Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant Are Gone, Now the Phoenix Suns Reset With Blame All Arounf

Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant Are Gone, Now the Phoenix Suns Reset With Blame All Arounf

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Welcome in to another episode of Outside Shots. Oh man, so many fingers to point around. I’m Saul Bookman. That’s Jump Shot 8. Mr. Eddie Johnson. EJ, how was Summer League? I don’t know why I said Zummer League. Summer League. How was summer league? What’s Gummer League? I don’t know. I don’t know. kind of I mean that’s some strange stuff you league I don’t know I mean you’ve been at it already this morning must gummy league that’s what you think about go so hard I mean give everybody a 100 migs and hopefully they can make a basket that’s what that’s what we’re doing in the rec league I had a good time at summer league you know Vegas I can only take so much Yeah, I’m glad I got out of there. I was there for what, six days? Five or six days. But, uh, had a great time. Had a great time. I went to see Sid the Entertainer. I saw that. Love and Laugh. That’s his show in Vegas. People need to go check that out. Tony Braxton. It’s like a little variety show. They go back and forth. Okay. Said is a good friend. Uh, interviewed him on SiriusXM radio as well. You can check that out on uh Instagram or whatever, Twitter. But uh yeah. Yeah, I had a great I had a good time. And then I went to the spear. The spear. The sphere. Yeah. I always have a hard time to the spear. Then I have a hard time pronouncing it. I’m not going to lie. Some words, you know, th is for me or something like that. I have a difficult time. That’s okay. If it ain’t nothing wrong with you, something wrong with you, Saul. And it definitely something wrong with you. Uh, so man you manipulating the conversation to make it look bad on me when you were the one that messed up inside that big ball. Man, that’s a man, that that thing, man, make you a little discombobulated. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I went I went in there and they had this documentary in there. It’s called Rare Earth and it just shows you, you know, how the Earth was formed and the evolution of it and all of that. And you know, you’re sitting there and you know, I don’t you haven’t been in there, but you walk in and you just go straight up. Okay. And so then the whole ball turns into a huge screen. So it’s like you immersed into this. It It’s uh it’s pretty fascinating. Uh the documentary was a scale of 1 to 10. I think it’s a six. Could have been better. I’ve seen better on National Geographic. uh forund for $143 each for a 45minute viewing is a straight ripoff. Damn. But it’s worth it. It It’s worth going in to see it cuz they are concerts are three four $500. Oh, I know. I know. So yeah, if you want to just go cheap, check it out, go pay the 143 and and immerse yourself in rare earth. Well, there you go. I mean, yeah, Vegas is just, you know, like after about day three in Vegas, you start, you know, questioning like what life is really all about and should, you know, where are you going in life? And it’s just not good because it’s just, oh man, Vegas is too much after 3 days. So, um, six days is a lot, but you’re back, so that’s good. And, uh, I don’t know. I guess you missed a lot of drama last week. I’ll tell you what, I will say this. I I I miss being on the Sun Show. I miss the people I got to work with and stuff like that. However, man, if I picked a good time to just kind of lay back a little bit on Sun’s Twitter and not be a part of it as much, I couldn’t have picked a better year cuz my god, every single time I get on, people are fighting with each other and just going crazy at each other and there’s so much drama. And listen, we’re going to start here because, you know, I know everybody talked about it last week, but we didn’t get a chance. So, here we go. Bradley Beal leaves, Kevin Durant’s been gone, and uh Bradley Beal tweets out a series of pictures and then he throws up the deuces. And a lot of people were really really salty about it because they felt like he was trolling him again and just okay that’s that’s that other NBA stars around also chimed in. Uh Kevin Durant chimed in with a laughing emoji I believe and like just and so then then it all became like the blame game and you know Bradley you know listen we already know how the Suns fan base feels about Bradley Beal fair or not not a fan favorite they feel like you know obviously overpaid underdelivered and that’s where we’ll start right now where is just man does it really just does it ever stop? Does it ever stop? I feel like it’s been so bad the last three years, not just fans. I mean, I feel like, you know, the media has been equally as bad in terms of how they’ve framed things and and their perspective on certain things. Like, uh, you know, players have have, you know, we’ve seen Kevin Durant go back and forth and sometimes I’m like, Kevin, you don’t need to do that. And then there’s other times I’m like, good for sticking up for yourself. Like, my gosh, it’s exhausting. Yeah, it’s been a long couple of years, right? uh of frustration. I get it. I mean, you know, I’m a fan. You know, I’m a diehard Cup fan. We lost to the Red Sox yesterday. I was ticked off, okay? Even though we had beaten them two in a row. I mean, you just get like that. You start blaming. You start fingering somebody and say, “Oh, it’s because of that person, you know, with the Cubs, the relief.” I mean, you know, all that stuff, right? As you’ve been doing with the Diamondbacks, cuz they’ve been up and down. So, uh, as you’re going to do with the Cardinals this fall because you’re watching my Bears, but you know, as a fan, you’re going to always struggle, right, with the emotion of it. But you know what drives the struggle for fans is the media. Please explain, EJ. The media. The media drives it because they’re reading, they’re listening, and then they what they do is they have they get emotions from it. I understand it. we’re closer to the situation. They feel like we’re the we’re the the the vessel to bring them what’s going on and we can raise their emotions by things that we say. And Sun’s media for the first time seriously uh since I’ve been in the valley was at its worst uh in regards to the description of what was going on especially involving Bradley Bill. And I think the fans kind of jumped on that and they just, you know, they were irate about it. I don’t think what Bradley Pee did the other day. He said peace. Okay, he didn’t say war. He could have came out and said something, right? He said peace. So, how