A Closer Look at EVERY Element Of the Phoenix Suns Package For Kevin Durant

A Closer Look at EVERY Element Of the Phoenix Suns Package For Kevin Durant

today on Locked on Phoenix Suns we got two episodes that’s what a Kevin Durant trade day calls for a deeper dive on this package top to bottom the best the worst aspects of it how it could improve in the future or maybe get worse what do the Suns have their hands on now and what does it mean for the future 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 Phoenix Suns i’m Brendan Clean a staff writer at a announcing and a credentialed Suns Media member thank you for making Locked on Suns first listen here on this Monday 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 today’s episode brought to you by Monarch Money take control of your finances today with Monarch Money use the code locked on NBAMoney.com for 50% off your first year joining me to break down this KD trade in even more depth than we already did for 50 minutes live earlier on YouTube from the Wild West Valley my fellow Suns Credential media member how are we feeling Ben Garcia terrible today sucked i mean so bad i I mean we thought it was I thought it was going to be a little bit better and um probably one of the worst packages that I think you and I both agree that the Suns could have got back but you know I’ve always been someone of like you screw something up something goes horribly time to turn the page we bleeped and moan on the live stream for almost an hour uh let’s turn the page let’s dive deep into this trade and maybe we can find something good in it but not going to let the Suns front office off with this one let’s start with the biggest aspect of it which uh in terms of the Sun’s future at least which is the the Jaylen Green of it all he is under contract for three more seasons starting a major extension he hasn’t even kicked into being really highly paid he was just you know normal lottery pick highly paid until now so the Suns are obligated to pay him about 33 million a year um well 33 this upcoming season 36 the next two after that and a player option at the end he is uh a player we’ve seen a lot Ben like he he’s he’s 23 he was the number two overall pick if I’m remembering correctly and we’ve seen this this story before i I have to say like a a very athletic two guard who is a very I would call him a very reactive player more than a proactive and and ahead a step ahead of the game type of player and hasn’t displayed a willingness and a desire to adjust his game to be the type of you know winning part of the fabric of something bigger than himself type of guy and if he had been he would be on the rocket still and he would have been off limits in a trade like this that’s what a man Thompson was a men a men Shenun out Shenun was Jabari Smith even Jabari Smith yeah I Jaylen Green comes here with a lot to prove yes I I I agree with you the Jabari Smith stuff is so interesting that you would say that because if I told you 24 year old player 23-y old player uh is going to get traded to the Phoenix Suns lead a number two seed in scoring you would say on the like just that blank canvas resume you’d say “Well hell this guy the Suns might have gotten a star.” But that’s not how anyone feels and you mentioned it specifically i had it written down right here in my notes not a winning basketball player not a winning basketball player at least to this point was not a winning basketball player he had 38 points in one game in the playoffs uh uh uh this year against Golden State heavily driven by pull-up threes eight of 18 from three in that game and got hot 24 of those 38 points were on those shots that’s not a sustainable style and he’s actually not a great shooter no he I think I think he’s a 34% three-point shooter last time I checked but either way why would the Rockets let that guy go why would they let go a guy who averaged the most points on their team he was the second seed and they said for Kevin Durant they feel like they got off of a ne a depreciating asset because that that contract hasn’t kicked in yet man but I don’t want to I don’t want to continue to kick him while he’s down that’s not the avenue I want to go there’s there I want to play devil’s advocate for a second that’s this that point that I just made 20 points per game on the second seed he’s uh 23 24 years old really athletic is there a chance on this team let’s say Beal’s gone that there is some untapped potential with Jaylen Green that you can buy into that maybe this guy does turn into I don’t know the second coming of Devin Booker or what we thought we were going to get in Bradley Beal when he traded him for the Wizards is there any part of you there that you’re like I can see why some Suns fans get a little excited about Jaylen Green coming here because his highlight reel put that on on YouTube it is kind of fun of course there’s untapped potential i mean he is 23 it would be silly to write off a guy like that completely and I I don’t I have no reason to think he can’t become an impactful NBA player i mean you’re talking about what’s the role going to be what type of team are we talking about but I mean there’s there’s plenty of guys who have turned