Why Devin Booker’s RECORD-SETTING PAYDAY Shouldn’t Scare Phoenix Suns Fans
Ah, it’s good to be back. Can you turn the turn the mics down, please? Psychos and sickos unite for a much louder edition of PHNX Suns coming to you live from Studio K presented by Circle today. Join the inner circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. And we’re all participating today, baby. I’m back. It’s Eric, Gerald, Steven, and the freckled Mamba aka Juice Man, aka the busiest man alive behind the Mac, making all of the magic happen. So, of course, hit that like button. Hit that subscribe button. Not for me, not for these two, but do it for the freckled Mamba. Cheer him up. Hit that like button. Hit that subscribe button. We are talking about Devin Booker’s Payday once again. And of course, we’re going to get into a summer league tier as that has begun. Espo and Shane are already out in Vegas, so keep your eyes out for coverage there. We got our first look at Kaman Malawatch, Rashir Fleming. We have some coaching news, man. It’s been a pretty slow couple of days, boys. How you been doing? Doing great. Glad to have you back, though. How you doing, Stephen? Been chilling. Ain’t been much of nothing going on around these parts. How about you? I’m I’ve I’ve been busy. Uh I was talking to Bo before this and I was telling Bo that I was tired because you know when we go and we go out to events, it’s like it’s like we have fun but it’s non-stop work. And then Bo goes, “Oh yeah, well you know I just had a kid.” And it’s like we can all be tired together. Like Gerald, we can be tired together. Okay, Stephen, we can be tired together. Freckled Mambbo, we can be tired together. Horses don’t stop. They keep going. I didn’t say we had to stop. I just said we got to be tired together. What? Also, I’m not a horse. What am I? I’m like a What even is that? What? Tired. Tired. Okay. Well, I’m kind of tired of the national media reaction to Devin Booker’s payday. Obviously, these psychos and sickos that were here when I was gone held you down with a breaking news podcast yesterday when Deon Booker signed a record- setting 2-year extension with the Phoenix Suns. We We’ve been expecting this for a long time. feels like this news has been reported about like 15 times over and over and over and over again. So, this wasn’t necessarily a surprise, but now it is official. And obviously, if you missed yesterday’s show, I’d highly encourage you to do that. Well, it’s not official yet. Well, officially official is like, you know what I mean? It’s like if Sham’s tweet like listen, man, if Sham Sharan tweets it, it’s official. Not until you get the press release. I see this is the difference. It’s not how it works. It’s not about official tweets. I know. Okay. But, uh, before I I get into the rest of my thoughts and and and some more stuff that I want to share on this, have you guys had anything else cross your mind or any new thoughts, takeaways over the last like 20-ish hours since this went down? I do, but I I honestly want to get your opinion because we we did our emergency pod for 30 minutes and uh, funny story, Eric was actually delayed at the airport and he was waiting. He was about to hop on the stream right when we ended. So, we did him no favors. But Eric, I want to get your thoughts on the extension and kind of the reaction to it because I feel like it’s been surprise surprise a little bit overblown. Yeah. I listen and and the headline today is the contract hates ridiculous despite valid concerns. And and I do want to start there where I understand if you do not believe that Devin Booker is a top 10 player in the league, paying him like the highest paid player in the league. Like on paper and on a surface level from a non-F phoenix Suns perspective, I understand that hesitation, right? Like I get it. That being said, uh we’ll have some more explanations from Bobby Marks who who will have a clip from him later in the show. Obviously, you guys have have broken it down, but about how while the sticker shock is there, it is not going to be nearly as bad as what people are making it out to be at that time. And for me, as a lifelong Phoenix Suns fan, as a psycho and a sicko, and as somebody who looks at Devin Booker as somebody who could be the best player on a championship team, and I know that some people don’t share that opinion, but that’s what I think. That is what Eric Ruby believes. This is worth it because a this guy, like all of the franchise’s failures that you’ve seen in his time here, while yes, he’s been involved in them, it goes so much beyond that. Nobody’s had more coaches since he’s entered the NBA than Devin Booker. I feel like nobody has had the amount of organizational instability. Like he’s had a new owner. He’s had GM changes. He’s had head coaching changes. He’s had roster changes. Like even the turnaround from the Finals team was fast. Like this this guy has been put in so many different positions that quite frankly have been completely unfair to the type of player that he is in the amount of work that he puts in. and he has stuck with us when we have not deserved him for a decade. He’s the franchise all-time leading scorer before he’s 30. And if you want to say he regrets, if you want to say he needs to get better, I’ll agree on the second one. He needs to be better than what he was last season. But I think it was such a bleep show last season in every respect, especially from coaching to roster construction and beyond that I highly believe that Devin Booker will be on a rampage this season and for the rest of his prime. This is deserving. You can build a championship team around Devin Booker. You can build a championship team around one player making a max, maybe two. What you can’t do is put all your eggs in a big three basket and then say, “F the draft. I’m not going to invest in any young players.” and then it bites you in the ass. But this off season has clearly shown that they are going to have a different approach to building around them. I just think that I think people are overreacting and somebody saying that this is Bradley Beal and the Wizards 2.0 and the Suns have no direction. I just feel like like that was somebody on ESPN who said that. I just don’t think that’s true. So that that’s what’s been on my heart about this. And I just think that while I I get the sticker shock and I and I get that some people aren’t as high on book as a player, that still isn’t even like a a question to sign him. you still do it if you want to trade him and move on. Like he needs to be under contract either way. Yeah. Stephen, any any thoughts now that the dust is kind of settled? I know in the moment for an emergency pod, you’re we’re kind of getting our baronss. We’re reacting to the news. Now that the dust is settled a little bit, where where’s your head kind of at? I mean, it’s still a right decision. Mhm. Uh for the percentage of the cap that it will be, I’m going to start there because that seems to still not be processed appropriately. For the percentage of the cap that it will hit for going forward, it’s a good bit of business for the Suns to keep their best player and their franchise player for what, at least seven of the last 10 years to keep him around. Mhm. He’s been a solid human being, first of all. He’s also been a very good basketball player, an elite basketball player. He’s also one that’s shown to have grown multiple in multiple capacities, too. need to keep him around whether you end up having to deal them going forward or just to have him around to spearhead everything that you’re working towards. Yeah, absolutely. And I now that the dust is settled for me, there are three things that I want to address. And one of them, the whole thing like the that tagline, he’s the highest paid player in the league. That’s going to change. Like he’s not by the time that that extension kicks in, he will no longer be the highest paid player in the league. So, we can stop that tagline right now because it’s just a snappy way to get engagements on a tweet. The second thing is that Booker’s extension and Beiel’s dead money, there’s this idea that like, oh, you’re going to be paying 45% of the Sun’s salary cap to Booker and Beal if you wave and stretch him over the next five years. Like, I want to pump the brakes on that because you guys do understand they go over 100%, right? Like, it’s not like, oh, Booker and Beal take up 45%, we only have 55%. Mhm. Last year, every single team in the NBA finished above the salary cap. Like we don’t cap out at 100%. And if you’re Matt Ishbia, you barely cap out at the second tax apron. So like I’m not trying to downplay how much money you’re going to be devoting to Book and to Beal if you wave and stretch him because it is a lot. Um but we need to stop looking at it in that term because they were never going to be operating as an under the cap team regardless. So, it’s about how they maximize their wiggle room, what wiggle room they have under that second apron, not the percentage of the cap that you’re devoting to two players. But the last thing, and this is the most important thing, is this idea that by assigning Deon Booker to this extension, they’ve locked themselves into you’re never going to win anything with Deon Booker. This team, this team isn’t good enough to win with Devin Booker as your best player. You should have traded him. You should blow it up now. I would honestly rather this franchise go down with the ship with this particular captain trying and going allin on trying to win a championship with Deon Booker than I would blow it up because there has to be a line between I can only enjoy the Suns if we win titles and every other season where they have failed to win titles. Like if that was the determinant of you being able to watch Suns basketball, you would have stopped watching a long time ago cuz guess what? It’s been nearly 60 years of franchise history without winning a title. Why would you do that to