Devin Booker Involved In Phoenix Suns Coaching Search? Plus Revisiting KD To the Knicks

Devin Booker Involved In Phoenix Suns Coaching Search? Plus Revisiting KD To the Knicks

Today on Unlocked on Suns, Devin Booker, a leading voice in the Suns coaching search. Maybe that’s surprising to you, maybe it’s not. We’ll discuss what it means for the team going forward. Let’s go. You are Locked On Suns, your daily Phoenix Suns podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. your team every day. Welcome back in to Locked on Suns. I’m Brendan Clean, a staff writer at Awful Announcing and a credentialed Suns media member. Thank you for making Locked on Suns first listen here on this Monday to kick off your week. Don’t forget Locked on Suns free and available on all platforms including YouTube. Just click that follow or subscribe button. Do what thousands of other Suns fans have already done. Become an everydayer. Get locked on to the Phoenix Suns right here each and every day. Hey, we’ve got a lot to break down today. Booker, the last last steps of the coaching search and some potential options with the most recently eliminated postseason team. Today’s show is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarchoney. Use the code locked on NBAMoney.com for 50% off your first year. Joining me as always from the wonderful West Valley, my fellow Sunscredential media member, how we feeling, Ben Garcia. Oh my god, dude. Uh, really quick, just question, bigger disappointment last season. Suns are diamondbacks because I think the Suns might not be the biggest disappointment in the Valley anymore. So, that’s kind of nice moving up in the world. Yeah, if you just don’t play games and don’t give anyone else anything to be upset about, then you just kind of move around in the rankings by just being absent from the action. So, yeah, maybe. But, uh, let’s dive into it. Devin Booker, we saw this on Saturday from Mark Stein in his newsletter where he reported this was kind of a a stray note, but obviously here in the Valley, I think it’s pretty important that Sunstar Deon Booker has had a level of involvement with candidates in this stage of interviews, meaning this final six or so, I think is what he’s saying there. further illustrating owner Mattishb’s loudly stated determination to keep Booker in place as the team’s cornerstone. We’ll get to the other little chunk that Stein had there too in the next segment, Ben, but what were your thoughts when you saw this specifically finally stated something that we had kind of assumed was happening? It was one of those things where I was like I just thought like a news aggregator tweeted it out like his I thought it was so obvious. You’re telling me Deon Booker is not a part of the coaching search? I think the re like just I don’t have a super strong opinion about it of just like Yeah, of course he is. Every star or superstar on a team has a say in it. Especially Deon Booker. I mean, he hasn’t the past two years. So, I don’t think it’s Oh, that’s a good point. I think it would be obvious that he should be then. I guess it shouldn’t be. I think it’s it’s not one of the things that I think it’s a good way to kind of play devil’s advocate about it that it shows that maybe the Suns are doing something a little bit differently this year. I was really surprised that it got such a even just some negative push back, not necessarily by the media, but a little bit by fans because if there’s anyone that has earned a say in the Suns head coaching search, it’s Devin Booker. He’s been here for 10 years. He’s never left you. The guy who is your number one employee should have some say in the boss, not the full say. His say is just that. It’s an opinion. Everyone votes in the room. There’s that alignment, right? If you’re going to talk about that alignment, it should go down from CEO all the way to number one salesman is where I kind of got from it. I would ask you this. Um I think it was poor timing for for the reporting for Devin Booker. It’s not like anyone was like, “Oh, it’s six o’clock. I got to tweet this.” I think combine it with the FDale stuff to then Devin Booker has a big say. People were connecting the dots of like, “Oh, he must be really big into Fsdale.” And you know, I’ve kind of agreed with you over the last couple weeks of just like or maybe not. Could just be some or last couple of days. It’s like it could just be someone else. So, I think that’s where it kind of stemmed from some of the negativity. But I’d ask you on that side. I would say the think about it the other direction for people who are worried that that’s where the dots are being connected. I would say flip it. I think that if Fdale and his representation or anybody who were to leak something like that, you know what I mean? If those if it were to become clear over