are you going to take a negative from him saying peace out? If that’s the if that’s the one thing Bradley Bill has done, he hasn’t lashed out. Oh, he could have. Oh, let me tell you something. I would have I would have based on how he was treated, you know, because of his failures. And he had some failures. He couldn’t stay healthy. Uh, and I think that’s the only failure he had to me. Uh, other than that, statistically, the dude proved himself could still play. He just couldn’t stay on the court. So, you know, he could have been a little bit more irate and said something. And maybe he will. Who knows? But I don’t think he will. I think he showed that all year by biting his tongue and he just said peace out. I mean, why people mad? Because he said peace out. Peace. Peace and love. Well, they don’t they listen, they want they want they want the people to leave here just absolute upset. They wanted to see frowns. They want them to be in a worse place than they were before. Like that’s how that’s how people I think just genuinely are most of the time. like they they want to know that you’re not leaving to go to a better situation. And so I in in that post by Bradley Beal, you know, he’s smiles and he’s got the two fingers up and every I think that’s what irritated a lot of people. Now, I’m not saying that that’s right. Like I I saw Bradley’s Beal tweet and I didn’t think two cents about it. I just moved on and I was like whatever. I didn’t I didn’t touch it, didn’t like it, didn’t retweet it, nothing because I was just like, “All right, this is a post, whatever.” But man, I was kind of surprised to see like how many people were just so so mad. Like we had people talking about that post was not only trolling the Suns fans, but he also trolled Suns fans with his play this year. And I just was like, what are we talking about here? What are we talk? Because everybody loves to get hung up like everybody likes to point to a specific situation to back their cause. And what I’m saying is is like with like like DA, right? Uh DA when two things kind of affect DA. one, the fact that he said he wanted to go to a second if he wanted to get to a second contract because that’s what he viewed as being successful. And then two, him standing underneath the basket watching Joic get 89,000 rebounds uh and then getting a putback. Like the second one, I totally get why people are upset because it just looked like DA just gave up. The first one I’m like, it’s a goal of his. Who cares? That doesn’t mean that, you know, that doesn’t mean anything. Uh but, you know, we’ll get into DA in a second. with Bradley Beal. It was just like, you know, it just I don’t I think people had an agenda against him. I think there’s some people uh that just they want to they want to blame somebody and and Kevin Durant is not an easy person to blame, even though I I’ve seen people out there that have tried to blame Kevin Durant for for the failures of this franchise. Um, but like he’s not an easy person to blame because Kevin Durant statistically did everything he possibly could to get the Suns to be a successful team. Played in, you know, as as many games as you hope he could. Uh, did not have, uh, you know, injury problems or anything like that. I think it was a series of just bad events and it started from day one, uh, and and giving so many assets up for a Kevin Durant and it just kind of snowballed from there. I don’t think it’s just Brad, but there’s a lot of people out there that just want to blame that and think that, you know, that contract is really what held the Suns back and all. It’s just it’s just not. There’s so many other things that went into this. It was a organizational failure. That’s where I’ve always looked at it. It wasn’t one person. It was a multitude of different things and now it’s a fresh restart and I’m kind of optimistic about the next phase of of Sun’s basketball because I feel like, you know, some some wrongs have been writed. The key word you said was organizational failure. And I had Matt Ishbia on my radio show uh this past week. You can go check it out on the NBA app. Uh download the NBA app. Uh SiriusXM uh app that is uh I you know I do both of them but SiriusXM NBA app and you will be able to uh listen to that interview. Uh and so it was a great interview and Matt was very open. He said, “Look, I made mistakes. You know, uh I can’t absolve myself from being blamed.” So, it is when you win, it’s an organization win. When you lose, you got to look at the entire organization. What fans, Suns fans did, and it’s easy to do. I get it. You immediately look at the players and you tend to want to criticize just the players at a high level, right? And I I will say this to you if you needed directions and some people I mean you know certain people some ethnicities I’m not going to say the ethnicity but I think you know you give they give you directions and they give you the most corny ass directions you ever want to get like you know hey can I you know where this place is yeah yeah yeah go down there uh and then go that way and go this way that’s not how you give directions you know you go you go down you turn right on that corner. Uh it’s a 7-Eleven on the corner. So that’ll give you some, you know, give me directions. Don’t just I hate that when blasé people try to give directions, right? So my point here, my point here is where I’m going with this is Shane is losing. Bud has been Bud has snuck away. He has, man. He really Bud has snuck away. And I will tell you, so I think now you get what I’m saying. If you get the wrong directions, then you’re not going to look good. You might get lost. Okay? So, he can’t escape it, man. Like his direction and and how he handled it and standing up to to players like you should as a coach and giving better directions and trusted in Tus Jones to maybe run the team a little bit more. all those things that made it look bad, too. And that’s what people need to understand. Like, you know, I’m not letting Bud get away with it, man. I think Bud has had success as a coach. He’ll probably get another job. But to be quite honest, he struggled here much more than Vogle did. And that was disappointing because offensively they kept running into each other like Keystone Cops. And you know h how could you have two guys average 26 points a game, right? Just think about that. Two players average 26. Then the one that everybody want to get on, Bradley Bill, averaged 17, shot 50%, shot almost 40 from three. Let’s just give them 40. Okay, about 85 from the line. Now, if I had told you that we’d have two guys and Devin Booker and KD average 26 a game and then Bradley Bill who adjusted