This Phoenix Suns ULTIMATE Lineup Will SURPRISE You

This Phoenix Suns ULTIMATE Lineup Will SURPRISE You

What is the Phoenix Suns ultimate lineup? Well, we’re going to spend an entire show discussing it. What is PHNX Sun’s ultimate lineup? Right here, baby. [Applause] [Music] Say, OS and Sickos Unite for an ultimate lineup edition of PH and Xons coming to you live from Studio K presented by Circle K. Of course, our lineup all fully fleshed out today. I’ve got Gerald Bor. What’s up? I got Steven Bjan Gardner. I’ve got the freckled mamba behind the Mac making all of the magic happen. And me, that’s me. Hi, I’m Eric Ruby. And you, of course, the most important person here in the chat, on our audio feed, on TV, on gophx.com. What a wild card you are. But make sure you’re doing all these fun things that keep us in business, like the like button, the subscribe button, five star reviews on audio go a long way. And if you’re out on social, you’ll know that Espo set uh the Twitter world ablaze earlier today with his all half decade team. So, we’re going to dive a little bit into that and then each of us up here have our five most intriguing lineups that the Phoenix Suns can deploy this season. We’ll be going into each of them individually, why we’re excited, what we’re looking out for, and I have gotten a little sneak peek at all of them. It’s going to be some really good basketball talk. But first things first, happy Tuesday. How are we feeling? Feeling good. Feeling great. How are you? I’m feeling sensational. Um to have air conditioning back is the ultimate blessing. It’s a um I don’t want to say breath of fresh air, but it literally is that though. A breath of cold air. Breath of cold air, right? breath of tolerable air. So there all is well. I mean the simple things, the little things. You’ve been in Arizona for about a year now. Close to it. Yeah. And they said, “Let’s you’ve adjusted. Let’s ramp it up. Let’s cut his AC.” Right. Like I’m a I’m a June baby, so I’m not new to heat. But let’s not try to crank it up. The oven is already on like 500 right now outside like Oh, you see, you were on vacation when Gerald and I did a watch along and they cut the AC in here. Yeah. But they didn’t did they cut it while we were here. I feel like they might have while you were in in Vegas. I think when we did our watch cut it too cuz it got Yeah, cuz it was hot. Yeah. So, what I’m hearing is you’re the problem. Common denominator. Hey, starts with accountability. Hey, well, Espo was taking some accountability earlier today when he was getting reamed for his all half decade list. Let’s go ahead and take a look at what he had to say over on Southwest Bias. These are six players that he put on the all Arizona half decade team. Starting with my baby boy Cam Scanaboo, my other baby boy, Devin Booker, my third baby boy, Kyler Murray, then Diana Terrasi, legend Mel Kelly, and James Connor. Now, this has a lot of people angry from a lot of different sports. And since we are a Sun show, I think that we could take a look at some Sun’s angles. Gerald, I think there are a couple players who could be in contention to be on the all Arizona half decade team. How do you feel about Terrence Ross? I feel like you need to spell it right if you’re going to spell it on Twitter. That’s that auto crash for you. Yep. There you go. Still on vacation time. That’s fair. That’s fair. Two names though that come to mind, Gerald. Yeah. Kevin Durant. Chris Paul. Mhm. I for me, if you’re looking at just 2020 through 2025, I would not put Kevin Durant on the list because as much as he is the greatest individual player to ever wear a Suns jersey, what they achieved here, despite his individual all-star selections and all NBA selections, was not nearly good enough from a team perspective. And that’s not all on him obviously, but if you’re talking about an all half decade team from every sport in the valley, there are slim pickings. You have to have very high standards here. So, because the team was just pitiful for most of his tenure here, uh we’re going to have to keep Kevin Durant off that list. And he was only here from 2023 on. So, he’s only here for half of part of 2020, right? It was like literally the full 2020, right? It was like literally half of the time of that half decade. Chris Paul though needs to be on the list and Espo and I have had many battles over him being deserving of the Ring of Honor. I did get Espo to admit he’s softening, warming up to the idea. Uh but Chris Paul, who was only here for three seasons, had as much of an impact in that time as any threeseason stretch in Suns history to be honest with you. Uh going to the finals, 64 wins, making multiple AllNBA all-star teams. And this is one of the few teams in the valley from 2020 to 2025 that reached the pinnacle of reaching the finals. There aren’t a lot of teams in Arizona that have had that type of team success and Chris Paul was a driving force behind it. So, I would have Chris Paul in there. Honestly, I would I would change like four of the selections he made, but we can get to that later. Chris Paul, I’m assuming you also believe has an argument, Stephen. I mean, yeah, from an unbiased perspective, absolutely. Because what about from a biased perspective? 1,000%. Okay, cool. Just wanted to make sure. I mean, everywhere he goes, he just finds ways to win and then taking to what’s expected or what’s not expected and flipping that into getting this absolute every drop of talent out of a group of uh of players on the team. And I think the the most indicative example of that, I know people might say OKC, but that was a first round exit team in a bubble year. like to get to the finals for a team that was they were projected like sixth or seventh in most preseason projections that year. Like that was obviously not all him, but he was a driving force and an engine behind everything that that team ultimately became to go to the finals the first year for a team that was barely expected to make the playoffs. Like that’s that’s almost unheard of considering how many changes have to take place, the way things have to work. Like that’s that in and of itself is just everything. I I thought it was funny that Gerald said slim pickings when speaking to KD. He should have been number one qualified in that case. Correct. So, I thought that was funny. But I do agree if he was with the Well, first of all, if he was on the 21 team, then they would just outright win it off for sure. Especially considering Milwaukee made it made it past him by a toenail. So, could you imagine Chris Paul, Kevin Rant, and Devon Booker on the same team? That would never happen. Yeah. Imagine if they actually got enough time to work that out too. Like that’s, you know, not what today’s episode is. Don’t go there. If KD was around for a year prior to when he actually came to the team, even if it was a part of the 22 team, I think that might have been enough considering that team won the most games in franchise history. Yeah. Uh, Level Outlook jumping in a little later says who’s on the team. So, let’s let’s revis revisit it really quick here. So Devin Booker did make it from Sunsland, but he’s the only one joining Cam Scanniboo, Kyler Murray, Diana Terasi, Mel Kelly, James Connor. Real quick, we won’t spend too much time, Gerald, but who who are you who are you subbing out? All right, I’m subbing out Kyler Murray for Buddha Baker. Buddha Baker has more Pro Bowl appearances. I think he’s been in it every year of this half decade if I’m right or except for one. He He deserves to be on this list. Kyler, I would not say that. James Connor, same thing. Um I would take Connor off the list. I would put Chris Paul in that spot. Chris Paul needs to be in there. Diana Terrasi is a tough cut for me, but if you’re looking at just 2020 to 2025, it feels like more of a lifetime achievement award and instead of, you know, what you actually achieve during that run. So, I might sub her out for Catel Marte. And then Mel Kelly. This is tough because you could go Corbin Carroll, you go T-Mac from Arizona, or you could go Diana Terasi. Honestly, I would probably lean Carol just because they made a World Series. Um, so if I’m gonna be consistent, I gave two spots to a Suns team that made the finals. I’ll give two to Diamondbacks Corbin Carroll and Catel Marte. Eric, is it fair for Scataboo to be on this list? I think so. I think so. I mean, and this is me genuinely because I went to Arizona. Now, listen, if you caught me two hours ago, maybe say something different. No, listen. I think it’s fair for him to be on this list because the single season was one of the best single seasons we’ve ever seen in Valley history. Like point blank, not just this decade, like since Valentine’s Day in the 1800s, like since the States’s been around, right? That being said, I would understand, but plus he was good. He was good before, like he had multiple seasons at ASU, just wasn’t as as dominated as of course forefront there. Um, I I would get why people would take him off. I think Catel Marte is a lock. Catel Marte has to be on there. Devin Booker is a lock. Devin Booker has to be on there. I think Buddha Baker is is a lock. That’s a good call, Gerald. I think he has to be on there. Uh, Chris Paul, I don’t know if he’s a complete lock. I would put him on there. And then that leaves two spots left. James Conor. No. Jay, see, I like James Connor, but I that’s probably Espo’s biggest mistake here. Yeah. besides hiring me. That’s his biggest mistake that he’s ever made. That’s kind of where I was getting to. Um because I do feel like Diana Terzi should be on there for this recent stretch because that same year that the Suns went to the finals, who else went to the finals? That’s true. And they did it in outside of the team they lost to in the finals, the Chicago Sky. M they did it in the most out the mud fashion as possible. Having to scrap together wins at the end of the regular season and then have to go through single elimination games against teams that are stacked and picked as heavy favors against them and to do all of that then get past the team that was picked to go to the finals and potentially win it all in route to that. Um and I think it was the aces that they beat in the second round to get to the finals. There’s a lot of heavy lifting backpacking from Diana Terzi and I think she made some tough shots true to her nature, true to her form. And I feel like because of that having a late career finals run and where you had a