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More than most NBA executives, Suns President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby knows the importance of the impression that this morning’s calls to agents gave.
Babby was an agent. He was Grant Hill’s agent. But Wednesday, his Suns were the ones sending out a message to Hill’s current agent about how badly Phoenix wants to re-sign him.
At 7 a.m. Phoenix time, the Suns began talking to agents of players. That meant checking in on some of their own guys but the first calls needed to go to the agents of free-agent players to show the Suns’ interest. The Suns will be feeling out the market for a scoring wing player and a backup point guard but there will be no spending that disrupts the salary-cap space they have set up for the summer of 2012. The free agent priority is getting an agreement with Hill, who is still represented by Babby’s former firm with Jim Tanner acting as Hill’s agent.
“Grant is an absolute first order of business and top priority,” Babby said of Hill.
— Reported by Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic
