‘Champ’ Jones makes his mark
It’s the best turnaround story in all of professional sports: the revival of the Phoenix Suns. It was a long, hot journey through the desert of irrelevance for Phoenix to become an oasis of winning basketball. But, finally, the Suns have risen. Here’s the second chapter in a six-part series about how they did it.
Part II: “We’ve got to raise the floor”
James Jones was the guy everybody was laughing at and ridiculing as the latest in a string of Phoenix Suns general managers who clearly had no business running an NBA club.
It would be a couple of years before everyone realized just how wrong they had been about the man they call “Champ.”
At this point, at the end of the 2019 Draft Lottery, Jones had selected Cameron Johnson with the No. 11 pick.
Even Johnson’s college teammate Coby White couldn’t believe it.
“He went what?” White said. He sat up in his chair, and his eyes went wide. “Cam Johnson went 11th? Wow. Wooow. Wooooooooow!”
It’s almost hard to remember that day because Johnson has become a valuable contributor, and the Suns have transformed into one of the best teams in the NBA.
But at the time, critics were circling like buzzards over Phoenix, and Jones was fresh meat.
They said he didn’t have any experience. They said he was too old-school and didn’t know the latest analytics. And they figured that if the Suns hired him, it must have been because nobody else wanted him.
Jones didn’t allow himself to be concerned by any of it.
“We’ve got to raise the floor,” he said. He said it every chance he got, secure in the knowledge that he knew what a great organization looked like — and this wasn’t it.
The Suns had just one winning record in the eight seasons before he took over, including three in a row where they lost three games for every one they won.
The roster was full of guys who had a lot of potential, “players with high ceilings,” as they say in the business. But except for Devin Booker, their floors were as low as their ceilings were high.
Playing days
Jones, as a player, was on one of the greatest teams ever assembled: the mid-2000s Miami Heat, better known as the “Heatles.” LeBron James was John. Dwyane Wade was Paul. Chris Bosh was Ringo. And Ray Allen was George.
Jones didn’t gripe about his role as a road dog. He maximized it, contributing on the court and learning how to build a championship organization from the inside out.
Miami had the right environment to attract top-tier talent, and Jones was perfectly poised to pick up on the subtle distinctions that separated contenders from champions.
He knew what it was to get close. Before landing in Miami, Jones had been a member of the Indiana Pacers and Phoenix Suns. Each team had been a title contender, undone by circumstances that were unbelievable and beyond his control.
The Pacers had Jermaine O’Neal and Ron Artest playing at MVP levels. The roster was so stacked that Hall of Fame scorer Reggie Miller was content to shoot the ball only a half dozen times a game while the young guys did most of the work.
The Suns had Steve Nash, Amar’e Stoudemire and Shawn Marion. Nash was an MVP. Stoudemire could have been an MVP. And Marion, at times, was just as good.
But in 2004, O’Neal and Artest were suspended for fighting in the infamous “Malice at the Palace” brawl. The season was lost.
And in 2007, Nash was drilled with a cheap shot that started a fight with the San Antonio Spurs. Stoudemire came off the bench and was suspended, an incident Suns fans will always connect with their inability to get to the NBA Finals in the “7 Seconds or Less” era. Then came Miami.
It was Jones’ hometown, and after a couple of years, everybody could tell the team was going to be good, so good they were hosting pep rallies like some alleverything high school senior had committed to attend Big State U.
James and Bosh were joining Wade? Then they added the guy who played Jesus Shuttlesworth?!
This group was going to win titles, it was just a matter of how many?
“Not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven,” LeBron James said.
Sure he was having fun with fans who were riding the Heat’s wave, but he was serious.
Big goals are the only goals worth setting.
They ended up going to the Finals four straight times and winning two titles.
Jones was right there for all of it. James ended up calling Jones his favorite teammate and people ended up calling the backup forward “Champ.”
Championship habits
James Jones talks often of “championship habits.”
They’re lessons he’s picked up over the years that put him in position to win three NBA championships in seven consecutive trips to the NBA Finals as a player.
Responsibility. Maturity. Consistency. Assuredness. Selflessness. Poise.
These traits have defined his tenure in charge of the Suns basketball operations. He runs the once-volatile franchise with the steadiness of a Stoic philosopher.
“You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
It’s a quote attributed to Marcus Aurelius, the most famous of the Stoics of ancient Rome; he taught that self-control and composure were among humankind’s highest values.
Jones started to recognize the value in these traits from an early age.
His mom was strict, a correctional officer down in Miami.
She wasn’t about to see her kids end up on the wrong side of the law, so she laid down the law herself after James brought home a C on his report card.
“She told me, ‘You can get straight A’s and play basketball, or you can get straight A’s,’” Jones said.
He had to get his mind right.
And years later, when he inherited a roster full of projects and problems, he didn’t panic. He just calmly went about finding and adding his types of guys.
That first year was rougher than stucco.
Jones was promoted immediately before the 2018-19 season when his predecessor was fired nine days before the first game.
The timing couldn’t have been worse for improving the roster. But rather than hurriedly make a bunch of ho-hum trades to justify his job, he just set about the business of making one good decision at a time — even if no one else understood what he was thinking.
Jones didn’t hang on to guys who didn’t want to be here, allowing Tyson Chandler to walk, trading Trevor Ariza and waiving Austin Rivers.
The team won 19 games, the fewest in the history of a once-proud franchise.
Jones fired the coach and hired Monty Williams. Their temperament, character and basketball acumen were an obvious match.
A few “high-ceiling” guys got into trouble in the offseason.
They weren’t welcomed back.
Jones replaced them with “highfloor” guys such as Jevon Carter, Frank Kaminsky and Ricky Rubio.
The conventionally wise were aghast, but Jones remained calm — even on the night of the 2019 Draft when he looked past several highly regarded prospects and made a trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves that changed everything.
Jones swapped the No. 6 pick for the No. 11 pick and forward Dario Saric.
With the No. 11 pick, Jones took Cam Johnson, a player most observers considered as a late first-rounder.
The buzzards gathered.
But then the Suns started winning, including an undefeated stretch in the NBA’s Disney Bubble. The Suns were back.
Then Jones went out and got Chris Paul, one of the greatest point guards in the history of the sport.
All the prospects and projects were gone.
In their place were low-maintenance, established professionals such as Jae Crowder, Dario Saric and Torrey Craig. Even the young guys can play.
Jones was working as the Suns No. 2 personnel guy in 2018 when the Suns drafted Deandre Ayton and Mikal Bridges, both are elite in their roles. In any number of the drafts before that, the Suns had taken players who have struggled to stay in the NBA.
And then before the 2020-21 season started, Jones started talking about an NBA championship.
“You have to have a vision,” Jones said. “The long-term goal is to win a title. The short-term goal is to win a game. And if you prepare every day to win games, that prepares you for the journey of winning a title.
“And it’s being intentional. Monty says a lot, ‘Everything counts. Every day counts. Every rep counts.’ It’s taking that approach of focusing on what is in front of us. What are we trying to accomplish in the next 15 minutes? The next half hour? The next hour? What are we trying to accomplish this day? This week?
“As long as we can stay focused on those small steps, knowing that if we string those small steps together … the rest will take care of itself.”
He was setting himself up for failure, talking about winning a title with a franchise that hadn’t so much as been to the playoffs since the days of landline telephones and shopping malls.
But this time no one was laughing. They’d made that mistake before. And by the end of the season, the Suns were rising toward one of the best records in the NBA.
But what would you expect from team put together by a guy they call “Champ”?