Green: Are the wrong people fixing the Suns?

We always like it when messes are cleaned up. Whether it's the food that was spilled onto the floor, the garbage the dog emptied or the remnants of the latest storm, cleaning up is generally an arduous, tedious process.

Usually, though, if we are the ones who made the mess we are generally capable of cleaning it up ourselves. After all, it's not difficult to grab a paper towel, pick things up and throw stuff away. But when it comes to cleaning up a sports franchise, are the ones who made the mess the right people for the job of cleaning things up?

The Arizona Diamondbacks didn't think so, as they dumped Josh Byrnes and later his former assistant for Kevin Towers, bringing new blood and a fresh perspective to the struggling franchise.

The Phoenix Coyotes couldn't afford to let Wayne Gretzky's guy Mike Barnett continue to lead an inept front office, as he was replaced by Don Maloney shortly before Gretzky himself left the scene.

Early indications are that both franchises who found outside help to do the cleanup work are on the right track, as one could argue the Diamondbacks and Coyotes have the brightest futures when it comes to Valley professional sports.

On the other hand, both the Arizona Cardinals and Phoenix Suns have found themselves in messy situations and, unlike their Valley brethren, are moving forward with the hope that the very same people who dug the hole are going to be the same ones to help the team climb out.

As far as the Cardinals are concerned, it makes sense to let Ken Whisenhunt and co. fix things. The team has experienced an unprecedented amount of success under his stewardship and it would be foolish to forget it all over one bad season. While the head coach's choice of quarterbacks doomed the 2010 season, if he can fix that one problem things will look exponentially better next season (if there is a next season).

The Suns, though, do not have any kind of track record with this current regime other than the one that includes an offseason that could be described as confusing, at best.

The Suns' latest trade, shipping out Jason Richardson, Hedo Turkoglu and Earl Clark may have been explained as a move that makes the team better, but rest assured, it does not. At least, it doesn't make them better right now.

What it does do is create a little more flexibility for the future which, while sounding great, is only useful if the people in charge do not make a mess of things - again.

There was a time recently when the Suns had great flexibility. They had no real bad contracts on the books, had a big expiring deal on the roster and some talented young players on cheap rookie deals. Then, in a panic move to prove he wasn't cheap, Robert Sarver went out and added questionable contracts (Channing Frye, Josh Childress, Hakim Warrick) and a bad player (Turkoglu).

Sure, you might be thinking about how Lon Babby is in charge now, that he and Lance Blanks had nothing to do with creating a roster full of small forwards and are now working to fix the owner's mistakes. Well, if you believe Babby, who had been linked to the Suns for a while and used to be the player agent for Turkoglu and Childress had nothing to do with their coming to the Suns I have some swampland in Florida…

The point is the failure Babby called "a noble experiment" with regards to the Turkoglu acquisition and the rotation issue that comes from a glut of wing players head coach Alvin Gentry has alluded to is not something this current regime walked into and has to fix; no, they created this mess on their own.

That Suns management was willing to admit their mistake a quarter of the way through the season is impressive. It shows they may be more interested in winning than saving face - that's a good thing. The problem is this regime has been in charge for just a few months and they've already swung and missed a few times. A few more misses and they'll not only challenge former Diamondback Mark Reynolds' record for whiffs in a season but also set the Suns on a path of ineptitude that they have not seen in a long, long time.

Adam can be reached with your questions and comments by e-mail here, and you can follow him on Twitter @theAdamGreen