yourself? And the reason is because watching Suns basketball cannot just be about winning rings. And I’m not saying that like we should let Devin Booker off the hook. Like the expectation isn’t for him to lead them to the promised land. That’s very much what it is. But that pressure already existed before this contract extension. That’s what it’s always been. It heightens now that he has these extra two years, 69 mil, 75 mil, whatever that salary winds up being on his contract. But I I don’t like this line of thinking that from a fan. We talked about how loyalty seems to be a one-way street here. We expect Devin Booker to be this ambassador to want to play for one franchise forever, but the moment that things get hard, not due to him, but because of the pieces that they put around him, we’re ready to jump ship and send him out somewhere else. Like, I’m sorry, but if you’ve watched Devin Booker for the 10 years that he’s been here, and you haven’t extracted any value, entertainment value, joy, memories from the 2021 Finals run, from the 64- win season, from the game winner over the Clippers in the bubble, from dunking on Anthony Davis, from becoming the all-time leading scorer, from everything that he’s poured into this organization, we’re doing it wrong. We are consuming this game the wrong way. It can’t be the end all beall win a title. So, as much as I want to see Devin Booker win a championship here, even if he never does, at least you can look at this moment and say they committed to the guy. They gave everything that they could just like he did for the franchise. And that’s what matters to me because if you ask Portland Trailblazers fans, are they going to be telling you, “Yeah, I’m glad that we got rid of Damen Lillard.” Are they going to tell you how much that hurt? If you ask Dallas Maverick’s fan, “Yeah, I’m glad that we blew it up and got the number one pick for Cooper Flag even though we had Luca Donuch.” Are they going to tell you that right now? No. And maybe that changes, but it it just drives me crazy the approach that people take. Like having to stomach the loss of a franchise player is really hard. And I don’t think you turn the page on that just because an extension is big. That’s it. I also I want to address like the the hypocrisy from like how we consume basketball as well off of what you said Gerald because all we do all we do we spent we’ve spent over a decade and by we I don’t even mean the people in this room but like fans media how we consume basketball how we talk about basketball ripping apart now Devin Booker’s former teammate Kevin Durant and leaving his hometown franchise and jumping from team to team. We crucified LeBron for going to Miami, then leaving Miami. He went home. That’s great. Then he went to LA. Like people put Kobe on this pedestal because he stayed in LA for his entire career. Dirk stayed in Dallas for his entire career. And it was like, “Oh, wow. This is amazing. These guys are awesome.” But now we’re in the moment of a guy who by the way has taken this franchise farther in an NBA season than a Steve Nash, then a Charles Barkley, then the legends that have stepped foot on this court and for other franchises who have not won a championship, farther than them as well. And given some of the worst circumstances you could possibly imagine from the moment that he walked in the league, said he wants to work here, show up here. We have Ashley in the chat saying that his his son wears number one because of Devin Booker and has 11 different Devin Booker jerseys. The impact goes beyond the basketball, but damn it, if we’re talking about the basketball, he earned it too, folks. Like it’s been Stephen, it has been a like a measuring point for do you know ball since the moment that Devin Booker came on the scene is if you addressed him as an empty calorie scoring guy who can do nothing or if you thought that he was the truth. And if you were in the first camp, I don’t give a crap. You’re wrong. Like you’re just wrong. You are like real people who break down basketball and who have watched this not from a fan perspective, not from a local perspective, know that this guy is the goddamn truth. And if he hit the open market right now, every single franchise would be lining up to pay him the same amount of money the Phoenix Suns offered him. Even if you don’t agree, every single front office would be doing that. Make sure my mic works. I think I want to be I want to be very very direct when I say this too. This is in response to both of y’all. Yeah, correct. I love you, Steve. He said that with his whole chest. But yes, I I think to wrap up like there was a Steve Nash era where a whole group of Suns fans grew up watching him, falling in love with the team, with the sport with Steve Nash from watching him play. Same thing with Charles Barkley. That is exactly the same for Devin Booker. Um, and people I I’ve even seen Suns fans kind of try to spin it as like, well, we want him to compete. We want him to contend. We want him to go somewhere else where he has a better chance. Like, he wants to be here. That’s straight from his mouth. He doesn’t want to go. So, why are we trying to push him out the door in the service of thinking we know better for him or know what he wants more than the man does his himself? Like, like I said, if he doesn’t win a championship here in Phoenix, it would be devastating. That’s the one thing that can put him over the top as the greatest son ever. It’s the one thing that can put him in that same category as the Kobe Bryants, the Tim Duncan, the Dirk Nitzky, the guys that spend their entire careers with a franchise and won championships there. We know that that is the expectation and the goal for him. But it it can’t just be about that because otherwise like you’re going to tell me you don’t look back on Steve Nash and Amari Starttomire and Shawn Marian different because they didn’t win. Of course it stings. But we still have fond memories of those days. It can’t just be after we get past these years and then look back on it with nostalgia that we fully appreciate it for what it is. Bobby Marks, I’m back. Uh yeah, it’s not just us that’s talking about the Booker extension. Espo and Shane out in Vegas caught up with ESPN’s Bobby Marks, good friend of the program as well, and talked about Booker’s record setting extension. You look at Devin Booker’s extension that he signed last night. When you look at that in right now, it looks like a huge number, but again, as you look at the cap expanding stuff, what was your read on it? Yeah, I I kind of knew that was coming. You know, I think when we look at it, you know, certainly with Deon, even if with three years left on his on his um on his original deal, SuperMax, you know, certainly with the with Matt coming out and saying like we’re going to build around him, it just makes more sense as far as the lock up. I think that 75 in that last year probably pops out and be like, oh, but that 75 in 5 years might be like 50 right now. And that’s kind of how we have to look at, you know, money moving forward. Uh, well, if you hadn’t been listening to our podcast or reading Gerald’s work, maybe it hits different hearing it from Bobby Marks himself. Um, because Bobby’s said it in different word, different verbiage, but it’s literally the same thing that we’ve been saying for the last what, three weeks, threeish weeks now at this point. So, please take it for what he’s saying. It’s a percentage of the overall cap that the team is working with. that 75 is going to look a whole lot more like 50 come the time that the duration of his extension comes up. I think hopefully he contextualized that enough for people to process it appropriately. Mike Connley, Jaylen Brown, Blake Griffin, these are all players that at one point were the highest paid player in NBA history. Guess what? That changed quickly. Mhm. And every single one of those pe those teams that signed them those contracts, they they did not end up regretting it. Uh listen, I I still get if some people don’t have Devin Booker as their favorite player. I I get if some people do have concerns. I I do think that like yes, Devin Booker needs to be better this next season. There’s going to be a magnifying glass on him now. Yep. And maybe we shouldn’t judge him based off of ring, but I’m gonna judge him if the rest of his career there’s no more playoff success, right? Does that change what he’s brought me as a fan and as a as a consumer and enjoyer of basketball? No. But he’s 28. He’s going to be 29 this season. There’s a lot of career left for this guy and there’s a lot of runway to move up and there’s a lot of runway to move down as well. But at the end of the day, his floor, his literal floor, this guy’s floor is all-time leading scorer in franchise history. You pay him. This franchise has had multiple Hall of Famers. Mhm. Yes. No. Spend significant time with the franchise. Top five winning percentage in NBA history, by the way. Alltime buckets have been on this team, and Devin Booker stands among them all before he’s 30. Listen, we could talk about this forever. You guys talked about it yesterday. Mark says, “Stop yelling.” No. Welcome to the show, Mark. The volume is high this time. Yeah, I the the cold and Mark, I appreciate you being here. I appreciate all Suns fans. Uh this I’m tired of this. This got me fired up. I won’t yell about assistant coaches. I promise you that. We’re going to give you some updates on assistant coaches, some more people around the Phoenix Suns, and we’re going to be tearing summer league players to watch. We’re gonna do it all after our first break. Uh Brian says, “Yell louder.” Well, if there’s anything I’m gonna yell louder about, it’s Desert Financial Credit Union. Listen, Desert Financial Credit Union’s been in my blood, my family for literal generations. And if you’re an Arizona sports fan like me, there’s no better place to do your banking than Desert Financial Credit Union. Because for more than 84 years, DFCU has been Arizona’s largest, most trusted local credit union. 