to playing six man average 17 off the bench and shoot 50% and 40 from three. You would tell me they had a great record. I would Yeah, I would say that. You would tell me that. But you know what happens? You can still get to where you’re going. If you get bad directions, you’ll figure it out. But you’ll get there too damn late. And the Suns were always too late. Especially in the fourth quarter when they went through that stretch where they was worst team in the league in the fourth quarter. So they got the numbers, but they got they got them too late. And so a lot of that can fall falls on Bud as well, man. And how he handled it. And you know, he can’t sneak away from this. I’m not going to allow it. You know, again, I have respect for him as a coach. Think he’s had a tremendous career coaching. Has nothing to do with that. But I have a right to critique his ass just like he critiques players every day in practice, in the papers, everything. He can’t get away. And I think Suns fans have kind of like just targeted one guy because of his contract. And like I said, not Bradley Bill’s fault that his agent got him a no trade. Do we have breaking news there, Shane? Yeah, we do have breaking news. Oh, breaking news from Shams. Chris Paul is signing with the Clippers. Oh, Chris Paul signing with the Clippers. Wow. Okay, then. Well, well, let’s let’s I mean, listen, that’s his best Well, I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s his best. I think he been good here. But let’s just put it where it is. And cuz I played till I was 40 years old. And that’s the part that, you know, people don’t understand. And they got their own worries. That’s why they don’t get it. But trust me, man, I was away from my family a lot. Think about it. I came I came into the NBA at 22 years old. I played till I was 40. That’s 18 years of me dragging my family around everywhere. Everywhere I right and so and then being away from them at times getting traded and then they’re not able to come there because the kids weren’t in school. So they weren’t going to take them out of school, you know, so you had to leave them in school for that whole semester. And so what my point is is like that’s the part that people don’t understand and they should. I mean they move and change jobs, they should understand it. And so Chris Paul right now and you could tell over the last few years because he was going back to LA every chance he got even when he played here. He’d get on a charter jet and and go back to LA cuz he was wasn’t around his kids and his kids had an age where you as a dad you need to be around your kids and and so I think that’s what that’s all about man. I think a perfect world Chris Paul probably would have signed here. Uh but I think he wants to be home. He wants to get in his car and drive to a game. He wants his kids to see him play. Uh he wants to be in their life. And so, hats off to Chris Paul. I mean, I I don’t have any problem with that decision at all. Uh because I know how difficult it is. And I’ve had conversations with Chris uh even when he was here. And and you know, one one time he you know, he kind of broke down, you know, he’s like, “Man, I miss my family.” You know, and and so I get it. So congratulations. Again, the Clippers are stacked, man. That’s all I got to say. I mean, I don’t know. They so snake bit and something might something gonna happen though, right? But right now on paper, that’s a that’s a stacked basketball team. Gotta be afraid of James Harden, Chris Paul the year 2025. Yeah. Yeah. We’ll see how that goes. But hey, props to Chris. He got, you know, he’s going back to LA. I know that’s where his home is. And you know, like you said, his his his kids are there. Uh there’s a comment right here that I kind of want to read. It says, “This just goes to show you how players feel about Phoenix. CB3 and Marcus F Marcus Smart. Uh they chose LA. That’s not it at all. That’s not it at all. I mean, listen, on on the surface, LA is in better position to possibly win a championship than the Suns. Chris Paul has what, a couple years left max. Like he’s not trying to waste his time. And I’m not saying that coming here would have wasted his time, but to think that he was going to come here and get the same results of, you know, like the first time he came around and take him to the finals with this team’s probably not as as realistic as you would hope it would be. Uh, so him taking LA, I don’t think is a knock on, you know, how players feel about Phoenix. I just think they that’s what they chose. That’s what he chose because it was better for him personally. It’s a cycle, too. Yeah. Right. Chris Paul now is is back in a place where even though he got a start in in New Orleans, but he’s he’s back in a place where, you know, there’s a lot of expectations, right? And I think he he feels like, you know, this could be an opportunity for him to give the Clippers something that he he failed at at one time, you know, with Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan. They had a tremendous team. Yeah, they did. They were highly thought of, but those two guys were young and they fought Chris’s leadership and they talked about that and I think that’s what kind of cost him. So now he gets an opportunity to go back and see if he could, you know, go full cycle. And look, you know, LA, Phoenix, Miami, these are all destinations that players love, you know, especially as they get older, you know, because it’s a great place to live, right? Kevin Durant love living here in Phoenix, you know. I heard he’s building a house here. So, who knows when he’s done he might he probably be living here. Bradley Bill love Phoenix. He didn’t want to leave. So, no, that’s not true. Uh, Phoenix is a free agent destination, but you have to be winning and uh, that’s all it is. So, we’ll we’ll get back on board and start to get the players that that we’re going to get. I don’t think that’s an issue. Yeah, I don’t think it is either. Uh, I did want to touch on Kevin Durant for a second, too. you know, Kevin Durant also made a post uh last week or I think maybe it was the week before too just basically saying goodbye to Phoenix and uh but you know, listen, uh Bradley Beal thing went down and then our own Eric Ruby on Phick Suns had a tweet about basically uh resetting. He said, “Man, I’m so glad Durant and Beiel are off the Suns. If you told me two years ago I’d feel that way, I’d have laughed at you, but it’s clear that keeping them uh was unsustainable for the culture. uh never been more ready for a new era of of basketball in Phoenix. Now, the inclination could be that, you know, that it was Kevin Durant’s fault