chance to potentially win it all, I think that kind of if we’re talking about the finals being something that’s valued, I think that’s something that’s factoring in for me for sure. Me Diana Diana Diana Rossi Ross Diana Ross Devin Booker Christ. Uhhuh. Kettle Marte. So that’s four. Buddha. Buddha. Scataboo. Scat. All right, there you go. Cameron. The Arizona fans are going to be mad about T-Mac. I don’t care about them. I made a diss track about them. I don’t care. I just needed to tee you up real quick. Yeah. Thank you. Also, low key, I considered Alyssa Thomas just because of the one season that just happened. Like, we’re we’re approaching Cam Scataboo levels of like one season insanity. So, we’ll see how this how this season ends. But like, yeah, I mean, listen, let’s let’s get her on the decade team five years from now. Let’s keep her around. Okay, from an all decade lineup to what the Phoenix Suns actually have, which is only one guy that’s going to end up on an all decade team, but lots of intriguing options. Now, we know the Suns have changed a lot and we know likely they’re not going to be amazing this season. Maybe they can surprise some people. But one of the big things we talk about is, hey, Jordan has a lot of options, a lot of different ways he can go to implement his own style. So, what are the top five most intriguing lineups? All three of us each put our own down. So, let’s start with Stephen. Stephen, we’ll go from five to one. What is your fifth most intriguing lineup the Suns could deploy this season? Yeah, number five for me starts with Jaylen Green going in addition to Grayson Allen, Dylan Brooks, Rashir Fleming, and Mark Williams. I have a little bit more contextwise on why I’m choosing these lineup constructs with Jaylen Green for the next group of lineups that we look at. But just generally speaking, uh Grayson might be the best shooter on the perimeter that Jaylen Green would have had as a guard pairing to go with them in any lineup constructs. The lineups with Jaylen Green and Dylan Brooks were very good for the team last year when they were without Fred Van Vleet. Um, you give them another athletic big and Rashir Fleming that can do a lot of similar things that Jabari New Jr. and Ty East did for them as well as Mark Williams. I think you’re working with something as in sec as a secondary lineup for your group. I’m This is interest. This is one of the more interesting lineups as long as Devin Booker is off the court for sure because we we talked about this Stephen while Eric was out in terms of Jaylen like Jaylen Green’s 23 years old. He played a lot of minutes last season. He’s probably going to play a lot of minutes this season as well. So, how are you going to stagger his minutes with Devin Booker? And when you do, is he going to be sharing the court with another point guard like a Colin Gillespie or is he going to be running the show himself? So, if he is running the show himself, I would like to surround him with shooting. You got that in Grayson. Hopefully Dylan carries over his career shooting year. Hopefully, Rasheed Fleming takes his shooting leap that he took last year in college and carries it over as well. And you’ve got a rim running big man who is going to, you know, have gravity rolling to the basket as well. So, this this would be interesting to me. I do worry obviously if Green is running the show about the creation. I think you might have some secondary options with Grayson attacking closeouts, Dylan Brooks being able to get to his post up like we talked about, but um the offensive side of the ball would be interesting in terms of how are they creating shots. Do you see Mark Williams being a a playmaker in this lineup a lot, especially with maybe some like Jaylen Green’s gonna have the ball in his hands, but do you see him maybe kind of moving off ball with the shooting surrounding him and Mark Williams being a hub in this lineup? Yes, I I think that’s very much a part of Mark Williams value that he’s going to add on the offensive end outside of screening, being able to roll and hitting shots below the free throw line and especially at the rim. I think they’re going to lean into his connective playmaking ability to be a handoff hub, hand off from the slots, hand off from the outer thirds of the court to get Jaylen Green on the move into his touches rather than running the more traditional Chris Paul, Devin Booker type of pick and rolls. I think from my assessments early of Jaylen Green, he’s better off the handoffs because of the movement and him getting into it versus being stagnant and then having to use his own dribble there. Think it feels like it’s more efficient. So, yes, I do think so. I think what I like about this one and a lot of times when I look at these intriguing lineups when we get to mine like I’m looking at certain skills that maybe we’ve seen some flashes from and this lineup to me is particularly intriguing if Dylan Brooks shot uh profile and his percentages carry over from last year in Houston because if you have Jaylen Green then you have a couple shooters around him. Let’s say Rashir Fleming is good at hitting quarter threes. You’ve got Grayson Allen moving around, Dylan Brooks moving around and Mark Williams is kind of a hub there. That’s a lot of spacing for Jaylen Green to work with. And maybe he doesn’t eliminate some of those shots that he didn’t shoot a great percentage on last year, but he hits a better percentage because the spacing is better. It’s interesting to see what he could maybe do in the microcosm in this specific lineup, but we have a lot of lineups to get to. And your next one, Stephen, I’m I’m very intrigued by. So, I want to get to number four with you. Sure. Yeah. Number four, um getting Devin Booker on the floor with a bunch of guys that can just do things, a bunch of wings and things, if you will. And I think that’s a lineup construct we’ve seen be effective in the most recent years obviously with Kevin Durant at the five but even before Durant was around when they downsized and there was a little bit of Sarge at the five in the 21 season and then once Sarge went down they kind of went to other constructs Jay Crowder at times there having a bunch of wings they can switch and do a bunch of things on offense and just let Devin Booker orchestrate everything has been basically a back pocket for now three renditions of the Suns from def three different head coaches to kind of cycle through at some point. Yeah, I like this lineup with Rashir at the five because I do want to see him at the five a little bit this season. I don’t know if the minutes are going to be there just because of how many centers they have and the fact that if they do go quote unquote small, Oso is probably going to get a look there, but I would like to see this especially because you have Nigel Hayes Davis and Royce O’Neal, two guys that are capable of playing 34 in that spot on both ends of the floor, especially if Nigel’s shooting holds up. Um, I like that Grayson’s out there to kind of space the court and that we’re getting a point book look out of all of this. Um, so I would like to see a five with Rashir at the five kind of lineup. I’m also looking at this and wondering what if you do sub out Rashir for Ryan Dunn who we saw in brief stretches go with small ball five. Obviously, the build isn’t the same, but if Dunn’s shooting can be a little bit more on the side of what it was at the beginning of the season, I I I find this particular kind of like concept with lots of wings and threes and and defense around Devin Booker with the ball in his hands very intriguing, too. My only cause to pause on that is I just don’t know how comfortable I am with Ryan Garden either, even just Fors or if not Fors outright for I think they’d have to be going up. It’s like a reaction to somebody else going that basically if you’re going against let’s say Indiana and Pascal’s at the five like that construct yeah I’m definitely cool with not to that point though I feel like Rashir is just because of his stature alone and his wingspan better suited to kind of guard those bigger wings but the caveat in all of that Royce O’Neal is there and we’ve seen him guard fives before Frank Bogle cross matched him on fives with you Nerkish plenty and um I think that’s something that can bridge that gap to if you want to put Ryan there. Maybe he doesn’t have to guard the opposing quote unquote five because Race is there to kind of shoulder the brunt of some of that literally. And and we should clarify in the chat because we’ve gotten some questions. These are not starting lineups. These are some of them might wind up being starting lineups and we’ll specify that, but these are just lineups that you could see throughout the course of a game. Yeah, this is this is not like, hey, the Suns are going to start the season and this is going to be out there. This is over the course of a game, a season, a certain look, whatever it is, what the Suns could employ. So, we’ve seen a couple from Steven. He’s still got a few more to show us. Gerald and I have our five as well. But have you hit the like button? I’m looking at the numbers. You haven’t. So, you should hit that like button. Hit that subscribe button. Make sure to turn notifications on. Brentton here saying YouTube did not send him a notification. Uh, we’ll have to check in with Mr. YouTube on that one and make sure that that he sends you that notification in the future. We’ve got more intriguing lineups and more fun to talk about and we’ll do it all right after our first break. Listen, we all love watching sports. We love going to sporting events, but you’ve never seen anything like championship weekend with NASCAR at Phoenix Raceway. So, mark down your calendars October 31st through November 2nd. And I got my math guys here with me. I just want to make sure. Four is greater than three. Correct. Just like three is greater than two. Okay. Just like two is greater than. All right. And I’m following along here cuz get this, four champions are crowned in 3 days. You do the math at Phoenix Raceway. It’s absolutely electric. Don’t miss your chance to witness NASCAR Championship weekend in person. Coming to Phoenix Raceway October 31st through November 2nd. Tickets for Sunday’s Cup Series Championship Race sellout every year. So move fast now before they are gone. And here’s the kicker. NASCAR is taking championship weekend on the road starting in 2026. So this is your last chance to catch it in Phoenix for a while. But