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Um yeah, B says, “Not sure Rubis knows how not to yell, and we love him for it.” Yeah, my my my bass volume I listen I am who I am, folks. Like I would love to see like the mic levels that Ericton adjust. Eric’s Eric’s mic is four levels lower than Gerald. And okay, but also to we are soft spoken. So that’s and that’s the thing is like we when I want a show with Anthony Tory like they’re all the way down cuz we’re just we’re just going I could see that. Um we need to soundproof this boo. Uh some Kaylee and chat does. So Rubis is what they call me on the Sunundevil show. I have like a million nicknames on Sunundevil show. Rubis is one of them. Uh, and maybe you can call me Rubis at our pickleball tournament on uh, July 26th, I believe. Yes, July 26th, Saturday at 10 a.m. Pickleball at Chicken and Pickle benefiting Big Brothers Big Sisters of Arizona. This is an incredible event. Last time we had some real real hoopers show up in the pickle ball world. They were absolutely dominating. So, come show your stuff. If you are a pickle ball fiend, sign up. Go phnx.com/events and come hang out with some of the PHNX crew as well. some new members of the PHNX Suns as in Phoenix Suns crew. Gerald, we got some some news today on some additions to Jordanot staff. We did. We had been waiting to see who kind of the lead assistant would be and we got news. It’s going to be out of the Orlando Magic. Jesse Mermis Merse Murmurse. Local guy. Local guy. Don’t know how to pronounce his name, but I do know that he’s from here. Yeah. Has Arizona ties. Um, we don’t know too much about him to be honest with you, but I would imagine if you’re pulling someone who was high up on the Magic’s coaching staff, it would be for his defensive prowess. So, we’ll see what uh hopefully Espo and Eric when they’re out there in summer league uh if they do make a available down in Vegas, maybe someone will be able to get a little bit of perspective on what he can bring to the table. Although, I’m not sure he’ll be able to speak on it unless there’s an official press release beforehand. Yeah, I regardless of what kind of faction or what side of the ball he identified with most with Orlando, one thing about that group is that they were very much a hard-nosed, hardworking, competitive group. All of those things Jamal Mosley and still I feels like that coaching staff in general all kind of had in their own capacity. So imagine that in a situation where it’s a different template, different context for a roster, for a team, and you’re obviously with Jordan under him now. Things might look a little different. So some of his strengths or weaknesses might flip or might even be kind of amplified based off of who he’s working with now, stemming from everything that was established with Orlando. Yeah, I think that what people underestimate in the NBA is behind every great head coach and every well coached team is a very good staff. And one of the things that you heard from a lot of people about Orlando, Gerald, was that they were a very well coached team this year. Now, did they have the shoot? Like the biggest problem with Orlando was what? They couldn’t shoot. They couldn’t shoot. And and and maybe they needed some more creativity offensively. I know Orlando fans were not happy with the offense, but they also didn’t have the players that fit that either. I find such it’s so it’s so annoying to hear it sometimes because you can space extremely well. You can have the most exotic spacing that you can think of and as a process in and of itself it could be the best in the league. If you don’t have the pieces for a defense to respect them in a certain way, it’s simply not going to matter. M. So, it’s not necessarily he must have sucked at his job because he was he was in charge of the offense with Orlando. No, they couldn’t get enough of the skills needed to insulate their top players, right? It’s a that’s context. Do we do we know for sure that he was in charge of the offense? I don’t know. There were fans that said that he was like, and that’s my point, a lot of times we don’t know the full extent of what assistants are responsible for. Mhm. And even if he was, to your point, like spacing wise, you could put five guys in all five corners of the court, doesn’t necessarily mean the defense is going to respect him and spread the floor. Uh, and when you have literally the worst three-point shooting team in the NBA, that’s not necessarily a matter of process, it’s a matter of shot making. So, uh, I would like to get A’s perspective on what he brings to the table because he, you know, we played the clip or we didn’t play the clip, but he talked at summerly practice about the process of putting together a staff and how he’s being very diligent with what he’s looking for. So, I would be curious to see what he brings to the table. But that’s the first piece of Sun news. Yeah, Ted Defensive says, “I love how PH Next is burying the lead. A got an MSU guy on his staff.” Matine Cleaves. Well, there we go. There’s the second piece of news we were going to cover here. Um it feels like he’s in sort of a an oversight role. Not like an he’s not an assistant coach. Yeah, not an assistant coach. Um more of a front office executive player relationships type role. Um this is not surprising to me. I kind of am surprised it didn’t happen sooner to be honest with you that he had an official position because we knew that Ishb and Matine Cleaves were very close. I think he was there for his intro as the Sun’s owner. Um so yeah, I’m not really surprised by this. Yeah. No, I mean there was a clip from Dwayne Wade and we got this information from Gambo who quote tweeted this clip of of you know Dwayne Wade and and company saying that Matine Cleaves is a winner in the locker room and is is somebody that you want in the locker room. I’m not going to give strong takes on on him as as a coach but Stephen he is out there for for summer league. He’s been out there working with the guys. Again, you just guys that have that it about them. There’s a certain type of reach they have. Um, Matine Cleaves is very much one of those guys cut from a different cloth and would get a certain type of reverence from the players on the roster as well. And that all leads to what it is that they’re trying to work towards, which is a highly competitive and also high character conducive environment on a daily basis. Yeah. Swaggy says, “Lol, what does that even mean? Winner in the locker room. Put me in there. I’ll pump them up.” I mean, that’s a fair point. It’s vague, but like it’s not like I’m saying it like Dwayne Wade saying it, you know, a former player, it’s a little different. Yeah. I mean, I there is uh there is a difference between how some players act in the locker room and the type of standard that they hold other people to and how they coach. Like some of the great players in NBA history have not been great leadersh. So there’s a there’s a and some of the worst players in NBA history have been great leaders, right? Like everybody loves Garrett Temple. Like he’s fine. He was okay in his prime. Ducha not still be in the NBA, but he is because he’s a great leader and he’s a great locker room guy. So, I’m not gonna give any strong takes about Matine Cleaves. But, uh, Ashley says, “Put Eric in the room to yell at them.” They would not take me seriously. Shut up, dude. Probably not. Go sit down. Uh, Stephen’s the only person in this room they would take seriously to be honest with you. Yeah, for sure. Definitely. Even Even that has a certain extent because I haven’t played in the NBA, nor have I coached in the NBA. Fair. Nor have I coached at all. So, no. So, we are going to see Deari Carol coach for the first time at at Summer League. We did get our first looks and you can catch it at PHNX Suns on Twitter and Instagram of Rasher Fleming of Malawatch out there at summer league. So, make sure you keep your eyes out for our socials for our socials and everything. Which one of us though? Ashley says, “Who’s this kid yelling at us?” It it would probably be towards me, I’m assuming. As Ashley says, I’m 12 years old. Ah, okay. Okay, I am the most wellspoken 12-year-old you’ve ever met in your entire life. I beg you, by the way. Find a You know, it’s like that tweet. It’s like I could easily win a debate against a a thousand babies. You know, that anyways. Anyways, um can we address the chat before we um move on? Uh Daniel Thomas, my good friend Daniel said, “Am I crazy that I’m starting to feel Bill isn’t willing to accept a buyout? Only feels more unlikely it happens the longer it takes.” Um it is kind of weird that it didn’t happen. I think Gambo had said over the weekend he was expecting it to happen within 24 to 48 hours. Based on what I had heard, it would be a couple of days. Um there was no kind of limit put on that. But I think it might be a matter of just waiting for him to figure out what his next move is going to be in free agency, what team he’s going to sign for, how much of the money that he’s potentially leaving on the table he’s going to make back. Um so I don’t know that anything has changed yet. I’ll look into that to see if anything has changed, but it kind of just feels like waiting for him to figure out the next step before it becomes official. And I think Zach Low said on his podcast he’s expecting it to happen sometime next week. Must be really hard to figure out the terms of that extension. Lot of math. Uh next week there will be some summer league games next week. Summer league starts tomorrow. There will be a a watch today today. Tomorrow for the Suns. Uh there’s already summer league action going on right now. Uh Gerald, Steven, and the Freckled Mamba aka Juice Man will have you with a live watch along tomorrow in reaction to the game. I will be traveling out to Vegas. So, I will be off