The Miami Heat seemed interested in Jalen Smith at 20, but he went at 10 to the Suns. Phoenix has some explaining to do.
Phoenix Suns
Freaking Phoenix man! All they had to do was make the simple pick and take Tyrese Haliburton at 10, creating a beautiful three-guard lineup of Haliburton, Devin Booker, and CP3.
You also have the fact that although Chris Paul looked good last year and still appears to have at least two more of those seasons in him, they could have had their main ball handler for the next 12 years at least in Haliburton. CP3 can’t play forever.
It was right there! But the Suns got cute and took Jalen Smith out of Maryland.
Apologies to Maryland fans and Jalen Smith truthers out there. I like Jalen and I think he’s going to be a nice player, but it was the wrong pick at 10 for Phoenix.
All indications were that Phoenix made this pick because they were afraid that Aron Baynes would walk in free agency. Again, Smith has major potential but it’s just that at 10, it was a bit of a reach.
It’s hard to not like Jalen Smith though. He was a walking double-double at Maryland during his sophomore season, while also garnering an appearance on the All-Big Ten first team.
But the Suns really could have used another ball-handler, especially with them trading Ricky Rubio to the Oklahoma City Thunder, while he’s now on his way back home to Minnesota but that’s another story for another day. I hope Jalen Smith turns out to be good because Phoenix needs to prove me wrong.
The Miami Heat were big winners on Wednesday night. Have we said that already?
We thought so. However, somebody had to lose, right?
The aforementioned trio of teams fit the bill. Hopefully, their general managers were the smartest people in the room and we are wrong.
I highly doubt it though.