SB Nation Arizona spoke with Suns President Lon Babby during Thursday's voluntary workouts. Babby answered questions about the team's new director of player personnel, John Treloar, and why he was hired.
"He's just a very, very solid basketball lifer who has a good track record of working with and developing players and identifying players who are kind of described as diamonds in the rough," Babby said. "(He's) very even-keeled, level-headed guy. Great demeanor in that regard. It's always good to have calmness in the front office."
Treloar had what Babby described as a long-standing relationship with new general manager Lance Blanks, who gave the former coach of the Erie Bayhawks a strong recommendation for the job.
Treloar comes to the Suns with no NBA experience and having spent 11 of the last 13 years as an assistant coach at the college level and then the last two years as a D-league head coach, where he also had player personnel responsibilities. Babby spoke to the lack of experience in the Suns front office.
"What I've tried to do is put together a group of folks who have a great deal of experience in complimentary areas. I don't think it's a fair assumption just because we are all new to the Phoenix Suns that we're inexperienced. We all have vast experience in different areas."
Babby comes to the Suns after a career as an agent and is heading into his first season as an executive of an NBA team. Lance Blanks was the number three guy in Cleveland behind Danny Ferry and Chris Grant before rising to the general manager position for the Suns.
Does having three guys brand new in their positions create the potential for mistakes?
"When you make changes and you bring in new folks, it has pluses and minuses," Babby said. "It's a human endeavor. You can always make mistakes. As I've said a number of times, my job is to make sure we make fewer mistakes than everybody else in the league. All I can promise is that we're going to work hard, be prepared and do the very best we can."
Babby is confident, however, that Treloar's temperament, demeanor, maturity will allow him to fit perfectly into the Suns culture.
Lon insists that there isn't much hierarchy in the organization, but said Treloar will report to Lance Blanks and will be primarily responsible for organizing the scouting into various pools of talent. Former Director of Player Personnel Todd Quinter and former Assistant Coach John Shumate fall into that area of responsibility.
As for the team itself, Babby likes what he sees so far with all but three roster players (Richardson, Dragic, Turkoglu) in town for voluntary workouts.
"I think it's really exciting. I think we have a great group of guys -- very versatile, very hard working, great camaraderie."
One early season challenge and certainly a prime question for Coach Gentry is how to give enough playing time to the top 10 or 11 players. Babby relayed Gentry's thinking on that.
"It's funny, I asked Alvin (Gentry) that question yesterday. I said, 'How are you going to play all these guys?' And he said, 'I'll tell you what, I would much rather look down the bench and see that than look down the bench and see the Gorilla.'"
I am sure he intended no offense to The Gorilla, who has more experience in a Suns uniform (albeit a hairy one) than anyone else on the roster. And we all know The Gorilla can throw down.