the show yet again tomorrow. And then we’ll have you covered on on Saturday with interviews and everything. And then Sunday, Espo and I will be doing a postgame show from Vegas for that game. And then there is some more summer league content throughout the week. So, make sure you keep it tuned for that. Subscribe there. Hit the like button, folks. Not a lot of likes on this right now. And you know what? Let’s do this. Hit that like button if you think Devin Booker deserves a contract extension and then also hit the like button if you think that he doesn’t deserve it. So, hit that like button. We’re going we’re going to tear summer league players to watch and why you should be looking out for them and we’re going to do it after our final break. I’m always looking down and it’s really bad posture, but it does help me analyze flooring and looking down and being like, “Oh, this is kind of gross.” I never feel that way when I see Empire Today flooring because it’s flooring experts who help you out. It’s a free inhome estimate and I talk about it all the time. Something I haven’t brought up in a while though is the virtual floor visualizer. Let’s say that you’re on the fence and you want to see how something fits in your home, but you’re like, I don’t want to have to do the freeome estimate and have them out here cuz I just I don’t know if I’m ready yet. Well, guess what? You can get a virtual floor visualizer on your phone. Hold your phone up and guess what? It virtually visualizes the floor in your home. Plus, so much more with Empire today. Clear, upfront, all- inclusive pricing. Plus, you can schedule installation as soon as the next day. It’s so much different than going to the big box stores that leave you hanging and leave you broke. Schedule free in home estimate today, cuz some things are just better off at home. And PHNX listeners can receive a $350 off discount when using promo code PHNX. That’s right, $350 off when using promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. Visit empire.com/phnx for full details. Also, I experienced uh a humid heat, the wet heat in Texas, and now I’m back in the dry heat here. In the end of the day, heat is heat, and that means you need AC. And did you know that nearly half of your energy costs come from cooling and heating your home, or just cooling your home if you live in Arizona in the summer? And did you also know that for every one degree you raise your thermostat, you could save up to 2 to 3% on your cooling cost? But what if you’re not home? What if you’re away? What if you are home, but you’re lazy like me, and you just want to adjust the thermostat without getting up? Well, that’s where an APS smart thermostat comes into play. You can adjust your thermostat from a phone or a device from anywhere. And right now, APS customers may be eligible for smart thermostats for as low as $0 when you enroll in the APS Cool Rewards program. If you already have a smart thermostat at home, see if it’s eligible to enroll in cool rewards, plus free install, also available at marketplace.aps.com. Must be an APS customer and pay shipping and taxes. Other restrictions apply. Go to marketplace.aps.com for more information. And oh, I’m so glad to be back with all my sweet psychos and sickos. Some new names in here. I I do we get some new people over the last couple of days. Sweet Tea, Jeff W, uh I’m that dude, a Adele. That’s a great name. Obviously, some classics as well. We got Bees, Boom, Shakalaka, Sandman, all of our friends. Daniel, who was asking the question earlier, man, it’s just so good to be back with the PHNX sons. You talking about Vinnie Dro? I think he’s just naming names that he thinks are better than Devon Booker. Who? I just randomly saw Vinnie and I was confused. Very confused. Clifford Robinson. Okay. I mean, honestly, we’re in troll territory. It’s funny. Yeah. I mean, honestly, it’s funny. Like, it’s it’s funny. Uh, Tendo’s down MMA says, “Bro looks alive today.” So, when I was out there, I was again, I was tired and he was for first a media day. He was like, “Guy on the left looks like he’s miserable.” And I was like, “Nope, I’m just I’m just tired, but I’m having a great time.” But I’m back on PH Next Suns and these psychos and sickos. Let’s talk about summer. I’m that dude said you’re the new guy. I love it. Oh, bro said I’m going to Big 12 media day and it took a week. Yeah. Yeah. I was going for going off two shows, folks. Three shows. Off of three shows, folks. And uh not not been around here. EJ’s Couch Potato says, “Poor Eric. I’ll survive. EJ’s couch potato. Don’t you worry about me.” Antonio Mcnice, good pull, sweet tea. I think this is just naming dudes. Naming dudes is so much fun. How about Hey, let’s name some freaking dudes and let’s tear the Suns summer league roster. You guys probably don’t know all these names. That’s why we’re here. We’re going must watch intriguing, worth monitoring, impress me, and lowered expectations. Uh we’ve got, of course, your heavy hitters, Oso Gdaro, Ryan Dunn, Rashir Fleming, uh Kam Malawanch, Kobe Brea. I mean, you got some names to watch, but there are some other wild cards. So, Gerald, why don’t why don’t you lead the way through this? Okay. Who’s first up on our list? Are we going alphabetically or who is that? That’s Alex Shoemaker. I think alphabetically by first name. Okay, cool. So, Alex Shoemaker is not a name that you would recognize unless you paid very close attention to the Valley Suns last year because he only spent eight of his 48 G-League appearances with the Valley Suns. He’s a 6’3 guard from Seattle, 24 years old. Um he averaged about 12 and a half points, five assists, just under four rebounds on 46% shooting, 34% from three with the Valley Suns over his eight games in Phoenix. Um mustwatch. Look, I I I I appreciate when there is carryover from like the G-League situation to summer league. And you know, we we talked a lot about the value of having a summer league team and building some continuity and having familiar faces and developing players. For me, this is kind of in the impress me category. Yeah. Um his numbers were not fantastic with the Valley Suns. He was only here for eight games. He’s on the G- League team or on the summer league team, but yeah, I he’s one of those guys where Yeah, if you impress me, I’ll pay attention, but not high on my priority list. What about you, Stephen? Yeah, I was going to say he’s probably borderline lowered expectations and impress me just because I feel like there are some louder guards on the roster in terms of skill and what they’ll be bringing to the fold. And I think um I just think they’ll kind of get a little bit more attention. They maybe potentially even get more minutes than he will. Yeah, I think lowered expectations definitely a consideration. I think the fact that he’s been in the Sun system is what bumps it up for me. And I mean decent stats in the G-League as well. So impressed me for sure. Again, I’m not gonna like fight on any of these. Uh but if if we need to move him around, I I don’t mind. Did want to ask y’all too, just something that’s been on my mind. I wonder if at all John Little, head coach of the Valley Suns, would be involved in any capacity with the summer league team, especially because we only know of what, two coaches that will be involved. Yeah, that’s a good question, honestly. And I’m not sure maybe Espo and Eric will be able to get the scoop when they go out there. But I do know that they referred to him still as their G-League coach. So, I don’t think Bud losing his job has impacted John Little as far as I know. Mhm. I definitely have seen him at the Mercury practice facility, so I know he’s still around, right? I just wondered if he would be helping at all because I I think he helped with the um the draft workouts for the guys that they that they ultimately brought into. So, just curious what capacity just a little back behind the scenes thoughts. I’ll try to help you out. I’ll try to do some some Eric Ruby reporting live from Vegas. Ruby reports. Watch out, Gerald. Ruby reports coming for your job. Uh let’s uh let’s dance on over to the next one, Gerald. All right, let’s do Boogie Ellis. Boogie Ellis, aside from having a great name and being the spiritual successor to last year’s Boo Buouie, uh undrafted out of USC last season, uh played for the Kings in summer league. Last year he joined the Stockton Kings. He also played for the Indiana Mad ants, averaged 10 points, three assists, three rebounds in about 22 minutes, over 23 G-League games last year. He shot 36% from three, but only 35.6% overall. somehow shot worse on twos than threes, which is kind of baffling. Uh, but he’s a 6’2 guard, 24 years old. He was someone that both Ryan Dunn and Oso Gdaro mentioned at practice as being a defensive pest and really impressing and getting up in people. I am probably going to lean towards uh intriguing for me. End of intriguing. End of intriguing. Interesting. I I feel Listen, the name I’m such a big name guy. Boogie Ellis. Like I wish I was doing playbyplay for these for these games because there’s some great jokes that we could throw in there. Sure. Um but I don’t know if it’s intriguing to the point I think worth monitoring for sure. Um and I’m standing on this note. But what what do you think? Intriguing, worth monitoring somewhere else, Stephen? Um I’m I’m torn between worth monitoring and intriguing because talk about the kind of more loud names. He’s very much in that that ilk of players that I’m speaking to on the Suns roster for summer league. Three-level score, runs a very efficient pick and roll. Um can score from either either off the dribble or he’s effective doing so off the ball as well. And then the defensive side if he’s getting after it. He’s everything that it sounds like the Suns are looking for players the cloth for them to have been cut from. Um so I feel like he’s going to get some significant minutes with the team. I think he’s I’ll