The Phoenix Suns have been among the league?s elite for the past three seasons, but now they have handed the reins of the franchise over to a rookie General Manager.  While Steve Kerr?s resume is already littered with five NBA world championships, the most accurate three-point shooting percentage in league history, and an already successful career as a broadcast commentator for Yahoo! and Turner Network Television (TNT), Steve is about to embark on perhaps his most difficult venture to date.

Being a General Manager in the NBA requires a sound strategy focused on talent acquisition, cost efficient player retention, as well as salary cap management and maneuverability.   Kerr steps into this position following in the hallowed footsteps of the since-departed former owner?s son, Bryan Colangelo, by virtue of taking over for current head coach and interim General Manager Mike D?Antoni.  This move allows D?Antoni to focus more on his coaching while leaving the business side of the sport to another NBA mastermind.  

However, what makes this transition so difficult for the former long range sniper are the heightened expectations that he will face from the fans of the Phoenix Suns.  With two Western Conference Finals appearances in the past three seasons, and no trips to the NBA Finals to show for it, the pressure will surely be on for Kerr to produce a championship roster.  The window for a Suns title closes faster and faster each day as team leader Steve Nash continues to age on the wrong side of thirty.  The Suns are in a win-now mode, sow now is the time for Kerr to deliver.

Since officially being named the team?s General Manager in June of this year, he has been carefully stringent to say the least.  With the team payroll rapidly threatening the luxury tax threshold, Kerr has felt the pressure from ownership to cut costs wherever possible.  But does that take away from their chances to succeed?

With depth and big men being the two major needs for this Suns roster, Kerr has already dealt away small forward James Jones along with the 24th pick in the 2007 NBA Draft to Portland for cash, and then traded power forward Kurt Thomas to the Seattle Supersonics with two future first rounders in exchange for a conditional second round pick and cash.  These two trades have further depleted their front court while taking away valuable opportunities to obtain quality players that would provide the team with some much needed depth.  

Kerr has also brought in veteran Grant Hill on the cheap to assume the starting small forward position and added youthful wingmen to the bench by drafting versatile scorers Alando Tucker and D.J. Strawberry.  He has also quietly re-signed little used forward Sean Marks, who only appeared in three games all of last season.

At the end of the day, Kerr?s Suns will still be in the upper echelon of expensive NBA rosters with a payroll hovering around $70M, but the moves that Kerr has made have left coach D?Antoni?s depth chart with only three players with a height listed over 6-8 - none other than star center Amare Stoudemire, seldom-used Pat Burke, and the aforementioned Sean Marks.  Unless Kerr is able to pick up veteran P.J. Brown or complete a deal for a rugged big man to assist Stoudemire in the paint, it could be a very long season in the Valley of the Sun when the dangerous power forwards and centers of the league have their way against the tiny Suns frontcourt that Kerr has failed to address.  

Signature Move: Trading Kurt Thomas along with the 2008 and 2010 first round picks to the Seattle Supersonics for a conditional draft pick and cash.  

While this move freed up $8M in committed salary and stifled their swelling cap figure, it also jettisoned their only veteran defense against guys like Tim Duncan, Carlos Boozer, Yao Ming, Chris Wilcox, and Chris Kaman.  With only the explosive Amare Stoudemire and his recent history of knee microfracture surgery left to fend off the big men in the paint, this trade gutted their interior defense while also destroying two of their next three NBA Drafts.  But who is to blame for this lopsided deal in this particular situation?  Rookie General Manager Steve Kerr?  Or the stingy ownership group that isn?t willing to spend a fraction of their own bankroll to field a team deep enough to deliver a world championship to the city and its fans?  Only time will tell.

Are you pleased with the start of Steve Kerr?s management regime in Phoenix?  Feel free to contact Jason M. Williams with your thoughts.  He can be reached at Jason.Williams@RealGM.com for comments or questions.