or or Beiel’s fault or whatever, right? I think what Eric was basically saying is is like, I’m I’m I’m glad that we’re resetting and I’m glad that we got off of these two guys, especially for their contracts, right? Well, that’s not exactly how other people took it. Mainly Kevin Durant. Uh because he responded with, “What culture is that?” And then Eric said, “To be honest, uh once I sent this, I realized you would respond, which kind of plays into my whole point. Enjoy your offseason of responding to people on Twitter. I wish nothing bad against you as a person. Hope you find whatever happiness you’re looking for.” To where Kevin Durant said, “Cut the [ __ ] Eric. Most of y’all in Phoenix want me off the team because of the toxic experience it was online for you while you live tweeted games. KD stands got most of Phoenix pissed. It ain’t about nothing but that. Lol. Now, I will say this. Kevin ain’t wrong. Kevin ain’t wrong on this because yes, I’m and and I’m glad that Katie acknowledged the stands because my god, I will not miss that part about Kevin Durant’s tenure here. That was some truly truly truly just mind-numbing stuff. You would have you have so many stands out there that are basically saying like if Kevin Durant doesn’t shoot the ball every single time down the court, then this this organization is a failure. And it’s just like, well, that’s not how basketball works. Sorry. Um, but Eric’s point about resetting and refreshing, I think, is is is on point, too. Like, I think everybody just needs a reset. And I’m happy that it’s going to happen. Uh, I think Kevin Durant is a phenomenal player. Uh, but listen, I think when you look back at the Kevin Durant era, you’re going to look back at it and say it did not meet the expectations that you hoped it would. I mean, it did not reach the Barkley level expectations. You know, Barkley came here immediately. They go to the finals. They had such a he had such a big impact. It was energetic. Like every you could tell that everything was different, right? Uh Steve Nash’s influence, you know, he comes here as a free agent from Dallas and boom, the 7 seconds or less sons are are born and they’re one of the best teams in basketball for, you know, half a decade if not more. Uh you know, and then even Chris Paul, you know, Chris Paul comes here, he has such a dramatic impact on this team. They go to the finals. Kevin Durant didn’t have that impact. He had the stats, but he didn’t have the impact. they lost more games every single year um you know during his time here. That’s not a knock on Kevin Durant per se, but like results do matter and I know he’s not the only one that’s responsible for the results, but he was a part of that and it is what it is. Like you either accept it or you don’t. But those are facts. Uh but you know like he’s on Beal’s on that big three era if you want like is is over and I hope that we never experience anything like that again because that was probably the more apathetic I’ve ever been about a basketball team ever. I just did not I did not at some point I just was like this team is just not fun to watch at all and I don’t really want to watch them. Sometimes the mixture doesn’t work well right the right concoction uh it’s just you know you know man when your mom and your grandma was cooking that food and it’s just you know all food don’t taste the same right you go some people’s house and they like my mom I’m telling you peach cobbler you get me like you go to somebody else’s house and they got peach cobbler what’s the in here right I got a peach cobbler story for Like my like my wife my wife with the my wife with a fried chicken, man. We used to cook that all the time. Kids were young. Oh, get the big biscuits with it. Oh, you get a little syrup on the side. Oh, man. Then some people you go over there and you eat that chicken taste like wood, right? So, it’s just a bad concoction. Uh I think the guys were in the right place. As I said earlier, look at the numbers that these three put up and but we still weren’t able to get over the hump. Now, for me personally, again, and you know, we had this discussion last week and we’re not going to have that opportunity, so it really doesn’t mean a ton, but I wish it could have been run back, but with a point guard that commanded respect. Now, if you take Chris Paul and put him with them three, freaking guarantee you we would have won with them three. Oh, yeah. I think by a mile we would have won with those three. And that’s what I just keep trying to tell people, man. Like you the numbers they put up, that’s how you win games. Like it’s the team with the most points. Okay. So, if you had Chris Paul with that group, that might have been the biggest mistake is letting Chris Paul go, right? Somehow not trying to find a way to keep him and all the changes that we made. That’s it. Telling you, that’s just what this team missed was that guard that can dribble the ball up. See KD over here, Devin over here, Brad trailing, and the best look is Grayson Allen. You get it? The best look is Grayson, an inexperienced point guard, right? Like Tyus was, but he never never got the chance. He’s going to defer. He’s not going to dare give it to Grayson. Who’s he going to give it to? It’s going to be a hierarchy. KD, Devin, Brad. And a lot of times when that happens, the play doesn’t flow like it should, you know. So, they didn’t have that. And that frustrated me calling games and watching it because I could see it, but I just couldn’t call guys out all the time. So that’s part of the issue that we that we experienced. So people need to understand that part of it, man, is stop blaming one individual player. It did not work. It’s over. It’s done with. Move on. Team is changing. We got good young players. Yeah, we do. You know, we got we got hope for the future. It’s going to drag along. Probably going to have frustration. Uh you got to be patient. But I kind of love it. You got a guy in Jaylen Green who in Houston people killed him cuz he didn’t have a good playoff and yeah at times he’s you know he’s he has his foot on the gas pedal. But hold up. What would you rather have a player with his foot on the gas pedal or his foot on the brakes? That’s why I keep trying to tell people about Jaylen Green. Like calm down. Like you can slow a guy down but it’s hard to speed him up. M we’ll be talking about DeAndre in a little bit. Okay. So, trust me on that. Like that it would like Cotton love me playing for him because he knows that I was going to go full boore, but he also knew that he can slow me down. It’s kind of funny. This morning I woke up at about 5:00 and I pulled up this game on YouTube. It