themselves into serviceable players depending i would just say the number one thing that he has to do to become more impactful immediately is just become a become what we just said he is not yet which is an abovea three-point shooter because he takes a ton of them a lot of his game is predicated upon those pull-up threes but he’s not good at it really he’s not good at it enough to burn a defense and actually lead a good offense or even be a part of a good offense so he has to become a good three-point shooter like 38 40% that that’s kind of what you’re looking at i would say on the plus side too well it’s not something plus yet but it’s something we already know the Suns want is a spacing big they’ve they’ve made that clear with you know what they’re sort of um signaling to the draft world and to other teams and some of the players we’ve talked about them wanting to maybe get in on this summer even if it’s far-fetched that would help him immensely because you know there were there were days where he was a dueling banjo guy with Kevin Porter Jr and just playing an an atrocious brand of basketball that no one would have ever thought was good for his development including him probably and this past season he had to fit in the past two seasons I guess he really had to fit into a cluttered defense first team the best stretch of his entire career came down the stretch of two seasons ago the stretch run in 2024 spring of 2024 where they Chenun got hurt Jabari Smith Jr started playing center for them and he scored at an elite clip because he had space and I think if he can become an above average three-point shooter play with a little bit more space that’s roster dependent but the Suns seem to want to build that that’ll open up his downhill stuff and he should be able to be a guy who can score at the basket and then you’re looking you’re basically talking about Zack Lavine if those things click that’s just what Zack Lavine is so that that to me is a a reasonable ceiling and Zack Lavine’s a a fringe all-star so I don’t think that it’s so far away but the problem is that his efficiency doesn’t match the way he plays he’s not even good at making the shots he wants to take and that’s the big problem right now what about with the pairing of Devin Booker i know one of the things with Booker is you know not a super guy that’s going to get banged up around the basket dunk on a bunch of guys that was kind of earlier in his career jaylen Green now one of the things that people continuously point me to is he’s really good at getting to the rim and that is intriguing because once again we thought we were going to get that a little bit more with Bradley Beal it seems like Jordan not is start is wants to build the a kind of offense that is tenacious and gets to the rim i I mean I know you kind of hit on it a little bit but Jaylen Green I would say that he wants to build an offense that gets to the rim i would say he wants to build an offense that shoots a lot of threes i would say play fast and that’s what I mean by get to the rim okay so Jaylen Green does he fit that mold a little bit more than Kevin Durant did that was another thing is it was playing really slow could playing in tempo a little bit more help him like that we’re just trying to play devil’s advocate here yeah I mean for sure i mean playing fast helps everybody that’s why every team wants to do it i think that he did you know benefit quite a bit from being a on a team that created a lot of turnovers you know if you’re on a good defensive team you’re going to get a lot of easy buckets just by cherrypicking breakaway stuff and transition points and all that and all that kind of thing but the problem with him right now too is he doesn’t actually get to the line as much as he could and he doesn’t finish at an elite level he’s like a fine finisher and that’s where I think you know he is a great athlete but he only has a 68 wingspan he’s not one of these guys where he’s 6’6 with the seven plus foot wingspan like you know these wings we talk about Ryan Dunn or whatever you know but he is pretty tall and he is explosive so he should be able to get to the line more finish better and that kind of thing and and then that’ll catch up to him and and yeah whether it’s in transition or again in the half court with actual spacing which he didn’t really have when you know this was a team that was playing Steven Adams and Alpurn Shenun together for a lot of the stretch of this team of the season because that they wanted that to be their identity so that’s not going to help a guard like him who’s still developing so I get all that and he actually I would say has been a decently low um turnover guy especially in the playoffs he he cleaned that up you would think he’d be you know dropping the ball everywhere in his first postseason but he didn’t there there’s some parts of his game that are clean and he he has like a perfect modern NBA shot diet right like he he shoots threes and rim rims rim attempts layups dunks like that that’s what you should do in the league right now so look I I’m I’m not like out on Jaylen Green as a player but when you talk about the fit I I think that that’s the problem it is it’s not really going to make