Robert Sarver evaluates Phoenix Suns GM Lance Blanks
Jan 23, 2013, 7:20 PM | Updated: 7:23 pm
Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver did a wide-ranging interview with Burns and Gambo on Arizona Sports 620 Wednesday and answered many tough questions about a season that has seen his team go 13-28 (last in the Western Conference) and his head coach, Alvin Gentry, fired.
Many Suns fans are questioning the plan for rebuilding the franchise that general manager Lance Blanks is executing stemming from the firing of Gentry and the hiring of player development coordinator Lindsey Hunter as interim head coach.
John Gambadoro asked Sarver when the job his GM is doing will be evaluated. Here’s Sarver’s response:
Everybody in the organization is evaluated on an annual basis and on a regular basis. That’s something we do with everyone in the company. Lance has a very good eye for talent. One of his main jobs right now is going to be in the draft, to try and get the best talent we can. We do a draft rating before every draft — we list the top 20 players in order that we think we would pick them in. I get a chance to go back and look at that a year or two later, see the results and check the list. He’s been good with the draft. I think that’s a real strength of his.
Sarver then did offer up an area where he believes Blanks needs improvement.
The biggest weakness of Lance Blanks is that he’s not good at public relations, but that’s not his job. Yeah, I’d like him to be a little better. I wish he’d spend a little bit more time with you guys, so you give him a fair shake, but his job is to put together a basketball team. That’s his job and I think he knows how to do that and I think he’ll do a good job with it.
