Phoenix Suns investing in player development to re-emerge in the NBA – NBA News
After the departure of Steve Nash, the Phoenix Suns are looking into an era of uncertainty in the coming seasons.
The Suns are not used to that since they have remained in the spotlight and in relevance in the Western Conference with Nash in the line-up. Now that he is gone, Desert City franchise is looking ahead at a long
rebuilding process to get them back into playoff contention, something that was a given over the past few seasons.
But instead of relying on big players and blockbuster trades and acquisitions, the Suns are relying on a new method of getting better, and that is focusing on the within and creating programs that will help nurture
and develop that talent into stars of the future.
The Suns are investing their time and energy into player development, with 17 year NBA veteran Lindsey Hunter being the coach in charge of player development. Hunter is already knee deep into the program and
is currently working on specific programs for the players to help them develop and move into the next stage.
“We’re trying to put together a system where we’re no longer looking for outside influences to create a better product. We want to do it right from the interior,” said Hunter while talking to Paul Coro of the
Arizona Republic.
Lance Blanks, the Suns General Manager, is also supporting the idea and is making plans to hire a former NBA big man to add to the player development staff and give the players more access to the training and
development staff.
“This is really important to me. It’s not something that was needed. What the organization was doing worked. It won at a very high level. Different personnel and situation. This will create a lot of continuity
between front office, coaches and training staff,” said Blanks.
The Suns did pick up some good talent in the offseason, acquiring free agent Goran Dragic and then picking up Luis Scola after the Houston Rockets used their amnesty clause on him to make cap space in hope of
signing All Star centre Dwight Howard.
Besides these two, the Suns have the 2008 number two pick Michael Beasley as well as solid point guard in rookie Kendall Marshall. Apart from Scola, these players can also greatly benefit from player development
as they are in the early parts of their career and if properly trained and developed, could rise to become the stars of the future for the Suns.
Phoenix have a long way to go before they can become true contenders in the Western Conference, like they were back when Nash and Amar’e Stoudemire were playing for them. However, all NBA franchises face this
at some point, and if they make the right decisions and more importantly persist with them, they can be back in relevance in the NBA within a few seasons.
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