One of the more tired characterizations of the Suns over the past five or six seasons has been that the organization treats its players poorly and fails to communicate with them. While there have been several examples of such problems, most of it can be chalked up to the business of the NBA as for all other franchises. But when the Suns promoted James Jones in October to be the co-general manager of the team, it appeared one of the primary focuses of the change from Ryan McDonough to Jones was to improve communication.
In an interview this week with Suns beat writer Gina Mizell of The Athletic, communication was the biggest focus of Jones’ comments about the trade that sent Trevor Ariza to Washington, how that deal fell apart in its initial form and Phoenix’s eventual decision to waive the guard, Austin Rivers, who was the only constant in both versions of the trade.