What is krack Alack and fellow thermonuclear a efforts. I am a Dampa Valley coming at you with an ambitious podcast crossover and a familiar one. I am joined by hosts of the Timeline podcast, Mike Vehill and Sam Cooper. Guys, how the heck are you doing? All? Let me try and direct this like a real host host. Shit, Sam, how the hecker? Are you doing? Pretty well? Dan? Thank you for bringing us back on. Mike, how are you doing? And this is my voice too, thin said, I'm happy to be here. It doesn't feel like the season has begun until we do this. I talked about that every year we got to do it at least twice a year. I feel like, yeah, I try not to pass for people more than twice a year, and I was like gonna be down to one on this year. But something kind of happened with Phoenix that made me feel compelled to talk to you, guys. I just hope that it's probably been really boring not being able to talk about anything with regards to this team this season. There's nothing ever going on. Let's start though, with the Kevin Retrade. He's now a member of the Well. Actually first was Joshua cohe snubbed from the three point competition. I think, I mean they let Julius Randall in there, and I don't know if you ask the Suns it was Damien Lee that was snubbed. But he hasn't been shooting very well lately either. At josh Akogie has overtaken him. If you just look at the last few weeks of stats alone, Yo, what is I mean, that's a real question, like is this for real? From Josha Colee on offense? It's just like Josha Cogi just all of a sudden, I you know. And he's had like some three of six nights too. It's not just like, oh, one of two, one of one, like he's had some three of six nights sprinkled in. He had six threes the other night, six six in one game. I'm not a shot talctor, so like I tend to hesitate when we talk about like, oh, this stretch of twenty three he's attempted, is this real? Is this not real? I don't. I don't think he's going to shoot fifty percent the rest of the season. But I will just say if josh Akogi can shoot thirty five to forty percent the rest of the season. He could have a really kick ass last twenty games of the year and maybe even a playoff run end. I think other teams, by the way, should be taking note because he's on a minimum contract. He's going to be a free agent. The Suns don't have his bird rights, so people should be watching Josh Akogi. I think for sure he's been playing awesome recently. He has the luxury of shooting the most wide open three point attempts I've ever seen in my life, which is good for him. If people follow you on TikTok Mike, they'll know that you did a breakdown earlier in the season of all his miss threes until the first one where it was like this off the dribble side step Threeever wasn't That was the one that he hit after missing I believe seventeen in a row, then he made that one, and they were all like ultra wide open. The one that he were missing there was like he could have gotten a cup of coffee before he got the shot off. I hope it's real, Dan, I hope it's real. Well, I would hope to if you hope it wasn't real, I question your motives for what you want from the song's the rest of the season. So I was listening to a podcast you guys did before orreas after the trade. But Sam had said that he had believed there was like a one percent chance this Kevin rant trade would happen during the season. How surprised post Kyrie Irving trade were you that this deal actually went down in the middle of this year. I guess you called me out, so I'll feel that one first. I mean, I was ninety nine percent surprised, right, because I really didn't think of it. Mostly, I think the big thing is I didn't think Katie had the balls to do it. I guess when a lot of the reporting came out that actually, yes, he was adamant about these trade demands behind the scenes, not going about his business, particularly in the same way that Kyrie does. But I thought that maybe he was just gonna be fooled into believing that this Nets team post Kyrie could be, you know, with him as the offensive engine, like a player in the Eastern Conference, and like I always believe that he wanted to be in Phoenix because he said as much, But I didn't know that he was really going to force his way out as soon as this trade deadline. So yeah, I'm not gonna lie. My eyes were set on Like you know, we were Mike and I were talking about John Collins, we were talking about Ogna Noby, we were talking about all these other guys in Donovan Deadline, Bogdanovich, Like, we did not think that KD was coming, per se. That doesn't mean it was impossible, but yeah, we were surprised. I think there was some like Kevin Durant PTSD mixed in there from the summer, especially because if you look at the way the off season went for the Suns. They got smacked against the Dallas Mavericks in Game seven, and then they did nothing except allowed Jay Crowder to sit at home in the off season because because they spent two months trying to figure out if Kevin Durant trade right, So the entire offseason stall for two months. Well, Sam and I basically did two months of podcasts about the idea of Kevin Durant on the Sun's in the off season. So by the time the trade deadline came around, it was like, oh this again, Like, are we gonna get the rug pulled out of under us again? But then you know, I will say like it felt even leading up to it that I was like, yeah, I kind of feel like something weird is happening. As soon as Kyrie asked out, it felt like, okay, maybe why would Kevin Durant want to be there still? You know, regardless of I think they're actually gonna be kind of good the Nets, but you know, it did kind of feel like something real was happening, and apparently was I thought I was being so I don't even know what I thought. It was me maybe edgy or just smart by when I did my trade deadline prediction piece for every team saying the Suns wouldn't trade any first round equity because they were going to acquire Kevin Durant over the off season, And so I was like one of those situation where I was like, I wasn't wrong, but I wasn't even close to being right, because I would have given it. Sam said he was nine surprised I was one percent prize. I guess it helped that the two teams had negotiations over the off season, so there was a baseline working off of. But I honestly didn't think that they would get rid of Katie this year, and I thought like him being out with an mcl sprain until the end of February beginning of March would have, like you know, maybe prohibited teams from going all in, but the Suns did not, And that is like, that is the fascinating question to me, is the price was steep, and I want to make it clear, you do this trade eleven times out of ten. But the Sun's, based on the reporting, effectively caved to everything the Nets asked for. And then after they caved, the Nets asked for something else in Jay Crowder, and they threw in Jay Crowder who wasn't playing for them. But you could have gotten five second round picks on your own accord had you moved him elsewhere. So what did you sort of make of the opportunity costs? Is this just still a no, like you're not even thinking about it, or you know, Mike, do you wish that the Suns might have at least negotiated a little bit. Maybe there was a little matt ishpi a new owner syndrome, wanting to make a splash at play here even though I had like a feeling that something was covering with Kevin durand I think I spent the last month and a half or so before the trade deadline trying to convince myself we could do it without sending Michael Bridges, because as much as that, yeah, as much as the picks do kind of hurt, and the overall cost, you know, he was different the last month or so before, you know, month and a half before the trade deadline, Michael Bridges was turning into I mean, he had forty five points after he was traded, and you can kind of see how he was putting it all together. And you know, I think for the Suns, they were probably and I think just based on what we've learned since then, they were probably trying to do it with DeAndrea instead of Michael Bridges, some combination of DeAndre In and Cam Johnson. And then it's just said no, and yeah, I think you know, Matt Ishbia coming through and by the time they were like already agreed to it and they said, oh, now we want Jay Crowder instead of Dario Scharitz or whatever. I don't think you could stop an owner at that point because he's already seeing the the checks printed for the Kevin Durant jerseys in the playoff tickets with Kevin Durant on them. So you know, I do think the owner wasn't going to let that stop at that point. They definitely won that part of the negotiation. I would say, yeah, you can't stop the owner at that point, North should you Yeah, again, underscoring the idea that Michal Bridges was the sticking point in negotiations over the summer, it feels like that's why talks stalled for two months. But Michal Bridges had a great season. He's one of my favorite players in the NBA. I loved watching Brooklyn Nets games now, like the forty five point game was great and everything. But as you said at the beginning, Dan, that doesn't kill your negotiations here. It's just no cost was too high for making this trade right now, you have to do it. It would have been different for me if it seems like the Nets had any interest in DeAndre Ayton. But between Nick Claxton's breakout, who was, by the way, to me, it was better than DeAndre Eten for most of this season, and then just having Ben Simmons, who is a Net zero at this point, which is just I'm not even making fun of him. It's just sad the fact that they just weren't interested in eating at all. The only pathway was okay, well the bridges and a bunch of picks, and if they're gonna ask for Jake Crowd or like, you can't let Jay Crowd or be the reason you didn't