was a game MJ had 59 against us as a Suns player. He had 59. They were up they were up 18 in the first quarter. That was an 80 89 88 89 90. We walked them down. We walked them down. Now he put me in the game. It’s funny. I’m laughing this morning. He put me in the game and I’ll tweet the game out so you all can see it. So he puts me in the game and soon as I got in, I shot the ball. Missed. I proceeded in the first quarter to miss like four of my first five shots. All right. Before I before I hit a bucket, right? So I’m watching this game this morning and I’m critiquing myself. I’m like, damn, stop shooting. Like, you know, like I’m telling myself that, right? like, “Dang, Eddie, you keep you still shooting, man. You’re not making nothing.” And Jordan coming down killing us. He got like 21 in the first quarter. We down like 18, right? And so if you’re looking at that game, you like, “Oh, they going to get blown out by 30.” Was this at Veterans? Yeah, this was at Chicago. Okay. So, I didn’t stop shooting. Like, you know, and like, so the old me is looking at that like, damn, would you stop shooting? No shooting anymore. Right. I’m like, you know, but I kept shooting, kept shooting, started making. Cotton never took me out of the game. Played me the entire second half even though I was like I was like 3 for 12 in the first half, right? Wound up with 27 cuz I got hot. You get it? But he put the brakes on me, you know, he start changing the plays, you know, and doing this and all of a sudden I got rhythm. That’s what that’s about. Like it’s just is it’s finding a way to gain rhythm. And as a team this year, they couldn’t. Yeah. But Jaylen Green, trust me when I say this, he’s going to have games this year where you all going to think, damn, didn’t I see MJ do something like that? Like, you know, I’m serious. You’re going to see it. I’m not comparing him to MJ, okay? But he’s going to do stuff that makes you say it’s only a few people that I’ve seen play basketball that can do that that athletically can do what he just did. Mhm. I agree. So enjoy the process is what I would say. I agree. Uh smelly garage fluid earlier had made a comment said that um that when Houston wins 60 games, it’s going to make uh the Suns look he says when Houston wins 60 games, it’s going to make the Suns look awful for losing with KD. I disagree completely because it’s a completely different team than what he had here. You have so much young talent um that is so defensive-minded down there as well. Yeah. Uh that can do things at a variety of different levels. Uh you have a center there that is dominant uh in in Shenun. Uh you have a lot of key pieces around them and you have stability at head coach with Emmy Udoka. He’s been there for now. It’ll be his third season. Who’s not? Who’s not bud? Going to take anything. Yes. Yeah. So like it’s a completely different situation than what KD had here. KD had three different coaches in three different years. No stability whatsoever. no really viable young talent around him whatsoever except for Devin Booker, Bradley Beal obviously we’ve talked about it injured all the time it felt like missed 32 games a season basically uh and there wasn’t a lot of youth until this last season where they had Ryan Dunn and and Oso and you saw how the coach used those guys sporadically uh and it was inconsistent. though like again like to find and single out one single player for uh the the failures or the successes um either in here or in Houston I don’t think is completely on the point because you’re missing the mark on everything else that goes into it. So if Houston wins, it’s not just because KD is going to be averaging 27 points a game. It’s because of all those other factors that play into it as well. Whereas here that that support system, that depth just wasn’t where it needed to be. Okay. So again, like the KD era for me, I think it was it was fun at times. Uh I think it was underwhelming because of the team success, not his own personal um contributions. I think that uh the expectations were obviously very very high and they weren’t met and everybody felt disappointed. Everybody’s reacting in different ways and they’re lashing out in different ways and it is what it is. Uh it’s over. we move on and you can move on after we talk about this. If you’re on the go and you’re moving on, you should move on uh and grab yourself a Circle K as I saw the Brandon Bill stuff up there. Circle K. Get yourself some gas. Get yourself hooked up with the inner circle app uh by saving yourself 25 cents a gallon on your first five fillups by downloading the inner circle app if you have not already signed. So today EJ’s doing that right now on his phone and uh you can do so you can do so by going to circle.cominnercircle. Uh you get hooked up on gas, you get hooked up on drinks, you get hooked up on snacks, you get hooked up uh the whole the full barrage. You you can even set up text message alerts so you don’t miss those prime opportunities to get yourself uh the very best uh discounts in the valley at any convenience store. So go download the inner circle app today by going to circlek.com. See show notes for more details. And while you’re out and about, uh you want you want style. You want to look good, right? Like uh so get yourself some Branded Bills. Branded Bills is one of the best hats you could buy. A variety of different fabrics, uh variety of different sizes, and a variety of different looks. Uh they are very bought into the UFA community, the ASU community, the Suns community. They have all types of merch for all three of those teams. And if you are a business out there and you want to get hooked up, uh you don’t have an in-house designer, cuz I know, you know, a lot of small businesses don’t, uh you can hook them up and they will design merch for you. Uh they will make it for you so you can give it out to your employees, your your you know, partners, clients, whatever it is. Uh and it always looks good. Uh so style around, get yourself some branded bills on your head. Branded Bills is going nationwide. Uh we now have a partnership with them out in Chicago, out in Philly. Uh Penn State’s coming into the fold. Like it’s it’s pretty dope. So congrats to Brandon Bills, locally owned uh and locally sourced. So check them out. brandabbills.com. And you can save yourself up to uh 15% by going by using promo code uh BBPHNX. That’s BBPHNX to hook yourself up at branded bills.com. Do so today. right quick. Uh uh because I wanted to throw this in with the KD thing. Uh Emmy Odoka don’t take any jump. Now KD might disagree with me. I think this is probably the most confrontational coach he’s ever had. You