What is up, fellow thermonuclear A efforts. I am Dan fa Valley coming
at you with another twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four NBA team look Ahead.
We are on too. What I thought was gonna be the ultra quiet
Phoenix Suns this time of year. Since it is the Phoenix Suns, you
know what that means. We have the fellas from the Timeline podcast. If
you listen to this podcast, you know how much I love that podcast.
Mike the Ill, Sam Cooper follow them on Twitter. Mike is at protected
pick spelled exactly as it sounds. Sam is at s Cooper Hoops, also
spelled exactly as it sounds. I can't help Sam, but read your handle
is Scooper hoops all the time, though it's okay as intended. So yeah,
I'm like I have to rehearse pretty much before I've wished the podcast.
Guys, how are you doing? Let's start with let's Mike, how are
you doing? Let's start there. I have a lot on my mind,
Dan, and I was thinking about you know, this offseason, Every off
season is not complete without us coming onto this podcast and doing this look Ahead.
And I believe it was three years ago. I was on this podcast
at the moment Chris Paul was traded to the Suns. So I feel like
there's some level of expectation that something will happen at this point, Like I
feel like I have to check my phone if I get a Twitter notification at
this point, because if there's any proof that the Suns are willing to do
something this late in the off season, I think that was it. Yeah,
I forgot about that, and we actually mentioned it last year. I
probably like, in reference to the Kevin Durant stuff, where is that just
gonna crop up again? While we were recording that look Ahead? So I
don't I don't know if I would want. I don't. I don't really
want it to break during the podcast, So fingers cross it. How are
you doing well? I also don't want anyone major news to break during this
podcast, but I do always something always happens. We'll talk about it,
Mike, we'll talk about it in a bit. Will it be fun?
Something always happens with this team In late September, it seems I'm doing really
great. Dan, thanks for having us on again. This is legitimately one
of my favorite things that we get to do every year. You're always super
prepared with your questions, and obviously you guys do a great job with this
pot as well. Yours is this yours is one of the toughest to prepare
for it because I like to listen or consume all the content, like and
I listen to you guys regularly, but like I fall behind in the offseason,
so I've been like consuming external development. There was the Patreon episode,
which I guess we're gonna have to start with that subject matter and I don't
really want to. But what do we make of sam like the use of
nurkic stuff? It makes more sense now o, Gianna Noby's name is out
there. Just what are your impressions of the reporting that's been there so far?
Yeah, I mean it's been a fun couple of days online after some
weeks of nothingness for suns fins. I suppose because we have something to argue
about it. And obviously I'm not the biggest fan of use of nurkis.
If we just want to talk about like the one to one player comparisons,
I guess I'm less interested in that, but I think we can start with
This feels more real than some recent rumors. Have surrounding the team. It
certainly makes logical sense that the Suns would be interested in moving on from DeAndre
Atan. We've been talking about it for literal years. As far as we
know, they've been kind of shopping him around four years now. So obviously
a guy who regressed pretty heavily in the past season, particularly on defense,
had a rough go of it in the playoffs in the series against the Denver
Nuggets. So there's all sorts of stuff we could talk about there. Now,
is nurkicch and upgrade? No, he is not, So it all
depends on what else you get back in that trade. I think Anna Nobi
would be fricking awesome. I think that's also super unlikely to come back into
DeAndre at and trade. So I don't know your thoughts on Anaobi's probability of
coming to the Sun's there. Dan's probably pretty low. Yeah, I will
say I've think O Giannaobi's become pretty overrated. He's a fantastic defender, but
and like his shooting is good. But this whole we need to envision this
is the year that O Giannaoby does stuff on the ball. It's just it's
not The ship is sailed. I think I would be pretty surprised though,
And I'm guessing Mike you feel the same way. If you turn DeAndre Ayton
into an Anobi, I guess you're taking back Like you guys voice this on
your podcast, you're not taking back Nurkics as an asset. It would basically
be that's part of the deals. Like you have Nurkic just contracting, you're
getting O Giannaoby. It's probably part of some complicated Damian Lillard trade where he's
going at Toronto or maybe another team's involved. I think it's slightly more likely
just because he won't O Giannobi will not sign an extension because financially it probably
still doesn't make sense even with the one percent rules. But it just feels
like if you can turn DeAndre Ayton, when his value feels like it's at
his absolute n idea, into Ananobia Nurkics, would you view that as a
win? Mike, Yes, Okay, absolutely, I think that would be
incredible. You know, is there anything exciting about Nurkics by himself, No,
of course not. There's nothing exciting about that, especially as a player
who's perpetually injured. But Annobie is kind of exactly what the Sun's starting lineup
needs. I think if you're the Sun's front office and you're looking at a
team that now has three players traditionally that can be the player that has the
ball the most on most teams in Bradley Beale, Devin Booker, and Kevin
Durant, and you're saying, do we need to pay a center thirty million
dollars to be the center on that team, especially when you don't really have
a wing defender that's going to be tasked with guarding the best player on the
alternate team, Then I think it makes sense to try to flip DeAndre and
into like maybe a more traditional fifteen million dollars center if you want to call
nurkischot I know he makes a little bit around there, yeah, and then
and then of course try to get that wing that sort of completes that starting
lineup in a different way. I do think Suns fans are all, you
know, they're they're really having a hard time with this, I think for
multiple reasons. Because one the only name that's been mentioned is Nurkics, right,
so we don't know anything else that's involved. Jake Fisher throughout Anenobi as
as I don't know how source that was or if it was just like this
makes sense kind of reporting, and of course that makes everyone feel a little
better about it. But I do think it's a complicated thing where this is
every team, every trade, the fans of the team don't understand the trade
value of the player that they are likely going to be sending out, and
that's Suns fans not fully understanding DeAndrea Ins trade value at this point. And
it's so dependent on like if Portland really wants DeAndrea and the Suns are able
to capitalize on that. They nailed it, because I'm not sure there's a
lot of other teams that are clamoring to thirty million dollars at this point.
No, I mean, they're in a situation where they could at least justify
it. And if I'm assuming out Anoby's would be involved, just because contract
year, they'll probably not going to pay him, even though he's fairly young
based on his timeline, especially when they just gave Jeremy Grant all the money.
But Sam, I think what's interesting here is it felt like they have
telegraphed all offseason the Suns that they're really trying to repair the DeAndre et In
relationship, and so what do you make of that against these rumors, which
is why my theory is like it would have to be super worthwhile I think
for them to pivot this way after we've seen DeAndre Atan's defensive ceiling and it's
pretty fucking high. And if you think that under Frank Vogel he gets better,
or that Frank Vogel is able to reach him. If Nurkic is the
name that's only being thrown out there, my immediate reaction is, if these
are real, I need to know we're talking at Anoby, but maybe it's
someone else, Like it has to be kind of this sexy acquisition for you
to go that direction, then main bs and you know, I mean to
throw an intermediate outcome out there. Caleb Martin is another name that was thrown
out there. If Lillard does end up going to the heat of like,
how would you feel about Caleb Martin being that second player? Certainly a lot
less sexy than Ananobe as a name, but I still think you know a
player who was one of the better players in the playoffs last year overall and
would fit in great as the Sun's fifth starter. Regarding the whole narrative about
Frank Vogel is going to come in and completely repair DeAndre Ayton's defense, I
don't know. I've just never exactly bought it. I liked the vocal acquisition.
I think there's a lot he can bring this team in terms of his
own championship experience and his ability to work with the star players. And I've
had my issues with Monty Williams too, as I've outlaid on our podcast,
but they weren't necessarily related to Monty's relationship with DeAndre Ayton. Insofar as I
think a lot of other Suns fins are kind of reading into that relationship being
really what destroyed the Sun's season last year. I think there's a certain level
of exam adgeration there between the rift in those two their relationship, and kind
of how it negatively affected the Suns. A lot of my frustrations with Monty
Williams and why I wanted to see him replaced, were more related to the
offense and the offensive flow, and really, as we kind of get into
diagramming how that's going to look going forward, it's, you know, kind
of like not playing Kevin Duran at center and things like that, maybe sort
of more modern tactics, but defensively, a lot of it was just effort
for DeAndre Atan And I don't know if the swap from Monty Williams to Frank
Vocal is really going to make all that much of a difference. I hope
it does, but I can't guarantee anything. Going back to what Mike said,
I think a lot of Suns fins are still evaluating the Deandreatan that we
saw after that finals round where he was mostly extraordinary. He's fallen a long
way in the past two seasons. So I think you can make the case
that three of the last four postseason series the Suns have played in DeAndre and
was not good. The Pelicans first round series in twenty two he was great
where he was awesome, and then the Dallas series no good, and then
this year I think was I think the worst we've seen him play in the
playoffs was this last postseason. I'd say, so, I mean, let's
just go there. Then, where Mike was like, what's been the biggest
form of regression from him on defense over the past couple of seasons, Uh,
it is. I think if you boil it down to effort. I
think that's a fair thing to say, but if you're talking about what that
means visually on the court, it's just being in the wrong place at the
wrong time and not moving fast enough, not sprinting down the court offensively or
defensively, not jumping towards the ball on rebounds, and you know, often
on picking rolls, he's just a little too far back, not playing up
high enough, not moving his feet fast enough. And you know, he's
still really great. I think playing post defense. I think that's where his
defense kind of stayed the same, and teams just stopped attacking him like that.
