Do the Phoenix Suns have a new dynamic duo in Devin Booker and Jalen Green?

Do the Phoenix Suns have a new dynamic duo in Devin Booker and Jalen Green?

So yesterday, the Suns introduced all of their rookies and then afterwards, Brian Gregory, the general manager, kind of did a a media scrum off to the side in which he took questions about the the Kevin Durant trade, acquiring Jaylen Green, the younger players, things like that. And we were able, Tim, to kind of get in the nuts and bolts a little bit of some of the, you know, some of the moves that were made last week, some of which were more confounding than others. What happened on draft night was was great with my watch. That was fantastic. But then the Mark Williams trade almost minutes after it was like, well, wait a minute. What are we doing here? You know, how many centers do you need and is he going to block him? And now you’re giving up a first round pick for another center when you just drafted one. Then there’s the whole backcourt pairing of of Green and Booker in the first place and how that’s going to work. Brian Gregory yesterday was asked a question and it was a really fair good question to ask. Why do you think Green and Booker will work better than Beal and Booker? And here’s what he said. Well, I’ll just talk about Jaylen and Booker. I, you know, um, again, as I mentioned, I think there’s, um, a speed factor that’s being played in the NBA right now. They’re both great with the ball. You know, I think they can play off each other when they don’t have the ball. I think our style of play, playing at a faster pace with better movement, is going to open up the court for both of them. And I and I do think that you’re going to see uh our ability on the defensive end with more perimeter pressure that both those guys will really um their ability off the ball as other guys are pressuring the ball to play passing lanes and to read things. They both have unbelievable anticipatory skills defensively and I think they’re going to be really really good in that. So, I I think you’re going to see them play well together, not only on the offensive end, but also on the defensive end. You know what I think of when I hear that? I think that you could have asked Brian Gregory a year ago while Bradley Beal and Devin Booker would play so well in the back court and he might have given you exactly the same answer. I mean, see like right like I’m listening to it, I’m going okay, but and I know he didn’t want to address Beal and he didn’t want to talk about that and I I respect that, but at the same time, I’m I’m listening to it. I’m thinking this is probably the same way you would have answered a question about Beal and Booker and why it’s going to work together, right? Like it’s a lot of times the way the Suns did answer those questions when Beal was acquired during the first season heading into the second season. Brian Gregory, look, I’m sure in a perfect world, he would have loved a better positional fit in a return for Kevin Durant. Unfortunately, that’s not what the Rockets were order were offering. So, he he had to take the best deal on the table. And although a lot of people hated that trade, I I have no doubt the Suns took the best deal on the table to a team in terms of what what D where Durant wanted to go and would be willing to to sign that extension. So they they I’m quite certain Jaylen Green can be fine at the two. It’s it’s Booker at the one and maybe Jordan Knot can unlock some stuff that that Benhoer and Vogle couldn’t. But you’re still playing Devin Booker out of his his primary position and I just don’t like that. Yeah. I just I mean I’m not saying it’s not going to work. Maybe maybe it will work with different personnel, but it’s again it’s not ideal. Yeah. I I feel better about it because I I understand we’re in the era of, you know, to a certain extent positionless basketball. You know, we just kind of saw the Indiana Pacers make their run to the NBA finals. That’s what we heard going into the Big Three era. But but that and that’s exactly the point I was going to make. I I’ I’d feel a little bit better about this if this were newer. Instead, I kind of feel like we’ve seen this movie before. We saw this movie for the last two years. Like to your point about Beal and Booker, we’ve we’ve we’ve seen all the different iterations and combinations of trying to make that work and none of them ever did. And and I I I feel like like if we had never seen Devin Booker playing next to a guard with a similar skill set to his, I might think to myself, okay, well, let’s give it a try. Let’s see if let’s see how this work. But we have seen it. We saw for two years and it didn’t work. It didn’t work so badly to the point where they went out and like you said, they went and got Tyus Jones to be their point guard kind of with the expectation he’d be a starter, which was a little bit out of his league. He wasn’t really a starting point guard. Little ambitious. A little ambitious with that. So, it’s like you could sell me on this working if I hadn’t already seen it fail for the last two years. And and that’s where I’m deeply concerned about its abil. And I I wouldn’t be surprised at all if a year from right now they organizationally are reassessing Jaylen Green and whether, you know, do we look to move him? Does he have a market? Can we flip him? Can we do something else now that we’re not under this second apron? Can we do something different? Like if it just if they go through a year and they see it’s just not working, then it might be time to reassess and do something else. And I I don’t know if I like that. I don’t I like we’re to spend a year to to to figure out something that that a couple of dopes on the radio are saying right now. I mean, you know, I mean, because Well, no. Call us what we We’re microphone jockeyies. You called us that earlier. I prefer that phrase. I downgraded. I’m going to demand Yeah. Now, don’t call us dopes. I’m going to demand in my next contract I be referred to as a microphone jockey. Thank you very much. What about microphone dopes? How about just combine that? No, no dopes. There’s dope jockeyies. Hey. Whoa. Hey. What do you do for a living? I’m a dope jockey. Yeah, great. Fantastic. That’s look that’s going to look great on my Indeed or my uh my LinkedIn. Yeah, I’m a dope jockey. Hash open to work. I just think we we’ve seen Devin Booker play at an allNBA