sense it’s not there’s not really a version of it that I that I really see that maximizes these guys and so that’s where I kind of go to putting him on the bench almost to maximize him as stupid as that sounds it’s the same thing we were talking about with Beal last year if they can get Beal off this team and play Jaylen off the bench he’ll play with Book a little bit of course if he’s going to play major minutes but I just think that’s going to be the place for him to flourish and eventually build his value up to where he can be moved to more of his team where he doesn’t play the same position as the best guy on the team yeah um Jordan Clarkson comes to mind Jamal Crawford comes to mind obviously a probably a poor man’s Jamal Crawford and a poor man’s uh Malik Monk i think as well that if you can bring him off I thought of for sure yeah if you can bring him off the bench sure and this is kind of where my point goes where I won’t play devil’s advocate very much there might be untapped potential but because of the fit with Devin Booker and potentially Bradley Beal on this team like how are you gonna do that man and I know you say Jaylen Green’s not a small guy i mean like he’s 6’4 that’s about as big as you want your point guard to be he’s not anything special and especially defensively man i just don’t know what the Suns were thinking at least bringing him back because I think it’s going to cause way more problems than it is going to help the Suns offensively and again defensively I think maybe he does have untapped potential but because of the fit here it just leaves you scratching your head man and like like we’ll get to Brooks in a second but I get that green I just don’t see it man i just don’t see it yeah defensively I I mean I think you would have to say that anyone this athletic should be able to have some upside as an onball defender like he should be able to guard his man guard point guards especially fight through screens do that kind of thing and there’s no reason anyone really of his stature shouldn’t be able to do that with the athleticism it off it goes back to what I said at the beginning i think that he’s a reactive player he’s always a step late it feels like closing out fighting through a screen an offball rotation it’s oh crap ah and then he’s going to go he’s not like he’s not giving effort he’s just not aware he’s not really locked in like that no I I we’re not going after his character i think he cares about basketball i think he wants to be good no sure i think he wants to be good and that’s why I’m saying you’re not doing that we’re just saying the fit here it just doesn’t I don’t if there’s untapped potential I don’t see it getting tapped here because I just don’t like the fit man he seems like someone who needs the ball in his hands a lot to be impactful offensively and on the Rockets he was asked to do that because they didn’t have any bucket getters on the Suns and the team was still on the when he was on the court offensively i didn’t mention that because you said you didn’t want to beat a dead horse and I hadus there yet i think it was -2 on offense but yeah maybe minus 8 total per 100 i’m not sure um I think it was 8.4 per 100 possessions i’d have to look at that again it’s uh it’s it’s not great but I think future- wise it doesn’t surprise me that the Suns were not able to flip him if they did indeed try to do that which I believe they did and were unable to looking ahead I would say the Pelicans as a as a CJ McCollum replacement although I don’t know what the heck that team I I have no idea what that team even is so I don’t even know if he fits what does he fit what are you even saying he fits with the Pelicans uh and then the Bulls if Kobe White eventually were to leave or something I think that that could be one where you know Giddy and and Matas Buzzelis and whatever the next version of of Chicago’s team is they might be a group that could use some more scoring and they But the problem is he’s just nowhere near earning his paycheck right now and that’s the other problem $33 million is a lot of money and there’s only a few players in in this cap apron world where you can justify that and this guy’s not there right now can you believe how stoked they are in Houston to get rid of that contract not to mention dude they’re just going to give two years I think it’s a hundred something million to Kevin Durant like they’re going to be off this deal a year shorter it didn’t cost them any one of their picks and Dylan Brooks like this is like if you are in Houston you are it’s it’s just a great place to be jabari Smith the extension that they were worried about a little now too and no worries man place you’re welcome Rockets let’s get to Dylan Brooks the other side of this trade from a player perspective what does he bring to the Suns could he be somebody that they eventually flip next first today’s show is brought to you by Ollipop told you before on the live show the apple cider hit the spot last night lollipop’s a new kind of soda made for people who love the classic taste of soda but want something that actually supports their health with just two to five grams of sugar and nine grams of prebiotic fiber in each and every can