probably just go say intriguing if it weren’t for his name, which is excellent and the fact that Dunn and Oso both kind of shouted him out unprompted. I would say worth monitoring, but I’ll I’ll let’s put him at like the end of intriguing. Okay. Yeah, I’m I’m totally fine with that. Another great name. Up next, Gerald. Yes. Up next, we have Brandon. Brandon. Brandon Angel. That’s where it comes. That’s where it becomes cool. Uh yeah. So, Brandon Angel, uh, this is a guy who was a five-year college player, 6’9 forward out of Oregon, 23 years old. He averaged about eight points and four rebounds in 23 minutes a game, shot 54% overall, and just under 37% from three. Uh, for me, this has kind of lowered expectations. You know, he’s a little bit older. Numbers weren’t fantastic for a five-year college player. Um, and I I just don’t really know where he slots in potentially when you look at some of the other options that they have in the front court and on the wing. So, I’d probably go lowered expectations. Yeah. Uh, hey, we all know what happened the last time an angel was lowered. I knew you like that one. That’s wild. Any disagreements? That’s crazy. Did you miss me? That is crazy. Did you miss me? That is crazy. That is That is insane. You got it though. You got it. That’s not what I where I was expecting Sun Summer League tearing to go. Wow. Oh, when that when that came to me when we were, you know, I was like, “Yeah, he’s gonna be a lowered expectations.” Just I had to do it, man. I had to do it. this man. The chat just says, “Wow, you come in expecting research on all these players and he’s thinking up taglines over here.” He’s He’s brainstorming. He’s practicing his type five. That’s nuts, dude. We’re cheering Summer League players. Let me live. This is peak July Suns content. Let me live. By the way, it’s Yeah, Boogie Als I’m leing about against like definitely intriguing. It’s like it got graded on the summer league scale. Damn, you get a dislike for that. That’s crazy. That was a good joke. I stand by that. That was a good joke. It’s tough, man. Okay, we can move on. All right, this next guy I’m I’m interested to see where we all stand on. All right, this is CJ Huntley, who is one of the three players the Suns have on a two-e contract. According to ESPN’s Jonathan Given, he had a very strong pre-draft uh process coming out of Appalachian State. 6’10 guy. Uh, averaged just under 16 points, eight rebounds, shot 49% from the field, 36% from three, and he has a 7 foot4 and a half wingspan. Uh, I’ve seen people on Twitter comparing him to like a light Miles Turner or something like that. And again, he is one of the guys that’s on a two-way for the Sun, so we know that we’re going to be seeing more of him. So, honestly, you put all that together, definitely intriguing for me. Yeah, I top of intriguing. Okay. I I can’t put mustwatch because of the other names that are on here, but the the build that that he has, Stephen, this is a guy that I’m not gonna go out and say he’s an NBA player, but would it shock me if he if he found his way into a rotation in a couple of years because of the the skills and the size? Absolutely not. Yeah. Uh uh guys that can take threes and do so comfortably, do so confidently, add and then add a little bit of activity on defense. That’s what summer league is about. And seeing who can kind of translate it more impactfully than others can. and it’s a lot of what the Suns are looking for right now. So, sign me up. Appalachian State, baby. Let’s get it. Love that. Um, next up, we’ve got Jordan Gayy, who is a 6’4 guard out of Tennessee, 23 years old, one of college basketball’s top sixth men, helped the Volunteers reach the Elite 8. Uh, he actually earned NCAA Midwest Midwest region alterney honors, averaged just under 12 points, three rebounds per game, only shot 40% overall and 30% from three. Uh, but local kid. He’s actually from Tucson. For me, I’m probably leaning more towards Impress Me. Like, I think could be interesting. I I like some of the accolades and some of the things that he’s been tagged with, but the game itself, the numbers itself don’t really leap off the page. Yeah, I might be in lowered expectations for me. Are you What do you think, Stephen? For me, because I just got done watching some uh Kobe Bre film. They went against Tennessee. uh I think it was like the third or fourth time in the season because they’re obviously in in conference. They went against each other in the tournament. Uh Kentucky ended up winning that game, but he had a impressive game. Yeah, I think he just found ways to get to the paint. Just a nuisance on defense, too. So, because of uh recency bias, I might have a little bit more of an idea of what I’m expecting from him. Uh which which tier are y’all thinking he’s in more? Impress. I’m okay with impress me. Again, I I was going to say worth monitoring. He doesn’t have very strong feelings on I was going to say worth monitoring as like my ceiling for him just based off of what I just got done watching not too long ago. I think Impress Me to become worth monitoring is is I think I think fair top of Impress Me. Put him at the top of Impress Me. There’s there’s there’s potential there. There’s potential for sure. Mhm. All right. Next up we got Khalif Battle. Another great name. Another great name. Undrafted out of Gonzaga last year. averaged just under 14 points, four rebounds, shot 44% overall, and just under 35% from three on about five attempts per game. He’s a 6’5 shooting guard. Yes, 25 years old. And it’s worth remembering that Brendan Sabine, who is the Valley Suns GM, has ties to Gonzaga. Thoughts? Uh 65 shooting guard, get him on the main roster. He’s got to be, right? Like, yeah, get him there. I mean, that’s the hashtag alignment, right? You can never have enough Never have enough 65 shooting guards. Never have too many Alfred Pton. What do you What do you think, Stephen? Khif battle, are you going to battle for him to be worth monitoring? Impress me. I think he’s worth monitoring. Uh shooting versatility that he brings. U can do so on the ball, creating a little bit for himself, but especially off the ball. Other big thing for me is also that he’s switchable on defense. He gets after it. Um I think it’s worth monitoring. That’s where I had him. I think my cousin actually went to Gonzaga. She’s a huge Zags fan. So, if I think if I put her put this guy any lower, she’d kill me. So, we’re going to go That’s That’s what ruins That’s what ruins the relationship. We need a We need a a quote graphic audio quote graphic of her breaking down the scouting report. Not Not just Not just Khalif Battle, but like man, you put Khalif Battle in the Impress Me on your son’s summer league tear maker on Thursday, July 10th. It’s over, Gerald. Destroys families. Yeah. Family time done. Thanksgiving ruined. It’s done. Uh yeah. worth monitoring is perfectly fine. Okay, cool. So, next up we got who is that? Yuri Collins. I actually am really pretty high on Yuri. He’s only six feet tall. He’s out of St. Louis. He’s 24 years old, but this is a two-time NCAA assist leader. Um he’s someone who played for the Santa Cruz Warriors the last two years. And last season, he averaged a double double uh in the G-League. Uh 13.7 points, 10.2 assists, and about four rebounds despite being six feet tall. And that’s over 49 appearances. So, it’s not like, you know, you look at some of these G-League guys and it’s like they played 18 games. No, he played almost 50. Um, I think in the in summer league, one of the most underrated things that you can have on a roster is a facilitator. Someone who is willing to pass first and set other guys up and not trying to make themselves look good. That’s kind of big. So, I I have him in How high did I have him? I had him in intriguing for me. I So, here here’s the thing with this. First of all, thank God they got a point guard because it was going to be Oso. Like Oso was going to be the point guard before that, which he’s going to be for a certain extent and they’re going to definitely run some lineups with him because I don’t think Yuri Collins is playing the whole game. Sure. But I’m glad they have a pass first point guard for summer league. I’m intrigued. As far as prospects on the Suns roster or like in the NBA, I I’m I’m not even considering it. But for like this specifically, I’m intrigued to see how he conducts the show with some of the talent we’re going to be talking about here in a second and someone that we’ve already talked about, Stephen. Yeah. Uh big on point guards. Shocker to everybody. Uh Yuri is someone that just is efficient with everything he does, especially someone that can find ways to get or maybe expedite the growth of a player like Kam Malawatch or Rasher Fleming. get it to them and pick and roll in spaces where they’re not just going to be able to score, but they can do other things if the defense is um forcing them to make certain type of reads on the short roll, different things like that. So, I’m looking forward to watching Yuri get after it. Um quick little note on him. I think he led the nation in assist his senior year if I’m not mistaken. So, this is a player that understands efficiency on the types of passes, but making passes that are scorable from whether it be directly for a score in a secondary fashion. Do you guys know the mascot of the team that he played for in St. Louis? St. Lewis. No. Off the top of my head. Yeah. Read something. It’s the Bilicans. Oh, the Bilicans. Yeah. Mhm. I would never have guessed that. Blue and white. I know. That’s why that’s why I said it. Uh, okay. So, we’re going to put him in intriguing. Intriguing for me. I’d put him after CJ Huntley maybe. Or I think I’d probably put it behind Boogie. I think if you’re talking like I’m looking at summer league as like if you’re intriguing I’m probably looking at you as like best case scenario, can you make an NBA roster? Mhm. I think as far as prospects to make the NBA, both