They just moved to the pick and roll. And you know, I
would say that for the last season plus the postseason, the other teams,
the teams that were facing the Suns, their main attack on DeAndre and was
putting him in as many pick and rolls as possible and trying to take advantage
of that. And I think we saw it over and over and over and
over again in the Denver series. Not to say that that's an easy pick
and roll to guard, of course, Jamal Murray Yokich, but he was
really fully taken advantage of in that one. Not to say that Nurkis would
do any better against that two manns either, but it is very concerning that
if you've just put the two guys stats up next to each other, just
their rim protection numbers last year, DeAndre Ayton should be grading out significantly better
than use of Nurkisch as a rim protector, as we've seen him do in
the past. But just last season they were pretty similar, and Nurkis is
four years older with a hefty injury history, so it's just non impressive.
So I agree with you. It felt definitely the pick and roll defense.
I think even the Denver series is tough because I thought that Phoenix didn't always
put eight in the best situations defensively, like depending on who they were attacking
on the other side, like involved in that pick and roll, Like it
felt Aten was carrying too much of a burden. But with Narkich, it's
I feel like his role in Portland, when you watch him defensively, it's
just not as I guess, complex or involved as Deandrets, Like he's not
gonna have to cover as much ground on a normal like possession by possession basis
as DeAndre Aten, And so I don't. I know you weren't saying he
was an upgrade, but I would be very concerned about at least with Eighton.
And I'm not trying to evaluate that version of him, but like Sam,
at least the theory of like, oh, we've seen Eighten reached that
top level defensively still, like we know he's been there before, and I
feel like that still has to hold some value when you're looking at you know,
these specific rumors are just moving on from him in general, I do
think it's probably pretty easy, especially given the defense that you got from him
last year. You can ultimate that on the cheap if you need to like
go out and maybe get another big or like jack Landale, I outplayed DeAndre
And in the playoffs. That we have to mention that jack Landale barely in
the NBA before that and still was able to outplay him in the playoffs,
So yeah, you can. You can definitely do it for cheap. I'd
say any other strong thoughts on like what is the path I guess what's the
path forward if DeAndre And is still here for him to like work on this
team, or do you have any I guess we know what the path forward
is because his offensive role can't really change. Now when you look at everyone
who's here, do you have any confidence, Mike that this is someone who
you can get I don't we talk about defensive buying, but that could be
kind of satisfied with his offensive role and then give you enough like is there
any level of confidence or hope that he could do that? So the best
version of what it could be would be him fully buying into a defensive and
rebounding role on this team and taking pride in that side of the ball,
because a lot of times the solution for a lot of people is, well,
he has to be engaged offensively in order for him to be great on
defense. And you know, every every trade, the sense of mate has
sort of slotted him down in the rotation as far as offensive players on this
team. He's not going to be taking the second most shots, which he
did two seasons ago, and even last season. I think he fell even
behind mckel Bridges for a while there in field goal attempts, but that's mostly
because of the injuries and Mckelberg just taking a bigger role offensively during those injuries.
You know, he's going to be probably fourth in attempts shot attempts on
this team. So it's a challenge for Frank Vogel to find a way to
get him to fully buy in to something on the defensive end that he hasn't
yet fully done in previous seasons without consistently rewarding him with offensive touches, and
that's going to be really hard to do. The thing that has to be
the largest motivator for him is winning a championship, because that's what does it
now. You can make the case that that probably should have been a motivator
for the previous few years as well, and I think at times it was.
And so, you know, the best cases, everyone works with them
really well. Attitudes are great. He gets along really well with Frank Vogel,
and the hope is that that doesn't fall apart at any point in the
playoffs when the pressure is at its highest, and you know the chances of
that happening. I can't really say. He's an incredibly unpredictable player on the
court. To know for sure what it's going to be like next year,
I think would be a fool's air. And if you if you're trying to
make that speculation. Bradley Beal sam Is on this team as well, not
mentioned him, Yett, Did you I want to just step back here,
because I was a little bit surprised, like on a national level outside the
market, the reaction to the Bradley Beal trade where it felt like there was
a lot of focus why would the Suns give up all their assets that are
remaining and obliterate their depth? And then it's like, well, the assets
they gave up, you were never going to get better value and Bradley Beal
and if your issue was with their depth, it felt like you're saying they
shouldn't have really made or their assets. You're saying they shouldn't really made the
Kevin Durant trade, that it wasn't really Bradley deal trade thing. And so
I'm just what was your what was your reaction to the reaction? And do
you think had you at that moment told everybody what they were gonna do with
their minimum contracts, if that reaction would have then been much different. The
typical person who's who was giving that sort of reaction, I don't know how
much their opinion would be swayed by the minimum contracts because I just don't know
that they were following the situation that in depth to that extent, it was
sort of a classic knee jerk reaction based on the way that the Suns went
out in the playoffs, which I understand. You watch the Sun's kind of
get trounced, and you know, by the by the Nuggets there at the
end, you watch the Suns having to give heavy minutes to players like Landry
Shaman and Jack Landale, and you know, you rely on clutch shots from
t J. Warren just to eke out a couple of wins in that series.
And of course depth is going to be an issue. But I could
not believe that they pulled this trade off. I could not believe that they
pulled it off. It was absolutely and like, what was the alternative?
Would you have rather traded Chris Paul and Landry Shammants to the Washington Wizards for
what Daniel Gafford and Corey Kissford? And does that make the team better?
You know, like, you take, you take the guy who has averaged
thirty points per game in the past and still has a reasonable argument as a
top thirty player in the NBA one hundred times out of one hundred, and
then you try to build around that. Uh, Mike so this is this
like dovetails. So the Matt hpr ror is what I really want to get
into because I feel like it's been very fascinating so far. The four things
that stand out the accessibility stuff with suns games, I think that's just objectively
cool. But so you have the Kevin Durant trade, the Bradley Beal trade,
and then like kind of all the you know, the pick swap maneuvering
after making the Bradley Beal trade. Just given everything that's happened, and even
like there's the coaching change. Of of course, what has just been your
early impressions of the matt Ishpia era. Well, uh, he's going to
spend a lot more money than Robert Sarver. I think we can. We
can, yeah, we can say that for sure. He's not a broke
boy. Uh, He's he's definitely out there trying to spend some money.
You know. I think that he seems like somebody who is very intent on
this being a really long term investment. And of course you can say,
well, he did trade all the assets for Kevin durantt to win right now,
and that part is true. But you know, moving the the Sun's
games off of cable and putting them on over the air TV here in Phoenix
is not something that's going to make him a lot of money in the short
term, but could make a lot of fans in Phoenix long term, die
hard fans, especially watching Kevin durantt and Devin Booker and Bradley Beal over the
course of the next season. And you know, basketball wise, I think
it's a sort of a different conversation. The willingness to make the moves that
he did, the willingness to cash in on all the assets that James Jones
has collected over the years is a risk. You know, Kevin Durant thirty
five years old. Obviously, Bradley Beale has an injury history. The franchise
is still and continues to be on Devin Booker's back as we know, and
the ability for this team to mash and to win obviously is gonna say a
lot about his decision making basketball wise, what you envision when you think of
this perfect owner of a team is somebody who's not involved in basketball decisions?
Is he that? No, he's not that. He's very involved in basketball
decisions, you know, and that ability to accept that is entirely dependent on
the moves that are being made. Yeah. So the fact that the moves
that are made so far are things that Sam and I think sorry to speak
for you, Sam, but agree with so far is why everything is fine.
You know. As soon as things start to go south, or if
things ever do start to go south with his involvement in basketball decisions, I
think that will change maybe how we evaluate that relationship between him and the fans,
you know, even dependent on if they trade DeAndre and for use of
Nurkics. There's gonna be a lot of people who now hate Mattish at least
in the short term, and not me personally, but there will be a
lot of people out there that will react negatively to that. But so far,
so good, I think, is how I can put it. Dan,
No, do you are you a cord cutter? Do you have a
capable package? I'm serious. Actually we actually just cut the cord a few
a few months ago. Okay, could you envision, because I know you're
a New Yorker, could you envision Dolan mailing you and antenna to receive over
the air television channel so you could receive your network affiliates and like owning a
sports team apparently a little shit bag. I can't stand that guy. I
mean that just to reiterate the fact that you know, these kind of what
are right now unconventional move on the part of its being again, this is
not basketball related. This is the money making stuff, but has the potential
to double our fan base over the next ten or twenty years, potentially at
least in state. It's it's something to be really excited about. I think
I do think like making him accessible feels important because I don't know how I
feel about the people who say this is the most all in team of all
time. I still think given the ages involved of that that nets team that
gave like their future to the Celtics for you know what was every left ball
Pierson KG was more all in. But when you look at Mike and mentioned
this him being involved in basketball decisions specifically, I come back to the Kevin
Durant negotiations based on that reporting and then this is not on him specifically,
but like now you start making those like weird swap decisions with the Bradley beyond
the post Bradley beald ones, and it's it's just uncomfortable because you're saying like
we're so all in that if it doesn't work out. But I think what
you could hang your head on, look how young Devin Booker still is and
the contract that he's on, and like if it doesn't kind of work,
there's just like, oh, Devin Booker's just here all alone, and how
sustainable will that be? So I worry like long term, but I don't
every single move that he has made. I think for the Kevin Durant negotiation
was fascinating. I think everything he's done I don't have like a real criticism
of. But now it's just when you're trying to scale ahead, I do
wonder, like, okay, this level of all in if it does go
bad, did you somehow you know, diminish the odds that Devin Booker would
be here past the Bradley Beale Kevin Durant window. Can I just say that
Kevin Durant salary falls off the Sun's books right when Jayson Tatum becomes a free
agent, So just expect me to start that campaign relatively early to try to
I do think that their books are kind of clean, like after that,
now Bradley Beal competency anymore unless they play for the Raptors apparently. Yeah,
yeah, that's true. But I do I do wonder to what extent players
will be interested in playing for an owner who cares about winning to this extent.
