Bickley Blast: Hope is alive for fans after Phoenix Suns wheel & deal in 2nd round of 2025 NBA Draft

Bickley Blast: Hope is alive for fans after Phoenix Suns wheel & deal in 2nd round of 2025 NBA Draft

and marada mornings arizona sports the local sports leader bigley blast what do you know hope is alive on planet orange a general manager who many deemed unqualified is getting rave reviews locally the credibility crisis in phoenix is no longer at code red there’s a belief that the suns nailed the nba draft through good luck and sheer aggression and it feels good to feel good about the suns again now granted there are some in the local media who are already handing brian gregory the executive of the year award and this is as dangerous as it is disingenuous we know better than anyone how drafts that look good on paper can look terrible on a basketball court and if you watch the nba draft you are constantly reminded of how young these players are many of whom will have a very rude awakening in the cutthroat world of professional basketball but i think gregory looked in the right places for his head coach i’m impressed with the first impressions of jordan not and after potentially getting played in the trade of kd i think the suns front office did very well over the past two days but more than anything the excitement is a reflection of a starving fan base a diehard community that badly wants a new team to grow with a new beginning and liberation from that sour puss joyless basketball we were given for the past two years all right today’s bickley blast brought to you by my great friends at chapman bmw make luxury attainable find them online at chapmanbmw.com you know we’re just bringing in high quality young men that are excited about coming to phoenix excited about playing for the suns they understand how important uh becoming a part of the community is for us moving forward as as we’re setting new standards and different things like that and when you just talk to them you can feel it that they’re going to be just great parts of our team brian gregory was a very
my guy from chicago the suns the suns
what happens when the suns played a bullse [Laughter] so yeah so listen there’s a lot of excitement over what brian gregory did and what this front office did and and so they should be proud of themselves and and i’m glad to see i’m glad to see the fan base reacting the way they are it it’s it just really speaks to how much this town wanted renewal wanted something different than the low burning chilling team of the kevin and devon era something different definitely um brian gregory too you know this it’s been a very eventful week going back to the first item on of business for him was obviously to find a new coach once that was done the focus went to the kevin durant thing and that was the next thing that was accomplished and he’s i mean the suns are getting criticism for what they got back or what they didn’t get back in the kevin durant return but let’s not forget the fact that the suns put themselves in that situation and it wasn’t a brian gregory decision that put them there
right
brian gregory was not the individual who at the trade deadline said “all right we can’t get jimmy butler we’re not going to be able to trade beal let’s trade durant let’s do it
and then run it by him and then make him mad
that wasn’t a brian gregory production
no it was not so he had to wiggle out of the the work of others and i think it was okay again it’s not world beating it’s the best of a difficult situation as you pointed out part of that deal with houston getting the number 10 pick and then having common malawatch fall into your lap because he didn’t go high or didn’t go as high as he was supposed to go that looks like a bit of a genius stroke there’s a lot of luck involved
yeah that’s that’s that’s luck is what that is and yes and yesterday was aggression round one was luck round two was aggression that’s the way i look at it
i would say that and look it might it might end up being foolhardy if if rasher fleming can’t play to uh to trade up twice just to get to that guy it it might be looked at as being a little bit um that being inexperienced thinking that you have to do all that because you believe a player is going to hit but i think i think what they’re trying to do is is very very difficult and there’s a lot of basketball experts who do not think they’re going to be able to pull this off the only way they can is if a couple of these guys are plugandplay readymade for the nba that’s a very very big ask of a young man and when i mention and maybe it’s because i’m getting older but but you’re watching the nba draft and you’re seeing kids in braces and you’re just reminded man these are 18 19year-old kids
mhm now the the second round picks both of them in fleming and brea who they ended up getting at number 41 more on him in a second but these are players who played a lot of college basketball
