SUNS

Phoenix Suns already eager to get back on court

Paul Coro
PNI

The road to the NBA playoffs is complete and 16 teams have taken the turn for the road to the Finals.

General Manager Ryan McDonough (left), President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby (center), and coach Jeff Hornacek address the media at US Airways Center.

The Suns are staying the course, spending the next three months to form a Suns team that can take the road all the way to the playoffs next season.

Even the players seem so eager to get back at it that most of them expressed to Suns brass in interviews that they would spend much of the off-season in Phoenix.

"They said we want to work," Suns General Manager Ryan McDonough said. "With a few of them, we had to say, 'OK, we're going to refinish the floor. We suggest you take some time off.' And they said, 'Really do I have to?' That's pretty good. I've been around a lot of teams where you almost have to drag guys back into the gym in September. The fact that our guys want to be here reflects well on the culture that Jeff (Hornacek) and his staff established."

While the players work on self-improvement, the Suns front office will have the draft, trades and free agency for improvement.

A dash of luck would help on May 20, when the Suns have five chances out of 1,000 to get picked in the draft lottery for the top three spots. If they did, it would be double winnings because it would also bump Minnesota back one stop to No. 14, leaving the top-13 protection of the pick they owe the Suns and giving them four first-rounders overall.

More likely, the Suns will go to the May 15-16 draft combine with an eye on their possibilities at Nos. 14, 18, 27 and 50 but they are not likely to keep the three first-round picks for the June 26 draft. They brought in two first-round picks last year and McDonough said it is difficult to win and develop simultaneously. The Suns have almost $5 million in cap space at draft time.

"Our preference would be, like I've said since I arrived, would be to trade for a star if we could do that," McDonough said.

The free-agency time that begins July 1 can also be a high-trade time, like when the Suns were the aggressors in a three-team deal that brought Eric Bledsoe to Phoenix. The Suns' cap space can be as much as $20 million, although Bledsoe's and Tucker's deals would change that. The Suns plan to negotiate with both restricted free agents to try to reach a contract before they sign another team's offer sheet, which the Suns could still match to keep them.

"We've reached the point where we'd rather put ourselves in that elite group of contenders sooner rather than later," McDonough said. "Coming into the year, we all weren't sure how long that would take. Luckily, we've made a lot of progress and hopefully got closer to that elite group."

Having a player like Bledsoe locked up will help the Suns with other players. He has not said that he wants to stay with the Suns but the team believes he is just being advised to protect his market value.

"We think, one way or the other, he's going to be a Sun for a long time," McDonough said.

The Suns feel like they are a destination franchise again because of the front office, coaches and other staff, including athletic trainers and development coaches.

"We have a coach that I think every player in the league wants to play for," Suns President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby said. "We have one of the brightest, young executives as our general manager. Free agents when they come here will have faith that what we say will come true, both on and off the court. We're in a better place than we were.

"If I put my former agent hat on, where else would you rather go than the Phoenix Suns right now?"

At this point last year, the Suns were looking for a new general manager and then looking for a new head coach. Once they were in place, they had staffs to fill and work systems to set up. This off-season, they can be all about basketball.

"Hopefully, we can look back in a couple years and say, 'You know what? That started the run to this championship,' " Hornacek said of the past year. "That's the ultimate goal for all of us and you've got to start somewhere."