level when he had a a great point guard. And so I just I that that to me is where Devin Booker shines. He can point Book is a f He can do it. There’s no qu It’s not like, oh, he’s terrible at it. He can do it. There there are times where he’s brilliant at it. There there are times where it’s like, oh my god, this was the role you were born to play. And then other times it’s just clunky and awkward and everyone’s trying to figure out what they’re supposed to do and it doesn’t work at all. You know, in in a perfect world, you’d like him to be if he’s going to have to do that, you’d like him to be like in the Jamal Murray mold where like he’s the point guard, but he gets plenty of shots and he’s lethal and he’s great and he’s won a title and like that like that’s the best version of that. But it doesn’t he doesn’t seem to play like Jamal Murray when he’s when he when he’s playing the ball. Speaking of awkward combinations, um Brian Gregory also admitted yesterday the plan wasn’t always intended for them to get Kaman Mali watch and Mark Williams on the same night. Yet that’s how it worked out. We we had the the trade for Mark started to happen. Uh Kaman was number one on our list at 10 if if available. Um, so I’m not sure, you know, a week before we thought that that was going to be, but as we progressed through the first day of the draft, it became more of a reality and and we made the decision to go for it. H, and see that I’m trying to figure out which one in my mind, and I’m sure the right answer is Jaylen Green and Devin Booker, but which situation is more potentially problematic? two players starting in the same back court who play the same position or two centers, one of whom you gave up two first round picks to get but who’s going into his walk year who might potentially be blocking the path of the guy that you picked 10th overall. That’s not an ideal situation either, you know. And again, like do they have the ability to pull back the Williams trade when when Malawatch became available or wasn’t there a contingency plan like hey we’ll do this trade if Malawatch is not available if he’s already picked it just or or maybe you know these are our two guys like we’re we’re going to build around two centers and you know they’re going to split time and one’s going to groom the other one and we don’t know what the future holds for Mark Williams long term. But like I talked about yesterday, I guess from a team building standpoint, they’re not going to play together. So you you either you either gave up two first round draft picks for a backup center or you spent the number 10 pick in the draft for a backup center or or if if Mark Williams is not part of the plan long term. That that’s fine. You give up two first round picks to get him, but if you do deal him, then who are you getting for him? So it’s not you didn’t just waste Mark Williams. I mean, but so I don’t know how it’s all going to turn out. And and I don’t want to sit here and make it sound like the draft picks they gave up were super great anyway, but they were also the only ones you had. You know, I mean, you don’t you don’t have a ton of inventory to be able to go wasting first round draft. I understand they’re going to be in their late 20s and and the value there is somewhat limited, but they’re also you don’t have very many assets that you were available trade. You just spent one on a center who is either going to only be here for a year or who could potentially block the way of the guy that you drafted 10th overall. You know that of I loved everything they did around the draft. I we talked about this yesterday. I really really did. That one just baffled me. That one I just I just didn’t understand I the the the the mechanism there that like okay but but what happens a year from now? Are you gonna resign Mark Williams to a contract? Because when you do that now there’s expectations. You’re stunting the growth of Malawatch and you’re stunting the growth. And I understand Mal watch is only 18 years old, but he’s the 10th pick in the draft. Like at some point you’re going to have to find out when the rubber meets the road what this kid can do and you’re going to have to play him. Or BG is playing checkers and he’s going to turn Mark Williams into a better positional fit and a player that helps you maybe win in the long term and a guy that maybe you couldn’t have got gotten with the 29th pick in the draft. And I and I don’t have time to play it, but there was also a comment yesterday from Brian Gregory about how yes, we’re aware Mark Williams has an injury history, but when he gets to and I’m paraphrasing here, but we’re confident that our training staff will be able to figure that out. Yes, I heard that about Beal, too. Yeah, that just makes me a little, you know, like I don’t really I’m sure you’ve got a great training staff, but I’m not sure we should. They’ve got the mightest touch like that to be able to fix something that, you know, he’s basically played half the games he’s eligible to play in. I think Mark Williams in his early stage of his career. Yeah. So, by the way, uh, by the way, before break, yeah, I just want everybody to know, uh, I played high school basketball against Brian Gregory. Did you? Yes. Did you really? Yep. He’s a year older. Scouting report. He’s a way better player than me. Okay. About 5’8, but he played about 6’4. Okay. Oh, wow. Fantastic player. almost almost took his high school to the state championship. Really? Hell of a player. Wow. Okay. Okay. Hell of a player. And if you notice, he has not lost that Chicago accent. No, he has not. No, he has not. You have? I have. You have. He hasn’t. He has not. I needed to. He He doesn’t need Well, you’re in broadcasting. He’s a He can talk with the Chicago accent only once. Thanks for watching Burns and Gambo. Click to see more from the guys and hit the button in the middle to subscribe so you never miss a video from Arizona Sports.

Devin Booker and Jalen Green could mesh better than the previous pairing of Phoenix Suns shooting guards because of how they will play off each other, general manager Brian Gregory said Monday. Dave Burns and guest host Tim Ring weigh in on the idea.

Suns GM believes Devin Booker and Jalen Green coexist with speed and defensive anticipation: https://arizonasports.com/nba/phoenix-suns/devin-booker-jalen-green/3589502/

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