let Kevin Durant. And so the opportunity cross was steep. But I'm like, very much, when you have the window the Suns do, I will be team fucked the picks. Like I don't like to oversimplify things, but I'm I'm team fucked the picks. And yeah, Devin Booker is also young enough to where you know, even if something happens with KDCP three, you fall off, like you change up stuff there. Him and Eton are both young enough that like, this is still a team that can you know, rejigger on the fly without absolutely sucking to wear. Those picks are so good and I do think there's this is a separate conversation to have, but like, we need to see what kind of happens with all these distant first round picks from other trades before we go bemoaning teams giving them up, Like we don't know what these distant Lakers first or Clippers first, or Nets first to Houston are actually gonna look like like, yeah, maybe one team like the Jazz or something from Cleveland, Minnesota ends up with a really high draft pick, but there's just a chance that they're so far off into the distance you actually give teams time to figure shit out if they're getting stuff wrong earlier, and you're seeing title windows closed. And so I do think we might have veered too far into thinking like, oh, these distant first round picks are so valuable, and Kevin Rant it's just it's simpler. But that's where I'm at with it. Look for Brooklyn, it's cool that they're totally unprotected, right, you know, twenty twenty seven, twenty twenty nine, who knows where the Suns are. But also the last two first round picks for James Jones were one was traded for Landry Shammitt and the other one was Jalen Smith picked over Tyrese Halibert and Devin Vassel and a you know, slew of other guys. So he has not shown himself to be a rebuilding or even retooling through the draft. GM. He's a win now GM, And you know, he said as much too, like he's actually said that I'm not into He said that he's not sure he would have drafted Devin Booker had he been GM at the time, he probably would have taken Frank Kaminski or some win Now senior because yeah, yeah, because Booker was eighteen, that's just who he is. And it makes you question obviously, you know, when the Suns eventually arrived at a point where they need to rebuild again for that reason, we have all sorts of questions about James Jones. But right now they're in a position to win, and trading for Kevin Durant was the best way to ensure that. Yep. Yeah, it's funny that he's so win now, but he seems so risk averse when it comes to bigger trades until until this point. And I do wonder if if Matt Ishbia wasn't sort of running the show, Like, do you guys think Jame Jones still would have done this in cave to every demand? No? No, I kind of think he's too stubborn. Yeah, yeah, I think he really. If I had to guess the players he wanted to keep together for the rest of their careers, it would be Devin Booker and Michael Bridges. I think they compliment each other so well, and Michael Bridges makes up for a lot of what Devin Booker is not great at. And you know, I mean they tried to trade DeAndre in for Sibonis that was reported before his contract. You know, the negotiations for his contract, regardless of who it was Sarver or James Jones were not exactly clean negotiations for DeAndre. And then they tried to trade DeAndre in an assigning trade for Kevin Durant in the summer, and then again they tried to trade DeAndre and for Kevin Durant at the trade deadline. I think if we had to guess, I would say that most likely he wouldn't have done it, and eventually he would have traded DeAndre and maybe in the summer for something else to try and improve the team around Devin Booker. Mchael Bridges. I think, you know, obviously he did it. He deserves some credit for doing it. But yeah, I think that well, the other part of it should be said. It's costing the Sun's a lot of actual money to have Kevin Durant, so you kind of need an owner to say, yes, do this because I'm gonna pay forty million dollars more in luxury tax to have Kevin Durant on the team, so he kind of need the owner and his buy in as well. I will say this is only tangentially related. I was surprised at how emotional I was that mcal Bridges was leaving the Songs. I think it's because there's teams like Okay see and then Denver, where I've maybe been higher on the census, are out in front of when people think that they suck, and then their fan bases are super nice to me. And I was in a honeymoon phase until this year, I think with Suns fans, but also just having watched like it's so rare to see a core together for so long, like just the idea of Cam Johnson, Devin Booker, mcal Bridges and DeAndre eight and some of like the viral videos that have come out of him just having fun. Like when I saw that he was leaving Phoenix, I was like, I mean, you make the trade. I was like, I was more bummed. As someone who's supposed to be this like impartial national observer, I was like, oh wow, this is affecting me more than I thought that it would. Next fans will fall in love with him immediately, though, I mean, he's just one. Wherever he goes, he will be a fan favorite, so he'll be all right. I really want to get to the on court implications here, but I did have to ask about the rest of this season because there is there's risk here. Kevin Durant's thirty four, Chris Paul's going on thirty eight, always seems to be injured in the playoffs. There are concerns about the defense, but you're also you're having Kevin Durant come post MCL's brain injury and just have to a great him almost on the fly with less than a quarter of the regular season to go. And so I'm wondering if you're the Suns because of the urgency this trade wasn't just about this season, but because of the urgency of the actual window and even if they were younger, by the way, we're seeing title windows just shut. Like everyone thought Brooklyn would be inevitable for more than a second and they weren't. How much do you read if you're the Sun's into what happens to close this season? Like let's say, if you have a disappointing playoff finish, or if it looks like, you know, maybe eighton isn't the cleanest fit. Like how Sam, Like, how much are you reading into what you actually see this season or is it regardless of how it ends, we have to sort of take in the fact, like, let's give these guys a training camp to figure it out together. I think you read quite a bit into how this season ends, for sure, because it's all about this season. I'm not even thinking beyond the end of this year right now. I know that Kevin Durant is under contract for three more years. I'm not even thinking about it yet because of the utmost importance of the level of parody in the league right now, that's really what we're thinking about. The championship is there for the taking that being said like that, that may seem to imply that I have some level of concern over you know, this training camp period, as you called it, the next twenty games. I really think they'll be fine. It might take three or four games. But if you look at this particular collection of players in general, we're talking about some of the most sacrificial superstars in the NBA. Some of the most unselfish superstars in the NBA. I think, I mean, Chris Paul, I think that's obvious. DeAndre and I think that's obvious. He's not really a superstar. But Devin Booker is just not a guy who you know, he has found ways throughout his career to excel off ball. He's not a guy who needs the ball in his hands constantly. He's not one of these heliocentric offensive players. That's not how the Suns have played with Devin Booker at the Helm ever since Chris Paul came to town a few years ago. Kevin Durant, we've seen him sacrifice plenty in his career in terms of playing with Steph Curry and then playing and then playing on the nets. So, you know, I think they'll figure it out pretty quickly. I think the offense is going to be smooth. Is there a superstar more fit to play next to another superstar than Devin Booker? You know, like what he does off the ball and what he can do on the ball, it just compliments, like it would compliment Lebron, it would compliment Anthony Davis, it would compliment you know, all of these superstars and Kevin Durant, I think it'll compliment him perfectly, and you know, offensively. I think it's going to come together right away as well. Now, as far as like the sort of championship expectations in this particular season, it's tough because ultimately it was a mid season trade and that means that you don't have a lot of time to really build the roster around them. But I think you're right. I mean, the main thing is Chris Paul is old, and you know he doesn't have it every night anymore. If you just watch him play, some nights he has it, some nights he doesn't. On the nights he has it, he still really has it, and on the nights he doesn't, he can't shoot, Like the shooting just disappears entirely. You know, the defense hasn't been as bad as I anticipated at being so far this season, but you know, the clock is ticking on him. And you know, as far as the core of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, DeAndre and still pretty cool, but you know, the four of them together, the best chance for the four of them to win is this year. So I think the pressure is definitely on for them right now. We did do an exercise on this podcast, my co host and I right around the trade, where we were trying to name which superstars were most scalable, like who would can so easily fit in with other superstars, And the first three that we named were Steph, Devin Booker, and Kevin Durant. And this was like right before the trade. And so you now have two we're not saying I mean, obviously everything that we say is gospel, but like, even if we're sort of wrong to have two of those players