You know, maybe that doesn't matter, and maybe I'm just being you
know, the grass is greener on this side right now, but I do
think that they have to make some proper moves and free agent. Look,
we're not gonna be able to trade Bradley Beal. It's not like that,
no trade clause goes away once he has traded to the he still has that.
That means that we're not gonna be able to trade him anytime soon.
And the moves they make beyond that is going to be really important for long
term success. But I think they are sort of looking at free agency as
the next way to build this team long term, because you can't do it
if you have no draft picks. Now they do actually have some, they're
swapped picks, but we'll see how they actually manage that. So they killed
the minimum contract game. As we already mentioned, Sam and Mike. If
you end up having a different answer to this, but Sam, as currently
constructed, who do you view as their fifth most important player, and is
that player the one that you would assume we're picked to be in this starting
five to round out that lineup. It's so close. I'm DeAndre and just
kidding. He just doesn't he doesn't mean that. That's yeah, yeah,
that's good. Good on you for catching that. So who outside of the
four household names? Yes, I think Eric Gordon. Uh, but it's
so close, and I'm not sure what Mike is going to say. I
have a feeling Mike is gonna say Eric Gordon too. It's not close for
me, it's Eric Eric. So for me, it's close and it's Eric
Gordon. And the reason I say that is because Eric Gordon is a known
quantity and there are some guys whose names are not Eric Gordon who I think
have breakout potential. And if one of them can achieve breakout potential, then
this conversation changes for the time being. Though I don't have Eric Gordon in
my starting lineup, but I do have Eric Gordon in a hell of a
lot of our closing lineups, and I think that could be really fascinating to
watch. To me, there are a bunch of players who are on minimum
contracts because they're not proven over time, and there's one player who's on a
minimum contract because he wants to compete for a championships, and that's Eric.
Eric Gordon is is a player that's probably too good for that. He's the
only proven player who has playoff successes. And by the way, I don't
know if you read the reporting on the Houston situation over his time in Houston,
but my god, that team was a complete and is still by the
way, it was in total mess. And and the idea that you can't
even look at any of his time there, like the difference between he I
think he shot thirty four percent from three in Houston and forty two percent in
the Clippers, And at first you look at that and you kind of write
it off and say, well, you know, that's just variance whatever,
And then you read the reporting on Houston and you're like, oh, okay,
yeah, there will be trying to build their franchise around Kevin Porter Junior,
which even assage from all the off court stuff and the domestic violence allegations
which I've shipped all over him on his podcast race. We don't need to
go into them further, but imagine like being in charge with NBA franchise and
think Kevin Porter Junior based off what you see on the core is oh,
we need to make sure no Shane Goon can't start because he Kevin Porter Junior
needs a lob threat. Yeah so yeah, good for Eric Gordon for not
completely flaming out there? Is there a do you guys have a consensus and
I'll start with you, Mike, assuming DeAndre Atan's one of the first five,
who then becomes the sixth most important player for this team. Mike,
Okay, So that's interesting because if I'm looking at them, I would personally
start Eric Gordon. I've mentioned this on the podcast, but I understand the
argument against that. I'm just saying, like Scorched Earth offense, kill everyone
on threes and see how it goes with that kind of spacing. It would
be bold. I think it would be kind of insane, and based on
what we know of Frank Vocal, it's just not going to be the opening
day starting lineup, but I respect the decision to try and go with that.
I will say it would be And maybe this is Galaxy branding it a
little bit, but if you are worried about Bradley Beal on defense at the
moment, and like some of the assignments he might have to cover, Gordon
can like defend up inside. Radley Beal is probably not going to be able
to do that as well. It's the point guards that are that would kill
us in those in those lineups that these small guards, it would be Devin
Booker guarding them. You don't, I guess the Devin Booker all defense campaign,
We're not going to start that. I think he would. I think
he's gonna do fine. But I also think that in a team that probably
is built not to get too far off the question you asked to switch everything,
they're gonna be able to attack whoever they want to attack, because if
teams are playing like any sort of playoff style offense, the Sons are gonna
switch everything and then they're probably gonna go at Bradley Beal one hundred times a
game. Now, as far as the sixth most important player on the team,
I think it's I think there's some obvious candidates. And obviously it's Utah
Watanabe and and you know it's not exactly like he's not proven either. Katibates
the up I think is the next probably the name that you would mention,
and then I actually think you Banks is one that I might even say it's
you Banks to be that guy. Uh, you know, the trade has
already happened. In my mind, if they have any if they have any
thought of trading for Nurkis, they have to believe in you Banks, because
Nurkis isn't going to play every single game, and that means that you Banks
is going to be starting quite a bit if if Nurkis was traded. So,
if any if there's any truth to these rumors, then they clearly believe
in him. But when I to me, when I watch film of all
these guys, the one that stands out as a player that's probably better than
his contract is you Banks. Now having said that if katabates the up can
be a slightly better defender than he was and then continue the three point shooting
and he's six foot nine, basically that's pretty unbelievable for a player, and
that would be really amazing for the Suns. I think that I'm a little
scared to go all in on believing in guys who have one year of great
three point shooting and not a consistent track record of great three point shooting.
Which is Kata Bates the up and you to Watt Nab. I'm a little
scared still, Sam, who is your six most I player. It's Kata
Bates stop. But to speak to what Mike is talking about ultimately both him
and what Nabe, I mean, Bates stop, I'm looking right here.
One hundred and forty three point attempts last year is what we're working with.
So it's great that he shot thirty nine percent and well in the corners.
And to speak to Watt Nabe as well, shot fifty two percent in the
corners. That is nuts. But I believe also one season and there's a
reason these and like six minutes of games. Yeah, yeah, exactly so.
But Bates d UP is clearly the best intermediate option between himself, what
Nab and a Kogi is the other guy. You have to at least include
in this conversation that he at least shot the three well last season and can
also defend. Kind of between these these two options, if you want to
go all in on defense, you've got a Kogie. If you want to
go I guess the best shooting option would be Watt Nabe. But Bates DAP
feels like the most versatile option, and I think that's why he is my
pick to be the fifth starter on day one. We'll see how well it
works. So my co host, Grant Grant, if you guys are familiar
with him, is obsessed with kadabates the app, and we got into was
an argument, which is like, I he KaiB said didn't hit like a
guarded three last year, and so I was like, I'm kind of skeptical
of what he could do for this team offensively, and then he's not gonna
be guarded. Brand pointed out, he's not gonna be guarded on this team
anyway. I still think I would Lean is my fifth I know I didn't
give this most important player. I'm still a Utah wants an Abby guy,
and I especially think if you want to kind of switch, I might.
I would definitely prefer him to. I feel like when you look at maybe
a d Op and a Koki, they're gonna be better to handle these like
singular top end assignments. But if you were looking to switch, I still
think I trust you to want a Nabby in that situation. More so,
I'm just curious what you guys think about that. I think that what's nice
about both of those guys, Utah and Kadabates, the app is they're both
tall and capable of shooting threes. Now, the Sun's defense, of course,
is going to be probably the biggest concern that we're looking at for this
team going into the season because the offense, obviously they have all stars offensively
three of them, and the way that size can make up for some defensive
deficiencies, the way that could work on this team can actually be pretty interesting
because you can talk about putting Josh Cogian, who plays bigger than he is,
but then you know you to six nine and can shoot threes, and
there's there's value in putting size out there. So I think there's there's a
merit to to what you're talking about. But I also think it kind of
applies to Kadabas the up two as really long arms and size. Now whether
or not he's capable of defending on the perimeter is a question. I think
Suns fans feel really confident in that, whereas I kind of want to see
it a little bit first, and I'm excited to see it though, because
I think that size could make a huge difference with seven ft Kevin Durant.
I mean, that's the cheat code. Sam. Is there any concern about
the lack of non star playmaking on this team? There's the element of me,
just to preamble this is I can't bring myself to care because you look
at the top end talent Bradley bel Devin Booker, and then it's like,
okay, if one of them is out, that's when you could see things
like kind of going off the rails a little bit. And so I'm just
curious land on that. Well, you know, I actually think it's interesting
because the Cameron payn the move to get rid of Cameron Pain was a little
bit surprising to some of us. And you know, one guy we haven't
brought up yet is Jordan Goodwin, who came in over in the Bradley Beal
trade, who I think is going to get some minutes at least in the
regular season. I don't really see him at this point as a playoff rotation
guy. Could be interesting at the point guard position, but there is a
lack of what feels like a more staple backup point guard on this team,
and I think that's led to even some rumors that have swirled around recently.
I don't think any of them have especially caught on to be like this is
going to happen, But there is a hole there that could be filled at
some point, whether it's now or in February, of bringing another point guard
into this team who is a more depth playmaker than Eric or Jordan Goodwin to
slide in next to either Booker or bial in some heavy minutes. If you
look at the rest of the team, though, I think most of these
role players are either average or above average playmakers in their roles. You know,
I look at the U Bank's acquisition as a guy who I think can
make some basic reads out of the center position. I look at some of
these wings, not not really Bates d Up, but I've seen a little
bit of evidence out of Wattonabe. I've seen a little bit of evidence in
the past out of a Kogi. Eric Gordon obviously can can make some plays.
So you know, I think the role players for the most part are
going to be fine. I still just wonder if there is a missing traditional
playmaker on this roster who would really suit them well. If let's say,
you know what happens in this season is what happened in the past several seasons
that Booker and Bill both end up playing sixty five seventy games and you need
someone to fill in the gaps, Sam, is this like an issue that
you would expect them to prioritize when we get to buy out season, provided
under the new rules of the player that was wave or brought out couldn't have
been making more than I think twelve point two millions in number twelve four?
