Suns Fire General Manager Lance Blanks

Blanks

On April 22nd 2013 it was announced that Lance Blanks, the Phoenix Suns General Manager would part ways with the organization after a few rough years under his leadership. Lance Blanks, like his name he is blank of good ideas. The Suns are coming off a year that saw them have their worst record since they were an expansion team in 1968-69 where they went 16-66, which is expected from an expansion team. This year they finished with an appalling record of 25-57, and finished dead last in the Western Conference. Many Suns fans, including myself, are obviously up in arms about this situation and want to see a return to the glory days of Charles Barkley, or more recently, Steve Nash. The front office of the Phoenix Suns has come under fire the past few years for making horrible decisions regarding the building of the team, and the cheapskate attitude that they have presented. The owner Robert Sarver is public enemy number one in Suns fans eyes right now. He has single handed turned this once great basketball organization into a sham, and many Suns fans are pleading with him to sell the team, and most would like to see the return of long time owner Jerry Colangelo.  Some of the Suns greatest seasons saw Jerry as the owner, and his son Bryan as the General Manager. Bryan Colangelo was the man who brought Steve Nash back, and seamlessly built a team that could compete for championships every year. Although this team never did win, it wasn't always our fault. Through rotten luck, and crooked referees, the Suns were never quite able to get over the championship hump.

Sarver

In the 04-05 season, which was Nash's first as the Suns star point guard, we saw a resurgence of run and gun basketball that was exciting and put the fans in the stands. The 8 seasons that Steve Nash played with the Suns were some of the best seasons the Suns organization has ever seen, and to go from this sort of play to the boring, uncoordinated play of the past few seasons has been hard to watch. Lance Blanks is most definitely at the forefront of these problems as he was the one who signed players who had no potential, and drafted players who were busts. He even traded our draft picks a few times simply for money, which for any basketball organization to do is a complete embarrassment. The picks that we've traded in recent years have resulted in players such as Rajon Rondo, Luol Deng, and Rudy Fernandez. These three players would have been benchmarks to our franchise, and could have helped us get over the championship hump, but instead we traded them for cash, or less talented players. We also have a knack for drafting less talented siblings. In 2008 we drafted Robin Lopez, a 7 foot center out of Stanford, who was always known for being in the shadow of his much more talented brother Brook, who was taken by the Nets earlier in the draft. Another example of this is when we drafted Taylor Griffin, who is Blake Griffin's less athletic and more bench warming brother.

Charles Barkley (rumored to be possible GM candidiate)

As a Suns fan I have to say I was ecstatic that Lance Blanks was finally fired. He has done nothing but make bad decisions since he became GM in 2010, and the records show that he has brought this team down to a very sub par level. Just about the only thing he did that made Suns fans happy was to bring Goran Dragic back to Phoenix after trading him away stupidly a few years prior. I'm not sure who should be the next GM, but I know he will do a better job than Blanks ever did. I think even I could do a better job than he did. It's very difficult to be a Suns fan right now, but I think if we are patient and use our draft picks wisely, we can be on top again someday and hopefully win our first championship sometime soon. The Suns are the most winning franchise in the NBA that do not have a championship banner hanging in their rafters. I would like to see our new GM change this. He or she has to come in with a mind set that it's going to be hard work and will take a few years, but if we are patient and make the right moves we will get there someday.