The Phoenix Suns made plenty of changes this summer, trading TJ Warren and Josh Jackson to bolster this team with new pieces to turn over a new leaf. General manager James Jones, now in full-fledged capacity of his role in the front office, explained the reasons for the change.
“It’s just the maturation of a team,” he said, according to Kellan Olson of Arizona Sports 98.7 Radio. “When we looked at our team, we knew our two young building blocks were Devin (Booker) and Deandre (Ayton) and so every move we made after that was really to add guys that would complement and help them become better players.
“The guys that we moved on from are great players, they’re great talents — we wish them the best. But when you’re building a team you have to make tough decisions so we made decisions that we thought would help us and (added) proven guys that would help us.”
The Suns were already thinking of moving on from Jackson by the time they acquired Kelly Oubre Jr. in a trade with the Washington Wizards that sent veteran Trevor Ariza to the nation's capital.
The two would battle it out for the next half of the season, with Oubre coming out as the obvious choice to keep as the two headed to pivotal points in free agency. Oubre was bound to become restricted this offseason, while the Suns doubted Jackson would merit a club option in the near future, making that a rather easy decision to make.
Warren was the longest-tenured member of the roster and a capable scorer, but his inability to create for others beyond himself and his lack of defense were a poor fit for a player that just had to complement Devin Booker's style of play.
Those two deals facilitated Ricky Rubio's signing, who the front office hopes will be the point guard Booker needs to help this team make some waves.
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