that were the first spring to mind pairing, that's what gives me probably and I think Devin Booker is a big part of that because of what you guys mentioned with everything that he can do off ball, I just don't even have concerns about the office. I think it's going to be like absolutely thermonuclear from the jump. And that's why you see like you see occasionally I'm seeing it not from everywhere, but in certain select places, like this concept Againivoe, there's only one ball, like they have to share one ball, which is just like the most telltale sign that someone doesn't know basketball if they say something like that about Kevin Durant, and Devin Booker of All Stars. It's just like, it's not this is not a James Harden. This is not like putting James Harden and Luca don Chits together on the same team or something. You know, it's just two completely different players. And also like even if you actually believe that, or let's just say, like Devin Booker was on the ball more what didn't have the same up like we've seen Kevin Durant now do it on so many different occasions, like he did it with Russ, he did it in Golden State and then he did it in Brooklyn with like eighty different versions of that team. So it's just the one ball stuff has always been overrated, unless, like you said, if they're gonna be like two super heliocentric stars, or like if we have Trey Young, Luca and James Harden on the same team at one point, that would be that'd be fun to see. Mike, what is the functional wrinkle, the on court fit storyline, whatever that you're most looking forward to see with storyline? Like that's one thing about Kevin Durant coming to the Suns that you can't wait to watch. I have two there's two things that I've been thinking about a lot, and one of them is the way that a lot of teams have sort of countered what the Suns can do with DeAndre and and Chris Paul is putting sighs on Chris Paul. Like, for example, I'll talk about the Warriors. Now the Warriors defend the Suns. The Warriors will put Draymond Green on Chris Paul. And the reason they put Draymond Green on Chris Paul is because if they have a pick and roll between Chris Paul and DeAndrea, and Draymond Green can effectively switch that pick and roll onto DeAndre and then they have you know, if they want to worry about another big guarding Chris Paul, they can worry about that, but then they don't have to worry about DeAndrea and burying someone under the rim and Chris Paul getting him the ball because Draymond Green is going to do a good job on him. I don't think you could do that against the Suns anymore. You have to put Draymond Green on Kevin Durant and what that means, I think even on the line for a lot of these teams, you just how many teams have guys that can guard all three of Chris Paul, Devin Booker, and Kevin Durant and have like a good defender on all three of those guys. Normally, the guys that would be guarding Devin Booker will now be guarding Kevin Durant. That means Devin Booker will have the second best defender on each of those teams, and Chris Paul can no longer have size on him because the size needs to be on Kevin Durant. And just I think functionally, all the things that have been used to counter what the Suns do offensively, you can't do them anymore. I mean, Kevin Durant just breaks every scheme when it comes to that. And then the other thing I think is kind of interesting. People are very concerned about the defense for the Suns. I think maybe superficially sometimes, but I guess losing mckail Bridges does bring some level of concerns. But I'm not sure how long it's been that if DeAndrea and plays the way that we know he's capable of playing the way that he's played in the playoffs for the past two years, having somebody like Kevin Durant as a week side shot blocker is not really something that the Suns have had with DeAndre, And you know, I think about Steven Adams and JJJ on Memphis, and I think the Suns can actually do some of the stuff they do defensively with DeAndre and Kevin Durant because you have another guy roaming around there, or even in some cases play DeAndre in higher in some pick and roll coverage because they have another guy that can cover the rim. Now that's effective at the rim. I think those kinds of things and the scheme things that you can do because Kevin Durant is this gigantic guy that can do everything on both sides of the floor. It just makes it so fascinating to think about how teams are going to counter it. It's just going to be really difficult for them. Sam, do you have any anything that you're particularly looking forward to that Mike didn't already talk about? Yeah, no, I mean Mike covered a lot. I'm really just to again underscore, I guess, the defensive side of the ball, because I feel like that's where most of the concerns are coming from the outside right now. But on the other hand, I don't think a lot of people seem to realize that the Suns have been a top ten defensive rating team. They've they've been a better defensive team technically by the stats, and they've been an offensive team this season. And that's largely on the backs of as good as mcal Bridges and to an extent, Kim Johnson r. It's been largely on the backs of a lot of their backups, a lot of their bench guys Josh Akogi, who we already talked about, bizmac Biambo and Jack Landale holding it down down low. One guy who's development I'm really excited for over the past twenty games at least to watch how the narrative develops is Devin Booker. As we talk about defense. I think we've got we've come a really far away, a really long way with Devin Booker and talking about him as no longer being there was a time in his career, very long time where he was perceived as just a negative defensively. I think we're now kind of at the point where people understand he's been on a what was a top five defensive team for a couple of years in a row. He's not a negative, but I think we're approaching a point now with mcaal Bridge is no longer being on the team. You don't want Devin Booker as your main point of attack defender necessarily, but I think there will be instances where the Suns will approach switch heavy schemes and and he really will be embracing some of the toughest defensive assignments we've ever seen from him, now that so much of his offense can be freed up or so much of the pressure will be relieved by Kevin Durant. So, I mean, you know, Mike already talked about how important Eton is. He's gonna be huge, KD is gonna be huge. But I think we might see some great stuff from from Book down the stretch, and I'm curious to see how kind of the masses react to that or if it sits with them at all. Yeah, the Sun's defense has been shocking, especially when like some of their vitals aren't even great, like to be bottom ten and defensive rebounding, I think they're they're dead last and foul rate. I think the last time I looked, and still to be in the top ten of points. A lot of repossession is incredible. And their their ability just like piece meal together a bench amid like sort of the rotating injuries they have. And I think you know, you look at the names, they weren't necessarily super impressive to start the season. Their their depth has probably been like one of the underrated parts of their season. Also, as we all know, like they can put not This doesn't devalue Deondre eight, especially when we're going about his playoff defense. But their ability just to like figure out the center situation with whoever there's mac Bembo has been statistically the best room protector in the league. Yeah, Like there's just like their knack for just being able to do that is incredible. And Jock's numbers are good too. Uh Sam, do you have any concerns about like the immediate integration or like any like potential awkwardness that you could foresee. I'm gonna sound like such an asshole. Uh No, I'm sorry, but I kind of already answered this in a previous question. I My only concern is health. I mean, if anyone wants to talk to me about this team with health and their injury history, it's just it's kind of boring to talk about that either it happens or it doesn't happen. But obviously that's that is a concern in terms of if if this team has a full slate of health, I have no concerns about their ability to mesh offensively or defensively. That's just I'm telling the truth, Mike. Do you feel the same way. Well, you know, when Chris Paul was first traded to the Suns, the Suns are eight in eight in their first sixteen games, and there was a little bit weirdness with the two of them figuring it out, and then it just clicked and they just kind of took off from there and the rest of the season was amazing. So, you know, I think, especially with these three guys, I'm a little concerned about at the beginning, too much unselfishness. You know, there's that famous clip of Kyrie Irving and Luca dansh just passing it back and forth at the end of the game to try and get the last I get shot up this level of Now I have another superstar on this team, I'm trying to feed him, and you know, that sort of unselfishness. I don't want that, you know, like I want them to just play the way that they play. But I think, Sam, the way that you talk about it makes a lot of sense because the Sun's offense and the way they used Devin Booker Durant can do all of that better and that means that the plays that exist within the Sun's offense are kind of already built and set up for somebody like Kevin Durant to succeed, and their ability both Devin Booker and Kevin Durant to play multiple roles within those plays, it just all already makes sense without making a lot of changes to what they do, just sort of slotting Kevin Durant in the spot that Kim Johnson was in before, and I feel like that will make sense now defensively, and I think just in general, there's four guys we