Is it kind of a thing when you get to that point? To me,
I look at it as like this void, if you want to call
it a void, this wrinkle, whatever. It's important to eat innings in
the regular season. But if you're going to be reliant on I don't care
whether you got them on the buyout market or if you were going to be
reliant on campaign come playoff time, then something else that you just weren't built
to overcome had already happened. Yeah. So the thing is anyone they bring
in has to be built for the playoffs, don't. I don't think they're
gonna bring in someone just to eat innings. If they if they need someone
just to eat innings in the regular season, they still have you know,
obviously it's not ideal, but they've got Sabin Lee on a two way contract.
Like I think, there's a certain element of let's just throw anyone who
can who can run an offense out there if we need someone for the regular
season. If it's going to be a buyout candidate, it needs to be
someone who can who can guard up and defend. Which makes me less likely
to think that they're going to bring in a six two point guard with a
six four wingspan or whatever. You know, just just someone who is not
going to be a capable defensive player at the playoff level. Are they going
to be able to find that on the buyout market. I'm not I'm not
really sure. I mean, I guess we'll just see how that develops between
now in February. But it's up there as one of my priorities. It
might not be priority number one either. I just want to mention too that
I am personally less confident in Jordan Goodwin backup point guard on championship team as
a player. It's not to say that I don't think he's going to be
good. I think there's a lot of well earned hype on what he could
potentially be, but you know, he's not a great offensive player as he
currently stands, a good defensive player, and it's just it's there's just something
this team feels like it's missing a backup point guard to me, and and
and getting rid of Campaign for nothing just to sign Bowl Bowl was I think
one of the only weird decisions of the offseason for me, just because Campaign
not not exactly somebody that I'm super confident in after the last few playoff runs
as well, but at least capable in the regular season. There is some
trade slop that I'll mentioned to you, Dan that I have yet to mention
on any podcast so far. Yeah, that is the rumor of a four
team trade that was out there for the Suns with DeAndre In going out,
included Nurkics, Caleb Martin, and TJ McConnell coming back to the Suns.
That's the one I was hinting at. Yeah, And I think at this
point, I personally think the fact that I've talked to so many people that
have heard the same rumor, I feel like it's probably dead and not going
to happen. But it was supposedly something that may have been talked about at
one point or another, and if true, I think it shows that the
Suns probably are looking at somebody to potentially be that backup point guard that maybe
TJ McConnell can play in the postseason, but probably not at Arizona getting into
the second or third rounds. Here Arizona guy, and we know how much
Suns fans love the Arizona guys. I like TJ mccon as a regular season
player, but I'll be honest, this is just exactly who I was hinting
at, the undersized guard who has had a really solid four or five year
stint in Indiana and in all that time, do you guys want to know
how many minutes he's played in the playoffs? Less than thirty. So it's
kind of just what I was referring to of. You know, are you
really going to stake your your mid season acquisition on t J McConnell. Yeah,
I guess he He eats innings in the regular season, but that would
be about it. I like it. I like him. I mean,
I'm I would balance at the opportunity of Kayla Martin on this team. That
was actually one of the I very rarely disagree with either of you, but
I can't remember which one said that something about Kayla Martin's defense and I think
it was the Patreon pod. And I think I think that dude's like more
closer to a caps lock defender than not when you look at the level of
assignments he takes on, specifically from the point of attack up to some of
these these bigger wings, like when it's like going back and looking at the
players he either guarded the most or watching the film, like, I think
that's someone he comes in. What do I want? Is Ogi Hada Nobia
a better fit? Yes, of course, But like if it ended up
being like Nurkic and Caleb Martin as you're like that's the DeAndre and package,
I think you actually make out a lot better there than many people would probably
believe. I agree, I actually agree with that. I'm happy. I'm
probably the person that casts a little doubt on his He didn't shot on him.
I want to make that clear. No, yeah, no, I
think he's I think he's a good defender, you know. But like we're
talking about comparisons like o Gianna Nobi just like you said here, so in
comparison, uh what what what I think would be nice is and this is
so rare and we're lucky that we had mcaal Bridges on this team for so
long. It's just players that can guard from one to four, and and
maybe Caleb Martin can do that in the right circumstances. But I just we're
all any team that doesn't have a micaal Bridges is trying to get one at
this point, and I think the Suns are still kind of looking for somebody
to replace what he did on this team. Sam, do you have any
insight into or just guesses or interested in what stylistic changes you're expecting or hoping
to see either on offense or defense with Rank Vogel running the show? Now,
Yeah, I think we've talked about a defense. I don't see too
many changes. I think, you know, we touched on it already,
switching one through four and then keeping Ayton on the back end, really,
you know, comfortable in that drop. I think he might move a little
bit less than he did under Monty. But but frankly, even in the
past couple of years, it felt like Eyton was moving his legs less on
the perimeter than he was in some of his earlier years as part of the
Monty stint. So defense, I don't know how many changes we're going to
see offense. I think we're really hoping for a little bit more modern flare
from this team, and so maybe that means some more Kevin duran at the
five. I'm jumping ahead here, but you do at I think, you
know, you want to know at one point in this podcast, like,
what are some lineups we're looking forward to, and just let's start with any
lineup that features Kevin Durant at the five. And then you know, maybe
you throw Eric Gordon in there alongside Beale and Booker, and you throw Watton
n Abbe in the corner, and you just bomb away from three and you
have maybe the team could stand to do by the way, you just have
the best offensive all time, maybe in minutes where you play with those five
guys. So, you know, I think that's that's the big thing I'm
looking for on offense is just not as much of a focus on necessarily DeAndre
Atan's pick and roll talents, where certainly he has some value to bring,
but more of an emphasis on the two man game run between k D and
bal or Kady and book or one guy could always be playing on the week's
side, the other guy could be working driple handoff games with Kadi at the
elbow, and really focusing on the gravity that those guys bring on offense without
worrying about a big man, you know, sitting underneath the basket and kind
of taking away some spacing. Mike, It's probably taking me too long to
get here, But I have so many Radley Beal questions, and so I
think starts with what is the biggest thing to you that he will bring or
add in the context of this team. It's a good question. One thing
I was thinking about, and this is not necessarily just Bradley Beal related,
was without Chris Paul on this team, they're going to play a lot faster
because Chris Paul just couldn't anymore. He just wanted to and he doesn't ever
like to, to be honest, Chris Paul played on slow teams like throughout
his entire career. But without Chris Paul, I think the Suns will be
able to play a lot faster. But I think if you look at what
happened in the postseason for the Suns, even before Chris Paul was hurt,
the majority the offense shifted over to Devin Booker as the lead playmaker and guard.
And when you have Chris Paul in the off ball role, he's not
built for that. He wants to dribble, he doesn't want to shoot.
He doesn't really have a fast release on his catch and shoot shots anyway,
So teams feel comfortable playing off of him. So the amount of space that
this team is going to have, now, it's tough to compare it to
the playoffs because we were playing Josh Kogie as well, who nobody guards when
he's at the three point line. But the amount of space that this team
will have with the player that's capable of playing off the ball as well as
Bradley Beale can is kind of insane to even think about. And the other
Sam was talking about dribble handoffs at Bradley Beale is one of the best in
the league at shooting off of dribble handoffs. Last season, I think his
total percentage, forgive me of going off memory was fifty five percent on dribble
handoffs. So when he's taking the ball on those and flying around those screens
fifty five percent, it's pretty insane. He can shoot from any point coming
around that screen, So that's where a lot of that rim pressure that Dan
I know has talked about. Yeah, it comes to is on those plays
and the rim pressure, by the way too compared to to I think Chris
Paul shot like less than forty percent in the restricted area last season. If
I'm not, I'm Chris Paul was good on the Suns. I'm not.
I'm not trying to turn this into Yeah, there are some fans who who
weirdly have like really turned in the opposite direction. Maybe they were just holding
their tongues. He was secretly kind of bad last year. Well, It's
like Chris Paul and Monty Williams did so much for the Sun's organization over the
past several years, and there were some people who it just surprised me some
of the takes that came out kind of as soon as they were pushed out
the door. You know, I still have respect for both of those guys,
even though I think they were flawed. I do want to address one
thing real quick, Mike, because I'm not sure we've covered the pace angle
from this perspective yet. Does the potential of acquiring two hundred ninety pound use
of nurke its change your feelings at all about if this team is threes if
this team is actually going to play play faster, because I was with you,
I want them to play faster, and I know Vogel has said they're
going to play faster, but then the nurk Its rumors come out and suddenly
I kind of it casts a little bit of doubt for me. So I
don't know what you thought about that. I personally have about a similar level
of confidence of DeAndre and consistently sprinting down on offense as I do of use
of Nurkeds. At this point. We just have never seen DeAndre and do
that on a regular basis. Occasionally, yes, but consistently over the course
of a season. No, I'm not super excited about Nurkics in general,
but I am not really worried about that fit offensively. First of all,
he's a great illegal screen or something I love to talk about. He just
doesn't get called for those for some reason. Really good at screening, and
I'm much better pastor than A and A and can pass the ball, but
there's always another extra second or two of processing time with his passes that slows
down the offense pretty significantly. I know you were joking, but the trailing
threes thing. Actually, I mean, I know Dave listen to our conversation,
Like he did actually shoot the ball well from three last year, so
yeah, yeah, and he's like and he's had like even the years,
he hasn't show like we're in year two or three now, the actual experimentation,
so it's not just sort of a one off with the volume. I
think like he's been dabbled out there for a little bit and so that like,
and you could look at it like they could just play faster by you
might mention the trail three. So it's like, even after a made shot,
I would bet that their offense could technically be inherently faster with nurkics than
eighten just because of those types of shots that would be available. So I
guess you already mentioned this, Sam, But is that sort of then the
stylistic ring goal that you expect the Suns to integrate most to try and optimize
Bradley beals we're just going to see them run a bunch more or maybe not
a bunch more, but run more handoffs or is there there gonna be different
screening patterns, like what are you most fascinated to watch what this team does?