good news, tickets, hospitality, and upgrades are all still available. Get yours now in the link in our show notes. Also, love repping our friends over at Empire. Today, we talk about psychos and sickos. Well, these are the psychos and sickos of flooring. And I usually bury the lead, but I’m not doing that today. You You for listening to us can get $350 off new flooring in your home. And the best part is it’s not just a good deal, it’s the right deal because they will have somebody with a inhome estimate for free looking at your home with the colors of your walls and your furniture and your style to make sure you’re making the right choice. Plus, you get clear upfront all-inclusive pricing. And you can schedule installation next month, next year, no, the next day. Schedule that free inhome 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 discount when using promo code phnx. Restrictions apply. Visit empiretoday.com/phnx for full details. Shout out Ted Dante who says, “We have no idea who we’re talking about.” Big shout out to you. I would appreciate more clarity on that. Yeah, it feels like there’s a misunderstanding there, but I don’t apparently he should have averaged 20 a game in summer league. Thank you for being here, Dante. That’s the level of expert insight that we’ve been lacking on the show. Thank you. Well, no, I I want to let Dante cook. I want to know what’s going on here. Dante, we we appreciate you being here. Appreciate Ted Sean level outlook. Stephen, you’re in the chat even though you don’t know what you’re talking about. There’s another Steven, Chris, Muhammad, Brent, Freckled Mamb, but man, everybody just coming out. The stars are out for a Tuesday edition of PHNX Suns. Well, Mr. You don’t know what you’re talking about. Can you uh enlighten us on your third most intriguing lineup for the Phoenix Suns this season? Uh enlighten apparently. I’m not sure if I’m capable of. Well, we’ll give you a chance. We’ll give you a chance. Do your best. Just do your best. Bear with me. You got this. We believe. Hey, Stephen. We believe in you. Mhm. So, in in in this episode of I Don’t Know What I’m Talking About, we are going to look at a lineup construct that’s very similar to what Jaylen Green saw some of his most success with with the Houston Rockets last season. That’s a lineup where him and Dylan Brooks are on the floor with two wings that can do a lot of things defensively and a playmaking center. Now, obviously Oso isn’t a traditional center, nor am I comparing him in any capacity to Alfred Shenon, but he has evolved versatility for a front court player that is akin to what makes Alfred Shenun what made him an all-star last season. So, obviously with this lineup is Jaylen Green, Ryan Dunn, Nigel Hayes Davis, Dylan Brooks, and Oso Egodaro. The lineup I’m looking at from last season with the Houston Rockets, which was the best non Fred Van Vleet feature lineup that featured Jaylen Green. Mhm. Jaylen Green, Aman Thompson, Tyrie Een, Dylan Brooks, Alfred, and Shangon. 308 non-garbage time minutes. Their non-garbage time net was plus 22.3 in 308 minutes. Mhm. So, obviously, you don’t have the same talent for talent with the Suns. But if you can get to a similar lineup construct and potentially get some similar production out of it, that’s something that you can really start to build a rotation around. if okay, Book’s out or he’s in foul trouble or he’s hurt, what lineups do we know we can always have in our back pocket that can maybe suggest more minutes if need be? If you can get to a lineup that’s similar to that one from Houston that I’m speaking to, which was the reason I brought that one up, I think there’s some opportunity there. Um R2-D2 in the chat goes, oh no, sorry. Uh they say again, a lineup with no ball handling skills. They said this about a couple of your lineups. How do you feel about that that critique of of this fiveman group? I mean, have you watched Jaylen Green play basketball? Like, respectfully, Jaylen Green for all the minutes that Fred Vanble Vleet missed because of injury post all-star break and even generally when he just wasn’t on the floor, Jaylen Green was doing a lot of initiating of offense and handling. Was it efficient? No. But how much of that was Jaylen Green’s fault versus the demands put on him with that team construct that they had? If you look at the Suns, if you’re putting them on the floor with some of the players that I’m mentioning, talked about you being able to lean into Dylan Brooks a little bit to be a pressure release to initiate offense at times. Nigel Hayes Davis has a bit of that in his game as well. You saw it a lot in the film that shown from overseas in his most recent seasons that have resulted in championships. Also, Igodaro, if you haven’t watched the film session I did over the weekend, highlighting a lot of the values he’ll be bringing to the team coming into this season, is more than capable of and likely to be implored to do a whole lot of those things that I’m speaking to. So, in these lineup constructs, it might not be Jaylen Green that’s bringing it up. He might be having someone else do it and he’s starting a possession off the ball. What type of pressure does that put on the defense? Yeah. Early in the shot clock, too. Right. And and I think there’s a difference between ball handling and playmaking. Like, I think Jaylen Green is a ball handler. Is he a good playmaker? Not yet. Correct. But again, like Stephen mentioned, we’re hoping that that is a matter also of context in Houston and what he was asked to do there because they didn’t have the offensive weapons or scoring weapons um that like the Suns have with a Deon Booker. Obviously, in a lineup where Booker is off the floor, I worry a little bit about the playmaking, but I do like that you have OSO there as kind of a release valve on that front. his playmaking, his court vision, his ability to be a hub from the elbows should help you. In addition to like we talked about with Dylan Brooks being a release valve. Um I I think the shooting you definitely need Ryan Dunn and Dylan Brooks to be able to and Nigel for that matter to be able to knock down shots. Um otherwise the offensive spacing could take a hit there because obviously we know OSO is limited to the floater range. Yeah. Level outlook says big as a primary ball handler question mark. I think with Oso Gdaro a big test this season is if he’s not able to bring that type of value to the court then he’s probably not going to play because he needs to be able to do that type of stuff without the offensive game that that he has. He needs to be able to initiate maybe handle the ball a little bit and give him some looks with that. But I don’t think he’s the primary ball handler in this situation. I think Jaylen Green is but with bouts of Oso Idano. Uh you can correct me if I’m wrong though Stephen what you’re imagining. Uh another lineup with OSO coming up next at number two for you. Mhm. Yeah, I have a lot of also involved because I feel like he has opportunity to unlock some things for the Suns that they at least had as a template with renditions with Ysef Nerkage, but just hits a little different because of his ability to get downhill on his own will. So, this is Devin Booker with Jaylen Green, Ryan Dunn, Rashir Fleming, and also Egodaro. You can switch one through five. You can get into all types of exotic pace changing styles of defense in terms of your process. you can get into some fun crossmatching because I think Rashier is going to be capable of guarding fives which allows for you to put OSO in different positions defensively. And then to the offensive end, for one, if you’re playing this lineup, that means you’re banking on spending a nice bit of time in transition, which is where each one of those five players are at their absolute best. You get shooting, you get the blend of playmaking and bring pressure of Jaylen Green and Devin Booker. you get to the half court, I think again there’s a lot of fun options and opportunity for also running some inverted pick and rolls with Green and Booker screening for him and just generally also connecting and getting those two guys in movement. This lineup needs to rely on, you know, its defensive-minded front court to get stops and immediately kick it in transition because this is one of the more athletic dynamic lineups that we’re probably going to look at when you’re talking about oho Dunn, Rashir, and Jaylen Green all alongside Devin Booker. That could be fun. You need the shooting to hold up for those three guys in the middle. And we’re I don’t want to sound like a broken record saying that over and over. That’s the That’s the season essentially, right? But I I think it is important when you look at Green not being efficient. Done. We know he still needs to take steps and Rashir, you know, his first two years in college were not great. Then he made the leap last season. So you need all of those things to kind of hold up. I think what would be most exciting about this and kind of what you mentioned is the transition play, but primarily Devin Booker with the ball in his hands and all four of these guys running in transition. And the thing is with the gravity of Jaylen Green and if Ryan Dunn is able to again shoot, but also the other stuff which is drive to space through his cutting to get two feet in the paint. Same thing with Oso. If Rashier is a three-point threat, Devin Booker’s coming down the court with the ball in his hands and you’re running back on defense and you’re crossmatched because you’re scrambling. He’s going to eat on that and he’s one of the best decision makers in the NBA. and we saw him struggle with some turnovers at times, but I think in that situation, he knows like whatever I do, whether it’s shoot or pass the ball, it’s going to be the right decision, right? And he’s going to be able to eat off of the gravity that those guys can create in an extremely fast-paced offense. This is a super fun lineup. And just like imagining it right now, Stephen, does get me excited to think like, man, like I really I really do hope that that I think Rashir is kind of the biggest cog here because I could see it kind of going both ways with him where he plays a lot or maybe he doesn’t really play that much, but if he can just be a consistent shooter and and be the switchable defender, like that is going to unlock a ton of these iterations of this lineup and this one specifically is super exciting. This is their this is their track media lineup for sure. Everybody’s running 100 yard dashes or 100 meter dashes rather. And to that point though, if Oso’s grabbing a lot of rebounds and we talk about him grabbing goals, not outletting to someone, but him just taking it onto the offense himself. What is Rashe Flynn doing in those situations? Rim running. No one’s going to be on the court faster than than him. I think we highlighted that plenty through his college film and speaking to coaches and things like that. If you get him in that role and also bringing it up the court and Devin Booker and Jaylen Green are feeling wings and Ryan Dunn again, Jordan emphasize transition spacing being the tone setter for your offense. If they’re leaning into that in the ways I wish in which I think they can, especially in the lineup constructs that they can work through, they got some things that they’ll be working with. But again, it all starts with the defensive end first because you don’t put that lineup out there to be playing in the half court for seven minutes straight. And it all starts with your number one most intriguing lineup, Stephen. Very true. It is the Deem starting lineup, I think, by all three of us. Deon Booker on the floor with Jaylen Green, Ryan Dunn, Dylan Brooks, and Mark Williams. Now, you can mismatch Ryan Dunn and Dylan Brooks at the three or four, however you want to. You going to hear me complain. What I do know is that Ryan Dunn is going to be guarding a lot of perimeter guys. And if he has someone that can take on those bigger wing matchups to where he can do the perimeter laden stuff more comfortably and also have somebody on the back end that can either switch with him or just generally kind of cover his bases as he applies pressure full court that just changes everything in addition to the next layer of defense being Mark Freak and Williams just roaming around the paint in some capacity. Yeah. Uh we will have more on this lineup. I believe Gerald and I both have this lineup in our five. But Stephen, that was a fun five, fun basketball conversation. Glad that you’re finally getting around to understanding this whole thing. I’m just glad I can be understood. I So, so I’ll be honest with you. I went back and I and I read what Dante said and I I think what he it was messed up. He was saying, “You are the only one who knows what he’s talking about.” Says, “You guys have no idea what you were talking about. Steven is the only person that is talking realistically about Ryan D.” That’s still disrespectful. Still disrespectful. But I just want to I want to clarify that you know he thinks that we are stupid. Okay, that’s better. That’s fine. I mean, yeah, we can we can handle that for sure. We can deal with that. But you are not the first person to say that about me. Definitely the first person to say it about him, but not the first to say it about this guy. But by the way, Sean, I say take your season off. No, no, I don’t listen to you, Sean. You’re not my father. We do love you, Sean. Yeah. No, I do love you. and and Jared, I love you and you know what you’re talking about. So, let’s get into some of your most when it talk come to draft picks cuz y’all y’all was over there. We were fighting about Joron and Annie Hansen for sure. I was about to say it wasn’t just one, right? Yeah. Well, we’ll see who wins in the long run. Shades guy. Uh, no shade though, Gerald. Actually, I’m not I’m going to say something nice about you. So, definitely no shade. I think your lineups are really interesting, too. Let’s start with your fifth most intriguing. All right. So, this is fifth most because I think you’re going to stagger Devin Booker and Jaylen Green. I think now that Green or that Booker is the undisputed number one superstar on your roster. He’s going to have his way and get to play first quarters all the way through again. So, I think Green comes off first. I think at that point, you sub in Colin Gillespie so you can put Devin Booker off the ball a little bit more. I’m not buying this whole Jaylen Green is the full-time point guard thing. I think in the half court, Book is still going to be initiating the most. So, I think this is your quickest and easiest way to get Booker off the ball. Uh, with some of your first subs, I think Brooks stays in the game. I think you sub out Ryan Dunn early because you have a lot of minutes at the four. So, in comes Nigel Hayes Davis and then you’ve got Mark Williams still. I doubt Mark Williams is going to be on the court long enough in the first quarter to see this matchup because I’m I’m imagining they’re going to be managing his minutes pretty strictly. Um, but this one would be interesting to me because I’m not convinced that your backup centers, either one, is a good option. And I’m interested to see what Nigel can do. I’m interested to see what Colin can do as the lead ball handler and putting Book off the ball. So, this is one of the first kind of bench lineups that I’m hoping you get to see if Mark Williams can just play long enough. So, Mark Williams played 26 minutes each of the last two years on average. Mhm. You think he stays around there? You think he dips down some? You think they try to get him closer to 30? I think you try you have to try to get him closer to 30 unless come on Mwatch is more ready than we think and then he showed in summer league. But if he’s not I don’t know. I mean I I feel like Nick Richards you can rely on him as a backup, but he’s not he’s still not something not in any of our most intriguing lineups for this season. Uh and that’s no disrespect to him, but there’s just some more interesting players. You got to try to play Mark around 30. like you have to. Now, can he? That’s a completely different question. But especially because of his contract situation next summer and the fact that like listen, you might have to make a decision on whether or not to invest in this guy. And if he can’t play 30 minutes per game, that’s going to be a big difference in a the price tag that he’s going to want to demand and b the price tag that teams are willing to offer him. So, I think for his sake, because he’s had a healthy offseason for the first time in forever, and you guys talked about that with James Plow, right? And for the team’s sake, you got to try to push him. Like, he needs to play the most games that he’s ever played in a season, and he needs to play the most minutes per game, and he needs to show that he can handle that. I think what I really like about this, Gerald, is and and about all of these lineups is the speed and kind of the the grit that goes with it. But I’m not even just thinking about in transition. I’m talking about like on defense, Colin Gillespie and Dylan Brooks on the court at the same time is hell for defender or for offensive players who don’t like pesky defenders. Yeah, absolutely. There’s a little bit of grit in there. There’s a little bit of uh playmaking and basketball IQ, a little bit of shooting hopefully if if Brooks and Nigel Hayes Davis hold up. But, um, yeah, I think that’s an interesting potential bench lineup as you start to sub in your first couple of guys because I do think Ryan Dunn will probably be the first one subbed out and then after that, I think he might want to try and stagger Devin Booker and Jaylen Green. Mark Williams will probably come out before that though. So, and that’s that was my main reasoning for bringing up the minutes question because if he’s playing closer to 30, that means he’s gonna be playing more than sixish a quarter. Yeah. Which means he would be able to be featured at least for two minutes with this lineup, right? If he’s closer to 25 or less. No, I talking about five minute stretches over the course of the game. Just a little over that. Like, I don’t know if he’ll make it there. But yeah, if he’s playing closer to 30, I like this lineup a lot. Having active defenders around him to make things harder for ball handlers if they eventually do get to him at the rim is a lot of fun. I imagine Hayes Davis can take on some centers in some capacity too, which allow for Mark Williams to roam. Dylan Brooks can naturally do it too. That’s a very fun lineup, especially having Colin out there with Deon Booker. I had I had to get one with Colin and Nigel there because I was like I’m very intrigued by them. So it would feel wrong to not have them. Um let’s go to my next lineup here. We’re going full point book with I think this is very this is almost the same as the lineup that you had Stephen that I liked except instead of Jaylen Green I’ve got Dylan Brooks in there. Um this is a we’re not going to be pushed around defensively. We’re going to body people up on the defensive end and we’ve hopefully got enough shooting to make it work. We definitely have enough playmaking between Oso and Book. Um we’ve got hopefully shooters flanking us and Dunn and Fleming and Brooks can get to his occasional post up. Um oh I think this is We have the wrong one on the screen right now. I think that’s number I think there’s a We’ll have to figure that out. Uh let’s take that off the screen real quick. So my my lineup is Booker Brooks, Ryan Dunn, Rashier Fleming, and Oso Gadaro. So you’re going with a lot of youth there, but you’ve got a lot of athleticism in the front court, a lot of length, a lot of speed, um and hopefully a lot of strength because Rasheed Fleming is a big dude and also we know that he’s gotten better. We’ve talked a lot about um you know Brian Gregory’s comments, Jordan Hot’s comments about how they feel that he’s gotten stronger so that he can defend fives better. So hopefully that’s something that carries over. But and then you throw Brooks in there as a two guard. That’s a lot of bullying. Well, and I think it’s interesting because the biggest I think problem that a lot of people have with the starting lineup is the fact that one of Ryan Dunn or Dylan Brooks presumably will be playing the four when ideally if you are going to be running a a point book lineup, having those guys at the two and the three massively changes you from going completely undersized to then oversized with I mean Rashir Fleming in his insane what was it like 75 wingspan at the four and Oso who’s an incredibly intelligent defender if he if he doesn’t have the wingspan to match it like like Rashier does. I mean that’s hell. Like scoring on that is hell. And that Stephen insulates Devin Booker to where we talk about how he needs to have the best defensive season of his career being on the court with Brooks Dunn or Yeah, Brooks and Dunn and