The Suns are PURE Genius…

The Suns are PURE Genius…

The Phoenix Suns have completely revamped their roster and it’s while it’s definitely a good thing, they have lost a ton of star power from last year and there’s still a lot of question marks remaining. However, I think they had maybe the best NBA draft this year with some of their steals in the second round and what they’ve done to give Devin Booker talent is pretty solid. And it’s nice to see the Suns officially commit to a retool around Devin Booker. It became clear that the big three of Bradley Beal, Kevin Durant, and Devin Booker were never quite going to work out because that is three alpha scorers all being shoved onto the same court together and expected to share the ball and be able to go out and generate efficient offense. It just never was going to work out. So, the Suns commit once again to rebuilding around Devin Booker, who has been their guy. He’s proven before he can take him to the NBA finals. You know, they had a great roster that year with guys like Chris Paul, the two wings and Bridges and Cam Johnson and everybody had their role unlike last year with Booker, KD, and Beal. They were all scorers. Uh but with the Monty Williams era Suns where they had everyone with a defined role, DBook was the score. Chris Paul is going to facilitate and score when they needed buckets. DeAndre Aton was their anchor down low and they just had a plethora of 3 and D wings. It’s a triedand-rue method that worked and Booker will still only be 29. So, there’s still plenty of time to develop a roster around him over the next few years before he hits the end of his prime. But, it needs to happen in a hurry. They need to get back to this kind of roster that they had in the past, building around Booker, letting him be that alpha score, which he’s proven he can be when he took you to the NBA finals. And they need to trust Booker to get them there. And that’s what they’re doing. They’re committing. They’re bringing in guys like Jaylen Green, guys like Dylan Brooks, Mark Williams, a younger core than what we saw last year in Phoenix, which was just a bunch of old men, right? Like KD was 37. Beal was getting up there in age and being paid 57 million. They had guys like Yousef Nerkage and Royce O’Neal entering the back half of their career. So bringing in all this new younger talent is really going to help out Booker and the Suns because now once again they’re committing to building around Devin Booker and letting him be that alpha score in which he can be. Uh he had 25 points a game last year almost 26 with seven assists, four rebounds in 37 minutes. Now he did shoot 46% from the field and 33% from three on seven attempts which is a down year especially from three. And there’s a lot of different excuses you could throw out there for Debook this year. All of which are pretty valid, right? Like he’s out there playing second fiddle to Kevin Durant who’s still probably pound-for-pound the best scoreer in the league other than maybe Shay. He’s also having to play point guard, which is not his natural position. His natural position is playing the two. He also played for Team USA this summer, so he didn’t really have a full summer to rest and recover and get ready for the next season. But like I said, he’s proven before. Like throw it back to 2021 2022 where he averaged 27 a game with five boards and five assists while shooting 47% from the field and 38% from three on seven attempts taking his team deep into the playoffs. And he finished fourth in MVP voting that year, which people don’t realize. Book was almost an MVP. And this is the new and improved lineup with I guess Jaylen Green at the point. They said they want book at point and then they changed it to Jaylen Green. They’ve got great defense surrounding them with Dylan Brooks, Ryan Dunn, and probably like 40 games of Mark Williams if you’re lucky. And really, this is, I think, a better constructed roster than last year because it was just a bunch of scores and a bunch of older guys. Now, bringing in Jaylen Green, this could be the ultimate wild card. This could either be a genius move and it’s going to work out when he plays like he did in game two against the Golden State Warriors where he dropped 38.6 six rebounds, three assists, and two steals because he’s still just about to turn 23. He’s still 22 at this time. He’ll be 23 this season, or it could turn out horrifically bad. Now, last year, Jaylen averaged about 21 points, close to five rebounds, three and a half assists in 34 minutes a game, shot 42% from the field, and 35% from three on eight attempts a night. Can he improve from this? Because that’s been the question. The Rockets were trying to get him to improve really for the last three years and he never really showed that many signs of progression. They said he’s going to be the primary point guard which will be interesting because he’s never really played the primary point guard spot. He’s always been a two guard and we’ll see how long that lasts. Maybe Phoenix brings in another guard unless Jaylen Green come off the bench. Maybe that’s where he could be his best. I don’t