know are starting and the fifth guy is going to be the big experimentation piece for the rest of the year. And who that is and who that ends up being in the chemistry with that fifth person is what I think is going to be maybe the challenge, the hurdle that they have to overcome for the rest of the season. That was my primary concern in the sense that everything you mentioned about, like KD and on the back line before and I undersold I think at the beginning of the RS doing an MVP ladder and I was like, well, everyone's talking about his defense, like hasnt been as good as they're saying, And then he just went on an absolute tear after that, so I looked like an idiot. That's huge, But I do think there was probably on like immeasurable value of just having mckal bridget to know, like, okay, like that dude is just gonna go defend the other team's best player on the perimeter and we don't even have to think about it. And now it becomes a game of musical chairs with the fifth spot or like you mentioned, are you gonna be overstretching Devin Booker? And you know, josh A. Cookey might just render that if he's gonna shoot eighty percent from three for the rest of the year, a non issue, but like, what's gonna happen in the playoffs? Is he gonna hit enough threes? Is Tory Craig gonna be good enough offensively? And so like that is my only concern, but actually has nothing to do with Kevin Durant being there. It's just a matter of the talent that was going out and how much I value mckel Bridges, who's my Defensive Player of the Year pick last season. So that's my only concern, insofar as I didn't mention this before. If anyone cares, I'm interested in, I wonder or I'm hoping the Sun's use KD as a screener more than all of his previous stops, or even as just a pick and roll ball handler more or maybe if you're even using Devin Booker as a screener, just seeing him run it with Dejandreton, because he's never done that in excess at any stop. In large part, I don't think he was there yet as a decision maker with Okac and then Golden State he just doesn't play that way, and then Brooklyn was I don't like to oversimplify this either, but it was a lot of like your turn, my turn stuff for them. On the offensive end, they implemented some more off ball movement here and there, and just knowing how the Sun's used Devin Booker, I am wondering if we could see more of that from KD as like the pick and roll initiator, because that's just you know, I don't care who he's running it with, but like that just seems like one of the most unguardable plays in the NBA. And so I'm just curious if I would expect too. But I'm curious what you guys think, Like, should we expect that volume to really jump for him? I think his bread and butter is gonna be, as Mike said, using him the same way in the offense that we've seen Booker operate, which is mainly out of those elbow sets, so not exactly in that pick and roll ball handle a role. That being said, I think an element of what you're saying is definitely true, Dan, that he's good at everything. He just is good at everything. He can screen. He could be the pick and roll ball handler, or he can come off the screens himself. He's deadly no matter where he is on the floor. It might just necessitate tweaking the rotations a little bit, and so Kady could totally. I mean, one conversation to have is just to what extent they're going to stagger these guys to begin with, right, because there definitely is still this question or this overall problem of the top four guys on the team are great, then there's a drop off. How much production can we expect out of say Campaign or Terrence Ross, who they just picked up off the buyout market to kind of be that score off the bench, or how much would you want to maybe instead of that, bring Kadi, stagger him a little bit and play him with some bench lineups, stay next to guys like that, in which case he could definitely take on more of a pick and roll ball handler role. It's just when he's sharing the floor with Chris Paul, Chris Paul kind of needs to play that role as much as possible, and so yeah, I think it's going to come down to a question of rotations more than anything else. But he can do it all. I do think the Suns are probably gonna spend a lot of time with Chris Paul and DeAndre and on the floor and Kevin Durant is not, so they can run those types of pick and roles. But you do bring up the idea of even Devin Booker screening. And there's there's three players on the Suns that Kevin Durant played with previously. There's Damien Lye, There's Cameron Payne, and there's Landry Shammitt and Landry Shammitt screened for Kevin Durant all the time in the past when they were on Brooklyn together, and the way they use Landry Shammitt iss a screener for Durant, I think there's obvious reasons for that. They have a little tiny guy on Landry Shammitt and they have you know, you need a big giant guy to guard Kevin Durant. So if you switch on that, obviously Kevin Durant ends up with a small guy at him. You can shoot right over him. But I do think that that kind of experience that Kevin Durant had with a smaller guy like a guard screener on the ball for him could end up leading to some really interesting stuff with Devin Booker, because you can't you can't really trap that in any way because the person who's in the best position to catch the ball at that point is Devin Booker. And if you switch it, switch it up at all, then the size mismatch is going to favor the Suns, and I do wonder about that. But also on the other end, just like the idea of a DeAndrea and Kevin Durant pick and roll it sounds pretty awesome, Like I don't know what you're gonna do to guard that. That's gonna be amazing. Uh An aside, Andrey Shammitt has had so many superstar teammates he's just recycling them now from LA to Brooklyn to Philly and like now Phoenix then Kevin Durants like on his team again, he's had some legendary teammates. DeAndre Ayton, I think you could make the argument, and I already did on a previous podcast that he's just like the most important defender maybe in the NBA right now, looking at which he's gonna expect from lift from him during the playoffs, and he's been great lately. I don't think I've swung higher and lower on one player over the past like three or four years than DeAndre eight And like there was a there was some like stability the first finals run, like when they their first finals run, when during their finals run, there there's some yeah, Dan say it again their first finals second one, but it's been so turbulent otherwise, I think his offensive is the vine and there's like there's a clear path to him just like like not stumbling but play finishing his way to like twenty three points a game or whatever. Do you worry at all because there's been so much reporting about how he was kind of disenchanted with like the front office, and now he knows his name was dangled in trade talks again to where you could see this having a diverse impact or is this just something that we don't need to be concerned about or monitor And I'll throw that to Mike first. I'm concerned. I think I think you know, you perfectly summed up why he might be the most frustrating player on the Sun's in a long time, and it's because he's great and then also sometimes he sucks. And I think that sort of combination of you understand the ability and you understand what he's capable of, and also the fact that he doesn't bring it every night, it's become incredibly frustrating to watch. And you know, there's a lot of these guys I think that actually exists on even contenders sometimes. Andrew Wiggins just won a champion ship and you know with DeAndre and though I think that there has to be some level of understanding that this is the best opportunity that the city, the City of Phoenix has ever had to win a championship, you know, as far as the Suns go and that type of pressure, I think he usually does well with. You know that everyone sort of fell apart in the Dallas series at the end there, and there's reasons why, but he was one of them that fell apart in the last few games for that particular series. But he's played pretty well throughout the entire finals run in the past, like you mentioned, and I just don't think there's any way to say, oh, he's gonna be fine, because he can't guarantee it. You know, I think that he has shown that he plays well in the playoffs, so fingers crossed that that trend continues. But you know, he is he is who he is, and I think we know who he is at this point. Sometimes he's great and sometimes he's not. And this season in particular, the defense has not been good with him on the floor. That needs that statistic needs to flip, and I think it can. I do think it's been better of late, but yes, overall it has absolutely not been good. And ultimately with this guy, I mean, you're getting paid thirty million dollars, You've got this culture led by Monty Williams players coach, You've got Devin Booker, Chris Paul and now Kevin Durant on your ass. If that's not going to motivate you, Mike covered the historical aspect too, like bringing the first championship to Phoenix. If you're not motivated by all of these factors at this point, you're just a lost cause. So it's sink or swim time for for Da and we'll see either he's going to flourish and I absolutely think all of the pieces to the formula or there for him to flourish on both ends of the court, or he's going to be one of the most rapidly depreciating assets and then and he's gone, yeah, and they'll trade for sure. Yeah that's okay though, because you just resigned Bismockiambo and did the defense gets better? I am curious if there's should be less concerned just because now he's been paid and like, dude, you're on the max contract, like you're gonna get paid no matter what, and so you don't have to worry about