think about it, KD in his younger years, he had Scott Brooks, he had young dudes that were coaches, right? Then he goes to Golden State. Steve Kerr’s not a young guy, but Steve Curry is not intimidating. Like, okay. So, after that, uh, you know, you go to Brooklyn, Steve Nash, not intimidating, right? Okay. You come here to Phoenix, you know, Monty had Monty uh the first year, you know, but after that, not intimidating coaches. And Monty is wasn’t one of those in your face, throw some curse words at you kind of guy. No. No. Monty, I never never curse. Never. When I tell you never, never. I don’t know if Monty’s ever cursed in his life. He’s freaking seriously Monty Williams a tremendous dude. I He has never cursed. So I don’t think Vogle did. Like wasn’t confrontational, but wasn’t confrontational. Emmy Odoka. This dude walked past me at the summer league, man. I thought I thought Hercules walked past me. What? Man, this dude so big. Is he really, man? I grabbed him, too. I said, man, don’t be trying to intimidate me, man. Like he came he w he walked past all gruff like this. I said, “Hey, man. Don’t be What’s up, Eddie? What’s up?” I said, “Don’t be walking past me trying to intimidate me, dude. You know, I’m I’m I’m you know, I got some stuff going on here, too.” Nah, you know, he started laughing, man. It’s a big dude, man. Really? I’m This dude been lifting cars. [Laughter] You think I’m kidding you, man? Like, wait till you see him. Really? I don’t You know, I’m serious, man. This dude like he trying to do a bodybuilder, man. Like doing like that Mike Bby, man. This he make Mike Bby look little. What? Yes, dude. Bby is swole. Ludoka is 66 and has like No, you saw him. Yeah, this dude. He was rocked out, huh? This dude is huge, man. Like, and you know, he look at you like he want to fight. He does. He does. Like, trust me when I say it. He’s got He’s definitely got that resting cuz it’s some things that KD does because as you get older, you still think you can do some things, right? And you know, and KD, I think he still feels like he’s got five dribbles in him, you know? And as you get older, guys can measure you and you don’t. Like KD, three dribbles, unguardable, but you got to catch it in your range then, right? Think you get what I’m saying? Oh, yeah. You got to catch it in your range. And so he is so good off the ball, moving, and all of that. And that’s that’s the part, man. And I’m telling you, if I had a conversation with KD, I’d be like, “KD, as you get older, man, man, just watch film of guys playing off the ball, man. Like coming off screens, coming off picks where you come off and you catch it, spin right into your jumper, knock it down, you not exhausting any energy.” Like it’s that part that he he kind of fights to grab on to to me because he still believes he can face you and do this. And and and my point is, yeah, once upon a time you could do it at a very high level. You can still do it, but I think it two, three turnovers, four turnovers. like that right there. A lot of it was off of this, you know, and MA is not going to put up with that. Mhm. Like he’s not, you know, he’s not going to put up with the turnovers, man. And he’s going to say something to him. Oh man. And I’m curious how KD is going to react to that cuz he not going to fight dude Hercules, man. So, I mean, he may look at you like, you know, and and man, that’s what I’m waiting for. Oh, boy. That’s what I’m But you know what? That’s why I think Houston’s going to win. I think they’re I think they’re the they’re the favorite in the West. I do. Uh, all due respect Oklahoma City, I just think Houston has the antidote for Oklahoma City. They got size, man. Yeah, them some big boys, man. I mean, that’s to be the biggest team that they that Oklahoma City’s ever faced. Think about it. They got three. They got Steven Adams coming in for eight minutes. No, that’s true. Getting eight offensive rebounds. You know, you got Capella who gonna guard the rim. Like, I mean, you got Shenon who offensively can just work you over. Like, then you got KD at at 611. Then, I mean, you got the kid, what’s the kid the number three pick for them? You got No. Or not Swift. Oh man, I went way back. Yeah, you know, I was going to say stro mile. No, I know that you told them gummies. The kid from LSU. I know you’re talking about them gummies. Oh man, I’m just struggling. But I mean, they got, you know, a man Thompson 68 69 like No. Yeah. I mean, so they they are they to me are the team to beat in the West. And and they got a toughminded dude too in Van Fleet who would hesitate. Shepard who’s not going to hesitate getting into their face. E. Yeah. Een. And no. Red Shepard was the high pick. 610. Jabari Smith. Jabari Smith. Oh yeah. Yep. Got you. So man. No. So if KD buys into that, please. Houston to me is the team to be. All due respect to Oklahoma City. All due respect to the Clippers. Uh but I think those three and Denver’s going to be good again. You know, if if if Bruce Brown can be the Bruce Brown that they had, I know Tim Hardaway Jr. is going to do good, man, cuz he’s got wide open jumpers and he’s going to shoot tremendously well. They got some wings, man. Cam Johnson, too. Yeah. And Cam. So, Cam, I mean, it it’s going to West has just gotten so much better and you know, he was already good last year. Yeah. And and let’s face it, I mean, I don’t know how the Lakers are going to blend, but they’re good. I mean, you know, you got anytime you got LeBron and and and and Luca on the same team, that’s an issue. I mean, you’re burying the lead there. Yeah. Anytime you have Luca and Da on the same team, you don’t know what’s going to happen. Yeah. But you know what? What would you bet though? Oh, that DeAndre has a good year. Oh, man. I I’ll say this. I I man he’s 15 and 10 for his career. I know he is. I know he is. But man has he just fallen so short of expectations and the disappointment. You think they gonna put up with that? You hold it. Do you honestly think Luca now? Now now here’s the thing. Chris Paul didn’t put up with it. Devin didn’t put up with it. And what did the Suns get? They got to the finals and DA had a lot to do with that. Yeah, he did. Okay. Lot Denver series, right? Hey. Was that Denver Series? No. No. That’s the year later. That’s the year before. Clipper series. The Clippers series. Okay. But even in the Denver series, the year prior, remember? Yeah. He pretty much control Joic. Gave Joic problems. He gave him problems. He’s the He’s the only center I’ve seen other than Zubac that gives Jokic problem. Yeah. Right. So, I mean, we So, we saw that, right? But it was a reason why Chris Paul was on his butt