Phoenix Suns Media Session

[Xist2inspire]

Part I: After the draft.........

Xist2inspire, the Suns' skittish GM, walked out of the building and breathed a sigh of relief. Johnny, their owner, followed, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Relax, bro. It's over."

"Thank goodness. That was a nightmare. We went through every possible scenario, how did we not think of that one?"

Johnny shrugged. "Things happen bro. Just gotta roll with it."

"Oh yeah? You didn't have to go out there."

"Well fine then. I'll take the next one."

Xist smiled, and waved for a cab. "Media session?"

"Yep."

"Yup."

"Yuuuuup."

"Dang ol' yep." The two young men laughed as they stepped into the cab and rode off.

[Xist2inspire]

Part II: Suns and Suns accessories

It's a bit of a different vibe going around at this season's press conference. There's been far less drama this time around, some say relaxing, some say boring. Johnny, the Suns' laid-back owner (he'd finally learned how to chill but his GM was a different story), stepped in.

Johnny: Okay, let's get this started. There's really not much to say about last season. We came, we made the playoffs, we got swept. Hey, you win some, you lose some.

Most in the crowd have to stifle giggles. "Swept" was the politically correct term for what had happened to the Suns in the first round. "Royally f***** in the @$$" was the other, less tactful way to put it.

Johnny: Thanks to the luck of the draw, voodoo spells, and a sacred arcane ritual involving burning the basketball cards of a certain foul-mouthed ex-player of ours..........

A wave of laughter breaks out

Johnny: ......we ended up with the first pick.........RUDY GAY!

Cheers break out as Rudy walks out to receive his No. 22 jersey. Truth be told, few expected the Suns to keep that pick, given their recent history of draft-day deals.

Rudy: Hey, everybody. I'm really truly honored to be here.

Johnny: Our bodies are ready. Bring on the questions.

[coltsguy510]

Rudy, how do you expect to be used as a Sun? And Johnny, what do you expect your starting five and sixth man to be?

[Xist2inspire]

Rudy: Well, I came in expecting to challenge Luol for the starting job. I mean, you might as well aim high, right? But when Xist started talking to me during pre-draft workouts, he kept on asking me about how much I felt my athleticism was a part of my game. So from that, I'm guessing that I'm gonna play a lot of different roles right off the bat. It's cool though, whatever helps the team, y'know?

Johnny: Yeah, we do need help........ummm......the best thing about drafting Rudy is that he completes our rotation. We still have a few options we want to pursue, but for the most part, we're done. Hell, let's bring them out!

The crowd's a bit stunned, they thought this was just a hastily done kinda thing, not a full-fledged conference.

Johnny: Number #11, Jake Tsakalidis!

A small smattering of boos can be heard. In most fans' eyes, the Suns basically traded LaMarcus Aldridge for Tsak.......and that kinda makes a few of them bitter.

Johnny: Number #21, David West! Number #2, Luol Deng! Number 15, Vince Carter! And Number 14, Jameer Nelson!

Johnny: And it should come as no surprise that we have two 6th men this season, since we did the same last season. Returning to his role as our combo guard, Number 12, Devin Harris!

Devin comes out, muttering under his breath. He still hasn't gotten over the fact that he's basically been a 6th man in his short tenure with the Suns. Plus, he misses Tony Allen. If you ask him that though, he'll vehemently deny it.

Johnny: Well now Rudy, time to know your role........

The crowd braces themselves for a bad wrestling reference. Johnny smirks.

Johnny: .......as our....ummm......"combo forward?"....Is that even a legit term?.....umm.....okay, let's recap:

C) Jake Tsakalidis, #11
PF) David West, #21
SF) Luol Deng, #2
SG) Vince Carter, #15
PG) Jameer Nelson, #14

6th men:

PG/SG Devin Harris, #12
SF/PF Rudy Gay, #22

Johnny: Okay, next?

[ItsPaulyP]

Jon Snow, WSN, do you feel like your team can compete with the other powerhouses of the western conference? If not how long do you think it will take to reach that peak?

Also, how available is Vince Carter? If things go sour will you implant Gay and ship your older veteran?