the course of this week of of second and third interviews that have happened that Booker’s voice is an important one and you were leaking to a reporter that you were a strong candidate, you would want to say that the important factor is on your side. I.e. you would say, “Hey, Book likes me.” Right? And so again, it would make no sense for the Suns to want to be putting any of that out there, right? It doesn’t really like there’s no I guess the Suns might have put this report this kind of noise out there because it’s it looks good for the fans and other people around the league. It it looks more stable, right? It it’s this thing you had said with somebody like Sean Sweeney where there’s more of a top down, you know, kind of alignment of the identity. I think this would be another version of that that the Suns might like out there. But individual candidates, it would make no sense for them to be putting any of that out there. Whereas, if from the candidate side, you have all the all all to gain from saying, “Hey, the best player really likes me.” So I I I think of it as Booker is involved. That’s good. You and I agree there. But if people are worried about Fsdale, I would just say let him leak things that make him look good and worry about him becoming the head coach if that time comes. But I don’t think we’re close to it. Um I would overall Go ahead. Sorry. I was just going to say just to piggyback off what you were saying. Um I think and this is what eased my feelings, not anything you and I have said to each other or whatever or what we think or when Gambo tweeted out that the Suns completed four inerson interviews and then of course they were just waiting on Dave Bliss who’s still in the playoffs right now. So I guess that that can’t be the case at this point. Or maybe the Thunder just don’t want that. Um that’s what made me feel so good about it. There wasn’t even like a followup of like in in the later part of that tweet of like and Fisdale still yet to be determined. I think again as as more reporting comes out that it was probably you were probably right at first. I’m the one that tends to overreact a little bit. It probably wasn’t as concrete as it was. And if that’s the case, I really hope they go with I really hope they take very strongly Devin Booker’s opinion. And I would hope that he wasn’t in like that first round. I don’t need Deon Booker interviewing 15 people or even the second round. But we don’t even know if he’s like we don’t I guess that’s like a place to go here. Like we don’t this is one paragraph like you know what I mean? So I think that’s an open question is like it’s it’s very specifically worded a level of involvement. Like I we don’t even know what that means, right? So I I would I would doubt that he’s in the room during the interviews. like that’s just not really I I don’t imagine that that’s something that necessarily makes a lot of sense. like it’s not his area of expertise. If you’re talking I don’t know stuff like contracts or the the vision for the I don’t know may maybe I’m wrong but I I sort of think like if they’re sitting there asking we’ve heard maybe they’re talking to coaches about hey if we were to keep Kevin what what that’s a weird thing for book to be in there for. So I I almost like my guess would be that maybe he’s kind of liaisoning with Gregory and and Bartlescene and Ishpia maybe kind of what do you think of these guys in like you’ve been these are all highle assistants right so these are people book would know of book would have an idea of Minnesota or I guess not Minnesota nor he’s not involved the heat or whoever that’s sort of what I would think but I mean I guess he could be that like he’s there he’s in the building he’s in person. He’s he’s he’s throwing questions off these guys doing, you know, management 101 stuff. I don’t know. I would hope cuz why would he want to be he’s in the middle of his like we’ve seen that he’s been in whatever different parts of the world at this point during his off season. I do hope when they get down and I believe you know and they already have their top five guys that come in for in-person interviews. I do hope they meet Devin Booker and they say so that’s what I’m talking about. I’m talking about during this round. So you think he might have been more like that involved this this time? That’s what I’m talking about. Yes. In in this round, yes. I don’t think Booker is asking any questions outside of maybe like I really like running pick and rolls and I don’t really like having the ball in my hands. Are you going to make me do that? What do you think I do best? Like I don’t think he’s asking really concrete questions about like KD or like what are you going to do with the roster? I think it’s more centered around him because those relationships need to be mended because I mentioned