As a former denizen of the hoops hotbed that is Prince Georges County, Maryland I can say that I absolutely love PG County and basketball.
However, nobody seems to love PGs as much as Jeff Hornacek and the Phoenix Suns. Hornacek played with great point guards such as John Stockton and Kevin Johnson throughout his pro career, but he may never have played with as many as are on his current roster during his entire career. After years of riding Steve Nash’s aging body into the ground, the Suns have stocked up on young point guards like they’re an endangered species.
Last season, the Suns starting backcourt consisting of Eric Bledsoe and Goran Dragic was successful enough to finish with 48 wins despite an injury to Bledsoe forcing him to miss a good chunk of the regular season.
The Suns cleared significant cap space hoping it would be an allure for Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James, if they were truly committed to playing with one another. Bledsoe, who was nicknamed Baby LeBron and is represented by James’ agent and high school buddy Rich Paul was supposed to be a conduit to James. Obviously, that pipe dream never came to fruition.
Drafting Tyler Ennis was curious, but even more perplexing was the decision to complete a sign and trade for Sacrament’s pint-sized point guard Isiaiah Thomas.
The restricted free agent was sent off in a sign and trade after being inked to a four-year, $28 million contract. The Suns acquired Thomas in exchange for a $7 million trade exception and the right to the 57th pick in the 2013 NBA Draft Alex Oriakhi.
Adding their sixth point guard to a traffic jam at the position is excessive and perplexing.
It’ll be curious to see what type of impact, the Thomas deal has on Bledsoe’s restricted free agency. Bledsoe is highly coveted, but the expectation was that the Kings would match any offer sheet. However, the 5-7 Thomas averaged 20 points, 6.3 assists per game last season while dropping 45 percent from the field and was a sparkplug in the Kings moribund lineup.
What exactly Phoenix’s plan for all these point guards is anyone’s guess, but it’s safe to say that they’re gluttonous with point guards. Unless, there’s a grand plan in place involving trading some of these assets or the front office has Point guard OCD, this offseason sounds like it has been an unsuccessful one in terms of putting them in position to move up the Western Conference hierarchy.