that. Definitely, No, just definitely, there is that aspect of like, dude, what else do you want? You know, like you would rather rot in Indiana, averaging twenty and ten on fifty three percent true shooting. Like, I don't understand, you know, it's you have everything you could possibly want in Phoenix except for maybe those extra post touches. Yeah, or like maybe one of these teams has like a shot doctor for taking jump hooks in transition or something that's unbelievable that he did that. I still can't believe it. That was from you. You had a conversation about on one of your podcasts like a month or somewhere ago, and I couldn't stop laughing when I was listening to it. I've never seen it before. It's like it's like the TV broadcast accidentally showed us a play from nineteen fifty eight. So someone I can't remember who made this point. I don't think it was one of you, but it was not something I considered. Devin Booker has never just been like the unquie number two options since he's been a regular rotation player. Yeah, what is like, what is the ceiling on Devin Booker as being sort of this number two. I just feel like there might actually be like a learning curve for him because he's gonna get the ball and he's not gonna see like two bodies around him immediately. He's not gonna know what to do with all that extra space when he's on the ball. So, like, Sam, what is Devin Booker as the number two? Like, what is just the ceiling on that? That's a really interesting question where it's a throwback to the Kentucky days in a way. I mean, that wasn't him being the number two option. That was him being the number anything offensively when he was like I didn't watch him like that was the no pick and rolls. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, ultimately, what's the what's the ceiling? What is Booker I should look like? Is he at twenty seven ish points per game right now? He's probably gonna go down a little bit if we're being honest, But he certainly could see an efficiency bump for the rest of the season. There's gonna be an adjustment period. But but I have no particular worries here. The last time he was the number two option, it was Eric Bledsoe or Brandon Knight. Maybe maybe he was a number two option next next to Eric bledso when he was a rookie. I can't remember well, and I think at the beginning of that year, before the team sort of fell apart, he was shooting like fifty percent on threes because he was just catching and shooting wide open threes. And he's still such a great catch and shoot three point shooter that if he finds his way to more of those, I think the efficiency will go up. But just the ability of going against the second best defender every night, I think it's going to be fascinating for him, and I do think it'll be interesting because, like, how does he not just try to pass to Kevin Durant on every plane? There is gonna be some level of just give it to that guy, and I hope he doesn't do that, right. I kind of want him to still be Devin Booker because, especially the Devin Booker that we saw earlier this season, it was unbelievable to start this season. And you know, if he continues to be that guy and Kevin Durant continues to be the guy he is and the defense sort of shifts to the second best guy in Booker, yeah, it's gonna be amazing. Unless I blocked out the early part of the season, it felt like we saw more Devin Booker as point guard lineups in that game they played against the Kings. Is that something that's going to be a staple or is it just an issue of or sort of a function of campaign being out right now, or is it even if even if you have room for those okay, we're gonna have like our one star units, are the Soun's gonna be more inclined to give those reps to KD just because that might be more natural for him since Devin Booker and Chris Paul and DeAndre and are also used to playing together. It's more of a defensive thing than anything. And I think one thing Mike and I talked about recently on an episode is that one of the most unique and interesting lineups you could throw out is, Yeah, why not play Book at the one, Katie at the five, and then just throw some shooters and wings around them, switch everything and see what can happen. And you know to your question of is it actually going to happen or not? With the book point lineups. The very first game of the season, I remember they they sat Chris Paul. It was it was the win against the MAVs. They sat Chris Paul. He was having a bad game. He sat for the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or so. I think it was Campaign who replaced him, But really Booker was the point guard. And we're gonna see I think we're going to continue to see these opportunities to sick Chris Paul for defensive purposes at the end of a game, even though he has been this clutch guy throughout all of his career. Well, now you have an even better option to go to in the mid range during clutch time, and Kevin Durant you really don't. It's not to say that you can't, Like I think Chris Paul will continue to close most of the games for the Suns, but you really don't need him to. And will there be certain nights where maybe it just makes most sense to play book Booker at point guard, and maybe you can play KD and eight and together, I don't know. But then it's like Damien Lee to close or Campaign or just like put an extra shooter on the floor who has a few extra inches on defense. I really do think it's something that we could see, and I hope, I guess just above all, I hope it's not something that Monty is afraid to fleck a little bit for Chris Paul's sake, because it's a legitimate weapon that he has in his arsenal. My theory is that it was more campaign related than anything else. But we have really since Monty Williams came to the Suns, we really don't see a lot of Devin Booker at point. Now, the first season, Ricky Rubio was on the team, and then every season since then, Chris Paul has been on the team. But throughout that entire time, there has not been another star level playmaker on the team. But now there is in Kevin Durant, So you know, I think for Monty, he just liked the idea of having multiple creators on the floor. The offense works the best when there's multiple creators on the floor. So now with Kevin Durant, I think the likelihood that we could see more minutes with Devin Booker at the point guard it's higher than it was previously, if only because they have another playmaker in Kevin Durant that could share the floor with him. So I hope it does happen because I actually really like those minutes a lot. The shortest on the floors six six in Devin Booker, and that's just a nice thing to have. If you play, say the Dallas Mavericks again or even the Clippers again, you know it'd be nice to play lineups where you know Devin Booker is at the point. I think he's earned it. I think he can do it. It's just Monty doesn't like it. He wants to have another guy out there, So hopefully they do they do it more. And yes, first of all, has been such a reliable, steady presence for the offense. But let the man rest his tired bones. I'm very much on that team, and I think I think Mike is with me too. Yeah, I appreciate the answer because I don't want to have to. I ask you this question every single time you guys are on the podcast, is are we gonna is this when we see more Devin Booker at point guard. I'm a big advocate those lines. I still think he's one of the most underappreciated passers, like slash playmakers in the league right now. People get excited about buyout acquisitions and they almost never really like play major roles. How big of a role is Terrence Ross going to play for this team or do you see him being more of a bit player. Once we have both Shammitt and Campaign back in Phoenix's rotation, I think you should take this one. Yeah, I think this is interesting. Terrible job of directing this the reason we're joking about we conflict on this one. You go first, though, Uh, well, I think it's interesting because I think and I'm gonna speak for you Sam a little bit. I think Sam has made the case of what does he do that Landry Shammitt? Uh doesn't Well, it's not quite that, but I mean he shoots, right, Okay, so here's my problem. Sorry, I'm gonna jump in. Okay, he shoots. Was that really what they needed? Dan? I mean, was like, what else was there they got from the point of attack? Defense though out Mark? Yeah, I mean they could have gone after you know, Justin Holliday or Stanley Johnson or someone. But like they they got a guy who's fearless and it's going to take a lot more shots than Landry Shammitt would take. But I don't know, I just I'm not sure where that was on my list of priorities. That's all his his His debut was not particularly inspiring to my eye test. He shot seventeen times. He shot seventeen times, and it's crazy points. It's there will be games that look better. But I would have a short leash for him personally, knowing that both Damien Lee and even Shammont, who I'm hard on Shammant too, but both of them are Shamant. Yeah, but it's like, if Ross is not going to be playable, and I'm not saying that it was that bad in Game one, it's just I would have a short leash, that's all. Let me just say that the Suns have Okay, they have Damian Lee, they have Landry Shammont. Damien Lee statistically one of the best three point shooters in the NBA this season, Landry Shammont a pretty good year, I think for him shooting wise. Who knows if how he is health wise. Maybe this is more about his health than anything else, because we don't really know when he's playing. Again. The most frustrating thing about both of those players is how often they turn down three point shots. Terrence Ross is not gonna do that. He's gonna fire those shots up, and I think the Suns will have a guy when they need to even that sort of