The Suns and senior vice president of basketball operations Jeff Bower have parted ways, as relayed by Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic. Bower originally joined the franchise back in 2019.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to have been part of the organization,” Bower said. “We are proud of the progress and accomplishments achieved on the court over the past two seasons. I look forward to other opportunities and projects that are in the future.”
Phoenix constructed a title-contending team this season after going just 19-63 two seasons ago, a remarkable turnaround for the franchise. The re-shaping of the roster largely had to do with general manager James Jones, Bower and others.
“Jeff’s impact on the franchise has been immeasurable,” Jones said. “He helped lay the foundation for our success. We are extremely thankful.”
There’s more from the Pacific Division tonight:
- Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype explores how the Lakers could execute a valuable sign-and-trade this offseason. Los Angeles is seeking a guard this offseason that can lower the workout for LeBron James, who’s set to turn 37 in December. The team has shopped Kyle Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to many clubs in recent weeks, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (video link).
- Jason Jones of The Athletic examines how Kuzma could fit with the Kings if a potential deal was finalized. The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported on Sunday that Los Angeles and Sacramento have discussed a deal involving Buddy Hield and Kuzma.
- The Suns are hiring Bryan Gates as an assistant coach on Monty Williams‘ staff, Wojnarowski reports (via Twitter). Gates will replace Willie Green, who left to accept a head coaching job with the Pelicans earlier this month. Gates worked for Williams in New Orleans from 2010-15.
The team has pitched Kyle Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
Maybe the Lakers should hire Tatsumaki. If you want crap trade ideas that only benefit LeBron James he’s your guy.
Both la teams an nets have a total lack of trade assets to make a big move ! At least you don’t get joke trade ideas from the clippers and nets they know they don’t have a star trade left to make ! But lakers and fans feel entitled to a trade for a star while giving up stuff they hate or don’t like , like who wants to sign and trade for the right to over pay Dennis Schroeder .? He’s not any good
Russell Westbrook isn’t exactly in high demand. He is a volatile player who is on in Washington as a result of a bad contract swap. Only the Rockets were dumb enough to give up major assets to acquire him.
Wizards hope the Lakers can help them save money in the Westbrook deal so that they can rebuild earlier than expected
This would take out 3 Lakers
Schroeder
Horton Tucker
Kuzma
These players will be huge burden for Wizards in the future
This trade idea save money for Wizards
Wizards get Rubio, Beasley, Culver, Juan, Wolves 2023 First and Lakers 22
Wolves get Schroeder, Tucker and Kuzma
Lakers get Westbrook
After the deal, Lakers 5 players and Deng salary $150 million
Wolves hard pass
Unfortunately for Laker fans the Lakers biggest issue is the Warriors have Klay Thompson returning and have assets to improve their team through the draft or trade the picks for help.
Lakers don’t really have much room to improve enough nor do they have assets to improve via trade.
Klay Thompson won’t make that much more of an impact next season than John Wall did last season. He is barely 8 months removed from a ruptured Achilles injury suffered right after he had just recovered from a torn ACL. Only the most Marty-istic of Warrior fans can possibly expect Klay to be anything close to 100% for the 2021-22 season.
Look at Kevin Durant, how many games did he miss last season? He had a much longer recovery period from the exact same injury people are expecting Klay to magically recover from in record time.
Big difference between Klay and Wall … Klay can shoot , Wall’s game is based on his agility & speed …
Get over it guys, if any team trades with the Lakers you will hate on it. If it happens, blame the GM of the other team. Nobody else is responsible.
Westbrook to LA …. I want to see that. He can keep Bron fresh till playoffs. It’s looking like Washington will go full rebuild. Always said this is the draft to do it.
I agree Westbrook to LA would be either great basketball or great drama, fans win both ways, but isn’t THT and 2nd round picks all anyone can trade? Schroeder isn’t a tradeable to rebuilding team asset, and his contract demands seem high
Who will keep Westbrook fresh? He didn’t exactly play a full season…I’ll wait
if brodie can play 90% of the games again this season like he did last, he’ll keep everyone fresh while he goes 100 every second he’s on the court.
Lil D….. does the name LeBron James ring a bell?
KCP at least is a 3&D. Kuzma is just terrible. But I guarantee there’s some GM that thinks he’d be an upgrade over someone on their current roster. May be after they’ve had a few drinks but there’s always 1 guy that’s trying to get fired.
They could S&T THT for a trade exception. Same with Schroeder. So there’s a couple ways they could end up with a net positive player.
I think Kuzma is a good player but just isn’t finding his niche with LeBron. If he gets traded, which seems likely, I think he’ll end up putting up some solid numbers somewhere where he’ll be more of a focal point on offense.
I am not a fan of Kuzma, but he certainly is capable of putting up good numbers. That would only happen, however, on a bad team with no hope of making the playoffs. I really hope the Lakers trade him. His value goes down every year, so the sooner he is gone, the better.
Then again, Kuzma had plenty of time to showcase his potential talent last season with both Lebron and Davis sidelined with injuries and failed to step up. Also, I doubt going to a bad team which may focus more on him would improve his defense, which is mediocre at best.
Yeah I suppose you’re right, it would’ve been nice for him to step up and keep us out of the play-in game last year but he really didn’t find that extra gear. I had higher hopes for him as our 3rd option but he definitely didn’t live up to that role
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Best comment on the thread
So much grandiose in here it’s sickening lol.
Who the hell wants Kuzma and KCP? Or even Schroeder? It’s always funny to see these big market teams and their sycophants in the media hype potential trades that only ever benefit them.
According to Woj -ESPN
Lakers are interested in Rubio if they lose Schroeder
My trade idea
Lakers get Rubio and Beasley and future Second
Wolves get Kuzma and KCP and 22
That’s a decent trade we like in Minnesota but we are not giving up Beasley,we will give up rubio,Culver or okogie,and layman plus a 2nd rounder next season for pick 22 this year and kuzma ,kcp
Kuzma is so garbages. Makes me mad knowing they will unload him for a good player in return
Garbages? We don’t need no stinking garbages!
Pelinka sucks at talent evaluations.
Player agents just sign everybody.
He’s lost as a GM