nonstop, right? Mhm. So my point is Luca ain’t g Luka ain’t gonna put up with that. Even though somebody need to be on Luca’s butt. Yeah. Right. But still he’s not gonna put up with it. You know LeBron’s not gonna put up with it. You know, you know JJ Re’s not going to put up with it. Well, I know JJ ain’t going to put up with it. So you he’s got he’s got it coming from all areas. And it ain’t like the the the the nice curse words that Monty would throw out like gosh darn it, man. No, I know. I mean, God, God darn it. No, I mean, I love Monty, but I’m just saying he’s not cursing. JJ got about eight or nine curse words without a connector. I mean, I mean, I saw that dude curse one time last year. He didn’t even connect. I like, how did he do that? It sounded fluid. So, you know, that’s what DeAndre is going to face. And so I’mma tell you all right now. I’mma tell son stand fans and I’mma tell you don’t do it. I’m I’m telling you based on the invite. I’mma tell you right now. Seriously two things. He’s been humble. Has he? Oh, he got Yeah, he got he got cut. I mean, I’m Let me tell you something. He’s number one pick in the draft. Dude got cut. Look, the boy trailblaz looked him in his face said, “We don’t want you.” Yeah. I mean, it’s true. I I’mma tell you something. That’s just like that’s just like being married for you know come to your wife you just come home all your wife packed up gone. I mean just gone like she ain’t even say bye. You say bye. She didn’t say bye. Left you a note. She said that what Portland did to DeAndre. I left a lasagna in the freezer. I’m out. Yeah. I’m out. That’s what that’s what Portland did to DeAndre. Like you know we we we tired of even trying to trade you. We waving you like that. Come on, man. That that took him to the bottom. Without a doubt, it did. And I think because of that, dude’s going to have a hell of a year, man, because he’s got all kind of entities pushing him. Even the Lakers alumni is going to push him. And I’m going to tell you who else going to push him. Magic. Cuz you know why? cuz who do you think is going to be involved in that team again? So, can I tell you a story about that real quick? Yeah. So, I’m at the Pack 12 tournament when DA’s playing for Arizona and this is around the time the Magics was getting in trouble for uh tampering, right? So, uh I see Magic and true truth be told like you know I wore 32 in high school because of Magic, not because of the Lakers, but I just like Magic. Uh so, I saw Magic and I was like, well, this is my opportunity to finally meet the guy. So, I ran in the back and I met up with him and then I asked him, “What do you think about DA?” He straight up looked at me and said, “You ain’t recording this, are you? Because I’m already in trouble with the league.” I said, “No, man. I This is off the record.” He was just like, “I love him. I think he’s the best player in the draft. I just hope somebody can untap him when they get to the NBA.” And nobody’s been able to really fully untap Da. Monty was the closest. CP3 was the closest. after that it just kind of was it is what it is. So you might be right about that. Yeah, he is because he’s got a hand in that organization. Again, I don’t I’m not stepping out of bounds. I’m not saying cuz I am friends with Magic. I haven’t talked to him about it, but you can just see the writing on the wall. You can see he’s going to be running that organization again. The owner is his buddy. They own the Dodgers together. Yeah. Okay. You don’t think Magic is not going to be there? Yeah. There’s a lot of changes getting ready to happen in LA, I think, in that front office. Uh, and so Magic is going to be right there. So, he going to be in his ear. James Worthy is very opinionated. He’s going to have so many dudes ripping on him. He’s going to stay focused. And because of that, you look at their team with those three. Okay. And that’ll be their big three. Now, Austin Reeves, who can be a big three, right, any given night, correct? Mhm. So, all of a sudden, now you got four dudes that can flat out score. Defensively, it’s going to be their issue, but they’re they’re a problem in the West. So, it’s going to be very interesting. But, I I like the DA decision on where he went. Uh if he had gone somewhere where he can still get away with stuff, wouldn’t have been good for him. He didn’t shy away from it. So, I kind of respect that. I don’t know if his agent, you know, Duffy did that more so than him. But still, I’m pulling for him because it’s a You hate to see a waste of talent. And he’s wasted up until this point. This dude should be DeAndre Aton should be averaging 25 and 14. That’s how talented he is. Yeah. But you know, like a famous person once said, if if we’re a fifth, we’d all be drunk. Yeah. But that’s true. That’s true. But but I would say to that, you know, everybody can’t handle a liquor like you. You know, this dude 7 foot2, man. This dude’s 7 foot. He’s limbs. I don’t know what. The dude can do a split. I saw him do a split before a game. Oh my god. Like, so this dude can run. Think about it. He can shoot. Okay, the only thing wrong with DeAndre is the only thing. And I used I used to try to hold back in games, but I used to be over there. I just put my head down. I mean, like Joe Klein, remember Joe Klein? Joe love my love my boy Joe Klein. I got I got I got to attack him just because I’m thinking about him now. But yeah, I used to call him Big Head. That boy biggest head you ever seen. Yeah. Huh? Yeah. Oh yeah. So I told him when he played for the Kings his rookie year, he threw him the ball cuz all every play kind of blended off me. And so me and Mike Woodson cuz we were the best at throwing the ball into the post. So you know, so every play is initiated. So I throw him the ball, you know, you know, and like Joe Joe got big head. Joe head like this big, but his hands about this small. little bitty baby hands. You remember the Richard Pride joke? He got little bitty baby feet. So he got little hands. So he throwing the ball, it bounce off his hands like, you know, like a pingpong ball. So I told him, I said, “Joe, telling you I’m not gonna throw it to you, dude. Cuz you giving me turnovers, but I’mma tell you what I’m going to do. I’mma fast ball right to that big ass head you got. I’mma tell you right now. Every time I throw it into the post, don’t get mad at me. I’m gonna throw a fast ball. try to my target is to hit you in your freaking head. Like that’s what I told him. He just looked at me and you know what? Started catching the ball cuz you don’t get who wants to get hit in the face? Nobody. Nobody. And that’s DeAndre. DeAndre he throw the ball there. The