which is one of the reasons i like them breo’s a fifth year senior senior right
fleming played three years in college yeah overall the youngest first round ever in the nba draft average age is it and i think one of the oldest ever for the second round it was a lot of three and four year players
wow
it’s the way it’s shifting
that’s interesting that pick at number 41 kobe brea the guard who played four years at dayton but finished up at kentucky you can’t read much about kobe brea without the the phrase elite shooter coming up he’s one of the better shooters in the draft here was brian gregory’s thoughts on the number 41 overall pick
well there’s only i think he led the country in three-point shooting so there’s only one number one uh the one thing he is obviously uh he’s proven during his entire career at dayton and at kentucky just um how good he is shooting the ball but every year he’s gotten better and add another and added another dimension to the shooting where maybe early it was spot ups then it became off of some pin downs and stagger screen actions then it be then it came off of actions off the dribble then it was a little bit of the the nba with the sideep threes and the step back threes so that progression that we were able to evaluate and watch was a big reason for us taking him he is an an nba three-point shooter at just a tad under 67 or right at 67 he also has the ability to shoot over a contested defender which is really important in in our game today
yeah again the theme of yesterday you said it was aggressiveness yeah luck luck followed by aggressiveness but it does i mean that type of activity in the second round does put a level of pressure on those two players to come in
there’s no doubt about it uh and to correct brian gregory um kobe brea was the number one three-point shooter in the sec he was ninth nationally but still 43.5% is no joke
i thought i was and i haven’t checked the numbers but he shot 49.8% his last year at dayton so two years ago he might have been the
okay got it that might be what yeah there you go that’s probably what it was
so yeah so listen he’s obviously a ready-made shooter and but but we’ve already got a lot of those so so making this so what’s what’s ahead in terms of trades and what sort of uh vets they can get to play at the minimum we’re going to go do that dance again mhm
and not to always put cautionary tales on everything but but think about think about how we thought matt ishbia and james jones were absolute geniuses for the seven guys they signed in the span of 24 hour that friday remember that they threw out a bunch of two-year contract
you toabi
right oh my goodness what a steal
what a steal but also think of the level of that that would now want to play on the minimum for this version of the suns that doesn’t have kevin durant and doesn’t have title aspirations
uhhuh there’ll be guys but but again there’s going to have to be a lot more luck involved and and and a couple of these dudes i mean they’re going to have to hit
and and you’re and you’re very very right about fleming the the the length they went to get to 31 does put a lot more pressure on them you’re absolutely right to jared’s point i hadn’t even thought of this until you brought it up the level of vets because there’s going to be other new there’s going to be other acquisitions made
but guys coming in on on veteran minimum deals now i think it’s going to be a much hungrier bunch because they don’t have the carrot of the championship this is not a championship level team
no
even though we thought it was wrongly thought it was i would say by and large the veteran minimum deals they signed over that two-year period was not marked by those guys coming in and playing hard and being hungry
no that’s a great point it was it it was almost like i hate to say it we’re just going to ride this felt like it
yeah we got kd ain’t that something
ain’t that something
it wasn’t marked with any kind of hunger
no you’re you’re absolutely right absolutely right and and and that to their credit at at least they are at least they’re focusing on the right thing effort commitment to the group playing defense playing with intensity at all times it’s it it’s it’s offensive to be stuck with teams that don’t and we’ve been two years running so look it and and and if devin booker if devin booker comes back the player he was prekd this chance this team has a chance to surprise a lot of people thanks for watching bickley and marada click to see the latest bickley blast and hit the button in the middle to subscribe to arizona sports

Hope is alive on Planet Orange after the Phoenix Suns trade up in the second round of the 2025 NBA Draft for Rasheer Fleming and Koby Brea.t Dan Bickley cautions fans to enjoy the renewed hope in the team but to temper expectations.

Suns make 3 trades to lead off 2nd round and also pick 41st, take Rasheer Fleming: https://arizonasports.com/nba/phoenix-suns/draft-trade-2nd-round/3588350/

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