on the show last week Vogle and Ben Buddhen Holtzer didn’t do that with Booker. So it’s important that your best employee does jive with his boss. That’s where that alignment is supposed to come from. I guess I’m imagining maybe like hey you’re here for the day. There’s a there’s a sit down in our conference room and then there’s lunch with book you know. It could be like that right? I don’t know. I don’t know. But my question, I guess this is unknowable, but it’s just kind of worth asking, is so Bliss, like you mentioned, I don’t think it’s the Thunder stopping him, and I don’t think it’s the Sun’s lack of interest. It’s logistics. Dude’s just been in the middle of being in the playoffs, so it’s hard to track him down. He’s not going to fly to Phoenix in the middle of this. So, you’ve got to go to him either in Minneapolis while that series was still going on or now in Oklahoma City or I guess starting whatever it’s Wednesday or whatever the finals is, you could go to Indianapolis. I that’s pretty close for Ishbia. I don’t know. Maybe maybe that that’ll just pass him by. But of everybody else, let’s just stick with the main four that we know that they’ve interviewed. We know Mike most likely have been in Phoenix, might have been able to go golfing or go have a freaking burger with Book or whatever it is. Like who do you think between Quinn, Sweeney, um, and Bryant that who could you envision Book liking the best? Chris Quinn or Johnny Bryant? I And maybe you know what I just cuz I had this thought. I kind of think Quinn too. I It feels like Quinn would be former player. Yes. Culture, competitive as hell. Like those are the things Miami stands for. It feels like Book would just jive with that really well. I also do kind of think Sean Sweeney because of that 2022 playoffs where Booker was there and knew that he got all sorts of pushed around in that playoff series. He knows what he ar you know him and Jason kid that architecture of that defensive prowess pushing making him or swarming him every time he got the ball and completely taking Chris Paul out of the series. So that would be interesting to me. The same thing we see with like super teams where it’s like, “Hold on, I didn’t know those guys knew each other.” Oh, well, they knew each other because that dude kept beating him and he got a level of respect. It’s like that. But with the coach, yeah, I I could those are going to be my top two as well. But you never know. I mean, I I do think Chris Quinn would be the far and away favorite just because he’s a former player. I think Booker would really jive with someone who isn’t that far removed either. like, yeah, it’s 15 years ago, but it’s not 50 years ago. You know what I mean? And the Suns, who the number one coach that we know Devin Booker had the the highest level of relationship with outside of Monty, although that may have deteriorated over time. Um, during his career is Earl Watson, right? And that’s kind of like a Chris Quinn, right? So, I it I mean, that’s no surprise. I mean, I think most former players are the guys that tend to jive with the coach. talked about that that those people might have a level up in this process, but um if book is involved, it probably just goes even higher. Let’s get to the other report from Mark Stein and I guess what two people or which person the owner might like the best next. First, today’s show is brought to you by Monarch Money. Do you ever look at your bank account and wonder where did all my money go? Well, yes, of course we all have. Between dining out, online shopping, and entertainment, it’s easy to lose track. That’s where Monarch Money comes in. It’s your personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money isn’t just a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You can track all your accounts, investments, and spending in one place so you stop just managing your money and start building wealth. Look, this is an all-in-one thing. That’s the point. We all have something. It’s not like we’re just flying blind, but it’s a spreadsheet. It’s like a random conversation with your partner or your family or whatever. It’s like this thing you wrote a note on a month ago that’s on the tacked up to your computer or whatever it this Monarch Money puts all that in one place. So, take control of your finances with Monarch Money, your complete financial command center. Use the code locked on NBA monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That’s monarchmoney.com code locked on NBA for half off your first year. All right, then. Let’s keep it rolling. So, spending a little more time on this coaching search, which legit could wrap up any day this week, I feel like. Um Stein also reported quote it’s believed that Ishppia will have face-to-face discussions next week with the candidates likely to who