CJ Huntley and Boogie Ellis, I am more intrigued by the actual fact. Not just the Suns roster because the summer league isn’t just for Suns roster. That’s fair. But just NBA roster in general, I’ I’d have him below, but he I think he has probably the most refined individual skill that we’ve talked about out of any of these guys. Yeah, for the summer league team, I would have put him higher than Boogie, but you’re right. For bearing in context the kind of projection for Suns or NBA roster in general, I’m cool with Well, I guess we just I guess we didn’t really decide how we’re tying this, are we? I think we take it all into account. I’m good with him there. That’s fine. Yeah, you’re not going to khif battle for Yuri Collins and and top of intrigue. I will not. I’m not that Solomon Young who is next up on our list. I mean, there come on. That’s great stuff. Firing. Come on. There we go. Crazy. So anyways, I was going to say real quick, oh, you’re just so you’re just so done. You’re just so done. Oh, you’re oh so better than us. Oh my gosh. If we keep making these puns, we’re not going to have much to gainy from it. Oh man, he wants Do you want to be off the staff like Moses or Just one more pun and then we’ll boogie on him. All right, so Noah the answer. Oh, now he’s like, I don’t even want a podcast. Let me just go be a shoemaker instead. I was just going to say that I like I was coming into summer league really enticed by Yuri and Yuri and Boogie and y’all two over here. Y’all got it. It’s been a long week and it’s not even Friday yet. So, what do Do you want to replace us? Maybe we can get some Collins. You want to switch? Eric, you want to switch up? Oh. Oh, man. I think we need a fantasy draft every two months so we just get new names of players for you guys to pun. That would be great. That would be fun to watch, you know. Watch. Um, so we we’re at Solomon Young. Yes. Did you have any final thoughts on I love y’all. I love y’all. Said I’m in a battle right now. You are. We should put We should put your box in the center of us and it’s just you’re just surrounded. Um, yeah. Stephen, please save us. What was the what was the question? Any anybody anything left to say about Yuri? Oh, no. I was I was coming into summer league looking forward to watching Yuri and Boogie in particular just because of the ways they can play and how I can see them unlocking both Rashier and Kaman in ways that other players might not be able to. That was the last bit of basketball I wanted to talk before y’all went off the rails. All right. Well, let’s let’s circle back to our guy Solomon Young here. uh 6’8 forward out of Iowa State, 27 years old. He averaged eight and a half points and 4.6 rebounds in the G-League last year. Played 45 games for the South Bay Lakers. Shot 46% overall, 34.5% from three. This has lowered expectations for me just because the oldest and like a veteran presence in summer league. You do, but the numbers in GLeague for a guy that old were not great for me. Mario says, “Damn, Solomon ain’t that young. No, he’s not. Uh, are you lower than can? Are your expectations lower for him or for us? Don’t fallen angel or old young contest. Five minutes now. This is unhinged. Yeah, he’s in he’s in lower expectations for me. Okay, we putting him at the end. I’m putting him at the end. Uh, who do we got next? Mitch. Oh, yes. Mascari. Mitch Mscari. I uh I’m actually I don’t know if intriguing is the right right category, but six foot five guard out of Drake. 24 years old. He has drained nearly 42% of about 600 career attempts from three in college. He played in in D2 before last year going to Drake. Um but even at Drake last year, shot 40.3% from three on 6.2 attempts per game. He does not really do much else on the stat sheet whatsoever, but just for being a shooter, I’d probably put him in worth monitoring. Yeah. Uh, so full transparency, I went to Illinois State. Drake is in the same conference as Illinois State. Okay. As like those lower tier division one schools, mid majors they call them. There’s two teams in the Missouri Valley Conference that just take and made a ton of threes across multiple roster constructs. Drake and um, Evansville. Okay. Drake, they they seem to find just multiple guys that just light the net on fire in some capacity. They just find guys. It’s like a factory. They just cycle through them year after year. I imagine that translates well to the summer league to the summer league uh circuit. And I imagine he finds his way on someone’s roster in some capacity in the not too distant future. Don’t you feel like it’d be more fitting to put the guy from Drake next to Solomon Young? That was the worst one. That was definitely Is it too late now to say scarring? Oh my god. Oh my god. I think it would have been worth guys. I’ve had no sleep. I’ve been traveling. I was working 14our days. Going to Vegas is tomorrow. I mean, come on. Summer 16. Yeah. Nate said stop. Nate Nate goes Nate goes stop this man. He’s literally begging in the chat. Y’all like this is this is funny. This man returned for a one show. He’s going to dip tomorrow. This is the one. Yeah, this is the one sun show I’m on. This is my legacy for this week. That’s crazy. Eric Ruby Legacy Podcast on a Thursday. Freckle Mambbo in the chat says, “Should I just end the stream?” No, we still got a lot more to get to. We got the good guys. We got Well, okay. Moses Young or Moses. Sorry, Moses Wood. I’m sorry, Jerem. That was the most disrespectful thing. No, that was the most disrespectful thing you’ve ever said in your entire life. cuz I was looking ahead and I forgot that there’s one in front. My bad. To go to go. We’ve got the good guys. Oh, wait. Never mind. We That wasn’t how it meant to come off. Mo M Moses Wood. I apologize. And I really do mean that because Moses Wood was actually on the Valley Suns last year. Uh so he is someone that we do know. Eric’s broken, but it’s fine. Moses Wood, a 6 foot8 forward, 26 years old. Uh he played 50 games for the Valley Suns last year, which I’ll be honest, I didn’t even know the Valley Suns played that many games last year. Averaged 11 points, four rebounds, shot 46% overall, 39% from three on just under six attempts. So, this is a guy that the Suns really like. He’s another name that I think it was Ryan Dunn or Oso mentioned um as what they were bringing to the table in practice so far. I’ll put him on worth monitoring because he is in the Suns system. He was on the G- League team last year and it feels like he’s kind of part of what they’re what they’re building at that level right now. I’m just wondering why you would do that, Gerald. Stephen, cuz he’s 6’8 and he’s laying the wood. Oh, okay. No. No. See? Okay. Y’all come at me. Y’all come at me. Steven gives me the side eye. Chad tells me to shut up and we’re going to let that slide. Absolutely. We’re going to let that slide. We’re That’s what we’re going to We’re going to be okay with that. If you ask the chat, I think they say that they would. Oh god. Or Moses. Um, Stephen, part the Red Sea. We parted it. You go ahead and walk right down. Oh my god. Wow. What a terrible show. I would put him I would probably put him in in the in the impress me in the impress me tier. Okay. I would ask Eric, but he’s not in the capacity. I would I would actually I would like genuinely I would put him in worth monitoring because I mean he was at Sun’s media day last year like he was a training camp invite. He was at training camp invite. He’s been in the system. He’s staying in the system as well. I again I don’t I don’t want to put him in intriguing because everybody in intriguing. I’m like I I could see you making an NBA roster. Uh maybe Yuri Collins getting a little bit of the summer league bump. Yeah. There. Uh I I don’t know if that’s that’s something but you need good players in your system to get a training in invite. I think that’s definitely something that um that would mean a lot for for anybody, you know, even Moses. Okay. Uh Gerald, let’s get to the good guys. I’m so sorry, Moses. Uh Kobe Brea, I I’m torn between end of mustwatch and be very top of intriguing because obviously he’s a rookie. Obviously, I want to watch him light it up in summer league because of the shooting. I do think I’m going to reserve a little bit of hesitation because he’s on the two-way and not on a full roster spot. That’s my only thing with him, but I’m cool with end of mustwatches if if we’re going that way. So, before we get to Stephen S, I want to let everybody know that is watching us on television, whatever the hell is going on that we’re sorry today. Uh, yes, we’re Miscari about all that, but you have much to gain by jumping over to gophnx.com because the party always continues there. It’s time for overtime. Hit that like button. Hit that subscribe button as well. My psychos sickles sickos and my lowered angel. My sickles. Oh my god. Oh man. I am on the huntley for a nap, man. There we go. Okay. Um here’s my argument for mustwatch and then maybe you can you can break a tie or or decide, Stephen. Because he’s on the two-way. This is a mustwatch for me. Okay. Because if he goes out there and he lights it on fire and he shows that like, hey, I’m like I’m too good for summer league, right? It’s you’re talking about somebody that we’re going to be monitoring this season as all right, you might get a full guaranteed roster spot by by next year, right? Like he’s on that path where we kind of thought that he could have had a a roster spot. And so for me, out of all the two ways, obviously he’s the one that we’re looking at the most is can you come up and can you shoot? We’ve heard great things about him. I think because more so than the rest of the four guys we’re going to talk about, there is some question about what his role with the team is going to be, especially if he’s going to be with the team. I would put him in mustwatch over intriguing. I think he’s mustwatch. Okay. And I say mustwatch because I feel