then Brashier Fleming and Oso Gdaro. Uh that is a great situation to put him in as a defender. That’s a fun switching lineup. That’s a fun crossmatching lineup. I imagine a sprinkles in some two three with some of the kind of offset groups that he might use as well. That’s there’s a lot of defense you can get out of that group and I’m very very intrigued by it. Multiple layers of it too. I imagine this is a lineup that tries to speed opponents up kind of like I spoke to with some of the lineup constructs that I that I mentioned. Um and then yes, again Devin Booker on the court with a bunch of wings that can do varying types of things at different levels. Very fun. Uh again, the overarching point of the season. Shooting has to hold up for everybody that’s not named Devin Booker, but also with Deon Booker, the pullover three has to be there. So that part matters with this lineup as well as others. But I think generally I like the construct a lot. Yeah. Um so this was we had a some graphical overlap here. So this was actually my number three lineup. Let’s take a look at my number four. This one is the one that we saw. Devin Booker, Grayson Allen, Dylan Brooks, Royce O’Neal, Mark Williams. um had to get Royce and Grayson in there at some point because I do think the proven shooting might matter if the rookies can’t come in and immediately spread the floor. If Brooks is shooting or Ryan Dunn shooting isn’t where you need it to be. We know that Royce and Grayson can do that. Like they’re coming off, I think for Grayson back-to-back seasons of 42% or better, which is insane considering he’s taking like five or six a game and Royce is coming off a career year across the board. Um, so if they are still on the roster, this is kind of more of a veteran look that you can go with if the younger guys aren’t having a good night, if you need some more proven, you know, playmaking, shooting, defense, all of that. Um, putting Royce at the four, Dylan Brooks at the three, or vice versa could work there. You’ve got Mark Williams, your rim runner. You’ve got good spacing with Grayson and Royce on the floor and Book just kind of running the show. So, it’s not exciting. Um, but it is a lineup that could potentially get you results. It’s a lineup template we’ve seen work between Booker, Royce, and and Grayson all being on the floor at the same time. I think the difference is the rim protection hit that you get with Mark Williams being out there instead of insert incapable of protecting the rim level um sensor group guys that the Suns have been cycling through the last few years. It allows for that lineup to hit a little different. Also, having Dylan Brooks out there and the nononsense uh approach to defense that he has too helps a lot. I like that. I like that lineup a lot. I think Daniel brings up a good point in chat that says, “I like this as a veteran lineup for sure if the young guys are having a run a rough night. Obviously, the Suns are banking a lot on the rookies and their secondyear guys. But we’ve seen Ryan Dunn have an offshooting night. We don’t know about Rashir Fleming and if he’s going to be able to consistently be out there as a four.” Nigel Hayes Davis hasn’t played in the NBA this decade. He’s not on Espos all decade team, right? Like, you know, there there is something to be said with, yes, maybe Royce O’Neal is now gradually entering the decline of his career and his athleticism, his defensive versatility is going down. Maybe Grayson Allen isn’t the best defender, even if he does try hard, right? But these are proven NBA players who have had years of offensive quarters who know how to move the ball with it or without it as well. Dylan Brooks fits into that. And then, of course, like Mark Williams, not a bad passer, not a bad finisher around the rim. Maybe he’s in a better position here than he was in Charlotte with some of his numbers dipping off last season. So, I like all this. At the end of the day, you saw Devin Booker who’s running the show. And if if Dylan Brooks is going to shoot what he shot last year, you’re looking at three legitimate three-point threats and a legitimate paint presence around Devin Booker. It’s hard to go wrong offensively with that. This this is an offensive-minded lineup. This is a shooting heavy lineup so that you can space the floor around Deon Booker properly. Defensively, you might have some concerns as far as your size. Um, I think Ted Defense brought it up, the lateral quickness for sure. I don’t know that you’re going to get away with lineups where Royce and Grayson are not on the floor because they’re both bench guys. So, if they are both in the rotation, they’re going to be sharing the floor. That’s just kind of a byproduct of how the roster construction looks. Um, but let’s go to number two cuz I I a lot of these lineups I’m throwing are not necessarily because I think they’ll work, but because I’m curious and I want to see them happen in some way. That’s why they’re intriguing, not best. Intriguing. So, I got Devin Booker. I got Jaylen Green in there. I got Dylan Brooks still on the court, but we’re going with a dual big lineup. We’re going with Oso and Command Mwatch. Love it. I want to see OSO play some minutes at the four. I want to see Come on Mwatch at the five. And I honestly think they might be best suited to cover some of their own weaknesses. If those two are sharing the court, I don’t know if I like it as much if Oso and Mark Williams are sharing the court just because at least we know Kaman is going to attempt some threes. We don’t know if he’s going to make them, but we know he’s gonna at least try. Mark Williams took nine shots outside of the paint last year. It’s just not a mid-range shot is not even something that I’m expecting from him this season. So, this is something that I don’t think this lineup will be good, but I want to see it nonetheless. This is close to what would have been my six-man lineup, which is Brooks, uh Brooks, Booker, and Green with um I can’t remember. Oso was at the four and I had Mark Williams at the five instead of Malawatch. Uh for the double big variation, seeing experimenting with that, seeing what it looks like offensively and defensively with Malawatch there though, I I still like it the same. It’s an experimental one. Uh if his three-point shooting holds up and like like we were saying, even if he’s hitting one and a half of three 3.3 attempts a game, that’s enough where you can just at least trust that he’s going to attempt them. Yeah. If you can bring somebody from the rim to the block, opens up driving lanes for everyone else. I think it I think it’s some positivity. If you if you see this lineup, it’s because coach said, “Come on, go ahead and shoot threes.” Yeah. Which I think I think he’s going to say. I think, you know, it’s funny if we tiered the most intriguing players in the Phoenix Suns. Come on. Malawatch is probably in the top tier. But we’re 45 minutes into this podcast and it’s the first lineup that we have with them. Now, I have one with him as well. But it is interesting when you kind of lay out like, hey, what is intriguing? like the fact that the number 10 overall pick took this long to come up. I think is a testament to just how many different options the Suns have out there and yeah, I think his floor is really low this season. I I think his ceiling for his career is really high, but I think this is a good lineup to kind of help him out with everything because of also like the smarts that’s on the court with him, especially defensively. Obviously Jaylen Green’s going to need to rein it in, you know, just in general, but especially offensively when it comes to taking intelligent shots, but Devin Booker is one of the smarter players in the NBA on both sides of the ball, even if he fell asleep a little bit on defense last year. Dylan Brooks is one of the smartest def defenders in the NBA and Osu Gdaro has one of the best, you know, heads for the game that I’ve seen for a rookie, especially a second round rookie, you know, out there, especially for the Suns. So, I think putting Malawatch out there who’s going to be a good communicator. I’m looking at the defense here and just thinking to myself like well communicated, good hustle and lots of size. I mean Jaylen Green is your smallest guy who’s on the court and he’s your most athletic. Devin Booker should be well insulated with a really smart backend defense behind him, especially in the paint with OSO or come on Malawatch, you know, guarding the the interior. And if Malawatch as much as a three-point shooting also shows the ability to switch out onto the perimeter and play defense there and Oso can hang back like that that changes so much with the sheer wingspan and and all the measurables that that Malawatch has along with the brain as well. I I love this lineup a lot Gerald. I like your number one lineup too and we’ll get to that. Plus my five lineups and we’ll get to all of it. That’s right after our second break. I’m rocking a Brandon Bills hat because you know I am. You see me? I’m rocking a brand of Bill’s hat because it’s hot as hell and this hat is breathable. Plus, it’s stylish. Plus, it’s well put together. Plus, I have about a thousand of them. So, even if I sweat through this one, I’ll just throw it off and pop another one on. I got Brandon Bill’s hats behind me. And guess what? You’ve probably seen Brandon Bills billboards or people wearing Brandon Bills cuz they are now all across the nation, but they started here. 