Kendall Marshall was selected by the Suns with the 13th overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, and by listening to the team’s GM Lance Blanks — as well as to the loud applause that rained down from the team’s war room as the pick was announced — it was clear that the organization was extremely pleased to get him.
“That was the guy that we were targeting all along,” Blanks said after the pick was announced. “Kendall came here and he had a wonderful visit. He came back, we had a second look at him and quite frankly, Kendall represents where we are as an organization. Don’t read too far into this with free agency, but he represents everything we want to be about, as a player and a person.”
Marshall plays point guard, so the remark about not reading too much into things references of course the very real possibility that Steve Nash may go elsewhere in free agency. Whether Nash is here or not, however, Marshall will get a chance to play immediately. Phoenix rotated the backup point guard spot between Sebastian Telfair and Ronnie Price last season, with limited and very mixed results.
Blanks mentioned a lot of positives about Marshall while gushing over the pick, but was also well aware of the areas where his new player may fall short.
“I can tell you now, we did not — we did not — get Kendall for his athleticism,” Blanks said with a smile. “Kendall knows that. We got him for his brain, his ability to make people better, who he is off the court for our locker room. He is in perfect alignment with what we want to be about as people and as an organization.”
Blanks has talked up the Suns’ improved talent evaluation process in recent weeks, and mentioned it again Thursday night. If the team’s process is to be trusted, then the selection of Marshall should ultimately be proven to be a success.
“Everything we did in terms of our process of analyzing him, there were converging lines, and everything lined up,” Blanks said. “Not only from our analytics piece, (but) our performance evaluation, our eyes-and-ears scouting, the background checks that we did — this young man is very special in every way.
“I’m not sure we can make him more athletic, but he’s all 10s everywhere else as a basketball player and as a person.”
