least his father, LaVar, is.
“I am going to speak it into existence,” LaVar Ball told Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.
Few with a future in basketball desire to work in Phoenix, which is a couple of buttons below purgatory on the NBA elevator. So it means something when a player, and/or his
From strictly a basketball perspective, Ball makes sense for the Suns. He’s smart, unselfish, an excellent passer and solid defender. The Suns are in desperate need of all those elements.
father, view the Suns as a destination rather than a quick layover.
LaVar continued his Speaking Into Existence tour Tuesday, doing two interviews with Arizona Sports 98.7 FM before 1 p.m. The noise he’s making, however, likely will have little influence on the actual negotiations between the Lakers and Pelicans for Anthony Davis, who wants out of New Orleans.
The Lakers are willing to part with Ball as part of the deal, but the Ball family prefers Lonzo to play in Phoenix.
Anyway, adding Lonzo Ball to play alongside Devin Booker could work, and Suns interim general manager James Jones is smart to pursue a deal that would pair the two.
There are concerns, to be sure,
The Los Angeles Lakers’ Lonzo Ball dunks in the second half during a game on Oct. 24 at Talking Stick Resort Arena.
ROB SCHUMACHER/THE REPUBLIC
the first of which is if Jones is even capable of making a smart trade. Jones took the GM wheel when owner Robert Sarver fired Ryan McDonough nine days before the season, and Jones’ first few spins around the block have resulted in some scrapes and dents.
The most damaging were the decisions that allowed valuable trade pieces to leave without the Suns receiving compensation.
Tyson Chandler and Austin Rivers both had expiring contracts, attractive assets on the trade market. Neither player wanted to be in Phoenix, so the Suns granted them their wishes and bought them out. That allowed Chandler to join the Lakers and Rivers the Rockets.
Conceivably, the Suns could have traded their contracts, gaining a player and maybe a draft pick for an elite player.
Davis, who wants out of New Orleans, likely would have not come to Phoenix for more than a year. But maybe Kristaps Porzingis, traded by the Knicks to the Mavericks this week, would have.
For the Knicks, the deal was about creating salary-cap space. They traded a couple of big contracts, assumed two large expiring ones and reportedly will have about $74 million in cap space this summer.
That’s why holding on to Chandler and Rivers could have made the Suns major players as Thursday’s trade deadline grew closer. Together, they make over $26 million, which would have come off the books after this season.
Jones, instead, chose to oblige Chandler and Rivers in order to create a more player-friendly organization than the one that existed under McDonough.
But what’s done is done, and we’re about to find out what Jones has learned in his short time on the job.
From strictly a basketball perspective, Ball makes sense for the Suns. He’s smart, unselfish, an excellent passer and solid defender. The Suns are in desperate need of all those elements, and if they can get him for either Josh Jackson or TJ Warren plus a pick, they should make the deal.
What Ball is not, at least not now, is a shooter and scorer. That’s problematic. The Suns rank last in the NBA in 3point percentage (33.3) and are near the top in funky shooting fundamentals.
Since the preseason, there’s been a joke floating around that the Suns have more hitches than U-Haul.
Ball, who is averaging 10 points and shooting 40.6 percent from the field, would add one more to the fleet.
The Suns also need to assess just how big, or loud, or disruptive an influence LaVar Ball would be.
Until this week, he had been relatively quiet this season. But the Lakers have LeBron James and Magic Johnson, president of basketball operations, to snuff out the first semblance of discord.
The Suns have an owner who thinks he knows basketball, an inexperienced general manager and a first-year coach in Igor Kokoskov.
A meddling family member means trouble at any level of sports, including the NBA. For now, it’s fine that LaVar Ball has inserted himself into the news.
The Balls didn’t demand. They are just responding to reports, and a father is trying to direct a son to what he views as the best situation.
So maybe LaVar can “speak into existence” this trade and then forever hold his peace.
A man can dream, can’t he?