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And for more than 84 years, they’ve been Arizona’s largest, most trusted local credit union, dedicated to creating exceptional experiences by giving back to the community. But they also just put their money where their mouth is. They want to give you 200 bucks. And this is not a promotion that’s running out anytime soon cuz they’ve been doing this since before I got here where you open up a free checking account online, get $200 in bonuses. And you can do that today by going to desertfinanicial.com/200. But beyond the checkings accounts, beyond the savings accounts, they’ve got stuff for when life gets a little more complicated. Mortgages, loans, credit cards, investment options, and more. It’s all at DFCU. So once again, get $200 of bonuses when you open up a free checking account online. Get started at visiting desertfinancial.com/200. Today we got David L in the chat saying go Phoenix in Brazil. Let’s go. Love that. Love everybody who’s hit the like button. Everybody who’s hit that subscribe button. Everybody who’s rated us five stars on audio even though none of us know what we’re talking about apparently. Um just us two. Well, no. Yeah, we don’t know. But maybe Stephen doesn’t know. At least Freckled Mamba knows what he’s doing. That that’s really the most important thing. Uh you don’t know. I don’t know. Scotty doesn’t know. Nobody knows. Nobody knows. Uh but I know Gerald that we’re going to see a lot of your number one most intriguing lineup. We will. So we we started off with a bench heavy lineup. We went to a vet shooting heavy lineup. We got our small ball lineup in there. We’ve got our dual big lineup. This is the starting lineup. And this is this is most intriguing to me. Not just because I think it’s what’s the starting lineup’s going to look like, but because it needs to work for this team to work, honestly. Um, you need Ryan Dunn to be able to be playing heavy minutes. You need him to be a three or a four. I think defensively he’ll be a three and offensively he’ll be more of a four. Um, just because of the size difference, but again, we’re in a positionless era, so it really doesn’t matter at this point. Um, you need the Jaylen Green Deon Booker backcourt to work. you need Mark Williams to be healthy enough to be part of this lineup and make it a staple for this Suns team to work. Uh, and it’s kind of funny if you look at all five of my lineups, they all include Devin Booker and Mr. Dylan Brooks. And there’s a reason for that. Obviously, I’m not going to say that I’m not interested in what the Suns look like when Book is off the court, but for this Suns team to be good, to be better than last year or to even sniff 40 wins, Book has to be a heavy part in all of these lineups. And I think Dylan Brooks, he has to be that 3 and D guy that he was for Houston last year. Um, I think he can be. I think this starting lineup is what we’re going to see on opening night as long as everyone’s healthy. And I think this is hopefully a lineup that will stay healthy enough for you to get a solid sample size to see what it can be. I think because we all have it, we all have it included in our tops uh for today’s show, kind of have something different to speak on every time it comes up. Yeah. Yeah. I think the one of the most important things if this is going to be the starting lineup, how well does Ryan Dunn screen? When is he screening? What’s the reason for why he’s screening? And how is he getting downhill? If Deon Booker is getting double teamed because Ryan Dunn brings the least favorable matchup for defense into primary action. Deon Booker gets double teamed or it’s a strong recover. How well is Ryan Dunn making decisions getting downhill into the short role? Because uh Gerald, we had multiple moments when Nick Richards came to the team last season where Ryan Dunn is getting into a screen. The Muel Bridges screen and roll. The screen and roll is a speed turn really. He gets on on the short roll and who’s in a dunker spot as there’s only one other defender between those two players in the basket. Nick Richards. Now Mark Williams is going to be in a lot of those situations. If Ryan Dunn can take steps in the right direction with his short roll playmaking, I think that changes a lot. He has the floater. The floater was elite last season. What else though? Same thing with Oso. What else past that? If he’s throwing lobs, yeah, Malawash can go get those lobs. If he’s in a lineup with him, also shown to be able to go get lobs before, too. That unlocks things. So, I think if that’s the starting template, Ryan Dunn and his secondary playmaking is going to be very important. And we’ve seen him in that situation. I think his mo his like favorite move is like the little shovel pass like right underneath like two-hand shovel pass. And he’s shown that he has some awareness to do that. And I think he’s a smart player, but for some reason like nobody on this team can throw lobs. Like Book can’t throw like nobody can throw lobs. But maybe that’s more Gerald of a testament to who they’ve had to throw lobs to rather than the people throwing them. Little column A, a little column B. Just a little bit. I I What is the number one thing that you would look out for? Maybe the number one concern that you would have with your with the starting lineup? Uh, I mean, it will continue to be the back court for me and probably shooting. Um, I I I feel like I’m beating a dead horse with this, but Jaylen Green is not an efficient shooter, even though he takes a lot of threes, and you have to account for that. Dylan Brooks, he’s had a career shooting year, but six out of the last seven seasons before that, he was 36% or less. Um, and then Ryan Dunn, we’ve talked a lot about his shooting, so we don’t have to go into that, but you need the summer league shooting for Ryan Dunn to carry over. You need Dylan Brooks to carry his career year over. You need Jaylen Green to hopefully get a few more spot up attempts playing off of book and that can raise that percentage as well because he was a good catch and shoot spot up three-point shooter. It’s just the majority of his were off the bounce because that’s what Houston needed from him. All right. Well, we got through your five, Gerald. We got through your five, Steve. Let’s get to another guy who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Me. Let’s get to my five most intriguing lineup. Starting with number five. I think this one’s really interesting. So obviously Devin Booker is going to be off the court at some point and Jaylen Green is likely going to be on it during that time. So I have Jaylen Green at the one, Grayson Allen at the two. I’ve got Royce O’Neal at the three, maybe pseudo four depending on what’s going on. Rashir Fleming at the four, Osuo Gdaro at the five. My main basis around this was yes, the the if here is if Rashir Fleming can hit threes. surrounding Jaylen Green with three shooters and with good backend defense with Rashier and Eigodaro and just kind of like like letting Jaylen cook, right? Like we want to eliminate the bad shots, but we also want to open things up for him. I think if Oso Gdaro grabs a rebound and we talk about playing fast and playing in transition, you’ve got Royce O’Neal and Grayson Allen out on the wings flanking ready to shoot a three and Jaylen Green and Rashir Fleming sprinting up the court and trying to find a paint touch. Like that’s dangerous. I I I think that’s something that you’re gonna have to try to make a decision. And when two guys are barreling down at the rim and then you have two guys that could shoot and one that is one of the best shooters in the NBA and Grayson Allen, I think that’s really really intriguing. And putting Jaylen Green next to shooters and next to defenders is something that in Houston they tried to do, but I don’t think they ever really found the right balance there. And it leaned a little bit more towards defense than it did with the shooting. But I think my biggest concern here for for this lineup is Royce O’Neal kind of slotting into that three spot and if he’s guarding more on the perimeter getting burned by, but I’m kind of banking on Fleming and Egodaro holding down that backline defense a little bit. I I like this offensively for sure because you are surrounding him with three shooters and if Book has to be off the court, you’re also surrounding Jaylen Green with some playmaking, which I think you need whenever like honestly if Book is off the court and Jaylen Green’s on, I would like to have Oso on the court as well for a lot of those minutes to help with the playmaking because of his basketball IQ. Um I think for me the biggest concern might be just the defensive glass. Um, sure you got a rookie and then you’ve got Igodaro who’s a little undersized for a five. But if if he’s gotten stronger and if Fleming can help out enough and Royce can help out enough on the glass, um, it could be an interesting lineup when Book is not on the court. I like this lineup, man. It’s similar to the one that I mentioned with Jaylen Green where with Houston without Fan Vleet plus 22 and a half and 300 something non-garbage time minutes. Just a ridiculous ridiculous impact number both on both ends of the floor. you get a little bit of that with some shooting from the perimeter that those lineups in Houston just did not have because they just didn’t have those facilities. Um, I do worry about Royce at the three to your point. Yeah. But also to your point is Rashir being there. I hope at some point Rashier is able to take on the same role in lineups that Royce has in years past. Yeah. Because for one, that makes Royce expendable and that’s one of your most friendly assets to use to bring new talent in. But also, if you’re talking about going forward five years from now, not really expecting Royce to be on the team. But if Rashir is doing those things early, I think that changes a lot for your team. Ted in the chat saying it’s hard for for them to like any lineup where Royce and Grayson share the court. Swap out Royce for Nigel Hayes Davis. That works for me. I I think Nigel Hayes Davis would be a good shout there at that three spot as well. A little bit more athleticism in there, a little bit more length in there, too. But it’s just does the three point on the court with his Yeah. But it’s it does the three-point shooting hold up. Does his style of play mix with giving Jaylen Green some space? I don’t I don’t think so as much, but I do I see where you’re coming from and I wouldn’t hate Nigel Hayes Davis there as well. All right, let’s keep it rolling here. It means a lot for two guys who have no idea what they’re talking about to like the lineup. So, thanks guys. Uh let’s go to my number four most intriguing lineup. That’s right. I got Colin Gillespie out there. This is basically the pseudo starting lineup, but instead of Jaylen Green out there, we do have Colin Gillespie. Now, this is not me saying that I want to see this happen because obviously if Jaylen Green is coming off of the bench or this is your starting lineup, something went wrong with that backcourt pairing, but that being said, there’s a lot of intriguing parts to the starting lineup that we talked about. And when we talk about hustle and grit and good ball movement and somebody who’s going to kind of do all the little things right, Colin Gillespie fits into that. And when you’re on a lineup out there with Devin Booker, Ryan Dunn, Dylan Brooks, and Mark Williams, I think this is a really