know. There’s still a lot left to find out about Jaylen Green. As for Mark Williams, I joked earlier saying you’d be lucky to get 40 games out of him. And that’s just the Hornets fan in me coming out. Um because yes, he’s 7’2 with a 76 wingspan. Yes, when he’s on the court, he looks really good on the offensive side of the ball. Defensively, sometimes he looks uninterested, but hey, we were 87 games under 500 last year, so I don’t blame him. Uh he averaged 15 points, 10 rebounds, 2.7 assists in 26 minutes while shooting 60% from the field. But like I said, he only played 44 games. He has never in his career played more than 45 games in a season, which is a massive question mark. Now, yes, he’s only been in the league for three years, so it’s not like it’s 10 straight years of never playing more than 45 games, so it’s not a guarantee, but he just hasn’t been healthy so far. You see the per 36 numbers, and those are very promising for a guy like Mark. And I mean, he went out and dropped 38 or so on Memphis, so he can definitely be good. The contingency plan here is going to be Kaman Malawatch who they’re going to grow and develop and eventually probably take over as the starting center because Malawatch has even shown abilities to knock down the three ball. I think he hit four or five last year at Duke. He’s also 7’2. He’s got a 77 wingspan though. So even bigger than Mark Williams, which is kind of hard to believe, but Malawatch last year at Duke averaged 8.6 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks in just 21 minutes while shooting 71% from the field. We mentioned he made a few threes shooting 25% from beyond the arc on point4 attempts per game. So Malawatch will be the guy eventually. You know they did have to spend a top 10 pick on him which I’m not the biggest fan of but if he develops it could definitely play out. They also have a one-two punch of elite defenders on the wing. One with Dylan Brooks who they bring over in the Kevin Durant trade. I was a big fan of Houston’s Hall out of the KD trade getting Jaylen Green, Dylan Brooks, and of course, come on Malawatch. Brooks last year averaged 14 points and four rebounds and 32 minutes a game. Shot 43% from the field, 40% from three on 6.7 attempts a night. He’s a dog, right? Especially defensively. He’s also due for one horrifically contested mid-range per game. But if you get past that, I mean, he shot almost 40% from three last year. So definitely a guy you’d love to have on your roster, but a guy you’d hate to play against. Ryan Dunn at six foot nine with a 72 wingspan is a guy that is only going to get better and better and better. Coming out of Virginia really reminds me of Trey Murphy, right? They both came from Virginia. Um now Trey Murphy transferred in, but Ryan Dunn coming from Virginia with a very similar skill set as a fantastic defender. Um he just couldn’t shoot the three ball, right? 43% from the field, 31% from three. He averaged seven points a game last year in his rookie year. And there were times when he was knocking it down. He’s just got to continue to develop, continue to work on that three-point jumper. And if he does, he can be scary. But the Suns are not done yet. They have compiled a list of elite 3 and D wings, right? They bring in Rashir Fleming as well at the 31st overall pick, which I thought was about 17 spots too low. This guy should have been a lottery pick. 6’9 with a 75 wingspan. That’s a plus eight wingspan. And you’re telling me NBA scouts didn’t jump on this until the second round. Shout out to the Suns for trading up and going to get him. Fleming averaged 15 and almost eight and a half rebounds with 1.3 assists in three stocks per game on 39% shooting from three on four and a half attempts. Like how does this guy fall to the second round? Legitimately I don’t understand how he does it. Um but the Suns get a steal there and then they also get a steal with Kobe Brea. Shockingly the best shooter in the draft falling to 41 is going to be a steal and he is really reminding a lot of people of Klay Thompson in the summer league. Now, I’m not saying he’s going to be that good off rip, but he can shoot the three ball. He showed signs of being able to do more than we thought he could off the dribble, getting to the rim, a little bit better athleticism than we thought, and being able to create his own shot right here over Bub Carrington, who’s an NBA rotational player. And then right here, great back door cut, go up and dunk it, showing off a little bit of athleticism, which we weren’t all the way sure was there. And of course, the best shooter in the draft. So, I’m loving what the Suns have done this offseason. Does it result in an NBA playoff spot? I don’t know. But with that being said, let me know your thoughts down in the comment section below. Hit the like button, hit the subscribe button. With that being said, thanks so much for watching today’s video.

This video looks at the Phoenix suns and how they are pure genius after revamping their roster around Devin Booker and getting guys like Jalen Green and Mark Williams
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