Lollipop is reimagining soda in a way that’s better for your gut 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guy in the league for a very long time at this point i think of him as a poor man’s Lou Dort that’s sort of the way that I would that I would put it in place he is basically only a three-point shooter on offense he is a stout but not elite athletically defensive player with a good but not actually great wingspan similar to Jaylen Green which is a weird similarity that these two guys have but my real question in terms of this upcoming season for the Suns and really just what he’s going to be for the remainder of his prime Ben because he came out of school so late he’s already 29 he’s going to turn 30 next season he was coming he is coming off of an elite outlier for him shooting season he basically shot 40% from three for the first time he had been around average most of his career now all of a sudden he was just pouring it in if that continues I think he has real value and maybe is worth his contract if not we’re probably talking about oh crap what’s this situation going to be like for the Suns i think he will raise their floor i think he is a a a perfectly good NBA player and he will help set up the culture but this might be more of a short-term move too unfortunately I hope not um I think like if you were to told me on the surface same contract i You didn’t tell me about the Kevin Durant deal you just told me the Suns were getting Dylan Brooks i would be actually kind of thrilled with it i like Dylan Brooks i thought some of the stuff he did like going after LeBron and then not talking to the media I thought that was some punk stuff that he did earlier with the Grizzlies and it is telling that a team in the Grizzlies who went to the Western Conference Finals a couple of years ago no semi-finals semi-finals a couple years ago they remembered they like the one person they really kicked off that team first out of all those guys was Dylan Brooks and the Rockets had a terrible postseason on top of all the off he got drama and nonsense he got punked on in the postseason they just call it what it is and then as well with the Rockets the Rockets they were the two seed the first guy they kind of kick out the door along with Jaylen Green is Dylan Brooks however I think Dylan Brooks does serve a role on a team that is just trying to be feisty trying to have a little bit of attitude try to fight for a playoff spot maybe he’s not a championship winning player and if he is maybe he’s an eight nine 10 nine guy but I think this version but this version of him I do like him on the Suns i kind of like the nickname as well with Brooks and Dunn i think he’s a I think he’s a pretty good defensive player he’ll never be an allNBA defensive guy the three-point shooting I’m happy you brought all defense second team once when I was looking at his stats that surprised me oh I didn’t I didn’t know that um Dylan Brooks as well you mentioned the three-point shooting one of the reasons why Memphis kicked him out was because he was such an a three such an atrocious three-point shooter and he kept shooting them like that was one of the issues with him so yeah he started playing like he was Devin Booker or something out there yeah if he starts of his Memphis run if he starts going towards the avenue of being that 37 38 and a good defensive guy I do really like Dylan Brooks here and you know this is just one intangible that I know maybe you don’t buy into as much as I do this is kind of like narrative stuff i like that this guy will go get in someone’s face the thing with the problem with the Suns last year is they were skinny jeans pushed around they needed someone Well the last couple of Sure the last couple had a guy like that since Jay Crowder threw a fit yeah they need to have a guy get kicked out of a game every once in a while and swing on someone in an NBA respect which is always just pushing and shoving i like that aspect of it here dylan Brooks does fit the mold of the next Phoenix Suns team but when you add the caveat of they traded Kevin Durant for him it completely implodes in your face but just on its own I do like having Dylan Brooks here uh I think I hit everything there but you have anything else i would say he the last thing is that Dylan Brooks is eligible to sign a two-year extension starting July 8th that that’s going to be interesting to me um I think if the Suns were able to extend him at a number I mean he’s not like he’s overpaid but he makes more than Grayson Allen right now just for like you know comparison sake i think if they could maybe extend him closer to what he’s going to make next year like 19 20 for a couple more seasons like could you get him two years 38 million or 36 even or or maybe 40 i think it’ll be interesting to see if the Suns value him in that way and and does that make him better or worse of a trade asset or whatever because the other thing is by splitting these contracts the Suns now have some flexibility to make further and future deals i’m not just trying to trade both Jaylen and Brooks just because I’m being a jerk or whatever but I do think that that’s really valuable we’ve been talking about the Suns books for a long