As the 2-year anniversary of the James Jones era approaches, I thought it would be interesting to look back at how he has travelled.
Here's a look at every move Jones has made thus far:
Key Moves in Isolation
October 15th, 2018: Waives Shaq Harrison - D
This one burns, not just because Shaq Harrison is a fan favourite, but because Jones had the opportunity to keep him, but decided to waive him in favour of keeping Isaiah Canaan. After 503 uninspiring minutes for us, Canaan was waived just a few months later. Shaq on the other hand was picked up by Chicago, played over 1,000 minutes for them in 18/19 and was a solid rotation piece for them in 19/20. Obviously not a swing move, but depth we missed out on none the less.
October 16th, 2018: Signs Jamal Crawford - F
One of the most destructive moves in recent history. Jamal may or may not have been a good influence on the team off the court, but on the court, he was undoubtedly one of the worst players in the league. For perspective, using RAPTOR as a base, over a sample of 1,679 players from 13/14 to 18/19 Jamal's D in 18/19 ranked dead last (by a fair margin), and overall, he was 7th last.
December 17th, 2018: Trades Trevor Ariza for Kelly Oubre Jr. and Austin Rivers - A+
Yes, he may have lucked into the deal in a sense, but this is a rare win for Jones! Kelly has, and shapes to continue to be, an important part of this team. To get anything, let alone a player of Oubre’s calibre for Ariza deserves praise.
February 6th, 2019: Trades Ryan Anderson for Tyler Johnson and Wayne Ellington - C
On the surface this trade seems like a win. We got a guy capable of playing for a guy that wasn’t. The cap ramifications of this trade however cannot go unnoticed (more on this later).
April 22nd, 2019: Fires Igor Kokoskov - C
Kokoskov was no doubt a great basketball mind. He got dealt a horrible hand and lost his job as one of the many victims of Jones clearing house.
May 3rd, 2019: Hires Monty Williams - C
Great bloke, excellent short-term option – tangible coaching ability was always questionable, and he did nothing to dispel that. Was brought in as a culture guy and delivered, not sure he can do the same on the court, in the playoffs, when it matters. You’re also asking for trouble with a 5-year contract.
June 20th, 2019 (Draft Day): Trades Pick 6 for Dario Saric and Pick 11 - C
Dario is all but gone – this was a very real possibility when the trade was made, and essentially means we traded the 6th overall pick in the draft for 1,441 fairly mediocre minutes and the 11th overall pick. Cam has delivered as you would expect any 23-year-old shooter would but can’t help but think we missed an opportunity at 6 (Culver, White, Reddish) but also at 11 (Clarke, Herro, PJ).
June 20th, 2019 (Draft Day): Trades the Bucks 2020 1st for Aron Baynes and Pick 24 - C
A strange trade at the time, especially given it was expected Baynes would be waived. Ultimately Baynes stayed, and thus a new fan favourite was born. Ty was a questionable pick given the amount of guards we already had, whilst as a net, this trade added over $7.5million to our cap sheet.
June 20th, 2019 (Draft Day): Trades TJ Warren and Pick 32 for Cash Considerations - F
Whilst there were concern fits at the time, paying to get rid of a clearly productive player is inexcusable. Pick 32 was later flipped into 3 future 2nds by Indiana, whilst Warren led them in scoring and was a major component in what was a team that won 60% of their games. Truly horrendous move by Jones.
July 3rd, 2019: Lets Richaun Holmes walk - F
Jones was all in on shooting, and after trading for Aron Baynes, he let Holmes go. Holmes landed in Sacramento for the MLE, which we used on Frank Kaminsky. Pretty easy decision on which one I’d rather have on my team.
July 7th, 2019: Trades Josh Jackson, De’Anthony Melton, an unprotected 2020 2nd and a protected 2021 2nd for Jevon Carter and Kyle Korver - F
Jevon is a nice bloke, but the reality is, that he was a core part of our bench and backup guard problem. Melton on the other hand, was a core piece to one of the best benches in the league. Jackson returned late in the season after serving his penance in the G-League and looked more like the guy people thought we were getting when he was drafted 4th overall. Ultimately, we gave up a core rotation player and a solid wing, as well as two 2nd round picks, for some sub-par backup PG minutes from Jevon.
July 8th, 2019: Signs Ricky Rubio to a 3yr $51million contract - B
Whilst not his first option (and thank god he didn’t get his 1st option), Jones got a PG, which at the end of the day was all that mattered (unless you were on the Point Book train). Reasonable contract, missed out on some bigger fish like D’Lo, but solid.
July 16th, 2019: Signs Kelly Oubre to a 2yr $30million contract - B
Jones was in a tough place here. Give Kelly a long-term deal and risk his late season form not continuing or play it safe and risk Kelly improving further and pricing himself out of Phoenix. Ultimately this probably didn’t pay off, however at the time, it was completely reasonable.
