Phoenix Suns Have Struggled Since Colangelo's Have Left

Jerry Colangelo sold the Phoenix Suns (among other teams) to Robert Sarver in the spring of 2004. 

Colangelo is without question the preeminent figure in Arizona sports history.  He ran the Suns for nearly 40 years, and brought the Diamondbacks into existence, along with the first championship Arizona has ever seen in 2001.

Bryan Colangelo was the teams GM when Sarver bought the Suns, and remained in that position until leaving for the Toronto Raptors in February of 2006. 

Bryan had been the Suns GM for 11 years, and in 2005 won the NBA Executive of the Year award. 

On a side note, while researching Bryan Colangelo I discovered he went to Cornell University.  As one of my favorite characters from the TV show “The Office”, Andy Bernard would say, “I went to Cornell, ever heard of it?”  So not only are the Suns losing out on a Colangelo, but also a Cornell grad.

What would happen now to the Suns who were without a Colangelo making decisions for the first time in nearly 40 years? 

Well the Suns didn’t panic, and Coach Mike D’Antoni assumed the role of the General Manager and he and other high ranking officials made the personnel decisions. 

Let’s take a look at some of these decisions and see how they turned out.  First of all, the draft of 2006 was a complete and utter disaster. 

The Suns had the 21^st and 27^th picks in the first round.  In desperate need of a point guard to back up Steve Nash, it appeared the Suns had lucked out with three appealing options available. 

Not wanting to pay the money to a first round pick, the Suns traded both picks and passed on Rajon Rondo—who I think has turned out well for Boston—Marcus Williams and Jordan Farmar among others. 

They also could have taken European star Sergio Rodriguez and left him in Europe for awhile, and not had to worry about his cap number.

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