ball just bouncing off his off his little hands, man. How dude that big got little bitty hands like that? He don’t got little hands. Yeah, he do. He got little hands. He got little hands, man. DeAndre can’t even pal the ball, dude. He No, he he can’t palm the ball. No. Did you Have you ever seen DeAndre Aton go up and dunk the ball with one hand? I mean, yeah. No, you haven’t. Always two hands. He can’t hold the ball. He He He’ll lob dunk it with one hand, but he didn’t even do it with one hand on the lob. He always tried to dunk it with two hands cuz he couldn’t hold the ball. Really? Go back and watch film. Why have I missed? Have I missed? Go back and watch film, man. Dude get rebound. It just bouncing off his hand like this. He never was able to like grab the rebound like that. No, that’s his issue, man. Got little bitty baby hands. How about this whole time not realizing he had small hands, man? Got little big baby hands. I He put his hands up to mine. He DeAndre put his hands up to mine fingers like this. Well, that’s how I feel. But like I have I’m you know I’m not I’m not seven foot. You got little bitty baby hands. I mean I got small hands. I don’t want disturb you got little bitty baby feet. Other than that I got I listen I got I got small hands but they but they’re wide. They’re girthy. You know I [Laughter] Well, you know. All right. Hey, listen. Hey, listen. My my only I think that you know, you should keep the private stuff to yourself. My only opposite my only opposition to the DA stuff is that it is in LA and he’s been prone to distraction and I think being in LA isn’t going to help that. But listen, if if everybody else can help keep him on board, that’s been the problem with DA is like it takes everybody else to try and fix him, he can’t fix himself because he doesn’t have that drive um like he hoped he would. And that’s that’s a big problem. So hopefully for him, I agree. Like listen, I want him to succeed. I like I I like the guy. Always like the guy. We got to support our own. But uh you know, but it’s all it’s all between the ears with him. Um and it’s it’s always his drive. Not ears. It’s not ears. It’s here, man. Oh, yeah. It’s ears, man. Okay. It ain’t got nothing to do with ears. DeAndre Aton, if he was 6’2, he’d be probably a doctor or a mailman or a pilot, you know, all in all those are great careers, but that’s what he would be. He’s 7 foot2. I think he plays the game because he’s 7 foot2. I don’t think he loves the game at the high level that he should. Yeah. And that’s part of it. So he doesn’t have the heart. He’s not the first. I play with Benoy Benjamin. Benoy Benjamin. One of the most talented big men that ever came to this league out of Kraton. I’m serious man. Dude had everything. Big hands. He could score. He had a nice shot. He can defend. He just had no heart. No heart at all. I used to get on him all the time, man. We go in team meetings and Benoy is like in there, you know, we all in there and you talk to the guys, they know I’m watching everything. I don’t even understand or know why somebody didn’t try to knock my ass out when I played because I’m telling you, I I just knew how to take guys to the edge, right? And so I had this conversation with Xavier McDaniel over this past weekend cuz he and I went at it all the time. I said, I knew how to take you right to the edge cuz you crazy. I I I knew when to shut up. But Benoy comes into the room, right? And this is like early on in training camp and this fool has a bag and he pulls out like I don’t know. It had to be like 12 bottles of pills. Yeah. So he’s got all these energy pills and all these different things. And I I stood up and I I said I said, “Berno, I see you you got a new workout plan, huh? You just take pills all day instead of running sprints and and working out.” I mean, this dude seriously he had to like drug up with like energy stuff, you know, natural products to think he can get in shape that way. Dude had no idea how to get in shape. That’s a dude that’s not concentrated on playing basketball. Like, fool, go run. Yeah. You know, and so that reminds me of DeAndre. DeAndre is like, you know, I just wonder how much he really loves basketball. Who misses a game because he says it’s ice on the streets? Seriously, man. Nothing will keep me from the freaking arena. I know. Nothing. If I got to freaking walk, I’m getting to the game. Like, I’m not going to stay at home and say, “Oh, I can’t make it.” Especially when you know there’s just so many fans out there that would be willing to give you a ride to the game anyway. All you have to do is walk past the ice. Thank you. But no, but it was okay because Okay. Yeah. Oh, I got an excuse. So, he had own his boys and now he’s just in the basement playing Fortnite, whatever the hell they play. You get me? So, that’s that’s a guy that doesn’t love the game. So, that’s his problem. Yeah. It’s not a talent. It’s not talent because that dude is talented, man. Yeah. We’ll see. We’ll see. Uh yeah, man. I mean, listen, uh it’s all up in the air. We didn’t really talk much about Suns today. We were talking about a lot of our exes. It’s all good. But hey, listen, at the end of the day, I I I would just encourage everybody just take a beat every now and then when you when you want to respond, if you want to attack people, cut some grass. Yeah. just, you know, just chill out, man. It ain’t really that serious. It just isn’t because guess what? Whether the Suns win a championship or not, when you wake up the next day, still going to be the same person, still going to be the same you. So, you know, the Suns fans not complaining. What a where it is. Steve Water Boys and couch potatoes, man. Well, hey, we appreciate you all joining us. Fans not fans are complaining. This is Eddie Johnson. You can follow him at jumpshot8 on Twitter on Instagram. You can follow me at Saul_bookman. Chill out, man. And uh you can follow the show at PHNX Suns. We appreciate you all for joining us this morning. We’ll see you next Monday morning at 8 a.m. here in the studio. Until next time, peace. [Music]

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It got ugly last week between fans, former Suns, the media and it all has put a weird haze on what should be a refresh of sorts. Who is right, who is wrong…the answer is no one and everyone and Eddie Johnson and Saul Bookman are going to tell you why on Outside Shots!

0:00 – Intro
1:00 – Summer League recap
5:00 – Bradley Beal peace out
16:00 – Chris Paul signs with LA Clippers
25:00 – Kevin Durant, Ime Udoka and Rockets fit
43:00 – Los Angeles Lakers and Deandre Ayton

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