Brian Gregory may have a single season of NBA front office experience on his resume, but the new Phoenix Suns general manager deserves a fair shot at producing.
ESPN’s Bobby Marks believes Gregory, who will be introduced at a Tuesday press conference, deserves the benefit of the doubt, even if the hire by Gregory’s former player, Suns owner Mat Ishbia, raised a few red flags.
“Listen, I think it kind of contradicts the owner, coming on and saying that there’s going to be big changes in the front office when you promote from within. You certainly want to give (Gregory) the benefit of the doubt,” Marks told Wolf & Luke Monday on Arizona Sports 98.7.
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“He’s not cut, I guess, in the NBA cookie-cutter GM role of people who have worked in a front office and kind of been there five or six years and worked their way up, maybe served as an apprentice.”
Marks knows it’s a bigger job than one man. Still on the Suns’ staff is assistant GM and cap expert Matt Tellem, who Marks worked with in his last front office job with the Brooklyn Nets.
A lack of a resume is also not an indictment on Gregory. But Marks knows that the new GM will need to nail the team’s third head-coach hire in the past three offseasons.
“You can’t go 0-for-3,” Marks said.
That and monumental roster decisions will either free the Suns from the second apron and give a team presumably reloaded around Devin Booker a fresh start or pin Phoenix into a corner for years to come.
“I think the concern with me is if the vision is from ownership or is the vision from Brian Gregory,” Marks said. “I think that’s the concern.
“If you had hired somebody from the outside, there probably would have been sweeping changes to the front office and sweeping changes to the roster. I just get concerned that basically what the roster ended with is what you’re going to see, minus maybe we see a Kevin Durant trade. Of course, you’re probably going to see something with Bradley Beal (leaving), perhaps.”
So what would Bobby Marks do if he were leading the Suns into this offseason?
If we’re making the assumption the Suns will retain Devin Booker and trade Durant to reboot the roster, the former executive would hope Phoenix can check three boxes: add draft equity, rookie contracts and defensive-minded personalities.
A Durant deal could provide all of that, even if the return isn’t expected to be close to what the Suns gave up to add him from Brooklyn.
Houston (five tradeable firsts in the next seven years) and San Antonio (three picks in the top 38 this year) are teams whom the Suns could hope to interact with in a Durant trade, Marks said.
While picks are important for a team that has traded as much as humanly possible in the Durant and Beal deals, Booker presumably being on the team means taking players back is important to keep Phoenix competitive.
Marks believes eyeing players on controllable rookie deals is a necessity. The Rockets have quite a few of those players, though the ESPN analyst doesn’t see a world where Phoenix would be lucky enough to pry Amen Thompson away.
Jalen Green, Jabari Smith, Reed Sheppard, Tari Eason and Cam Whitmore, however, could be on the table in a Durant-centric deal.
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