Ultimately, of the 13 moves I've subjectively classified as key, Jones received 1 A, 2 Bs, 5 Cs, 1 D and 4 Fs. Not exactly setting the world on fire.
Failure to Acquire Fringe Talent
Here is the complete list of players Jones has signed to 2-way, 10-day and minimum contract deals
Jamal Crawford
Jawun Evans
Eric Moreland
Quincy Acy
Emanuel Terry
Ray Spalding
Jimmer Fredette
Jalen Lecque
Jared Harper
Cheick Diallo
David Kramer
Norense Odiase
Tariq Owens
Jonah Bolden
Cameron Payne*
Excluding Cameron Payne, that’s 0/14
None of these acquisitions in isolation are bad, but to not hit on a single one is concerning. Some of the blame can be attributed to the coaching staff and opportunities, but with teams such as Miami and Toronto (just to name a few) benefiting immensely from fringe moves, this missed depth was a huge factor in how poor our season was.
Holistic View to Jones' Off-Season Moves
When looking at our off-season moves individually, it is clearly shambolic. Which is why the response of a lot of suns fans to this criticism, is too look at things as a whole and the reasons behind why Jones made said moves.
On draft night we made 3 moves, the final result being:
In: Aron Baynes, Dario Saric, pick 11 (Cameron Johnson), pick 24 (Ty Jerome) and Cash
Out: TJ Warren, pick 6 (Jarrett Culver, Coby White etc), pick 32 (On traded for 3 future 2nds from Miami) and the Bucks 2020 1st
In total, this netted us just $2,359,770 in cap space.
As Free Agency rolled around just over a week later, we unofficially signed Rubio to a 3yr $51 million deal, ascending with maximum 5% raises and a first-year salary of $16,190,476.
However, we had the minor issue of not being able to afford such a contract, and thus moves needed to be made before the ‘real’ start of Free Agency. The chosen move was to dump Josh Jackson, De’Anthony Melton, an unprotected 2020 2nd and a protected 2021 2nd for Jevon Carter and Kyle Korver (who we waived immediately), saving us $4,619,480 in cap space.
Ultimately, Jones burned through a tonne of assets, for very little in return. So, what could he have done differently?
Option 1 dates back to February 6th of that year. In moving Ryan Anderson for Tyler Johnson and Wayne Ellington, we took on an extra $3,601,620 in salary for 19/20. Johnson gave us 921 poor to mediocre minutes, before being waived in February, whilst Ellington never set foot on the court for us.
As such, in the off-season, we could have simply stretched JJ for a manageable cap hit of $2,353,160 each year for 3 years. Alternatively, if you’re a believer in JJ like I am, we could have stretched Anderson like Miami did, resulting in a $5,214,583 cap hit for 3 years, which again is pretty manageable in my mind.
Option 2 is much simpler. Say the Johnson deal still goes ahead, simply stretching Tyler would have been enough to open up the cap space. Admittedly at the cost of $6,415,123 per year for 3 further years, but still a fairly manageable figure.
By following either of these routes, all the draft night trades as well as the Jackson/Melton dump would not have been needed and we would have had the cap to sign Rubio.
Essentially, we’d have our backup PG problem that troubled us all season solved in Melton, whilst our bench scoring needs would be fixed through Warren.
Obviously no Baynes hurts on a personal level, though using our MLE on retaining Holmes instead of going after Frank would have filled our backup 5 minutes just as well.
Essentially it comes down to this, which group would you prefer:
Group A: TJ Warren, De’Anthony Melton, Josh Jackson, Richaun Holmes, pick 6 (Culver, White etc), pick 32 (which we could have also on-traded to Miami), Bucks 2020 1st, unprotected 2020 2nd and a protected 2021 2nd
Group B: Aron Baynes, Dario Saric, Tyler Johnson, Ty Jerome, Jevon Carter, Frank Kaminsky, Cam Johnson and Kyle Korver
Think it’s an incredibly easy decision to go with group A, as that group added to the rest of our roster borders on .500 in my opinion.
Just to cover all the bases, Jones’ desire to clear ship is valid for explaining why he did what he did, but that doesn’t make his actions right or validate the moves he made. If that’s all you were going to get for Warren, don’t move him for example. In short, his asset management was deplorable, and it legitimately set us back in our rebuild.
Understandably everything looks easier in hindsight, but the thing here, is that a lot of this was predictable. Although few and far between, there were people that saw Melton’s talent and weren’t happy with the move. There were also people concerned with the added cap hit from the Tyler Johnson trade.
Ultimately, I think he has done an awful job as GM thus far, and I don’t have a lot of faith in him turning it around.