To try and optimize Bradley Beale. I hope so, I hope We're
seeing a lot of utilization of handoffs. Specifically, the one I was thinking
of was with Kevin Durant, but it could work with Deandretan or with use
of Nurkics as well. You know, those guys are good screeners. Besides
that, we should note that Kevin Young is returning the lead, the guy
who's kind of the offensive coordinator, the offensive brain trust behind the Suns for
a last season. We don't know to what extent he is being given the
reins to control the offense this year, but it would make sense to me
that a lot of the features of the Sun's offense last year, the elbow
sets, the double drags, the spain pick and rolls, are going to
return, and any variation of those plays with just where you plug in Bradley
Beale, Devin Booker and Kevin Durant is going to work. It's just any
variation where you have three players who are that versatile on offense. As long
as the guys in the corner or if it's Eric Gordon, you know,
standing thirty five feet out above the wing, the spacing will work. It's
just you plug in the players on this team, and I have no qualms
about any of that. Mike, aside from the defensive matchup equation, what
is the biggest concern you have about Bradley Beale's potential fit on this team.
It's not an exciting conversation in its injuries. I mean, it's not necessarily
about the basketball fit, I guess I'll say, because you know, for
him, it's about staying healthy this team in order for it to succeed,
because it is top heavy, they all have to be healthy for extended periods
of times in the playoffs. I do think the level of star talent means
that maybe at times they could withstand somebody missing a game or two the way
that they actually have in the past. You know, Chris Paul missed games
in the Clippers series when they went to the finals, Devin Booker missed games
in the New Orleans series when they beat New Orleans, and still the Suns
were capable of winning. But I even think they're more built to withstand that
kind of thing now with with multiple stars. But any sort of long term
injury is probably the scariest part. But I do think just from an overall
perspective, if you're looking at the team, just to give Chris Paul credit
for how good he was last year, he never turned the ball over,
just just never turned the ball over. And as good as all of these
guys are at playmaking, they don't have the type of unbelievable assistant turnover ratios
that Chris Paul had. So this team, as they do milk all the
playmaking they can out of these three offensive threats, probably will have a dramatic
increase in turnovers, which which is just a little scary. When it comes
to transition defense, they need to get back. They need to play the
defense, and overall, not just Bradley Beale, the team as a whole
needs to make a concerted effort to take care of the ball as much as
possible. You're gonna say something saying, go ahead, well, just I'm
gonna use Mike slogan for him, the slogan he's been using all throughout the
summer as everyone does everything, and you know, I think just transition defense
is going to be one of those things where it applies. We're doing positionless
basketball, we're doing the thing we're playing modern basketball here in twenty twenty three.
You know, is Bradley Beale, the point guard is Devin book or
the point guard is Kevin Dury, Like who cares? Everyone's doing everything on
this team, and yeah, but you know what, it doesn't matter you
care because if you want to maybe rank these players in a certain way,
like is Devin Booker the best shooting guard in the NBA or not? Who
cares? We don't know what position he even plays at this point. So
everyone on this team is going to be kind of playing a fluid role.
Sam, who among the big three here is going to need to make like
either the most conceits on offense or how to make the most adaptations on offense.
This is a really good question. All of them are. I think
it's probably still Bradley Beale. At the end of the day. He is
going to start a lot of possessions with the ball in his hands. The
opportunities just are not there for him to play in the same way that he
did in Washington. I think that's the guy. I mean, at the
end of the day, if you're looking at you're sorting through the stats,
and you're looking at the various play types and you're thinking, who really needs
the ball in his hands in the last five minutes of the fourth quarter,
like who should really get the ISO possessions? And the stats that Booker and
Durant are posting are gonna mostly blow bal stats out of the water because he
is just not the player that he was in twenty eighteen twenty nineteen, and
so he's going to make the most offensive concessions. I would think there's still
a pathway for Bradley Beal to average twenty five points per game on this team.
We've yet to do. We've yet to do our yearly over under podcast.
You're gonna say, I know what you're getting pick on that one.
No, not necessarily, because I don't know. Mike is always the one
he sets over unders for like statistically for everyone on our team, and we
have a lot of fun and we kind of play against our audience where they
pick over and unders against us, and so we've yet to do that episode
that should be fun. I don't know how to evaluate what our expectations are
just statistically of Beal this season, but I would say there is a pathway
there for him to get up there. I do wonder part of me has
wondered if it could end up being Kevin Durant me too. The two things
are you guys have mentioned it already him if he has to play center at
all, like that's just that'll be an adjustment if that becomes a staple.
But the other thing is sort of when you watch how defense is reacted to
him in the playoffs, like throughout his career, but specifically the past two
postseasons and how he's kind of struggled, that might be a change for him
if he has to become more of the deferential guy or he can't hold onto
the ball necessarily as much as he's Look, he's a great off ball player,
but I'm just saying if he has to become more of a ball mover
or connector that's not something that he's like needed to do and hive on because
you don't necessarily want him to do that. But on this team, I'm
wondering, and Mike you had said something, So is that like kind of
where you're at or is it a different pathway to him having to adapt if
you're envisioning it. I hate to put it this succinctly, but he's thirty
five and at a certain point over this contract, the skills will diminish now
they haven't yet in a lot of ways for him. But I do agree
with you that if you look at playoff stats and playoff efficiency, turnover rate,
like it has mostly gone down for him from the regular season to the
playoffs over the course of his career. But you know, like I do
think that, And the reason I think it has to be a big change
for Kevin Durant is that he's used to having the ball in all the biggest
moments all the time, and I think there will be a time on this
team where that has to shift to Devin Booker or that has to shift to
Bradley Beale. Do I think there's going to be a Draymond Green moment yelling
at each other on the floor like in Golden State. No, because it's
different when Draymond Green has the ball compared to Devin Booker or Bradley Beale.
And I think they're very close right now, and I think they're on the
same page basketball wise. But if we're looking at sort of these three guys
on their full contracts on this team, there will be a point, and
it could be this season where the most important player on the team has to
be Devin Booker, and I think a lot of people believe that's right now,
including Kevin Garnett, who had a conversation about this on his podcast very
loudly. And you know, I don't know when that's going to be,
but at a certain point Damant has to be okay shifting off the ball for
extended periods of time. I will say he does have year's worth of experience
watching Russ or Westbrook take shots out of here Eric Mayer a little bit,
so this might be a little easier for him. I you know, you
mentioned who is the most I guess important to this. I always just viewed
it as Devin Booker, but I feel like there's also the pathway to Kevin
Durant there, depending on what type of role you think he's gonna shoulder defensively,
But are you guys just both at you know, Devin Booker is to
tie this all together, Devin Booker is going to be if you have I'm
not trying to get your rank them, but just in terms of most singular
importance, Sam, do you just view it as it's still Devin Booker.
We're talking about two way impact singular importance. Yeah, Who's gonna like the
defensive workload they're gonna have to carry that. I think the look the playmaking
one is you could say position list, but it's gonna be I think at
the end of the day, there's still gonna be like one guy who becomes
sort of the the central playmaker, no doubt, and Booker of those three
guys, is the most talented in his ability to make advance reads. I
think that you can say that without a doubt. And defensively, I think
is a guy who kind of falls in the perfect body type where he's going
to be taking on a lot of these challenging defensive assignments. So yeah,
if you just evaluate it from both sides, I agree with that assessment,
it is Devin Booker. Well, how does Devin Booker's role change on this
team? Like with the moves that have you know, I get basically just
with the addition of Bradley Beale and Kevin Durant and now you don't have Chris
Paul or even you just don't have like that orthodox point guard on the team.
Yeah, I think there's two guys that are missing from Devin Booker that
will now require him to increase his role on both sides of the floor,
and that's Chris Paul and Michael Bridges. Every single game since Michael Bridges was
drafted on the Suns. Every single game Devin Booker played until the trade,
Micael Bridges was on the floor for because he never missed a game, meaning
Devin Booker got to play a lot of minutes with Michael Bridges in his time
with the Suns. And you know, a lot has been made of Devin
Booker's improvements on defense. I think most of that is shown in the playoffs
because he sort of saves it a little bit for the playoffs. I don't
think he can anymore. I think that defensive effort has to be pretty dramatically
increased in the regular season because we brought it up the team that we brought
up as an example, and look, they're going to have their own problems
guarding the Suns. But if the Suns are playing the Dallas Mavericks, for
example, and you start Katabates up to guard Luca don Chich, who guards
Kyrie Irving, I think it has to be Devin Booker at this point in
the starting five, because the other options are Kevin Durrett, Bradley, Beale
or Devin Booker, And I think Devin Booker is the most well equipped to
take that assignment. And there are teams where he's going to have to guard
the first or second best offensive player for the majority of the minutes that he
plays in the starting five. So defensively, I think that's a huge change
for him offensively, You're right, I mean, there's no he's the point
guard now, I think, regardless of what Sean Shrania says about Bradley Beale,
and that's just to me, he said it more as a hype thing.