progress from this round. So this is like a fourth round. This this search has been had all sorts of twists and turns I feel like where hold on. Did the did this final round actually have six out of the nine? Okay, maybe Fsdale is not super real or maybe they’re not going to be able to get to Bliss and now there’s like this final final thing where Ishbia will be involved. It sounds like from everything up to this point, you mentioned Gambo’s notes about this throughout the past week too, that this this round, which we thought was going to be the last one, the in-person part of it may have just been Gregory. like, “Okay, you zoomed with Gregory. Now you’re going to sit down with him at the Verizon thing on 44th in Camelback and I guess have some facetime.” I don’t I don’t know what the difference really is on that, but Ishbia being the guy like that that’s going to be the final seal of approval, it sounds like. And and we’ll see what how that changes things because he’s he’s an opinionated dude. We know that. Yeah. For so forget that last part of like, oh, they’re meeting with him. I would ask you um I I don’t I don’t see this to be that big of a deal. I think whoever the the uh person is going to get the job is does have to meet with the owner in some regard because the owner blows up everything. Like I’ve done job interviews before where at the end they’re like, “All right, hey, you know, we’re going to talk with the owner and we’ll let you know how it goes.” This isn’t anything new. So with all of I just thought it would have happened already. That’s why I’m drawing attention to it is I thought the round where we’ve been saying finalists the five the four whatever oh 0 oh six with Fdale like I thought that was the final one. That’s all I’m saying. I I it’s totally normal. Of course I has to be involved. He’s paying this person tens of million dollars potentially. But I just am I guess I’m like well then what was this round for a little bit? But it’s just semantics at the end of the day. if they get the right guy. Again, like we’ve been saying, it’s not a problem how many steps it took to get here. And they’re the only team searching, so they’re not in a rush either. I just don’t know. I I keep on coming back to this point with you of like, what are you talking about? At some point, you have you are whining and dining these people over and over and over again. I really want to focus on just like the the the Ishbia part of it all because you kind of mention mentioned it as well. I don’t want this part to get lost in the oh Ishbia is just doing Ishbia things again he’ll pick the final person I think as well he gets a say in all this so if he yeah truly is hands off and the two finalists are two guys that Gregory picks and he’s like hey man I think these two guys are the best ones let me hear your opinion that should have some say in it Ishbia taking two guys that are from Michigan State and picking between those two so That’s kind of what I would lean more into. Although I agree with you. I can’t believe it’s taking this long. I don’t have an issue at all. Like I didn’t love the symbolism of Gregory getting hired. I didn’t like him being the pick. But the idea of Ishbia getting to choose who the GM is or something, well, duh, right? And likewise with this, these are the choices an owner makes. like not the only person you would like him to listen if the people in charge are borrowing and Gregory we don’t have to love that but that’s what it is he should let those people get down to you know a handful of candidates and he should have a pretty big final say in it like we don’t have to be naive and just because Hishb has made some mistakes act like it’s a problem that the owner of a huge company is is instrumental in deciding one of the key people who’s getting hired for a key position in that company. Like that that’s just normal. But I if we’re talking about like okay so now two is the number and Mark Stein uh well sorry Gambo I should say has been saying all along his his assumption his going assumption is that Sweeney and Quinn are the the it’s going to probably come down to them that those are kind of the two favorites in the room so to speak. Same question I sort of just asked you with book. Like who do you think from what we’ve heard from Ishppia at that press conference and his history of the coaches he’s liked and the coaches he’s hired? What where do you think he will kind of direct this thing as it gets down to the actual final days here? I think because Ishbia has told us who he is and he’s really a fan of the splashy hires outside of Gregory so far. But Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, Mike Benholtzer, Frank Vogle, I do think it’ll be Chris Quinn because he gets to sell the idea of heat culture in Phoenix, which is awesome. former