like they’ve not they’re not doing it intentionally because he’s not the best player on the roster, but he has multiple pieces that can open him up to play to his best strength, which is being able to shoot and shoot off a movement. So he has multiple players that can screen form effectively, whether that be guards, wings, or or sensors. He also has multiple pieces that should garner some relevance or roll gravity. He also has a bunch of guards that can get paint touches and if he’s one pass away from them, help is going to have to come and if he’s taking wide open three-point shots are able to just drive and get downhill. That’s right in his wheelhouse. So, I can see Kobe having a mustwatch level of production even if his role isn’t necessarily for him to be that just because of the pieces around him. Thank you for breaaking that tie. Very well done. Um, yeah, I’m I’m good with that. Like I said, I was I was torn between the end of mustwatch beginning of intriguing. I think if you’re looking at two-way guys, you were hoping like a lot of people thought in terms of who’s going to be bouncing between G-League and possibly the Suns, they would have pointed to Jaylen Bridges last year. We know that that didn’t really pan out. We’re hoping it’s more of a Colin Gillespie type situation for Kobe Brea where he bounces up and really impresses and earns a roster spot. I think more so than any of the two-way guy. And obviously Colin’s a great player. Uh but I think he has the the most discernible singular skill than any of the two-way guys you have this year or last year. It’s like yeah, this guy is an NBA level shooter, right? So I’m really excited for him. If you want to know more about Kobe Bray, I did an interview with um Trothers aka Tyler. Um then we we dove into that. That’s up on YouTube right now. if you want to learn a little bit more about him uh before summer league. But if you want to learn more about Rashir Fleming, you could check out Steven’s film session that he just put out there earlier this week. Absolute sicko mode with the uh with the and I’m not talking Mitch Mscari and Drake. Uh with the time that you put into the Rasher Fleming realiz afterwards. It was what 23 minutes to the public and 17 for our dieards. Yeah, we got we got into the weeds on that one. That’s the most psycho and sicko thing ever. It’s clear, Stephen, that Rashier Bars is going to be in mustwatch. He’s definitely mustwatch. Um, I’m very curious what it looks like on the floor, and we talked about this in the film session. If he’s not the absolute by far best athlete on the floor, what does his impact look like when he has to rely more on skills and things like that? Yeah, I don’t think it’s going to be an issue. I just want to see what it looks like in addition to what types of coverages he sees when he gets the ball in different context, too. So, um, yeah, he’s definitely mustwatch and I think the loudest part of his game will be the defense. Yeah, he he’s mustwatch for me. Um, he was a guy that probably should have been a first round pick, so he’s not your typical second round pick. Um, I think we look at Kobe Brea being on the two-way. It’s a little there’s differentiation there, but like Fleming, to your point, Stephen, he’s going to be still one of the best athletes at summer league, but that gap is narrowing compared to what he saw in the Atlantic 10. Um, in addition to Steven’s awesome film breakdown, which you guys should have watched by now if you haven’t already, I’m going to have uh some thoughts on Rashir Fleming probably early next week because I did speak to his coach at St. Joseph’s, Billy Lang, for about 15 minutes. Um, and got some really great stuff, some insight into his game. So, I’m really excited after having that conversation, especially for what he’s going to look like at summer league. Uh, do do we want to I don’t want to beat around the bush, but I feel like these next three are in mustwatch. It’s a matter of where we’re putting him. So, I think so as well. Can I one more thing about Rashir I want to I want to keep my eye on really quick is some of the the weaknesses that were identifiation the ball movement and whatnot is can you if you are going to you know have a lot put on his plate which I think he will in this summer league can you show little flashes of that against lower level competition? Not that I think that you’re going to be able to show flashes probably this season in the NBA, but is there something there that can kind of help elevate and more put you in a surefire starter role rather than like a hey, this is a guy who could start if he fits right with your starter. So, those are just two specific things with his game that I’m looking to see if he could take advantage of some quote unquote lower level competition for a rookie. But yes, Malawatch, Igodaro, and Dunn are all in mustwatch. I think Malawatch is first. I named the category mustwatch so that Malawatch could be at the top of mustwatch. So So why don’t you do Mala watch then? So here’s the thing. You you basically manifested the puns. I think they were um Yeah, they were in the back of my mind for sure and then we just kind of brought them to life. But I mean, come on. The number 10 overall pick, a guy who’s been raved about by his teammates so far through these uh summer league practices, through these rookie press conferences. Uh yeah, you’re you best believe I’m gonna be paying very close attention to what he’s doing on both ends. Super excited to see what this kid has. I’m so pumped, Stephen. Yeah, it’s gonna be fun. I think maybe what I’ll be watching most for with Match is what he looks like in terms of the versatility. What do you watching? Don’t be a mal content. Oh my god. The versatility for him on defense. What What coverages do they settle on for him? Is he gonna be in a kind of standard or higher drop where he’s close to the level and just kind of dropping back to keep leverage on a roller or driver? Is he just flat out at the level? Is it kind of depending on matchups? I’m just curious what that what he’s going to look like in that and how much they kind of settle with that. And then also on offense screening for for his guards because they have a lot of guards that can get things done. The best screeners understand that when you do screen well, you usually create advantage for yourself whether that be loss or a pocket pass or things like that. Mhm. Um, so I’m curious of what all of those things are going to look like when he gets into those spaces. So definitely must watch. Going back to something that you said about getting things done. Yeah. Ryan done. Okay. I do want to talk about M watch a little bit a little bit more. By the way, as as probably terrible as it’s been for Stephen on this show, he’s getting so much love in the chat. You got to go back and read the chat, dude. The rightfully deserved love for the type of analysis that this guy brings. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Uh but with um with Malawatch specifically, one of the things that when I talked to another Stephen that is created his job, um Steven Gillespie over at No Ceilings, I I did an interview with him after the Suns draft and and he said the one thing that he was watching for Malawatch and summer league was how much he’s communicating and if he’s commanding that defense, right? And that’s something that has been spoken about in the press conferences and availability uh earlier this week. If he goes out there and commands the defense and fights hard on the boards, I’m gonna feel really really good about this pick and I already feel good about it. But like to to do that at 19 and if he can if he can show that he he knew that his weakness was as far as being aggressive on the boards and against non-NBA talent compete and show dominance on that end. Like that’s kind of the main concern with me is will you be physical like that? And I need I need need to see that a out of Kaman in summer league and and I really hope he does that. Yeah, absolutely. Like the fact that they so many people brought it up unprompted. Like it’s not like we were asking about the communication piece. They just mentioned it when they started ranting and raving about him. That is really encouraging to me already. Um all right. Wait real quick. Over under. How many threes does he knock down in some movies? Knock down or take? Knock down. He will make three. You can go you can go take if you want to. He’s going to take 15. So three for 15. He’s going to go three for 15. And some people are going to overreact. Mhm. I’m going to say he’s going to be like one for eight. They gonna let him shoot. I feel like I think he’s Well, I guess how many I guess it depends on how many games they play if they go if they go deep. Give me like like one and a half two attempts per game. I was going to say so per game like two attempts. Yeah. I’ll give him I’ll say he goes like one for one for three a game. So about 33ish%. Yeah. Which would I mean if he if he can knock down one of three a game in the NBA this season. Mhm. I don’t want a cert on a summer release. What’ you say? What’ you say Juice Man? what’ you call him? Oh man, don’t get him riled up. Stephen loves this. He’s Giannis with a with a jump shot and he’s gonna show it. He’s gonna show it this summer league. Uh speaking of Giannis without a jump shot, Oso Gdaro. Um somebody said put Ooaro in worth monitoring. Uh is there that’s way too low. I think is I love Ryan Dunn. End of sentence. I also think though that I am going to be watching and keeping tabs on OSO a little bit more this summer. Yeah, completely agree. I think Ryan Dunn, we have a good understanding of what he’s going to be. The biggest thing is we’re going to be looking how they’re unleashing him defensively and how the three-point shot is looking with OSO. There’s so many different components to his game and we’re also going in with the added question mark of, okay, they talked about how