As far as Bradley Beale is now playing point guard for the Suns,
I do think that right. I mean, like in a way he's right
too, because like they both kind of a you know, it's not it's
it's not a traditional way to figure out who plays point guard and who does
it. But you know, Devin Booker has average six point eight assists in
his career on the Suns, and you know, the expectation for him is
probably to match or maybe even exceed that number going forward and and keeping the
turnovers down, which I think he did really well in the last two years.
And I'm pretty confident in his ability to do that, and I'm pretty
excited to see what kind of stats he puts up this year, because I
think it could be pretty impressive season for him. Sam, do you have
anything to add or differ that differs from that? Not particularly, Biel will
play a lot of point guarding, just save way Blank incredible. No,
not not always. You haven't asked us about Bowl Bowl yet. That's where
we really diverge. I don't want I don't really want to have to,
but I guess I guess I will. I don't know. It sounds like
me and Dan are on the same way. Yeah, that's okay, you
can be wrong. That's fine. The field will play a lot of point
guard as well, but in the staggered sense. Again, if we're not
really trusting Jordan Goodwin, there will be a lot of staggered lineups here between
these two guys. So I think we focus so much on how seamlessly they'll
fit when all three are on the court together, but we also know that.
I mean, I think there's just gonna be a lot of minutes and
be a logging with the second unit. We'll see how that works. I'm
surprised, how not that you guys are low. I really like Jordan Goodwin.
I guess I'm high like him. I do feeling I don't ever.
I don't want to say don't ever, because that defeats the purpose of having
him, But whytching him run picking rolls is a little painful when you look
at that decision making. But like defenses can still scramble, He's got a
little wiggle there. And then, as you both have mentioned, just the
defensive value, if you're worried about point of attack stuff, I'm just wondering
if he's someone who could low key play. He got bigger role than expected
he could. It's a great point. I see a clear pathway for him
to be a ninth or tenth man in the regular season. I just don't
see him surviving the cuts as we head to a playoff rotation. But yeah,
if you look at the options that we have for point of attack defense,
it's either Josh Akogi, who's not going to be guarded on offense at
all of I always hope that Kogie one of these days puts it together and
becomes the forty percent three point shooter that I want him to be. He
needs to put you on the payroll Sam, Yeah for real, if well,
if he does was awful in the playoffs, because shut up, because
do you want me to bring up the net rating stats for for the last
eight games of the regular season when he played with k D because it was
awesome. And if you extrapolate those numbers, then there's a pathway for for
josh Akogi to become. I always say that he's a fifteen million dollars a
year player if he could just learn to shoot. That's how talented he is.
Defensively, so who knows, but but yeah, Goodwin after him,
Goodwin's the next best guy. He's the next best guy to be that point
of attack defender really against smaller guards guards under this you know, six four
or six five. So he could definitely play a role. There's very little
doubt in me defensively how good he could be on this team. He's just
built for it. I think my where I'm less confident in him is as
the primary backup point guard because there will be games where Brad Beal isn't playing
or Devin Booker isn't playing, and now they can't necessarily stagger those two guys.
In his role as a playmaker, as an offensive player is increased without
another guy to step in and help him the way that maybe even a combination
of him and Cameron Payne could have been. So that's where I'm a little
bit concerned. I also, I do think that there will even be lineups
where it is the starting four, if you want to call them, that
the four guys we know will start plus Jordan Goodwin, And that actually could
be really interesting. Maybe when we're playing Steph Curry or something. Now he's
tasked with running around and guarding Steph Curry, and his offensive deficiencies will be
completely covered up by the rest of the guys. So Kevin Durant and look,
I can't like, I can't do some of these questions. Just feel
it's nitpicking, and I'm just I'm looking at this team and does Son just
have like three of the most elite offensive players. It's just incredible. I
with Kevin Durant, though, trying to figure out a concern his rim pressure
dipped in Phoenix, even relative who is already low rim pressure. Mike,
Was there anything timat Was it just lack of familiarity with the team. Was
it the knee and ankle stuff he was dealing with a focus on lower energy
shots. Was it all of it? Was it anything? Is it?
Is it cause for concern or no? I think it's a combination of knee
and ankle, most of the ankle. I mean that rolling of the ankle
came at the worst possible time for the Suns, where he just missed games
and uh and went into the playoffs. Probably not fully healthy, but you
know, getting older, he just doesn't necessarily drive as much. Interestingly,
I looked at the drives per game stats for him, and you know,
on the Suns he was like five drives per game and the last time he
had any sort of drives like that was actually on the Warriors, but in
Brooklyn it was pretty high. So I'm not exactly sure how to like put
that together as far as what it's going to be looking forward for the Suns,
But I think that over the aggregate, over a longer period of time,
I think you can expect that his room pressure will go down, just
as it does with most players as they get older and older. So the
Suns have to be prepared for that and adjust for that. And that's the
kind of conversation we've had with him taking more of an off the ball maybe
shooter role. I think also that's kind of the importance of the like if
you believe and you guys have mentioned this a couple of times now his age
and if like he's never been for the past or years, he's not getting
the rim a ton if you expect that to kind of continue to pull back
or stay whird. I don't think it's gonna be like four percent or whatever
it was during his eight games during the regular season. But knowing how little
Chris Paul got to the rim and now you gave up mckel bridges to get
Kevin Durant, like you're on ball, rim pressure is pretty much non existent
at that point unless you make the brat like Devin Booker can still do it,
but I feel like he's more of an off ball guy there, And
so getting Bradley Beale feels like it could be huge too, if they want
to start getting more rim pressure, winning free throw battles. I think that's
the upside of one of the other upsides too, if there's so many but
of acquiring Bradley Beal, it has to be coming from Beal principally. Also,
though you know you can view it from the lens of a lot of
these minimum signings that they made. I don't think this was the primary reason
they made any of these signings, but a lot of these guys are just
upgrades in terms of their rim pressure over the guys they were replacing. Landry
Shammitt never got to the rim. Eric Gordon is a three and D moriyball
style player who still can do it even at his age. It's not,
you know, the primary way that he plays, but he can do it.
Kata Bates Dap can get to the rim more than Terrence Ross. You
know, who's who's just gonna sit there in the corner and chuck threes.
So there are these guys who they're also replacing off the bench where I think
you're going to get a little bit of extra rim pressure out of each of
those acquisitions. Mostly it's coming from Bradley Beal, though for sure, Devin
Booker and Kevin Durant shot better from mid range than Chris Paul and Landry Shammitt
shot in the restricted area. That's a real stat He's got an excuse,
right, of course, but those guys played real playoff minutes for the Suns
last year, and yeah, they're they're not on the team anymore. But
and I you know, Bradley Beal, I Suns fans are infair treat just
because the Suns just don't have They've watched these slow, methodical pick and rolls
by both Chris Paul and Devin Booker for years. And you know, Bradley
Beale is like a rocket compared to them on a lot of pick and rolls.
And I think Suns fans are gonna have a blast watching that. Not
to make by the way, Dan, this is another just quick argument for
josh A Kogi. If you're like, no, no, no, but
shut up, shut up for a second. If you're egging me on,
you're egging me on here to make positive arguments for josh A Kogi, who
averaged five free throw attempts per thirty six minutes last year. Just want to
say that that is a place where he can stand out a little bit.
On offense. Sometimes it's useful to have a reckless player who just curls his
body at the defense and gets positive outcomes from it, which is something that
very few players on the Sun's roster did last season. But josh Akogi can
do that is this team now? I think with the Bradley bealudition mainly,
but you've now mentioned it with some of their minimum contract acquisitions. Are they
built then put significantly more pressure on the rim? I think they're they're built
to win more free throw battles. And the other element of this is do
you think it's not really are they built for it? Would you expect them
to do like a better job of let's say, catering to the three point
math? Like, Well, it's funny because you could make the case that
they're they're built much more to be like a Mori ball type team, if
you want to call it that, except that they're three stars just shoot a
lot of mid range start shots, you know, especially Devin Booker and Kevin
Durant. So you know, outside of that, I think that the addition
of Bradley Beale and his ability to get to the rim is pretty important.
And I think the combination of that in the spacing that a lot of the
shooting provides will open up a lot of cutting lanes for players to get to
the rim. But without a doubt, they are going to shoot more threes.
I think that's one of the reasons that Monty Williams is no longer the
coach of the Phoenix Suns is not really adjusting to that modern style of offense,
and the sort of unwillingness to do that. You know, they ended
up shooting a lot of mid range shots, not just Devin Booker and Chris
Paul, everyone, and that includes a lot of players just opting for floaters
over and over and over again instead of attacking the room trying to get free
throws or turning down three point shots to drive into was defense and shoot off
footed floaters. Was that a Monty problem or was that a personnel problem?
I view that personally as a personnel problem. I think it's because if Chris
Paul will not sit his old ass down, what are you supposed to do
with Chris Paul playing that many minutes? He is allowed to do it,
and the Stars should still be allowed to do it. Mid Range shots have
their place in the NBA. I am not one of those guys that say
every mid range shot is a bad shot. I think that a player's ability
to score from the mid range has a massive effect on their ability to make
plays for other players, because that's what draws defense to the middle of the
floor, opens up shots both at the rim and at the three point line.
Stars are allowed to do it, but everyone else kind of being able
and capable to shoot three point shots. You're right, Sam, they have
more players that can do it now and that does make a big difference.