time of just being so topheavy and bottom heavy minimums and maxes and how do you make a trade like that especially when you’re so limited when you have guys who make 20 even 30 million even if both of them maybe aren’t the most home run valued tra uh contracts in the world it just makes all that stuff easier so I’ll be curious to see if they look to extend him or what that looks like and I don’t know what the smarter cap people tell us that’ll mean for his value but just an interesting one to think about let’s get to the 10th overall pick i think that is really what’s going to make or break the trade it’s hard to know what it’s going to look like because nine other teams have to make picks before we really know what exactly that is going to become but we’ll talk about some of the options how the Suns can nail it which they have to do next first today’s 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how much can I do this do I need to go up and down a little bit as these other expenses in my life come up it’s all a rolling constant thing to be keeping track of and Monarch Money helps you take control so use code locked on NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year that’s monarchmoney.com code locked on NBA for half off your first year all right Ben let’s keep it rolling here so let’s uh let’s talk about this pick can I um can I can I just steal your segment really quickly and just ask you a question about this 10 pick uh because I know you know we’ll get into hit a home run what do the Suns have to do they have to nail the pick i get that is there any world any world where you would trade this pick for a player and I know a very common name is Cam Johnson Nick Claxton one of those guys would you be willing to trade for one of for someone of that stature instead of taking someone in this draft i just want to get that question out before we talk about if they could do it differently yeah I I got to admit like I just I haven’t been as obsessed with them with the Nets guys as some Suns fans and our friends at PHNX with with all you know it’s not a knock on them they’ve just been I think getting people excited about those opportunities and to me I uh I think both those guys are now properly paid that’s like a nerdy term but I think that that’s kind of what what you have to look at it as they’re not steals when Nick Claxton’s on his rookie contract looking like an alldefensive dude next to Kevin Durant on a team that’s about to maybe win a championship it’s like well damn i got I would love to have Nick Claxton when he’s making $25 million and hasn’t really gotten a lot better since those days I get nervous and Cam we know what Cam Johnson is he hasn’t really gotten like a heck of a lot better than what he was even as a rookie which was a really really good player but he’s now gotten his second contract i don’t know if those guys are getting me closer to being a championship team i don’t know how much better they have to be getting so I wouldn’t be opposed to it i might want a little more back than just those players like could you get a future first or some kind of thing like that on top of it i don’t know i don’t know what player the Suns would be sending all that kind of stuff but in in general I’m not opposed to trading that for a player are you i mean I I don’t think the Suns should be like fully shutting those conversations down um I get why you’re saying not fully shut the conversations down because who knows if they’re young enough I guess I would say who knows who becomes available but like haven’t we dug ourselves a deep a deep enough hole guys like unless someone is available again contingent on young player ascending Sun’s you know fall face first into success like the Mavs do with Cooper flag sure I will always reserve my right to change my mind for that but like guys some of you need to move on from Cam Johnson male Bridges you guys need to move on I I I say that with a little bit of tough love of like we made a trade it didn’t go our way it’s done the Suns cannot continue to bury themselves even further further than they are cam Johnson by himself is not worth the tipping no no i’m I’m so I don’t care i like I don’t want Nick I don’t want Nick Claxton and Cam Johnson man like we need to go find our next star player and maybe that is you know I’m just throwing out names but Sorber from uh Georgetown or Carter Bryan or I again no one likes this guy but Jace Richardson either but like or or uh not Colin Gillespie Colin he’s got two last names yeah some of the players that next stars on the someone like I you got to go down that road then let’s just go patchwork it we’ve done that guys it doesn’t work and seriously get over Cam Johnson and Kell Bridges they are not coming back it is over man like let’s focus on bettering ourselves now that’s that’s just that’s where I wanted to go with that yeah I I I get you I don’t know if it’s just because of the the nostalgia with Cam he’s available and he’s he’s a good player man both though that that doesn’t even make sense there’s no trade for that i mean talking about sending Deon Booker out like that money doesn’t work it would be maybe one of them but even then it’s it’s I mean