It’s been two weeks since the Suns hired new senior vice president of basketball operations Jeff Bower, and we’ve yet to hear a word from him. The team promoted James Jones to the top of the organizational hierarchy in a surprise shakeup (we use that word loosely; nothing is a surprise in Phoenix), but it wanted a veteran front-office guy with NBA relationships to help things run smoothly.
Generally, you’d put that guy in front of the local media hacks for a few questions about the state of the team and his vision for where things are heading. But the Suns being the Suns, Bower has remained stashed away, presumably in his new office. Or in a janitor’s closet. We’d have no idea of knowing either way.
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Bower had a similar role as his current gig in Phoenix while he was in Detroit as Stan Van Gundy’s general manager, a job he accepted in 2014 after one year and a 12-19 record coaching Marist. With the Pistons, it can be assumed he was helping Van Gundy make personnel decisions, doing legwork on draft prospects and free agents.
Or maybe he was in his car playing Words With Friends. We don’t know, because Bower did not talk to the media much then, either.
Bower will have to come out of hiding soon, though, because the Suns announced late Monday night that they were firing coach Igor Kokoskov after just one season. Certainly, it was a miserable, 19-win season, but there were some rays of hope — Devin Booker continued to blossom, Kelly Oubre proved to be a keeper, No. 1 pick Deandre Ayton held his own and Mikal Bridges showed promise as a two-way contributor.
That probably should have been enough hope to warrant keeping Kokoskov around another year, or at least to see how the team started off next season.
But Jones and Bower are in, and Kokoskov is out. The Suns’ Robert Sarver continues to build his legacy as the NBA’s most fickle and infuriating owner. The team’s next coach will be the ninth in 16 seasons (including interim coaches) and the fourth in the last four years (Jeff Hornacek, Earl Watson, Jay Triano and Kokoskov).
The Suns will make a pitch for Monty Williams, who was hired by a group that included Bower in 2010 when Bower was running the New Orleans Hornets. Williams was a good pick on Bower’s part, though Bower was not around long to work with him — he was fired shortly after hiring Williams.
The guy Bower wanted most for that job was Tom Thibodeau, who wound up in Chicago. Perhaps if the Suns miss out on Williams, they could pursue Thibodeau, who would likely bring in Luol Deng and play Jamal Crawford 38 minutes a night. Oh, the fun the locals could have on Twitter with that.
The Suns have been a mess in recent years, and Bower’s zipped-lip approach isn’t helping. There is much to be explained here, and the more the franchise refuses to do the explaining, the worse the whole operation looks. And not many teams look worse these days.
Watson, for example, was not much of a coach. But he was fired three games into last season. That’s not how things are done in the NBA.
What?!
— Earl J Watson (@Earl_Watson) April 23, 2019
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Ryan McDonough gave Sarver plenty of reasons to fire him in recent years, but the Suns gave him the axe just eight days before this season started. McDonough had struggled to find a point guard for the team but, according to sources, was on the phone trying to complete a deal for a point guard when he got the call to tell him he’d been fired.
That’s not how things are done in the NBA. Or in any employment setting, really. Even "The Apprentice," after making contestants run scavenger hunts and construct faux ad campaigns, gave the process of firing some air of solemnity.
It’s entirely possible that Williams will look at what’s going on in Phoenix, will look at how both Kokoskov and Watson were handled, how the firing of McDonough went down, and decide to sign on elsewhere. He’ll be a top candidate for any job that opens.
Should that happen, the Suns will have pushed Kokoskov aside and be left scrambling for a replacement.
At some point, the team is going to hire a new coach, and like it or not, that will require a press conference. Some explanation as to what on earth is going on with the franchise will have to be proffered.
Who knows? Maybe Bower will even show up for that.