Why Phoenix Suns GM Brian Gregory didn’t ease fans’ worries

Why Phoenix Suns GM Brian Gregory didn’t ease fans’ worries

Wol, let’s uh let’s start though actually with the uh the Phoenix Suns and the Brian Gregory introductory press conference yesterday. Just your general reaction before we start playing some of these cuts. Yeah, you know, for the most part, uh just coming into this press conference means it’s a no-win situation. It was a no-win situation for him. Suns fans are angry and rightfully so. They’re upset about the situation and what has happened right here. Um, he could have been brilliant, Luke. Brilliant. Absolutely won the press conference and it doesn’t matter. True. And he could absolutely have stunk join up then the worst possible hire ever at a press conference. And that doesn’t matter either because what matters is are they going to win more games going forward under Brian Gregory. Yeah. And you know what matters. He’s he’s in a tough spot in the sense of they’re probably not going to win a ton of games this first year anyway or whatever, however you want to refer to this upcoming year. I mean, I guess it depends what they do this offseason if they they could go in a million different directions, but there’s a pretty good chance that they’re not going to like win the NBA title next year. Let’s put it that way. Okay. So, that would have been the case with any GM, but when you hire a GM that everybody’s looking and saying, “Oh, okay. That’s just cuz Matt Ishbia knows him.” You’re right. It’s kind of a no-win situation uh out of the gates, especially at a press conference. There’s nothing he could have said that would have made everybody feel like, “Oh, this is definitely going to work.” Um I don’t know. I I I’m torn on this cuz I want it to work. Yeah. I didn’t hear a whole lot yesterday that made me think, “Oh, okay. We’re good. We, you know, I mean, it’s just it was a lot of talk about alignment.” Honestly, it was Do you feel aligned today? Yes. You know, the alignment thing, too. I’m with you on that. Uh okay, that’s great. there there’s a consensus I think in the front office I think that’s what he was trying to say and that’s great what is that consensus what what is that alignment what does that alignment mean right there Luke that is the question that we’re all wondering right now to me again he was in a very very difficult situation kind of a no-win situation because you can’t say enough to fix anything at this point in time you can’t do it you’re not going to win the press conference and suddenly fix the Phoenix Suns. But see, now this is this is where this gets tougher for him than it maybe would be for an established GM. I’ll use Bob Myers as as the example, but that’s almost unfair cuz that’s the full other extreme of like everybody would just assume everything’s going great with Bob Myers, but you know, whatever. Just a a GM that has done this job for 5 10 years or whatever, everybody would start judging him once the season started. and probably even realistically maybe give him a little bit of a buffer zone into next season because there’s a pretty good chance this off seasonason consists of getting rid of Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant in addition to a new coach and all all the movement that we already know about that that has to happen with this team. But because it’s Brian Gregory and because he doesn’t have experience and because really for the most part and they kind of leaned into this yesterday, most of his credentials for this job at least optically seem to be his connection to Matt Ishpia. I feel like he’s already being judged. He was being judged during like today. Like why aren’t you guys winning games today basically? No, you’re exactly right. Um, listen, it’s opportunity and experience. I love that right now. Opportunity and experience. This is what a general manager deals with. For the most part, Bob Myers, if they would have hired Bob Meyers and brought him in here, if things didn’t go well, it it wouldn’t be because of experience. It would be because, well, he just doesn’t have the opportunity to fix things. Exactly. Okay. Now, with Brian Gregory, it’s totally different. It’s because he doesn’t he doesn’t have the experience to fix things. That’s the automatic exit button for each guy. Well, for Bob Myers, he doesn’t have the opportunity. For Brian Gregory, he doesn’t have the experience if it goes bad. That’s the uphill battle he faces. And that is right. That is the uphill battle that he faces. Well said by you. No. Uh he he spoke yesterday at the press conference and one of the things he said and I thought this was interesting. He was not shy to the fact that his relationship with Matt Ishpia is why he’s the GM of this team. Now I’m never going to shy away from the fact that one of the reasons I’m sitting up here is because of my relationship with Matt Ishbia. But that relationship is founded on that alignment, shared values, shared work ethic. um we’ve been through a lot together, you know, and he trusts me and I trust him and he has empowered me with this responsibility of executing the vision that we’ve put forth. Our we share the same vision of what our team needs to look like and how we need to play and how how that can lead to successful teams. Your favorite part of the press conference right there for me just that he was honest about it. Exactly what I’m talking about right now. Yeah, absolutely. Um I understand I am I am friends with Matt Ishbia. We trust each other. Did you hear that? Yeah. How many times do you think you’ve actually heard a general manager, a guy that was just hired to be the general manager say, you know what, we trust each other. That’s what we have. This is a great thing. We trust each other. It typically doesn’t work that way at the highest level our species can generate based on audience. It does not. The way that it works is, man, this guy is going to be able to fix our team. And because he’s going to be able to fix our team, and man, he’s going to look really good in front of the camera and he’s going to win the press conference. We’re going to hire this guy right here because that’s what’s going to happen. Not because we have any trust between it. What are you talking about trust? I’m paying you money. You do the job. Period. You don’t hear it an awful lot at general manager press conferences. We trust each other. And once again, I’ve been talking about this. This could be real change, Mason Ernes, or it could blow up in their face. Yeah, it’s kind of an all or nothing. It’s an all or nothing. It is, Luke. It’s a good way to frame it. It’s all or nothing. I understand why people are caught up in the Okay, he got this job just because he knows Matt is. I I understand that. And you’re right. Yeah. No, I mean, he just said it. He said you’re right. But I I understand why if you’re a Suns fan that’s frustrating to you or it’s concerning or whatever the emotion is. That’s a negative emotion. For me, it’s more just the lack of experience thing. I don’t care as much about, okay, he got this job because he knows Matt Ishbia. It’s more just like if he had been a GM in this league for 5 years and then he got this job because he knows Matt Ishbia. I wouldn’t really be that concerned. It’s just the learning on the job with everything that’s on the line this summer. It’s just not the right in my mind, it’s not the right time to do that. It doesn’t mean it can’t work. I’ll keep saying this. It doesn’t mean it can’t work. It’s Matt is obviously a very successful businessman. There’s no way that he thought that press conference yesterday was going to win everybody over. He knows they have to win and it’s his money and it’s his team and obviously he wants to win. He’s shown that in the last two years. But it’s it’s the it’s the it’s not even relative lack of experience. It’s the lack of experience on this job with everything that’s in front of him now. That’s what I’m deal that Brian Gregory is going to make right now is going to be an uphill climb for him cuz the tie is always going to go to the other like if if it if it doesn’t go right, it was his fault. Not only that, but every deal he’s trying to pull off with another general manager is going to be really really difficult because that other general manager is going, “Hey, listen. You got no experience at this. Are you kidding me, buddy? They’re going to try everything for everything they’re going to do. They’re going to try hard to get a lot more than what they would if the guy had a ton of experience. I’m glad you said that because that was one of the main thoughts that I had during the press conference yesterday. It was just like how are other GMs around the league much tougher. It doesn’t really matter how I perceive it. It matters how teams that like how does Houston’s GM perceive him now? So yeah, he’s going to have to work harder or just call Dallas cuz he could probably fleece them for somebody good. Thanks for watching Wolf and Luke. Tap to see more and click the button in the middle to subscribe to Arizona Sports.

Wolf & Luke give their impressions of Phoenix Suns GM Brian Gregory following his introductory press conference and the fan response to it.

Angst surrounding Suns’ future not eased by hiring of Brian Gregory: https://arizonasports.com/nba/phoenix-suns/suns-new-gm-angst/3583111/

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