dude Cam’s already 29 cam’s going to be 30 by the time next season’s over neither of those names are getting it done for me at 10 it would have to be a much much uh bigger swing than that but I think there’s a possibility that I wanted to hit next of trading back and that could be I I’ve seen that being talked about by not even Suns fans but but people around the NBA who are thinking “Hey 10’s great you know that’s probably the crown jewel of the trade because the Suns need young players but they really need more than one they need more than just Cedric Coward if they’re going to be feeling better about the future what about trading back there’s two teams that you you know you do the obvious okay which teams have two picks in the first round you know go from there oklahoma City has 15 and 24 do they love somebody i would imagine they might depending on what’s about to happen in this game seven which we’re recording before they might be wanting to get a vet more so than another rookie but they obviously are running into roster spot problems so maybe and then Atlanta has 13 and 22 is there anything there i think that that would be two potential tradeback options i would imagine Ben you and I are both open to the general idea of trading back a few spots and getting another first round pick i mean yeah I kind of I I kind of am i don’t know why I hadn’t thought about that um I have seen it you know a couple of different places but you know this is something we talked about pre-show i think it would be kind of smart to trade back recoup some assets even if it’s for like a some picks in in future years like we know that the Suns are a couple years away from contending for a title start to rebuild your ammunition a little bit and maybe you still get a guy like Sorber or uh Cedric Coward or Carter Bryant later like I like that idea i’m not against it at all but go continue like we said it’s it’s eight players I think at the top that are kind of thought of in one cluster so the difference between 10 and 13 10 and 15 probably isn’t going to be that big you you might not do it if you love a a certain guy who’s available at 10 it’s a little risky to move back if you only really are have your eyes on one dude but if the Suns see it as fairly interchangeable in the next few days as they really start to finally do their homework now that this trade’s done maybe maybe it doesn’t matter so much to them and they would do that now every year we hear about teams who want to trade back there’s a lot fewer teams who want to trade up and a lot of these deals don’t really happen um so I’ll just say that the other option though could be trading up that I want to talk about because I looked it up and the one that I could remember was the Wizards moving up to number seven two or three years ago two two years ago the 2023 draft to get Bal Koulali yeah that trade had come up in my memory because it was with the Pacers who got some assets for it and obviously everybody’s been talking about their team building and everything else that only cost Washington I believe a couple of seconds and they moved up one spot to get Koulali i mean the Suns have this 2027 Cavs pick it could be Utah if Utah gets a lot better but let’s just call it the Cavs pick could you you know we’re talking about it being an eight player draft it only takes one team to reach what if somebody reaches for Cedric Coward and all of a sudden you know common Malawak is is available be a great fit for what we think the Suns probably want to go get you want to make sure the Raptors don’t draft that guy you trade up one slot or you know whatever it might be i think that that’s something that that definitely could be possible um given that the Suns kind of landed with this trade a little bit outside the top group in this draft yeah but you’re also just so we’re clear when people when we say it’s an eight player draft i I would believe it’s seven to eight as well i think this is a pretty decent draft um you’re asking for the Wizards the Hornets the Pelicans the Nets the Raptors all like not necessarily prestigious franchises to screw up so I think it is very possible that someone could just fall in your lap but I love the idea of potentially trading up especially if it’s from the 10 pick up a little bit to seven eight and get one of the kid from Duke the the center or maybe Trey Johnson falls or hell man Ace Bailey is now falling all the way to the sixth overall pick so the more we were talking about that I can’t I can’t do it you you wouldn’t trade up for Ace Bailey you would Green is already Ace Bailey Ace Bailey i can’t do that is it because he lied about his height no I don’t care about that i just I can’t roll the dice on another player who may or may not have like the fair right approach to the game and have my entire future of my franchise hinging on you know two guys who who have that issue both hitting that’s that’s that’s too much risk so I I wouldn’t want to be the team to scoop up Ace Bailey but I mean yeah you’re you’re you know Brooklyn they have four first round picks I believe so I guess I should have mentioned them as a potential trade-up team they have 19 26 and 27 but they also have eight so they could be a