[Conroy]

SportsGuy Bill Simmons here, I'd like to get your opinion on the same question I asked the Sonics GM. What are your thoughts on both the #1 and #2 draft picks coming off the bench. Was the overall talent weak, the situations they both came into unique, usually picks that high are franchise changing starters.

[The JNR]

As your starting lineup and bench rotation through 7 players is pretty much set, do you have a goal in mind for shoring up depth in free agency? What positions do you think would help you contend most?

[Xist2inspire]

Johnny: My god......questions.......questions everywhere.........

*he lets out a deep breath and begins*

Johnny: Mr. Snow, we try to keep things realistic around here. We have overestimated ourselves in the past, and that has led to some terrible seasons. We were considered a dark-horse competitor last season, but we faltered down the stretch, thus proving that we hadn't quite reached that status yet. This season, we are enacting a new gameplan and letting a rookie be our 6th man. We are still experimenting. We do expect to make the playoffs and win a game, but we're still a season or two away from truly being considered a powerhouse. Call us back about that if we re-sign all our guys later.

Johnny: And Vince can speak for himself.

Vince: Well, I've only spent one season here in the desert, but I've kinda grown to like it here. Um, we had one of the most successful regular seasons in a while, and we expect to build on that. If I don't perform up to par, yeah, I guess I'll be on the block, that's just the way things are done around here. But as the leader of our team, it's my job to make sure that doesn't happen.

Johnny: And as for Rudy, we don't want to throw too much on his shoulders. Even if things go bad, we should probably just take our lumps and sit still rather than sell the farm. Hey, at least we'll have our pick!

Laughter breaks out, as everybody remembers the dreaded "Dwight season," where the team, fresh off a playoff run, went "splat," and they didn't own their 1st round pick. It resulted in Dwight Howard getting selected at #1 with their pick and an extreme makeover that, strangely enough, led to this team being formed.

Johnny: Hey there Sportsguy! I don't see J. Felders anywhere around, so I guess you're standing in for him.

Bill Simmons: He's looking for land in Florida, he hates Arizona.

Johnny: Oh, trust us, we know.........anyway, this was just an odd draft. There is nothing wrong with the caliber of the top 6 picks, they definitely have the potential to be franchise-changers. But, the wrong teams got the high picks. We really didn't need these guys to be franchise-changers. I know for a fact that it was almost expected of us to draft Brandon Roy. But, since drafting him would mean a complete and sudden overhaul of our plans, we went with our intended target, Gay. So yeah, this has most certainly been a unique situation, one that I don't ever expect to be repeated.

Johnny: Now, moving on to free agency.....we obviously need to get help at center. Size is a concern for us, as we're a bit of a tiny team. We're also a tad bit concerned about just how many minutes Rudy can give us in his rookie year.

Johnny: Basically, when you're in our position, you gotta start looking at possible injuries and stuff. Who can we sign that will give us depth in case someone in our tight rotation goes down? Who can step in and help? Those are the guys we'll be searching out in free agency.

*He sighs*

Johnny: Well that was a mouthful. Okay, anybody else?

[Xist2inspire]

Johnny: All righty then, now that we've had our first few questions and have introduced our main guys, let's bring out our two top offseason acquisitions!

Silence from the crowd. Seriously, who's gonna get excited over Tim Thomas & Jonathan Bender?

Johnny: Oooooookay...first off, we needed more bench support and someone to help Rudy adjust to the "combo forward" NBA role........so give a warm desert welcome to T2, the Terminator, Tim Thomas!

Only a few polite claps. J. Felders chuckles. "Terminator, huh? Yeah, he's a machine all right.....one that's in constant need of maintenance."

Johnny: Moving on.....we also needed some versatility at C, so say hello to the Fender Bender, Jonathan Bender!

This time, nothing. At all.

Johnny: We also picked up F Maurice Taylor and good ol' Cedric Ceballos.

Cheers for Cedric, a fan favorite throughout his two stints in Phoenix in the 90's.

Johnny: Let's recap......

FA/Offseason acquisitions:

F Tim Thomas, #20
C Jonathan Bender, #8
PF Maurice Taylor, #23
SG Cedric Ceballos, #1

Johnny: Okay, any more questions? Anyone?