variability battle that they often lose in the playoffs being the team that shoots less threes than most other teams because they dominate either inside with DeAndre in or from the mid range with Chris Paul, Devin Booker and now Kevin Durant. They kind of need a Jr. Smith to be out there and just fire threes when he catches the ball. And you know, I will say, Sam, I agree with you. The first game not great often curling around and shooting mid range shots. Don't really want him doing that. But if he's unafraid to shoot on closeouts from the three point line, I think it's valuable to have a guy that's just not fraid to shoot. Well. I will say, I think how scared the other two guys are. I think we very much need to see how it looks with KD first, because I do think he was playing a different role in that first game, trying to be more of an offensive threat. But it's just like the three point shot thing he shot one fright in that game. That's not the part that bothers me. Four percent of all of Terrence Ross's field goals this year at the rim like that, to me is the part that scares me. Is not the fact that you're shooting too many threes, but just the fact that you're completely neglecting the ram to take you sixteen footers instead. So that's the thing that continues. Then that's the part that I absolutely we don't need that in the offense. We have four mid range shooters better than you already, so like cut that shit out. Yeah, that's that's the only thing. I think they'll they'll figure it out. I think my official prediction is he will not be in their playoff rotation if Landry Shammon is healthy, because I think that there's the suns are only gonna have a stomach for how many times he looks off like a wide open booker KD and takes up like fourteen footer or off the dribble that just carams off the back of the rim his liken. Yeah that might be maybe that that was like a Terrence Ross thing in Toronto and Orlando, but I just that's never played with players this good though. You know, maybe maybe he can adjust to your point. Dan Monty loves Landry Shammont like his own son. He really does. It's kind of inexplicable. So this it's too early to but I want to ask you this anyway, So if you Sam, You're you're Monty Williams right now. But there's like, there's so much interchangeability in shape shifting you could do, especially when you're looking at kind of the wing spots here. How are you if the playoffs started today, like building your eight nine man rotation, because there's the look at it, there's like four locks for playing time. Is that your top four players then everyone else? Maybe right now, at the exception of Joshua Kogi seems like very fungible. Yeah, So Katie is playing forty minutes, good forty eight if he had any choice in it, hopefully on a bionic mcl Yeah, I mean, I mean, but he is, though, can we be honest, like, like, okay, say on Monty Williams, and I'd say, Katie, it's the first round of the playoffs where the fourth seed we're playing Dallas in the first round. I'm gonna hold you to thirty four minutes per game, you know, and you have to watch Landry Shaman and Terrence Ross take jumpers for those other fourteen minutes. You think Katie's gonna be okay with that? Like he's playing forty minutes regardless of what his health right this is, he's playing forty minutes, so what do you do with the time outside of that? I think a Cookey's the fifth starter, absolutely. I think you're bang on about that. Dan Tory Craig is gonna play. We'll see how that goes. He's probably gonna play fifteen or twenty minutes. The rest of the wing rotation. Who else is even in there? I think there's room for one more guy to carve out a role. Is it gonna be Terrence Ross? You seem to think no, is it gonna be? I mean, I'm partial that Damien Lee just because the shooting. I think the defense isn't great, but it's it's good enough. Ish Wayne Wright probably not going to get converted for that last spot, although technically it could happen. They still have a spot. They still have one roster spot. He's a guy who actually his defensive numbers have been pretty good this year. His three point shooting has improved. I could see him carving out, like say, an eight minute per game role in the playoffs where he's the ninth man. But to your point, I mean that those last couple of spots are very open. Cameron Payne is playing. Cameron Payne is definitely playing. He's definitely playing just to finish with this like a Kogie, in my opinion, is definitely playing as of now. Craig, I'm like ninety nine percent sure is playing. After those two, I think it could be anyone. Yeah, Bimbo plays because they can't play the whole game, right, Well, you have a put Ish next to k D and that's your front court. Maybe they do, but Monty doesn't. You know, he never does. There's always this traditional big on the floor, and so I just I just and I also hard to believe that he'll change. They're gonna want a traditional big on the floor I think for ten minutes or so to back up at and I don't know if that guy is gonna be Biz or if it's gonna be Jock. Yeah, Jock's been good. I still think Jock offensively, he's so much better than Bambo, and then Bambo defensively, Yeah, as you said, maybe the best he's Gobert. Basically, they just like, hey, that's true. Gobert is like ten ten percent worse. They like the fact that Jock. They can run the same offense with Jock on the floor, as with Etan because he can kind of exploit a mismatch in the post, not like as well, but whereas with Biz he's a total non factor and you can foul him and he'll shoot. He's shooting like thirty percent on free throw because use it so in in Monty's defense, just knowing how he used Arch a couple of years ago, he is more open to experiment at the five then Tom Thibodeau is, so at least he's not Yeah, stubborn. Basley is the other guy we've thrown out. He's played at the five before with with Okay Cy, but I don't actually think they're going to trust him enough to do anything. There's a chance he's not even on the roster. Here's the people that were twisting themselves into a pretzel to believe that that trade was anything more than like trimming the raised luxury tax bill, where actually I try not to get angry at this stuff, but I was like, has anyone watched enough Darius Basley at this point? So like he's had some really bright defensive moments. I'll give him that, but he is he's one of the worst offensive players in the NBA, and I don't know why you would trust him. He's like I call him formless, Like he's just this formless player. And there were people that are like, oh, he might actually like be in the sun rotation. They got another wing type player. It's like, could we not? Can we not do this? I honestly think there's a good chance that he's gone if they if they pick up another buyout guy, which there's rumors that they're interested in. I guess Will Barton hasn't signed anywhere yet, has he. I don't think he's just what you need after you signed. I'm just saying there's guys out there. I I thought it could have been Vin Kevin Love with the Heat. Apparently Stanley Johnson is still right there? Is he right? He hasn't signed anywhere yet. I don't know, has it? Yeah, Stanley Johnson, So he's still out there. Yeah, And he played well for the Spur. I didn't see too much. I saw some of them, and he actually looked pretty good. And then the Spurs got rid of him anyway, and I was like, well, maybe he was contributing to winning a little too much there, even though they haven't won. Yeah, maybe they signed Stanley Johnson I think there's a chance they cut Basley just to convert ish I actually think ish Wayne Right if I had to make a list of players who I think will play, ish Wayne Rights not at the bottom. I think he's He's a little bit higher than maybe just under Tory Craig when it comes to wings, just because he knows the system, He's big, he kind of does things other guys can't do. His shooting has been okay this season, and like you said, you know he's he's played backup center before for the Suns, But you know, when you put it next to Kevin Durant, it's it's a little bit different in that Kevin Durant can kind of do a lot of the center stuff too. So you have kind of two guys who are the two bigs that play in that scenario and it's it. They have not a lot of time to figure it out, though, Dan, which I think is kind of interesting, is that it's like twenty something games for the rest of the season and they just have to figure it out. And I think that is not as easy of a situation as you would like it to be. And when it comes to Monty, the reason I put is a little higher. Maybe leaning on the guys that he knows know the system well, it would be higher on his priority list. One name that has not been mentioned by any of us right now and film taking that suggest that you just don't have expectations for him is t J. Warren. That's a great point I keep forgetting he's on the roster. The return. I think it's been interesting because we did kind of hype up the return in the past week, and then he played like twelve minutes combined in his first two games, and good, he looks okay, Well, we've been basketball in like two years. He actually looked better in Brooklyn than I thought he would. We haven't had this conversation yet, Mike, you know, the two of us said. I don't think he's gonna said it, I think briefly on our last podcast, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was out of the rotation in the playoffs entirely. But I think, like you know, if they need some level of offense off the bench, if they don't find the right ways to stagger the four main guys on the Suns, then they need another offensive player off the bench. I could see him carving out a role, but he's got to hit threes and he has to defend, and I'm a little worried about kind of both of those