But I will say in the playoffs for the Suns, they had players that
could do it as well, and they didn't play you know, Monty played
other guys instead. I will say, even if they can't put like noticeably
more pressure on the basket itself to like the ability for all of their top
guys to just draw fouls without getting to the basket. You know, Kevin
Durant in the playoffs last year seven percent of his shots a small sample size,
but they come at the rim, and like he still has the highest
free throw tenth rate on the team above non bigs. Just just absolutely unreal.
Again, It's why I feel like any concerning questions I bring up are
so stupid, but we need content. Are there any rendering the cookie cutter
portion of the podcast? Are you both ready? Absolutely? Sam? Are
there any strengths or concerns about this team that we haven't talked about yet that
you think need to be discussed? Any strengths or concerns. We've talked about
injuries that well, right, we have. I think we've talked about I
guess it's injuries plus BTF eighten is really that? I think the top three
are eighten. What happens without Chris Paul to the playmaking and in that adjustment
and health and that's those are the main ones, right Mike. I'm not
missing any defense. Yeah, the Sun's defense and this is just because half
their games were against the Denver Nuggets. But the Suns had the worst defense
in the playoffs last season after the trade by defensive efficiency. So I think
defense is a concern. So what does and I'll throw it with you first,
like, what does the ten if you're building a ten man rotation or
if you want to call it, the top ten most played guys on this
team look like it feels, I guess like there's very clearly a top six
when you're just looking at who are the best players, how are they going
to play with? Or the top five? I guess Devin Booker, Bradley,
bo Kevin Rant, DeAndre and Eric Gordon, like you all know we're
gonna play and it feels like it could be absolutely anarchy. After that,
it's like, how do you flesh out like the other five spots in a
ten man rotation. I think they want they want to be younger this year,
and you can tell that just by the players that they signed. But
I think Da Kata, Bates, d Up you Banks are the three players
that I think these are the guys that they want to play a lot of
minutes. Outside of that, I don't know, Sam, do you have
any opinions outside of those guys as far as who's going to be playing off
the bench, because I'm curious what you think. We haven't really talked too
much about this. Wait, so sorry, you starting Eric Gordon or Bates?
Yeah, we're including Eric Gordon in the five most important players. So
then we have Kada, Bates, d Up not necessarily starting just Katabase dup
you to what nabe yea? Then it's it's what Nabu banks a Kogi are
seven eight? And I think your big question is who's ten. I am
leaning towards Jordan Goodwin from my tenth most important player on this team. One
guy who we have not mentioned at all though, is Damien Lee, who
they brought back. And I think this was actually surprising. Granted, a
lot of this is because of how many moves we made at the deadline last
year, but Damian Lee played the sixth most minutes for the Suns last season,
at fifteen hundred minutes. He shot forty five percent from deep. I
don't think he's a player with an extraordinary number of strengths outside of just really
really above average spot up shooting. But he was more smart, he was
more than Yeah, he was more than solid in his role. He's another
one of these players, by the way, absolutely no rim pressure coming from
Damian leam when we when we talk about their lack of rim pressure last year.
The fact that a guy like Damien Lee is playing the six most minutes
on the team has something to do with that. But I see him slotting
in at various points throughout the regular season. For sure. If I had
to lean on a guy who I think is like rounding out my second unit
right now, though, it's probably Jordan Goodwin over Damien Lee. And then,
of course, the super fun wild card who's probably really not in the
rotation but he looked really good in Summer League is Tumani Kamara, who was
drafted, yeah, fifty second in the you know overall in the awesome I
did not I can. I won't even pretend to know anything about him.
Was a total jack of all trades in the summer league who would just be
really fun if if he can kind of bring any of that combined offensive and
defensive impact. I'm gonna to a rookie season and the NBA it's we're kind
of just desperate for young talent on this team, which is why we're bringing
him up. But I hope we get to see some minutes from him that
are not just garbage down. I'm just going to mention a player that I
think that he could be in the mold of Dan. For you when you
see him, I want you to think about Larry Nance junior and not senior.
He doesn't play like a fifty eight year old. Yeah NBA player,
former NBA player, but no Larry Nance Junior. He kind of reminded me
of him. Now, whether or not he can reach any sort of potential
of that, it is, you know, if he can, then James
Jones. It feels free to boast about that after missing out on Halliburton.
But I think he's gonna be good, and I want to mention to you,
by the way, met Chimezi Metsu the Sun side. I don't know
what his role is going to be on the Suns. I feel like he's
probably the player that Sam and I have talked about the least in this off
season. But he was one of the most puzzling of the minimum signings to
me, and obviously you know some guys it was day one, right,
but he was a day one because we we we did our whole free agency
predictions or free you know, projections and talking about rumors and like people were
already people were speculating about Judah, for instance, the Suns for weeks before
it happened, as soon as the Beal trade hit, because there's an establisher's
relationship there between him and kad So Uda was not a supply. Katie mentioned
his name and it was just it was curtains. As far as everybody was
concerned about you Banks. I remember I mentioned on our free agency projection pots
you Banks was not a major surprise. Uda was not a major surprise.
But Mets was the third guy that came in on that first day of free
agency where we kind of scratched our heads a little bit and we're like really,
you know, would you rather have that guy as as your third string
center over say just bringing back Based mac Biombo, which they did not do.
But we'll see, you know he or does he play in two big
says is? I think you know? Is Frank vocal trying to figure out
a way to come up with some sort of two big lineups. He has
not yet been great at that in Sacramento. But I don't know. It's
just a guy I want to mention because maybe they see something we don't and
he becomes a player who plays a bigger role than we expected. I think
it's very fun. The fact that he took basically half of his field goal
attempts, like close to two hundred threes, not this past season, but
the season before shot thirty one percent on them, and then basically gave up
this past year and didn't shoot them again. So I would love to see
what they're thinking there. Yeah, but yeah, well we'll see. I'll
phrase is the question this way, Mike, who do you think And if
it's the same answer, obviously that's fine. What do you think ends up
being? Assuming health, they're most used starting lineup and they're most used closing
lineup. Yeah, I think, you know, Vogel has actually talked quite
a bit about this, and he is saying that the starting lineup is not
going to be set in stone, that it could change on game to game
basis based on matchups. Not a huge fan of that personally, but I
do understand it based on the personnel the Suns have like and I also think
that that's kind of why they're potentially shopping DeAndre and at this point point to
try to solidify it, solidify what that starting five will be in that they
bring in a player that's clearly the starting four or three or whatever you want
to call it. But I think the closing lineups, I think we can
be pretty confident that Eric Gordon is going to be in them, and if
we're assuming DeAndre in is playing at center and not Kevin Durant, then that's
that's pretty clear. If it does end up being a situation where the Suns
are going small to close games, I think Eric Gordon will still be in
there, and then that fifth player probably katabates the up or Uta Watanabe in
that scenario, maybe Tumani Kamara just throwing it out there as the next PJ.
Tucker type thing. Yeah, probably Kara is because I'll just say this,
we watched ish Waynewright. We were so desperate the last few years for
young talent. Dan, you don't even know. We watched ish Wayne Wright
and Summer League for the Suns in multiple seasons, and I think Tumani Kamara
is significantly more scared. Ishwan Right average like three points in Summer League two.
Monty average like eighteen is a fun story because he is a thick ass
human, but he as a basketball player, he is mostly a meme when
we talk about his impact. If I have to be entirely honest, do
Monty Kamara I have some actual faith in We'll see Yeah. But uh but
starting lineup, I think I think they're not going to start Eric Gordon even
if I want it, And I think Kata Bates DApp probably has the best
path to being the most common starting lineup. Do you differ anywhere there?
Sam? Uh No, I do not. I'll go with the same one.
So, Sam, what is the quirky un conventional Maybe they won't try
it, but they absolutely should. Weirdo lineup you would like to see from
this team? Well, let's stick Bowl Bowl at point guard. I mean
let's let's let's flip. Let's flip the whole equation on its defense. Like,
yeah, I do think this team has If you just look from a
pure wingspan perspective, would this be a good defensive lineup? I'm not sure,
but Bull Bowl has a what does he have? A seven eight wingspan?
Yeah? So if you played bowl Ball at power forward next to DeAndre
Ayton. Let let me sorry, I have to organize this in my head
a little bit. Let's say Booker. If Booker is at point guard,
Kata Bates d up could be at shooting guard. That's a seven three wingspan,
Kevin Durant is at small forward that's a seven six wing span. Old
Bowl is at power forward that's a seven eight wingspan, and DeAndre Ayton is
at center that's a seven six wingspan. That has to be in contention for
one of the longest lineups in NBA history. I would think, and they
could do it. They could do that. Mike, what's yours? I
think, Sam, you got to replace Devin Booker with Joshua Kogi in that
lineup, just just because that it's it's hilarious. Look. I think I
think offensively, of course, is my first thought, and I think they
can put together some lineups that just bomb threes and it might not be as
fun as Sam's. But the combination to Bradley be Old, Devin Booker and
Eric Gordon, Udowattanabe and Kevin Durant at center and just this, this,
this spacing is just absolutely you have the fifty two percent corner three point shooter
and you you too, Wattanabe and then Eric Gordon thirty five feet out and
then you have Kevin Durant, Bradley Beale, and Devin Booker. Just with
all of that space, Now you run inverted pick and rolls where Eric Gordon
is screening for Kevin Durant and then all the other guys are standing around the
three point line, then good luck. What do you do in that case?
Good luck? Yeah, those are probably a lot of that they should
explore. For sure. I don't even have I actually don't have one for
this team because I feel like they're not built to get super weird, because
Kevin Durant at the five. To me, just the way they're built shouldn't
be considered weird. But I am now any weirdo or on conventional line of
needs to have to Monti Kamara in it. Now you're gonna like him.