player. They vetted out this whole prog process and it does like I know people are saying, “Oh, the Suns aren’t trying to win the headlines.” Well, you could do both. You could hire the right guy and win the headline. And I do think Chris Quinn will be that guy that is going to end up winning the headlines. Like, come on. If Chris Quinn is hired, he’s only at this point. Wait, the way that they’ve gone about this search though, I don’t think the average fan outside of people who we appreciate listening to our crap every day who’ve been hearing us talk about like no one knows who these people are, right? If there was like a you know, Ty Louu was in the mix or if there like uh I don’t know, Steve Nash or Chris Paul, you know, those people I would say like that’s winning the winning the press conference. But does anyone know who Chris Quinn is? like somebody who goes to a couple games a year, watches 30, 40 on TV and has a son’s hat in their closet and they’re like, “Yeah, I like the team, but yeah, you know, I’m not always in it.” They don’t know who Chris Quinn or Sean Sweeney or Johnny Bryan are. So, I think that is kind of passed. Yeah, they know who Eric Spolster is, though. And I And of course, Heat culture, that’s like the big You’re gonna You’re not going to say Chris Quinn, you know, the former Miami Heat point guard. Like, you’re not going to say that. You’re going to say Heat Culture, Eric Spolstra went to the finals two times while he was there in the bubble and then of course a couple years ago as the eight seed. That’s what you’re going to sell it as. Where Sean Sweeney the most you can kind of pump and thrill it up is going to be that 2022 NBA I’m sorry Suns Western Conference semi-finals series. And I don’t making the finals last year and making the finals. That’s a good point as well. But when you say like Jason Kidd’s assistant, I don’t know if there’s a lot of people out there who know Jason Kidd is still a head coach. Eric Spolster, he’s been around for a really long time. He’s a part of the Heedles years ago. So, you’re more selling that than I think you are uh like Chris Quinn. And I do think you’re going to win the press conference if you hire Chris Quinn, too. I agree completely. Just to say because we haven’t talked about Quinn’s playing experience. He was actually on the Heat teams with Shaq and Wade. He wasn’t on the team during the the Heedles years. He kind of came out of nowhere. Oh, Spostra. Yeah, I was saying Spolster was with him, but I didn’t know. I would I didn’t know he wasn’t with the 2010 teams either. And then he kind of got in with like that Papovic tree, too. Quinn did. So, he he he has a little bit of the rub of both because he spent a year as a backup in San Antonio. But anyway, I I think that’s totally fair. I I would say my pick would be Sweeney as far as who Ishbia I could see gravitating toward. if everything we’ve heard about Sweeney is right, which is that he’s just sort of a competitive mfer, right? like he and it would also be in line with the types of things that so so would Quinn like it’s it’s it’s you know it’s it picking nits here a little bit but um Sweeney would just be the such a perfect figurehead of all the stuff that Gregory and Ishpppia kept telling us in those press conferences about a month ago of tough defense first gritty hard to play against, you know, identity of all the physicality like that that that would work better. But, um, we’ll see. We also don’t really know much about these dudes as people. And so, if the final step is to kind of get in the room with the owner and sell them. I mean, it might just be who’s better at like communicating their message and like get getting through. So, it’ll be interesting. How likely is it that is one of these two guys that meets with Ishbia? Uh 0%. I think that that ship has come and gone. I don’t think Okay, that’s that’s not fair. 5%. I do have to leave a little room for that, but no, it’s not happening. There’s no way it’s happening. All right, the Knicks have been eliminated. We’ve been circling back to teams as they finally see their playoff end and saying, “Hey, has anything changed about their pursuit of Kevin Durant?” We’ll do it with the New York Knicks next. All right, Ben, let’s close it out. The New York Knicks were eliminated in six games against the Indiana Pacers on Saturday night. I feel bad. We talked about You feel bad? Feel I feel bad for him a little bit. I thought I thought they were going to have a chance to to go to the I that Knicks team is really likable. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t I shouldn’t jump, but I feel bad for them a little bit. They’re likable. I don’t like watching them. I enjoy watching the Pacers more. So, I’m a little bit excited for that reason, but I think either one was going to pretty much get cooked by OK. Oh, yeah. I just real quickly, early NBA Finals prediction, I think the Thunder are going to sweep whoever it was. I think they’re going to sweep them. So, the Knicks have gone all in. Like, we should say that before we talk about anything. They’re all they’ve already made their moves like capital M moves in order to put themselves in this position, right? They went out and got OG and Obi at the deadline in 2023. They went out and got Bridges at the right before the season uh wait sorry the deadline in 2024. Then they got Bridges before the season in 2024. And then they got Cat um also right before the season in 2024. and they’ve given up Pix Galore in order to do that. They’ve given up Devontenzo. They lost Hart or they lost Hart and Stein. Um on and on down the line. Randall of course. So like they’re they’re thinned out in terms of assets and they’re thinned out in terms of their roster already. We’ve talked about how you and I both would be at least open to thinking about an idea of, you know, something like OG and Obi, Miles McBride, and, you know, if you could get some kind of pick from them, that’s a decent package. They still have their 2030 pick. They still have their pick this year. That’s that’s one of the better ones in terms of it. It works pretty easily. You get you kind of check the boxes. Maybe you could get another even younger player than McBride, whatever. But the probably like most logical trade here, Ben, would be Carl Anthony Towns for Kevin Durant. Something centered on that. The same way we’ve been talking about Julius Randall coming back or, you know, that type of thing or, you know, Fred Van Vleet or Dylan Brooks, one dude who makes a lot of money and some smaller other stuff. Well, I was going to ask you why you said logical. So I was like, “Okay, you’re talking about money. Okay.” Yeah. Like that that’s the more common type of trade that we really see. I mean OG makes a lot too, so that’s why he he makes sense here. But so is there any world where you would do a Towns for Durant trade? Walk me through your thinking on this. A a big contract for a big contract, a veteran for a veteran. What do you think? Yeah, let’s start off like this. Um, I do think the the Suns swinging and missing on Kevin Durant, not because Kevin Durant Durant was bad, but because they gutted their roster a little bit to get him. Probably would have done that trade a little bit differently. You’re like, they were aggressive. It didn’t work out. They went to a semi-finals with him. It didn’t work out. Bradley Beal, you’re like, listen, you know, you gave up a bunch of second round picks. Chris Paul, who’s a shadow of himself, Landry Sham, who you already hated, and that one didn’t work out. The first two times you make a mistake, you’re like, “Okay, you know, we tried really hard. Let’s not do that again.” Trading for Carl Anthony Towns would be like a disaster, man. We’ve already first off, like not for the reasons that that Gregory and Ishbar have already told us, which of this new idea of the Phoenix Suns that we’re pretty sure Cat doesn’t fit any of the things that new version of the Phoenix Suns wants to do. He’d fit on this version of the Suns. We’re like scores a lot, shoots a lot of or shoots a three ball fairly well. uh really poor defender. Like even around the rim, I was talking to our our buddy from Locked on Knicks and I was like he was like, “You know what’s crazy, man? He actually tries around the rim. He’s just horrible with it.” And so when you talk about all of those reasons why Carl Anthony Towns like doesn’t fit the next version of the Suns that we think Gregory and Ishb are trying to do, that’s one reason. And the other reason is like you want another overpaid player who makes who or sorry who plays no defense. We already had that last year. Like, yes, is he a starting caliber player? Sure. But one of the reasons why the Knicks didn’t work out is because Brunson can’t play defense and Cat can’t play defense. They couldn’t play them on the floor at the same time. That was one of the issues. So, you want to talk about a core of Booker and Cat can’t be able to play those guys in the same floor on the on the floor at the same time. And so, and not only that, it’s not like I I’ve looked at the trade options. If you wanted to just do a one for one Nick Suns trade, Cat almost makes too much money where you’re adding him to a deal, but you can’t add even a heart or a McBride. You can’t add anything to the deal because he makes too much money. So, if you’re getting Cat back, it would be because you’re getting for now, right? Like because if the Suns can get deeper under the aprons, then they could do something like that because then they could take back more money. That is true. That is true. But it’s also like then you get to the point where