[TrayWithAnA]

Johnny: All righty then, now that we've had our first few questions and have introduced our main guys, let's bring out our two top offseason acquisitions!

Silence from the crowd. Seriously, who's gonna get excited over Tim Thomas & Jonathan Bender?

Johnny: Oooooookay...first off, we needed more bench support and someone to help Rudy adjust to the "combo forward" NBA role........so give a warm desert welcome to T2, the Terminator, Tim Thomas!

Only a few polite claps. J. Felders chuckles. "Terminator, huh? Yeah, he's a machine all right.....one that's in constant need of maintenance."

Johnny: Moving on.....we also needed some versatility at C, so say hello to the Fender Bender, Jonathan Bender!

This time, nothing. At all.

Johnny: We also picked up F Maurice Taylor and good ol' Cedric Ceballos.

Cheers for Cedric, a fan favorite throughout his two stints in Phoenix in the 90's.

Johnny: Let's recap......

FA/Offseason acquisitions:

F Tim Thomas, #2
C Jonathan Bender, #24
PF Maurice Taylor, #23
SG Cedric Ceballos, #1

Johnny: Okay, any more questions? Anyone?

Wait...this is sim league. What is the meaning of these jersey numbers?

[Xist2inspire]

Wait...this is sim league. What is the meaning of these jersey numbers?

I'm just crazy like that, lol.

I love screwing around with players' numbers when I play Franchise mode in NBA video games. And it's fun actually visualizing what they'd wear if this was real life, at least for me it is. (For example, would Lebron wear #6 for the Bulls, or would Jordan allow him to wear #23? Or maybe he'd wear #45?)

Plus, it's another way I can put my large basketball card collection to use (That's how I discovered that Ceballos had two stints with Phoenix, and wore #23 and #1 during those times. And did you know that Luol Deng was originally drafted by the Phoenix Suns in real life?)

[Pelicans78]

How does training camp affect your rotations, mainly the PF? Will David West actually come off the bench?

[Xist2inspire]

Johnny: With all due respect to Maurice Taylor, who we hope can step in and produce if needed.............HELL NAW MO TAYLOR AIN'T STARTING! Sheesh.....the Tanking Police would be on me like black girls on a 75% off shoe sale.........

Johnny: Well, as far as training camp expectations, we originally thought that implementing our new balanced offensive focus would be easier. As it is, Rudy's rookie role looks to be larger than we originally thought, as he will start the season as the #3 scoring option off the bench. We hate to throw him in the fire so quickly........but let's see what we drafted.

[BallSoHard]

John Ireland: Joh Ireland here from L.A., you guys have done a great job rebuilding to a more conventional mold in terms of positions. what brewed that change for you guys? Where do you see yourself fitting into the Western conference Puzzle?

[Xist2inspire]

Johnny: Mr. Ireland, thank you for the compliments. As to what sparked this change, we were tired of losing, pure and simple. We were a franchise that lacked an identity, and were rather naive when it came to team-building. But we finally sat down, took a good, hard look at perennial contenders like New Orleans & the Lakers, and up-and-comers like Houston and Milwaukee, and we tried to determine a blueprint for ourselves based on those squads, and other teams as well. From the Lakers, we took flexibility and the foresight to seek out assets ahead of time. From Houston and Milwaukee, we took the strategy of identifying your core and sticking to it. From New Orleans, we learned the value of depth. Never be secure in your top 6 alone, make sure every player you acquire fits your gameplan so that they can fill in. Also, make sure that your plans never hinge on one player. If someone leaves, make sure you have someone who can immediately fill the void. And to those lessons, we added our own long-term financial planning to the mix. I speak for both myself and Xist when I say "Thank you" to all the GMs and owners we've been in contact with, as they have helped us grow a lot.

Johnny: Well, that was a mouthful......as far as where we stand in the Western Conference, we're two things:
A) A dark horse
B) Not going anywhere.
We're quite optimistic about our future, and feel that we've assembled a team durable enough to withstand losses in both the standings and on the roster. We have season-by-season plans ready, and have already begun scouting players for future drafts. We may never be a favorite to come out of the West, but for now, we are content to be the team lurking just behind, waiting for an opportunity.