he’s beefed up and bulked up and how he’s going to be better at the center spot, but you’re also going into summer league with Kaman Malawatch. Is he going to play some four? Are we going to see dual big lineups? Are we going to see OSA at the five? is he gonna run some point guard because we know that point guard skill at summer league is in short supply outside of like Yuri Collins that we talked about. So I’m fascinated by the many ways that they can use him on both ends of the court. The many roles that he’s going to be able to play and also because he got less less burn than Ryan Dunn last year. I want to see what he looks like heading into year two. Yeah. I and I imagine if if they’re implementing any parts of Jordan’s offense from the Cleveland days, having a versatile big like OSO that can comfortably handle. Mhm. For one, how many rebounds does he grab and just take off instead of finding a guard to outlet with that? How much pace and advantage does that create for them in the half court or in semi-transition? I’m looking forward to also being unlocked in that regard because I feel like that was something that he certainly could have leaned into more last season on the short-term minutes that he was able to get in the rotation. Yeah. Uh the other thing for me with Oso is that short roll of playmaking that he already has. How much of that short roll of playmaking can he leverage in the scoring for himself too? Yeah, because he has a floater. If he’s stronger, can he take that dribble, put someone on the shoulder and play through contact? Little things like that. Ted says Oso is Giannis with a push shot. Uh which that’s a great comment, maybe comment of the day. Uh what I want to see out of both these guys, OSO and then we can go to Ryan Dun next. Yeah, I want them to be so damn good that we got to shut them down after I need it to be like, okay, you shouldn’t be here. Like we need to be having the conversation of like why did they come here? And they’ve been doing two a days, you know, like they seem ready. They’ve put on weight, their bodies are right. Like I need Ryan Dunn to show his offensive game, his his role game, his popup game, like everything that he can do. I need him to show no fear and consistency because he knows what his role is going to be. Ryan Dunn is the superstar on this team. Ryan Dunn is the guy on this team. This is not what his spot was in the Suns rotation last year. And he knows this. And I’m sure he’s been planning on playing summer league for a long time. He knows that he needs to prove that he he shouldn’t be there. Oso has even more to prove cuz Oso is not in this rotation like cemented like Ryan Dunn is. Oso, I do not think, has a chance to start like I believe Ryan Dunn does. And this team just traded for a center and drafted a center in the top 10 and and a power forward and a power forward and also doesn’t necessarily have the skill set that ideally would fit along most of those players besides Rashir Fle right because he doesn’t have that offensive game. Have you worked on that and can you take that and get that off against lower level talent to the point where it’s like yes your spot in this rotation whatever it might be is solidified. Yeah. So, I’m I’m putting him after Fleming, honestly, for me because I think he might be above Fleming for me. I’m I’m still too intrigued by Fleming just because we haven’t seen him yet. But no, Oso is very high on the list. And Ryan Dunn, I put Ryan Dunn right after Oso because like I’m fascinated. I really really want to see Ryan Dunn and Rashir Fleming spend the majority of their minutes together flying around with Malawatch behind them protecting the rim. I want to see what that looks like defensively. I want to see athleticism, length. I want to see the fear of God being put into these opponents. Um, and I want to see how the three ball is coming along. I want to see him dominate all that other stuff, too. What? I thought of a pun. Did you? I don’t know. Is it a done pun? No, I This is one where it’s like I Oh, you can’t say it. No, I can. I mean, I shouldn’t. It’s You saying that made my Moses Wood game. Oh, no. Oh, you shouldn’t have said it. You said lay the wood. Okay, so that can be something else. There’s really no no ifands or butts about the thing that you said. All right, I need to go to sleep, folks. I need to go to sleep. Really do. This is our summer league mustwatch tier. Kamar Malawatch number one. Rashir Fleming two, Oso Gdaro three, Ryan Dun four, Kobe Bray of five in the mustwatch category. Intriguing. CJ Huntley, Boogie Alice, Yuri Collins in that order. Uh, worth monitoring elite battle, Mitch Miscari and Moses Wood. And impress me, Jordan Gayy, Alex Shoemaker, and lowered expectations. We have Brandon Angel and Solomon Young. Any final thoughts? It’s amazing how much analysis and ridiculous jokes that we squeezed into breaking down a summer league roster. Nobody Nobody does it like this. Nobody does it like this. I listen, you know, it’s bad. Like, I had to stop and pause. like I had to and I probably shouldn’t have said that. Uh but it’s July and I’m tired and I haven’t been able to get off any jokes for this entire week. There you go. You fit all of them into one show. Uh Nate says, “Have a good meeting with the HR department tomorrow.” That’s funny that you think we have that. I’m going to I’m going to sit down. I’m going to sit down and be like, “Hey, that was funny.” In my defense, it was very funny. In my defense, Ashley, correct? Yes. We are not mature enough. No. Oh, yeah. No, you should have seen. So ASU played Duke uh in a uh in a preseason charity game and I might have been off some pure edibles and me and totri were just dying laughing at Kong Canipple’s name cuz like we had really like heard of him before and the entire postgame show it just was Kipple jokes. That’s amazing. I mean I did get the nips joke off for for the draft. That was that’s way more tasteful. That was a good one though. Tasteful nip. Um in his defense it was funny. BS Murray in the chat said, “Good stuff, guys. Thanks as always. Go Suns. When do you guys go on tomorrow?” The game tomorrow is a 6 pm game local time. So, we’re going to be going on 15 minutes before the game starts. We got some clips left over leading up to summer league. We’ll preview, you know, what we’re looking for. And uh yeah, we’ll get things started about 15 minutes before game time and I’ll be off that show so you can have your children listen to it. All right. You can you can just you can you can watch without headphones tomorrow. So, uh, okay. Any final thoughts before we sign off on an incredible edition of PHNX Suns? We’ve done three shows in the last 24 hours. Let’s get the hell out of here. All right. You can follow the show at PHNX Suns on Twitter and on Instagram for all your summer league updates. We have the first look at Malawatch and Fleming. That was already up there as well. A clip with Bobby Marks before we played it on here. Keep a lookout. Full interview with Espo and Bobby Marks going up on this channel at 6:00. Make sure you check out that as well. Well, I’ll be flying out to Vegas tomorrow night, Saturday and Sunday, bringing you content. We’ll have a postgame show from Vegas for Sunday’s afternoon game. Of course, tune in with these guys tomorrow night. And of course, if any other breaking news happens, we’ll be right here on PHNX Suns. So, Kobe Brea film session will be up between tonight and tomorrow before the Suns Suns summer league debut. You see, I haven’t scheduled out enough time for the three-hour Kobe Brea film session. Maybe I have to download it for my flight. It will be three hours though. I can always check out Steven’s film sessions. They are evergreen. If you have missed the Kaman Malawatch one, go back and watch that. There you go. If you missed the Rashir Fleming one, clear out your afternoon. Go and watch that and become a dieh hard today. You get extra at once. 13 extra minutes for Fleming is absolutely psychotic. 16 for for um mile watch. There we go. So insane. Absolutely insane. Also insane. The psychos and psychos. Thank you all for being here. Hit that like button. Hit that subscribe button. You can follow me at e r i k rub y. You can follow Gerald at Gerald Borg. You can follow Steven. Don’t call him Steve at StevenPG3. That’s Steven with a PH. You can follow the juice man. Freckled Mamba behind the Mac at freckledmamba. They’ll talk to you tomorrow and I’m really sorry. Bye. We all silly like the mayor.
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Yes, Devin Booker got PAID by the Phoenix Suns for a record-setting amount of money, and the reviews are mixed, to say the least. Was this the right move for the franchise? Why would Mat Ishbia and company invest so much into a player many consider not to be in the top 10?
PHNX Suns explains why they did, and why despite concerns, it’s the best move overall, before hearing from ESPN’s Bobby Marks on the extension and going into a tier of the Summer League players to watch for the Suns!
Follow the show @PHNX_Suns, @ErikRuby, @GeraldBourguet, @StephenPG3 & @FreckledMamba!
0:00 – Intro
2:15 – Devin Booker Got PAID!
22:20 – A New Addition to the Suns Coaching Staff
38:00 – Tiering The Suns Summer League Roster
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5 comments
It's all on Booker now. The good and bad going forward.
NBA should create rules where home-grown stars can get pay days and it doesn't cost full amount against cap. Booker should be the thing all fans want with a guy staying with a franchise his whole career. Keeping a guy like this shouldn't immediately mean a negative contract for the team. Should be like vet minimums where older guys get their bag but count like younger maxs against cap if they have only played for one team.
Loved the tiering part of the pisode
Yes, fans are doing it wrong! Too much entitlement from fans.
2:33 I STAY tired so I never have to GET tired!!! 😎