you’re the Knicks, you’re like, “God, I’m trading Cat and I’m trading Josh Hart and I’m trading McBride in a first round pick.” Probably not. You’re probably just saying like one of their young guys. Okay, Nick Bride. Go McBride. McBride or or maybe, you know, Kick or something like that. So yeah, I agree though. I it it I think that this is the type of trade where both teams I get, you know, everybody likes to do with trades like who says no. I think both teams say no because the other thing about the Knicks side of this is they went out and got Towns and it it was seen as, you know, the Minnesota like they’re they’re selling high a little bit after just making the conference finals with this guy. He’s their hometown 10 years with the team everything like oh my gosh. And then the Knicks like oh I guess they’re cutting bait on Randall finally. They don’t want to pay him the contract and all that’s it. But what got lost a little bit is that they needed a center. You know what I mean? Mitchell Robinson is just hurt all the time. He can’t play a lot of minutes and he’s the they have two centers on the whole roster. Those are the two. So, you can’t trade a center. You can’t trade, you know, basically the only assets you have left, which would be like McBride or picks or whatever and Towns. And then what are you doing? You’re getting a minimum center, but you’re still theoretically saying you’re going to go out and compete for a championship. and Durant. And then it’s like if you give up Towns but not any of your forwards, which we just explained is too hard with the money. So that means OG Male and Hart are still all on the team and now you have Durant. Like what are you doing at that point? You’re you’re sending like male Bridges to the bench or you’re starting like Ojanobi as your center. These things don’t make any sense. Like you if the Knicks are going to do this, they have to trade one of their forwards to the Suns. It’s just a matter of are they desperate enough to keep messing with this roster or what I think is they need to be deeper and they should spend this off seasonason getting deeper not going all in. So I think like I answered your our question on Friday of like where should KD want to or where should he want to go? I said the East and I said probably that means New York or Miami. Mhm. But th this runs into the same problem. Katie ends up on a really thin team that’s going to ask him to do a heck of a lot of stuff no matter how they do the deal because they just don’t have a lot to give. I Well, I do think there’s a world where the Knicks still can’t compete with KD because I do think they get can get one good player who actually fits what they need um off the bench that takes a vet minimum. Like I do think they can convince one guy to come chase a championship. So, there’s that aspect. But I I want to We don’t do this a lot in the show. And I I want to ask you this. Why is it because I I mean, listen, sometimes I fall into the social media well of like everything is just real that’s on social media. And you’re very good at balancing like Ben. That’s not true. But I saw it a lot yesterday, man. Why do you think Suns fans would want Carl Anthony Towns here? I’m trying to to get into like their the mindset of like why is there a world where that really does work out? because I have one trade for you that I I I cooked up just very briefly. So, the Knicks don’t have their first round pick for this year. I I kind of already looked at that again. They have a second round pick from the Memphis Grizzlies, but this is the only trade that I would do if I was the Phoenix Suns and I was getting back Carl Anthony Towns. And that would be Carlanthony Towns, Tyler Kolick, 2026 first round pick, a 20 I’m sorry, 2026 first round pick. Um, why is this not coming up here? Sorry, here it is. 20 It would be a 2026 first round. Can you start over with the whole trade? Yes, I’ll start over. Exactly. So, the trade would be Carl Anthony Towns and Tyler Kick and then three first round picks. And the first round picks would be um one from Washington in 2026. that’s top 10 protected, their own 2026 first round pick and then a 2030 and then their 2030 first round pick four years from now. And so you’d get Kolic, Anthony Towns, and three first round picks where one of them is top 10 protected from the Washington Wizards. Sorry, my computer froze there for a second. That’s the only way I would do it because I get one young guy who could potentially play the point guard position something maybe he’s turns into something and then a few future first round assets and then maybe I could sell that to Booker like hey we got your guy here you could try to see if it works for a couple years and then as well you get the the trade assets and that as well. That’s the only way what I would do it