good fit. Gerald, I don’t think it has the ceiling that maybe it does if Jaylen Green’s out there and it’s all hitting, but I think the floor on this lineup might be higher. It might be. And I think for those of you that want Devin Booker to play with a point guard, this is your only option. Here you go. Um, but no, I I am intrigued by this because I do think getting Book off the ball and making sure he’s not responsible for every half court initiation is important. Um, I think defensively this should hold up because you’ve got Ryan Dunn, you’ve got some scrainess with Brooks and Colin Gillespie, you’ve got Mark Williams holding things down in the paint. Offensively, as long as Dunn can hit shots, that helps. But even if he can’t, you’ve still got Colin and Dylan Brooks who can knock down catch and shoot looks. Playing off a book, you got Ryan Dunn’s cutting. you got Mark Williams screening and rolling. So there’s there’s a lot of different elements on both ends of the court to this. Um so again, you mentioned it like if if this is what we’re seeing, how does that factor in the course of a game because Jaylen Green’s younger is probably going to play a lot of minutes. So for us to see this, it would either have to be like an injury or that backcourt pairing would really have to have gone south. But it could be something. It could be something where Jaylen Green kind of takes the bulk minutes with the bench guys and stays in and then checks in a little bit later than the starting lineup would. And you see this for a couple minutes in between there. But what do you think, Stephen? I like it. I think the first question for me is does Collins three-point shooting hold up? Because when he was on the floor and to his credit, he knocked him down. Is he going to make him to a rate where teams start to care at least just a little bit? And that’s not disrespectfully to him. Yeah. But it’s in respect to everything that they’re going to look to want to take away. Devin Booker has the ball. What does the covers look like on Colin? If he’s in pick and roll with Mark Williams and and Collins spaced off of it, where’s the help likely coming from? Probably from Colin. So, I want to make sure they get that part done. Real quick before we keep talking about this and the rest of my most intriguing lineups. If you’re watching us on TV, well, the party always continues over at gophnx.com, which means it’s time for overtime here on PHNX Suns, which also means it’s time to hit that like button, hit that subscribe button, so you’re back with us tomorrow at 3 and every day this week at 3:00. Plus, you are also tuned in for all of Stephen’s breakdowns, my mini pods, and if you’re a diehard or maybe even some free to free to everybody articles over at gophx.com. You’re reading all of Gerald’s writing. Any any other thoughts on Gillespie with the starting lineup? I think the shooting should hold to Steven’s point because he shot about 40% pretty much every level that he’s played at recent over the last couple years, NBA, college, etc. I think the shooting is there. It’s for me, can he do all the other things that like we saw him do last year, but was it like we keep saying, was it just by comparison because the rest of the team looked dead? Sure. Or can he do that now that he has expectations on him on both ends? And I think what I’m intrigued by because when you look at the 34 combo of Ryan D, Dylan Brooks, a big question is rebounding. And Stephen, one thing that Kong Gillespie is really good at for his size, and I’m not saying he’s going to substitute for a good, you know, rebounding power forward, but for his size, he is one of the best pound-for-pound rebounders that that we have on this team. Yeah. While you were gone, um, taking a muchdeserved, much earned vacation, me and Gerald talked about the emphasis on rebounding, especially if they’re going with the starting lineup that we all agree that we believe that they’re going to go forward with. Someone’s got to rebound outside of Mark Williams. And it can’t just be Ryan, can you please chip in there? Like, he’s going to be a piece of it because of where he’s at in the lineup, but you need it’s gonna have to be a gang rebounding effort. And when Collins in the lineup, you never have to worry about him not doing the blue collar things because that’s just to his nature. Yeah. Well, from that to the actual starting lineup, my third most intriguing lineup is that starting five sub, Gillespie for Green. Any any other thoughts to put a bow on the intriguing parts of this starting lineup? Not really. It’s you need it to work. I’ll say it again. You need this lineup to work because I think it’s the most sensible lineup that you’ll either see as a starting lineup or hopefully Ryan Dunn, one of the first subs in if he’s not out there. Yeah. I I think the my biggest concern, Stephen, is is Devin Booker defensively in this lineup because I like Brooks and Dunn individually as defenders, but you know, Mark Williams has has the talent to do it, but you know, hasn’t been as impactful around the rim and Jaylen Green has the measurables to do it, you know, as a deflection machine. But is is this a good enough lineup to consistently sustain Devin Booker, who we assume is going to be trying to go for like 30 and eight every single night? I think it is. Um, some of that 30 and eight is contingent upon what his three-point pull up three-point shooting looks like because I think for the screens that Mark Williams is going to be able to set for him, but also for the ways in which I imagine ID is going to feature Booker, I think the opportunity for those shots will be there. So, it’s about Booker executing on that, but also paint touches, paint touches, paint touches, paint touches. That’s going to be something that this lineup especially has to basically start their possessions with in some capacity. Whether it’s directly or there’s one action that flows into it or it’s a a roll from Mark Williams that’s followed by a slot cut from Ryan Dunn. Collapse the defense, make the spray passes around and there should be opportunity for them to knock down good shot quality. Well, you want intriguing, I’ll give you intriguing. Let’s go to my number two most intriguing lineup for the Suns. Give me length. Don’t clip that. Devin Booker, Ryan Dunn, Dylan Brooks, Rashier Fleming. Come on Malawatch. Now, this is the second time we’ve seen Come on Malawatch, but give me the all wingspan lineup around Devin Booker. Ryan Dunn and Dylan Brooks holding down your POA along with Devin Booker. Rasheir Fleming and Kaman Malawatch manning the middle, manning the, you know, even switching out on the perimeter if you want to put Dun and Brooks more into the interior there. I I think that this is something to where you’re saying offensively Devin Booker cook. Yeah. Like like you this is this is Hey, hey, Book Go take every damn shot, right? Like sure we’ll be spacing. Rashe Fleming can hopefully hit threes. Dylan Brooks can hopefully still hit threes. Ryan Dunn hopefully improves from three and and Malawatch. We’ll see. But we’re giving you a a 74 rim presence. We’re giving you somebody with a 75 wingspan at the four who can hopefully hit corner threes. And then Dylan Brooks, who is an improved three-point shooter, and Ryan Dunny. I get it, guys. I do like Okay, jokes aside. You brought this on yourself. This is this is a go get a stop and let’s like Devin Booker’s in a groove, right? Like let’s say this is like the third quarter. you’re up five to six points. Book has like 26 and it’s like, okay, let’s shut down the opposing offense and let’s just go let Book be on a heater and then everybody can play off of him and hopefully get some open shots. But it’s a risk and that’s why I put it as intriguing. It is intriguing. I think offensively, you’re right to have questions. Book definitely has to have it going for this lineup to even remotely work. Um, but I also think you can live in transition with this lineup. You can live on the offensive glass. I think Plume of Prometheus said a whole lot of bricks, but we’re going to get the rebounds. So, amen. That’s kind that might be the Sun’s motto this year. Yeah, that’s that’s that’s kind of the the strategy here. I I do worry about having two rookies holding down your front court. Um but they do have the size, the defense, the length, the athleticism to hopefully uh get by if they are ready for this upcoming season. So, I I’m intrigued. I wonder this is definitely the the book bag lineup. Yeah, this is 1,00% that um my issue with this lineup, what if teams what if teams just if you throw this one out there, what if teams just say we’re switching everything Deon Booker? Mhm. You’re going to have to play one-on-one. Yeah. I I think the the interesting thing here is when we talk about the improvement in Ryan Dunn and a lot of these other lineups as a as a finisher on a on a pick and roll or or a pick and pop or whatever, this is going to rely on Ryan Dunn maybe creating a little bit more and seeing what he can do with the ball in his hands. Now, again, I don’t think that in year two he’s going to be a reliable option there, but I also think that this is the season where you can take those risks and you want to put him in these uncomfortable situations. I think that you’re gonna be like if if they are saying let’s just switch everything like we’re not gonna draw a bunch of attention to Devin Booker, it is going to be on Dunn and Brooks to to be able to create some offense and hell man like I know that we don’t think Malawatch is going to contribute but he showed that he wants to push his game offensively and try new things. If we’re in February and March and in April and it’s like he might actually be a little bit more of a realistic play initiator if you dump the ball out to him like this is your experimental lineup. Let’s see what other guys can do if if or book goes off. Like I think there’s a really low floor to this. I I think there’s a chance that it’s like the Suns haven’t scored in two and a half minutes and it’s been two and a half minutes since this lineup checked in, but the other team only scored two points. So I I that’s why this is intriguing. I have it above the starting lineup. Not because I think it’s going to be better, but just because I think it would be fascinating to see what they do on the court with this. I think I think you think this could be if Malawatch hits the way that they hope like a lineup that potentially starts for them. If if