team where the Suns trade with them to to go up um you know obviously we mentioned them with the Claxton Cam thing you just threw out so you know expect to hear from them maybe a time or two in the rumor mill here this week but yeah I mean I I think you know best case scenario is that somebody to me that’s somebody other than than Malawak or than Nace Bailey Falls I should say and if even if not though I feel like there are some promising players still at 10 that I I could easily see reaching the criteria that I think the Suns have to approach this with Ben which is a an above average starter that like that that’s what I want long term from this pick and it it might it probably won’t happen in the next year or two but you have to feel good enough about it the same way we did when Male started to look good as a rookie when Cam Johnson looked good as a rookie and you kind of know it when you see it and you have to get a player like that for Deon Booker to feel good and just for this situation to get a little better after as a result of this trade the Suns put so much pressure on themselves to nail this number 10 pick after the Kevin Durant trade because of what they got back outside of that 10 pick so when I talk about and again we’ve done so much ext extensive research on the 29th overall picks and later in the draft and so like some of the stuff that we have done leading up to this that may be getting a lottery pick is like I lean towards a guy like Carter Bryant now there could be a bunch of different players that fit that mold you like Cedric Coward he’s a little bit older who whoever right but ultimately the Suns have they have to nail this pick man this guy cannot bust on this team because Jaylen Green uh Dylan Brooks and then you add a bust pick to it that makes it look even worse the only way that this pick and trade is going to be worth it is if they hit a home run and in terms of that being someone who is a capable starter for years to come so which is why I lean on a guy like who I’ve mentioned before but you can’t go small guard here man you can’t go Jace Richardson you gotta get a big um start loading up on wings defensive first potentially guy who could knock the three ball down a little bit but like a three and D guy a center you got to hit on this man there is so much pressure on them now if they walk up there with the audacity and pick and try to pick someone like Jace Richardson like it will be I it’s already full stop but that’s the only way that this can get any better man richardson thing we should address and we’ll we’ll definitely dive into these players we’re talking about as the week goes on we’ve already done a deep dive on Coward and Murray Bole so you can go back and look at those if you’d like bryant too and Bryant yes but um and Jace but the thing with him is it’s not just that it’ll be a joke because of the Michigan State stuff he is a really risky player who a lot of smart draft people are not as high on as maybe teams even are because he’s so small because of his approach to the game and because of the relatively limited sample size that we have of being a real difference maker in the NBA which is or in in college basketball as a basketball player which was the back half of his college season his only college season and people thought he was going to go back to school and then he just said never mind I’m in the draft Now that’s a lot to to roll the dice on so I do want to throw that in because it’s obviously going to be out there and it’s so likely the Suns do it do you know where he went to school yeah well exactly do you know i’m just saying already a meme that could trump everything you just said listen that green jersey Spartans written across the chest i don’t know man i’m starting to buy into it it’s so funny how these things change because a week and a half ago I was like you know what I w I actually really like this guy and I was to and a couple of days later after that I was saying Carter Bryant not really interested because I want to try to get someone better who would fit this team longer in terms of like just higher ceiling at 10 or nine or 14 and now I’m like okay safe pick take the safe guy cuz we the Suns are now even further back from being able to take a risk on a player and I I it it’s going to happen like it’s going to happen they’re going to take this guy and it’s going to be a complete meltdown again but that’s this is what this team has done it is what they’ve done that’ll wrap us up hit follow hit subscribe if you have not already go check out our live reaction as well if you’re just catching up now we did an hour basically on the trade as soon as it happened we’ll have more on the draft and the next steps for this team as the week continues toward Wednesday’s draft don’t forget the draft’s not on Thursday anymore it’s on Wednesday we’ll talk to you then

Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks and the 10th overall pick are headed to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Kevin Durant.

Brendon Kleen and Ben Garcia break down Green’s upside, Brooks’ value and options in the NBA Draft in the aftermath of the KD trade.

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