but I’m trying to find out where Suns fans think they would do something like that. So I’ll answer both parts. I think the Suns fans probably like the idea because they know it’s somebody that Book, you know, has a relationship with. I don’t know if they still hang out on the regular. They’re they’re they’re they haven’t gone to Kentucky together in a decade, but like we know that that’s there. Um, and it’s a center and we’ve talked about how much of a black hole that position has been. So, it solves the Sun’s biggest weakness and, you know, it allows them to remain competitive. Like, I I don’t think that that’s crazy, but I just would point people to the fact that he’s on the hook. the Suns would be on the hook for $170 million over the next three years with Carl Anthony Towns on their team. You’re basically getting up to, you know, the tax line with just booking towns and you’re right, you know, you’re right back to square one with your with your money problems even though you’re getting off of Durant and Beal and trying to reset that. So that’s that would just be, you know, my my push back even though I can understand why in theory it’s not a terrible idea just from a player standpoint. As far as that trade, I think that Towns is not or Durant is not three picks more valuable than Towns right now. Yeah. My thought process my thought process behind that is cat is not a good contract. And the only way I would do it if if I’m me is if I’m getting one pick that is top 10 protected from the Wizards, a 2026 first round pick from the Knicks, and 2030 first round pick. Okay, fine. Well, I get why you would do that if you’re the Suns. I’m giving the Knicks standpoint because you’re asking me if that trade would would work. I think that so cat is a bad contract. If KD gets his extension this summer, he will be under contract for the same amount of years as Towns, we assume. So, you’re talking about three years. And how much different will it be? You know, I think Durant is a better player, but Towns just made 13 AllNBA. He had one of the best seasons of his career. You know, even though there are fit issues, I I think that there are some fit issues with the 37year-old Kevin Durant, especially with what we just said that all the the Knicks other best players are also forwards, you know. So, I I don’t think it’s, you know, and then you just factor in like the Knicks would be telling the Suns, “Hey, you know, our guy just had a better season. The contracts are comparable. He’s younger. Why are we giving up three picks to get this done when we could argue that maybe there’s maybe they’re equal value?” Like when I you talked about Gavin from Locked on Knicks when I brought this up with him like in January or something as the Sun season was kind of falling apart. He was like I don’t think the Knicks would give up any picks in that deal. Now times have changed. They just lost in the playoffs. The fit of Brunson and Towns like you mentioned has gotten a little uglier. I I’m not saying that that’s realistic either, but definitely not three. I I don’t think there’s any world where that happens. Well, that shows me what I would do. I would only do that trade because I’m getting a plethora of picks back and I see the contract is poor, but I get it as well. Maybe that I would that’s probably how it would have to look for me to say yes if I’m the Suns. For sure. I don’t disagree with you on that, but that’s why I said I think that’s why I said both teams say no to this. I think the Suns don’t love the contract with Towns and they don’t think they’re getting enough back. And the Knicks say, “Hold on.” Like, if the only way it’s going to work is to give up our only center and have like four forwards on the team all of a sudden, well, that doesn’t really make sense for us either. So, fine. Fine. We’ll send them Nick Richards in a separate trade. All right. There you go. Problem solved. Send us the send the Suns the three seconds back that uh Yeah, exactly. that they gave up. All right. Well, I still think there might be something with the Knicks this summer. I don’t think it’s going to be with Towns, so it’ll have to be a different arrangement of players. Maybe Anobi, maybe Male comes back, some of their younger players. We shall see. That’ll wrap us up, though. Hit follow, subscribe if you have not already. Become an Everydayer Coach Hire this week and much more. Talk to you next time.

Devin Booker reportedly has had a hand in the Phoenix Suns coaching search. It’s not a surprise, but it could affect the team’s choice.

Brendon Kleen and Ben Garcia discuss the news as well as Mat Ishbia meeting with two finalists this week before the hire is made. Then, another look at whether the New York Knicks could make a push for Kevin Durant.

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