things at this point for him, Oh, should the Sons be considered favorites to come out of the West. There's we know the urgency that they have, But do you should we default to that because now you've added one of the five best players in basketball, one of the greatest players of all time, or because it's you know, we've mentioned that they don't have a lot of time to figure this out. Mike, like, should we default to like, well, the continuity in Denver or maybe even with the Clippers, it's like, or should the Suns? Wow? You got sorry, I'm laughing at Sam laughing for the Yeah, he's laughing at me being an asshole again. Respectfully, Dan, we're just a couple of hacks, right, Like, you're the NBA guy, why don't you tell us? Well, let me ask you. Let me ask you this way. Who do you think is? Because when I think about the Sun's being the favorites, I'm like, Oh, I don't really like that. I don't really like hearing that. It makes me feel weird. You know, this sort of weight of expectations on our shoulders or whatever. What is this new feeling of favorites? But but then I think about each playoff team and the Sun's matching up against each playoff team, and I'm like, well, the Sun should be favorite in all of these matchups. And then I'm like, oh, I guess that makes them a favorite. It's like even even Denver, you know, the Suns are kind of the perfect team to try to beat what Denver does, if they can figure out how to do what they have the guy who quote unquote defend Yoki well, although I doubt that that continues just because Yokich just figures guys out over time, but just how you punish guys who are at the level of screen. If Yoki drops it all, they have all the guys who kind of kill that. So I would think the Suns are favored. But what do you think? Dan? I still so, do you guys know who my title pick is? I do not, don't? Can I guess? Yeah? Go ahead? Is it the Bucks? No? I do have them in the finals, though I'm gonna say it's either them or well, actually, you're pretty high on Denver. But is it Boston? It's been Denver saying before the season, I did a YouTube video on it. People were angry to me, You're no better. You and Zach Lowe can go and pod together for all, Like, Hey, I think someone can win the titles each of the past two years. Yeah, we've so smart in two thousand and what was that? Yeah, we let him down, him down. That's true. That's true. And the fact that I picked them again after that gout for punishment, I think I just and I I think I'm wrong in saying this because I feel like we worry too much about Oh, these teams don't have enough time to figure it out with this new superstar who's coming. And so I'm like, I'll probably pick the Suns next season if like KD and Devin Booker are both still there and like Kevin Rand's healthy. But we saw it in Brooklyn, like we had you talk about were concerns about only having one ball. That would have been a situation where you maybe could have talked yourself into it. While they played very sparingly together the minutes they played, they're just absolutely dominant. And so I actually think that we're all collectively on a national level, not like not the Timeline podcast fellas not the people who watched this team every day. But like, we're all too cowards, too cowardly to say the Suns need to be title favorites right off the bat. We're more inclined to say, well, well, it's like they're clearly in on now or their championship or bust. The Suns probably should be considered Western Conference favorites because of just who Kevin Durant is and even who Devin Booker is. I still, I will fully just admit I'm too much of a coward to say it. Like, I still just think that continuity is important. I truly do believe in Denver more than most people. I think their top end units are playoff proof. Now on defense, there's more optionality there. That's a different discussion now. But I think if we're looking at this objectively, the Sun should absolutely be title favorites, and we're all just a bunch of chicken shit who won't pick them at a national level at this point, Who does Michael Porter Junior guard on the Suns. That's funny that you think that Michael Porter Junior is gonna be playing high stakes minutes. They gave him a max. They gave him a max. I still can't believe it. You know. I do think the idea of the amount of time they have left is an interesting concept, and I think the Suns do have to worry about that. But I will say the playoffs themselves are almost like little mini seasons in their own just because the amount of adjustments that have to be made matchup to matchup, and how things change within the playoffs, that amount of time that they have to get together and get that continuity together, it matters. But you know, the playoffs are so different anyway that things have to change and have to adjust in the playoffs, And you know, I don't really know. You know, we haven't seen it yet. It's a weird time to be talking about it because we just haven't seen it yet. And it's going to be really interesting too. Hopefully next Thursday against the well this Thursday, I should say, against the Okase Thunder, we actually get to see it for the first time and get a better idea if they should be or not, you know, as quickly as then. But we haven't seen it yet, so we'll see, Sam. Are there any actual playoff matchups as of now that you would be concerned about, like if you had to pick one team that you think is built to play this iteration of the Suns really well, well, I think this is a cup had answer. I think you go down the line most teams in the Western Conference you can kind of envision giving the Suns a series. This is like, again when I talk about the level of pay, I would like to put that on the record right now. You think, do you think they are Oh, they're frauds. I'm sorry, they're just like because they half court offense, right, yeah, it's just and they've seen it. It's like, hey, real, a really big chunk of our offense is collecting our own missus and we're just not going to address that. And we've seen Steven Adams has been out how much that can come back to bite them. And they're big solution was getting Luke Kenard. So they're just not the answer. And definitely, well, definitely the Suns have struggled though, to be honest with memphisis size in the past, but getting KD really goes a long way towards shoring that issue up as well. Jared might foul KG five times in three minutes. They're not okay I'll admit They're not the first team that I was thinking of is like, oh, I'm worried about them. The other team, well, okay, I was going to say. The other team that I think would be like no offense but light work are the Kings. It's like, yeah, fun story, but yeah, the Kings are not anyone that's just at least of all this offense that sounds scary. But I mean, look the Nuggets. But if we're talking about teams like before who you would meet potentially in the Western Conference Finals, the Clippers are still there. Man. We just saw it at night. The Clippers have I really like their depth, moves and right for the past six weeks or so. And he actually played like shit in that game against the Suns, but they still won regardless. So I think the Clippers have to be near the top of that list. Is there anyone else besides that? Who am I missing? You guys just aren't even worried about the Nuggets at all? Oh, Dallas, No, no, no, no, no, I am for sure. I am for sure worried about No, I'm for sure about the Nuggets. Stand. I just I was thinking about the Nuggets as like Western Conference Finals I'm thinking about, like, is there anyone first or second round the Pelicans of Zion's healthy. Yeah, that's a that's a good one. They played us really really well at the beginning of the season. I'm really curious to see how that matchup looks because it's like two completely different teams now and the Warriors are still a wild card. I just don't know. You know, their defense has been bad all year, and you know, regardless of who's on the court, their defense has kind of been bad all year, and the Sons have beat them I think every time they've played so far, maybe two or three times so far this season, even just with mcel bridges as the main star. You know, so you can have some level of confidence in that, but you just never know what the Warriors and what they're gonna do, and what they can do, and how much stuff is going to go off, what Clay Thompson they're gonna get, If Andrew Wiggins can defend I don't know even know who's gonna he's gonna defend. Actually, probably if Draymond kicks KD and the nuts and injuries, yeah, you know, injuries, Chris Paul or something. Yeah, you just don't really know so, But I do think, like I said, I think the Suns are probably going to go into basically every series they play as the favorites just because of the sheer amount of talent they have. It's just up to you know. I think a lot of pressures on Monty Williams. See we didn't even talk about that, just to make the proper adjustments that need to be made, play the right guys and and schematically make the right defensive adjustments against a lot of these teams. And that's going to be interesting to see as well. It is. Do you think James Jones is still under pressure after making this trade? Well, yeah, Isaiah Thomas is free. Dan, He's under He's under a lot of pressure new owner syndrome. You called it that before, you know. I think he gets a pass for now because they were able to execute the Katie trade. But but yeah, he just is. Anytime ownership changes like that, he just is. I hope he stays because I think the way the Suns need to build in this offseason is they need to nail all of the margins. And I think that's where James Jones has been just great the entire time he's been with the Sons. The draft doesn't count, right, We're not going him into the draft. But