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The Phoenix Suns have called a press conference for Tuesday morning to make what the team is calling a "major announcement." Multiple reports, including those from the Arizona Republic and SB Nation Arizona are confirming that the team will formally introduce former agent Lon Babby as the President of Basketball Operations at that time. Babby has been a highly-regarded agent in the business for years, touting a client list that features the likes of Tim Duncan and Ray Allen, as well as the Suns' very own Grant Hill. Babby had 11 NBA clients on his roster at the end of last season, all of which will have to be transferred to someone else for representation at the outset of his new position within the Suns organization.
The Repubic's report indicates that Babby will be an executive, and that the team will still move forward in hiring an actual General Manager. But either way, as our own Tom Ziller noted in an excellent earlier piece, bringing a former agent into the fold certainly blurs the lines -- especially in the case of the recent trade for Hedo Turkoglu.
Share Given the state of the Suns' roster after the departure of Amar'e Stoudemire to the Knicks in free agency, it's safe to say that Turkoglu doesn't exactly seem to be the best fit for the very obvious needs of the team.
The Suns have scoring galore; the last thing they need is another perimeter player who historically has needed to have the ball in his hands to create offense. Defense and rebounding would have been some nice pieces to go after, but instead, the team traded for Turkoglu -- a Lon Babby client, with an unappealing contract of over $44 million guaranteed over the next four seasons.
Suns owner Robert Sarver intentionally nickel-and-dimed Stoudemire out of town, offering just slightly less than a max deal, with performance incentives included in a contract that would not have been 100 percent guaranteed. He seemed to be doing the same thing with previous General Manager and President Steve Kerr, although Kerr officially left for "family" reasons and to take a more comfortable position as a broadcaster with TNT.
It's unclear exactly what kind of deal Babby was able to secure with the Phoenix franchise. But if nothing else, he's now crossed over from agent to executive with a fairly high-profile NBA team, and has managed to take care of at least one of his guys along the way -- in a deal that seems to be more in the favor of his former client than it is of his future organization.
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