You're gonna watch a random lead pass game of the Suns against like the Hornets
in November or something, and you're he's gonna play like fifteen minutes and he's
gonna really impress. Who was it? Who was it that we were tagging
you in clips? Was it Jock land It was Jock Landale? I think
it last year. I told you on this podcast last year, I said
Jack Landale is really good. You'll see, and I started tagging you in
clips of him during the season and then look at him. He outplayed DeAndre
in in a playoff game and closed the game well DeAndre and sat on the
bench. So now we're doing the same. I think with Tumani Kamara,
we're gonna tag you in clips highlights of him. That was I know nothing,
but like jack Landale, I was, I think, what did Toronto
had him at one point and let him go like they got him in a
train and I thought that was dumb. It's like I understood that was a
basketball like I don't know anything about so nobody did please please tag me?
And that? So it needs to be k D. Kamara like I wanted
to be all bigs but no big and so like that's not fair to Booker
and Bo. But we'll go Kamara, KD. You don't want a Nabby
and how we're getting bigger. I don't really want to see me. I
mean it has to be we'll give We'll give it to Devin book Devin Booker
can be able kitchen there. So is their current win total as we're recording
this on September twenty third is fifty two and a half. Yeah, Mike,
are you taking the over the under on that? I would take the
over pretty pretty confidently because even even with even with injuries, I think that
they are going to be really good. I think the West is really good
though, and I think last year the West was kind of not very good
due to a lot of weird and different circumstances. And every every team we
did a podcast where we covered every team's moves. Almost every single team in
the West got better. Obviously Portland is going to get worse at some point,
but like a lot of teams in the West got better this offseason,
and so it might be hard, but I feel like they're going to win
more. Fifty fifty three doesn't feel out of the question for me, I
guess, Sam, are you they locked up? Yes? But it's just
weird how how our expectations have been recalibrated with the Western Conference because we're used
to these years. I feel like, I mean, for me, growing
up, it was like every year the top teams in the Western Conference we're
going sixty two and twenty And right now we're in just such a golden age
of parody that it's like, correct me if I'm wrong, where are the
Sun's rinks? There are? They probably second in the conference after Denver.
If I had to guess, Denver was fifty three wins last year and they
were in the number one seed, right right, That's that's what I'm saying.
That is super weird. I remember the Suns. I remember multiple times
in the Western Conference. Maybe it only happened once, where like an eighth
seeded team was a fifty win team that happened in the Western Conference within the
past fifteen years. Now we're talking about a first or second seed winning fifty
three games. So I'm gonna take the over, even understanding that the parody
will work against us in some ways, but I will say they are now
tied with the Nuggets for the highest over under. What would you pick,
Dane, I'll give it. What's that? Are you saving it for a
podcast? You can save it. Yeah, I'm gonna save it. But
I mean I think you could pretty much guess, And so I normally phrase
the question this will be the spoiler on it of how many teams are you
prepared to guarantee are better than Team X in the West Stern Conference if they're
playing in the West. That's not really a fun question because I think you
can say the Nuggets, but it's not guaranteed, and then there's just no
options after that. So I'll ask you this, Sam, is there a
looking at the playoffs specifically, is there a matchup that is still one or
two like particularly concerning for you if you're looking at the Sun's roster without nurkics,
of course, like, let's look at this Suns when I look at
the Western Conference? Uh No, I'm let's see beyond the Nuggets. No,
is that unreasonable to say? I think there there are a lot of
teams that would be fun to match up with. I look forward to our
first round matchup against the Thunder this year, where everyone is rooting for the
Thunder because it will be down on their come up. That should be fun.
But beyond that, no, not, not really. I mean,
they're just there are a lot of teams that could be really, really good
in the Western Conference, but they have so many questions. Teams that we've
matched up with before. The Clippers, what the hell are the Clippers doing?
The Pelicans continue to have injury questions. You know, the Grizzlies we've
never matched up with. I guess you have to throw the Warriors in there.
We've still never gotten a Son's Warriors playoff series. Oh, I just
think it would be fun. I'm the entertainment factor, sure, but I
just I can't. I guess they could give them some problems. And like
that Core is old and that that team feels more paper Tigery this year.
And I love Steph like one of my favorite players of all time, but
that team feels more like a paper tiger in this I mean the Chris the
Chris Paul narrative alone makes them super fun to watch potentially implode or potentially succeed.
I'm not rooting against them, per se. You know, I still
like Chris Paul, but I think that's an objectively hilarious situation that he's game
one, game one of the seasons. This is not related, but have
you guys been accused of hating Chris Paul? The amount of times, if
you needed to clarify, you like him on this podcast is quite frankly concerning.
No, I've never been accused of hating Chris Paul. It's more so
the fact that Chris Paul as kind of the the NBA's mercenary that he's been
over the past several years of hopping from team to team and then just making
them really good. Basketball fans appreciate his impact like neutral basketball fans, and
I think history actually will be kind to Chris Paul regardless of whether or not
he wins RING. But he kind of just doesn't have a ton of built
in fans wherever he goes, and so like, he made objectively a huge
impact on the Sun's organization over the past three years, and yet now he's
been gone for several months and kind of it feels like to a segment of
the fan base it's like he was never here. So I feel more of
a necessity to defend him, if anything. There is also a contingent of
Suns fans who blame DeAndre and his failures on some sort of combination of Chris
Paul and Monty Williams. And I think there's part of me. Yeah,
I don't get it either. Chris Paul. Was he staring at him like
too intently at one black I've just I guess Chris Paul can be grading,
but that's an interesting way to Yeah, So I tried to make sure to
distance myself from those takes when when talking about him. I don't want people
to confuse me for when one of the people that believe that Mike really quickly,
did you have any matchups that you could view is particularly not necessarily compelling,
but problematic for this team. You know, it's funny because then this
is in no way my confidence that they're going to make the finals. But
you know that, you know that gift of that dog that it has PTSD
where they're like showing him a plate of cupcakes. Sam, you know what
I'm talking about. I know exactly what you're talking about. This that was
like, Yeah, that was like me staring into the air and just seeing
Yannis dunk on the Sun's over and over and over again. So you know,
there's that Jannis PTSD that I have. Of course, there's Jannie Is
in the news for other reasons right now with threatening the books at every change.
They've as long as we're talking about the East, we've never really seen
I mean, of course, you know, Bil just came and Katie's been
on this team for twenty games, but we've never really seen any good matchups
between this team and the Celtics because they only play each other twice a year.
Those are obvious states you have to circle on account and the and the
the For for some reason, the NBA schedulers constantly put the Suns on a
going east and playing at noon game in Boston every year, and they have
to play against against the Celtics in a weird time every year. I hope
they don't do that this year. I don't haven't checked the schedule, but
that is an interesting matchup that I'm looking forward to in the regular season because
of the Porzingist trade. If you met in the finals and I was making
that prediction now, I would pick Sons in five. I'm so out.
Really, the oversion of the Celtics. Yeah, really that surprises me.
Sam. I know you have to go. So I don't want to borre
you with the details, but you decided to trade your best passer for a
guy who had a better passing season last year but is not a playmaker,
who has more injury issues, who's coming off a career year for one of
the most nondescriptive teams in NBA history, and now you're less versatile defensively like,
so, I guess you're not going to switch anymore. So the money
that's invested in that front line is fine, and maybe they end up amounting
to two centers because of Valhorford getting old and the injury concerns with KP and
r W three. But the Celtics rat even worse playmaking deficit now, and
I think that they're a lot less versatile. They'll probably win a bunch of
games in the regular seasons. Still, I just don't That's not a team
that I can't bring myself to pick them or even consider them to come out
of the East. Right now, that's incredible. Have you done your Celtics
preview pod? Yeah? No, you know who the heck are you going
to talk to man for that episode? I haven't decided yet because the person
I normally talked to just is in the process becoming an NBA agent and would
rather not wait into those waters anyway. So I'll let you know what I
decide. This was great, guys. Is there anything we left off really
quickly? I didn't ask you about that you think needs to be covered?
Sam, don't say Bowl Bull please, I was going to so now I
could've been mentioned. I think I said his name. We said his name.
I think we're good. Yeah, are you guys able? So I'll
start with you, Sam? Are you just able to tell our listeners where
they can find you, guys and all the great content that you're putting out.
Yeah, find me on Twitter or x or whatever you call it at
As Cooper who oops, that's where most of them. I mean, like,
look, I'm on blue Sky and threads too. Do people use those?
I don't know. I have like a one hundred and fifty three followers
on blue Sky. So yeah, I mean that you're in the top ten
percent. I think. Then just listen to our podcast. I think the
internet is in a weird place right now. And if you want sun Steaks
on a weekly basis, you know where to find us. You don't have
to listen every episode, but if you want to just check in from time
to time, we would greatly appreciate it. I think that's all for me.
Mike. Where can they find you at protected pick on Twitter? I'm
still gonna call it Twitter. I don't care if that's old now. But
also TikTok. I don't post a lot right now, but in the regular
season I try to break down offensive plays for the Suns. There if you
want to see some video content. But yes, the podcast is called The
Timeline of Phoenix Suns Podcast. You can find it on all podcasts apps,
and if you really like us, we have a Patreon and you could join
that as well. You'll find it. I will say this isn't the necessarily
in doors for that matters, but I don't pay for a lot of just
team specific content. I pay for the Timeline's content because these guys are fantastic.
You can find the link to where you can subscribe to the pod and
their Patreon in the podcast and YouTube description. As you both know by now,
I'll be passing you again in the future. Thank you so much as
you will for giving me a bow vote of your time. Of course,
Dan Boards, would you growing thank you