Malawatch plays like a certified ready top 10 pick or what he was supposed to be, top five to seven pick. If Rashir Fleming plays like uh our friend Steven Gillespie had him as the number 12 pick in the draft, which is where he had him on his big board. If those two hit offensively, this lineup becomes enormously dangerous. Yes, big ifs. And again, if Malawatch is seeing this type of impact early in his career, it’s because he’s knocking down threes more than it’s because he’s some some just unstoppable force on the block. Mhm. having a floor space and five in it because it’s a foreign language for the Suns because they just haven’t had it like at all outside of Frank the Tank. Aaron Baines. Aaron Baines, right? And that was like one game Aaron Baines like Yeah. Like a minute. It’s a foreign language. You have a five, they can space it viably. That gives you room for error in terms of not having spacers at other positions because you’re pulling the opposing center away from the rim, right? There’s opportunity there. I just fear for how lineup or how opponents would potentially guard this group especially when it comes to book because they could switch everything or they could just throw double after double after double and will they be able to create advantages out of that? I think Brian Dunn would have to Brooks Flem like Mwatch would have to be able to move the ball where it needs to go out of this. This is the leap lineup like this is this is the your young guys show more than what you expected. Yeah. Right. And especially in some of the areas like because if if Rashier and Malawatch and Dunn are all sustainable from three, this lineup’s completely different. Like completely different. But again, like massive ifs. These these final two lineups for me are really really low floors if they don’t work out and really really high ceilings if they do. And there’s a lot of carryover from my number two to my number one most intriguing lineup cuz I’m staying with Book at the one, Dunn at the two, and Brooks at the three, but I’m swapping out the four and five. Less potential shooting, but more already proven in the NBA. Oso Goddaro at the four, Mark Williams at the five. Again, this is basically Devin Booker is going supernova. Deon Booker is your main source of offense and Ryan Dunn is going to be your secondary creator, which could be absolutely disastrous, right? But we also saw last season going into it at this point in the offseason, nobody expected Ryan Dunn to be as good offensively as he was. Now, was he a world beater? No. But Gerald, we heard uh, you know, when we were doing the prep and from people that we talked to that Ryan Dunn was one of the worst offensive prospects that people had ever watched. And he didn’t play like that. And he works. So, it’s like this is also banking on your future because Mark and Oso are still young, but it’s a completely different four five look with a lot less shooting. Uh, which is why I kind of might want to swap one and two, but I still find this absolutely fascinating. Yeah, you you would have a lot of size, a lot of defense with this lineup, a lot of length, which we know you care about, Eric. Um, I think I just want to say this, size does matter. You heard it here. Clip that. Um, you can clip that. Tweet it at me. Maybe don’t. Um, I I do like that OSO is on the floor because we talked about this, how our team’s going to guard Devin Booker if the shooting around him is not up to par. At least you have an outlet with Oso that if he’s setting the screen, he can find Mark Williams in the dunker spot. He can hit Dylan Brooks or Ryan Dunn in the weak side corner out of that. if they’re gonna just load up on book, the shooting is still a concern just because, you know, it’s going to be any concern or for any lineup where OSO’s at the four to be honest with you, unless the five is someone that can knock down threes. We know Mark Williams can’t do that. Um, and then you’re banking a lot on Dunn and Brooks being able to be better shooters than they’ve been throughout their careers to this point. But if they can, if Dunn and Brooks can spread the floor, this is fun because you have two bigs that are capable of setting screens for Devin Booker and Dunn hopefully able to time his cuts or attacking closeouts, Brooks able to time maybe post ups, take people by surprise, that type of thing. Um, the spacing would be my biggest concern with this group. Yeah, again that that just puts the onus back on OSO for growth because if OSO is initiating offense in certain in certain respects and that’s putting Deon Booker off it, that’s one less spacing piece that you have to worry about and you can do some things with Mark Williams, which we’ll get into later on in the offseason. But there’s opportunity for this lineup to work. I don’t think it’s one I think it’s one that we’re going to see probably early on just to see what it looks like, how defenses look to guard it. Can they counter it? But I think there’s opportunity there for this lineup to be solid for them. I think what makes this really intriguing for me is the playmaking at the 45 with Oso and Mark Williams and and what they might be able to do with that, whether it’s off of a short roll or whether it’s off of a post up and people cutting or if it’s in transition. Again, like I I see this as a very experimental lineup that again, every single lineup that we talk about, even the starting lineup relies on somebody, you know, improving or being better or showing something that they don’t have. And I think that’s what makes this season for the Suns so fascinating, right, is they not only have a ton of options, right, and maybe their top options aren’t as good as they were when they had Kevin Durant on the team. They have a ton of options. They have a ton of depth and they have a lot of different depth when it comes to athleticism compared to last year. They have good playmakers at the four and five, but they only have one backup point guard, right? They’ve got good wing defenders, but one of them had the best shooting season of his career last year. Is he going to be able to carry that up? The other one was deemed one of the worst offensive prospects we’ve ever seen who surprised people last year. Can he continue to do that? Like there are so many clear-cut weaknesses and clear-cut strengths and a lot of runway for almost every single player that we talk about. Like this might be one of the more intriguing teams as far as I’m not sure who the main rotation is going to be and what lineups are really going to click on this team that I’ve seen in the Suns in a long time. They’re not the best. These two lineups are not going to be the two best lineups out there, but man, I’m fascinated to see what Jordan does with this team. Yep. Same here. Any final thoughts on any of the 15 most intriguing lineups that we went over today? We probably could have come up with 15 more. Yeah. And that’s beautiful. Maybe we’ll do this again, which is a which is a fun exercise and also a daunting one if you are looking at Jordan not trying to figure all this out. Honestly, it’s going to come down to which of all of these three, four combo guys that we’re talking about can defend and also can knock down threes at a reputable rate because that’s going to determine which guys get minutes and which guys don’t. Kobe Brea not on any of our lineups. Uh, no. Come on, Malawatch for for you, Stephen. No, Nigel Hayes Davis for me. Gerald, not a single lineup without Devin Booker on the court. Like, no, but like that’s the saying is like, and we didn’t talk about any of this beforehand. We did not like say, “Hey, I’m going to do a lineup like this. You don’t do this.” We all just sent our five and went on with it. So, it’s like you’re right when we say we could do 15 more. Maybe we can make Freckle Mama do 15 since he’s the only one who knows what’s going on here. All right. Uh, that’s going to wrap things up for today’s edition of PHNX Suns. Of course, we’ll be back tomorrow with another show at 3 and then on Thursday. Then on Friday, keep your eyes out for a trending mini pod that I recorded comparing Devin Booker’s contract extension to the Max contract extension that the Spurs gave Dear Fox and why it might change your opinion on what the Suns did. That should hit your YouTube feeds and your audio feeds later tonight. So, keep your eyes out for that. And of course, on those YouTube feeds, make sure you subscribe. Make sure you hit the like button on this video and every other video as well. Of course, if you’re on audio, five star reviews go a long way. Uh we’ve got girth in length over here. There we go. Uh, I’m sorry. That was the ADHD kicking in. Uh, you can follow the show. You don’t even have to do that. No, I didn’t. But that was just it just boom. Brain just went. You know how it goes, right, Stephen? I do not. Amen, brother. Get this L. Follow the show. PHX_s. Tell us what your most intriguing lineup is either in the comments or out on socials. Of course, you can follow the freckled Mamba making all the magic behind the Mac at freckledmamba. I’m going to hoop with him later. I’ll report in the Discord if I get dunked on. I might. You follow Gerald at Gerald Borgay. You can follow Stephen at StevenPG3. That’s Stephen with a PH cuz he always balances us out. I try, man. I do my best. A plus effort. We’re We’re pulling you farther into the unhinged range. And if you want to continue to get unhinged with me at RI Ky, we’ll see all of you tomorrow for some more fun. [Music] [Applause] [Music]

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The Phoenix Suns have completely swapped out their roster following their disastrous 2024-25 season. New coach Jordan Ott will have plenty of different lineups to tap into over the course of the season, with a wide variety of players with different skillsets and experience levels.

What are the most intriguing lineups they Suns could put on the court? Who has the highest ceiling? What about the highest floor?

PHNX Suns breaks it down on another edition of the show, after discussing if Chris Paul should have made Espo’s Arizona All Half-Decade Team!

Follow the show @PHNX_Suns, @StephenPG3, @GeraldBourguet, @ErikRuby & @FreckledMamba

0:00 – Intro
3:00 – Is Espo’s All Half-Decade Team is Missing some Suns?
11:35 – Stephen’s Top 5 Most Intriguing Lineups
33:40 – Gerald’s Top 5 Most Intriguing Lineups
52:40 – Erik’s Top 5 Most Intriguing Lineups

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