that's forgiven him for the Haliburton stuff. I know that that's the lazy, low hanging fruit whatever. I just we'd probably still have Michael Bridges right now if we had, because it's not low hanging. He deserves to be thrashed for that one. But he did really, really well with his veteran minimum signings. Yeah, I said recently. I said to Mike recently, I don't know if the Sons would have been in position to have survived the Devin Booker injury well enough to make the Kadi trade, right, because they had to be a few games over five hundred, even in spite of that Booker injury, to then have the confidence and say let's go get Durant at the mid season deadline. I don't know if they would have been there had Jack Landale and Damien Lee and Josh Akogi and these veteran minimum signings not panned out as well as they have. Those guys have collectively, I think, contributed to maybe three or four wins this season that you otherwise don't have, and you have given up on the season a lot earlier and maybe we would have been talking about ping pong balls. Yeah, and now they're all they might start. All three of those guys could make a case to start for the Sun. So I mean it's important for the Sense to nail those kinds of moves. So when it comes to James Jones having an offseason, understanding that now he has Kevin Durrett and Devin Booker and trying to build around what those two guys are, I think would be and with an owner willing to spend money and like actually involved with the team in a way that right now at least we can consider a good way because the checkbook is open, I think would be a fascinating thing to see as far as James Jones goes, Yeah, does that? Does Robert Starver say yes to that trade? If that's on the table, Probably not right, I don't know. Yeah, I mean I think it was literally forty million dollars more, not just a salary, forty million dollars just in tax and luxury tax. Yeah, they cut some of it with the shars traders, Yeah they did. Yeah. But if they if they end up filling out the roster, I think they can add a lot of that back, which I guess they have to fill up the rosters, so they end up adding a lot of it back anyway, So we'll see what the final bill is going to be. But I mean, fourteen million dollars is the total amount Robert Sarver has ever paid in his over twenty year ownership of the Suns in luxury tax fourteen million dollars, and they're paying forty million dollars this year alone. So he's fully atoned now because he included twenty thousand dollars bonus. Yeah that that probably mad should be a paid for you, right, Yeah, that was I know you guys said, And it's fairly you haven't started thinking about this, and there's a chance that this team could look, depending on what happens with eighton or maybe even Paul drastically different next year. Still, and I'll ask you about something else about that in a second. However, let's assume just the crux of this roster is in place, like who is the ideal free agent or player that you would like to see within reason, that you would like to see added to this This core interesting that I haven't looked up one if anybody cares, But I'm interesting, interesting your answer. I even looked at free agents at all. Yet, I do think I kind of teased it before. They're gonna have to replace Josha Kogi again. Probably, I don't think they're going to be able to afford him, and they're just gonna need to keep cycling through these defensive players. I guess I feel like the mini mL E might still be enough to keep him. Yeah, I have a lot of stock. If you couldn't tell, I mean, I believe there's a chance. It just depends on how he plays in the playoff, So he could, you know, because like, look what happened with Gary Payton the second when it comes to the Warriors. He went out of the tax paying MLI and went directly to the mL E amounts, and then the Warriors couldn't afford it had to trade for him. That's sorry. That trade was hysterical. Yeah, the name I would like to see, and his current team can pay him more, but not by much, and so it might be like sort of a year's thing or wants to play with k D again thing. I really like the idea of Bruce Brown on this team. Yeah, that'd be great. I'm totally there. That would be fantastic. I'm you know, who would be good on this team? Jay Crowd. I'm not even joking too. He would be so good on this team. Maybe they resign him then free agent. I don't know if thinking about him being traded and I was like, man, if only he wasn't. I don't know what's going on I honestly don't know what happened there, but I do think he would have been a really great fit for the Suns. Now. I'll be honest if I if I think about this season, and if the Suns win a championship, they could keep the four guys together and then try and work around that. If they don't, I think Chris Paul and I think DeAndre and could be on the trade market. And I when I think about building the team in the off season, I think I'm still sort of wrapping my head around what they can do. I think the only two guarantees in the future are going to be Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, and they might have to figure out ways to build around them in the future if they don't win a championship this year. Out of respect for Sam, let's put Josha Coody under the certain teas un Brea Landry Shammitt apparently, so all right, and you mentioned that. And I only bring this up because Brian Winhorse said it, and he just doesn't say things, and we go we call him friend of the show of Brian win Horse now because he follows us for some reason. So a friend of the show, Bryan Windhorse kind of mentioned that the Kyrieer and the Phoenix thing is still a possibility. How much do you play stock in it and what like? Could you even like wrap your brain around that happening. I actually do believe that wind Horse is very well connected, yes, but so in terms of stock, I guess that's one thing I just I would I would have a hard time. I think Mike would have a hard time too. Am I speaking for you there, Mike? Yeah, I think we don't want this to happen. I don't know why you would, but just to be clear, I don't support it in any way. I was just I was kind of miffed that the Sun's reportedly had interest in him to begin with. Yeah, I didn't understand it either. One thing I will say though, is out of the blue. About two months ago, Tim McMahon was on Brian Windhorse podcast and he said a name to keep an eye on for the Mavericks, not now, but in the future is DeAndre Aden And he just threw that out so randomly. And then a month later, Brian Windhorse mentioned the idea of Kyrie Irving on the Suns of the Suns don't have the cap space to sign Kyrie Irving in the offseason, assuming Kyrie Irving was available, but if the MAVs really are into DeAndrea and maybe they could work out a sign and trade for somebody like that. And that's when I was like, you know what, maybe this is real, and Brian Windhorse wasn't. Just I don't know, because there is some level of sometimes agent chicanery, right trying to build up the market for a player to get as much money as possible, and it's hard to know with free agents what's real and what's not sometimes. But I put those two rumors together in my mind recently, I was like, oh, no, this could actually happen. Hey, I'm not I don't want to cover Kyrie Irving on a week to week basis off the court. On the court, I think even he's he's still pretty good, but not exactly somebody that I want to cover on the court either, So I don't know, hope it doesn't happen, And I also would say I would bet against it happening just because to hardcap yourself to bring him here via a sign and trade just feels like, all right, now, you just limited your flexibility for the rest of the season. So if you get injured, like you're going to be limited in what how you could replace that? And he's not exactly, you know, a beacon of availability himself. So yeah, I just the fact that Windhorse mentioned, and then yeah, there was of course the Ti mcman thing that it made me. It just makes me uneasy and unsettled. And so I'm just hoping against it happening because I would like to actually see the Voges with this team continue to be good and he inevitably submarines who whoever he's with. Yeah, to go from covering mcail, Bridges and Cameron Johnson to carry I would be a bit of a whiplash. I think the worst of reality checks. Guys, this was great. Thank you so much for coming on and giving me so much of your time. Are you able to say I'm wis start with you. Are you able to tell our listeners where they can find you specifically and the podcast and everything for anyone who maybe I hasn't check you out yet. Yeah. Sure. So we host this podcast called The Timeline Phoenix Suns podcast. It's on the Blue Wire Network. We are on every app you can think of. I am at s Cooper Hoops on Twitter. That's probably the best best place to find me. And thank you again, Dan for coming on. It was fun for inviting us on it. It was fun as always. I said, for coming on because you will inevitably make an appearance on our show soon' That'll be my way of spinning that. Well, I'll have to bring you back on. That's going to be exciting, Mike. We're able to tell our listeners where you can they can find you. Yep at protected pick on both Twitter and TikTok. And yeah, the Timeline the podcast find it will be covering Kevin Durantt this season. How weird is that? Yeah? Look, and I can't reiterate not just blowing smoke. Hey, the Timeline is one of my favorite not just team podcast but NBA podcasts. I shout out all the time on hardware knocks, So if you've not checked it out, what the fuck are you doing with your life? Which I got the Timeline podcast. Thank you guys so much, and as you know by now, I will be spamming your DM again in the not too distant future. Hell yeah, looking forward to it.