POSTGAME: Phoenix Suns Rookies SHOW OUT In COMEBACK WIN Over Luka, Lakers

POSTGAME: Phoenix Suns Rookies SHOW OUT In COMEBACK WIN Over Luka, Lakers

The Phoenix Suns end the preseason three and one. Come on, Malawatches. Him. Rashier Fleming is here. And Jared Butler, you deserve an apology. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Psychos and sickos unite for three in one edition of PHNX Suns presented by Bet365. Download the bet365 app. Use code PHX365. Deposit 10. Place a bet for five and get $200 in bonus bets. I am Eric. That is Espo. We got the freckle mamba aka Eritton behind the Mac making all of the magic happen. Steven will be joining us later calling in from the morg as the Phoenix Suns put the Lakers to rest in their preseason finale 113 to 104. Come on Malawatch with by far and away his best game as a Phoenix Sun coming in his first start in the NBA. Rashier Fleming showed flashes. Jared Butler was hooping. We got a lot to get into. I will issue an apology, but how are you feeling Espar? It’s time to send the Lakers fishing. Season’s over already. I mean, we’re two and0. I mean, in non-counting games. Uh, but one and0 when our starters didn’t even touch the court. When our second string didn’t even touch the court. Yeah, suck it, Luca. Yeah, that that’s the postgame show. I get excited. Uh, suck it, Luca. Because Yeah, you’re right. Not only did the starters not play, but then the next five didn’t play either. Your starting lineup tonight was Jared Butler, Jordan Goodwin, Nigel Hayes Davis, Rasheed Fleming, and Kaban Malawatch. And look, I am a man of integrity despite what a lot of people might think. I could agree with that. I am a man of morals and I am a man who will raise his hand and admit when he is wrong. And I’m talking to nobody else except for you, Jared Butler. Oh, I thought you were apologizing to me. No, this is this is for Jared. Okay. I’m sorry. You were hooping today. Absolutely hooping. Not just scoring, but your playmaking was crisp. Your defensive intensity was there. I felt like you found the right pockets to attack and when not to attack. Felt like you were a completely different player than before. And I will acknowledge that I was wrong about you. Even though in my thing I did say you could hoop, but you really showed up. Shut me up. Shut up all the doubters. You played incredible today. So, hand up. I’m sorry. Jared Butler in the fourth preseason game. I’m just I mean, but I hated on him for what was before. Well, I mean, so I’m going to apologize. I mean, that was your problem. Haiti got a guy for a preseason game, too. But, I mean, we talked about in pregame, what was it gonna be? The Butler and Goodwin show. They combined for 24 of 46 with 59 points, uh, 15 assists and 11 rebounds and two blocks. Those two guys went out there and said, “Look, I’ve got an opportunity to try to prove I belong on this roster and both of them took advantage of it.” I I get that that uh Butler had more points. Uh, but this was another good showing for for Jordan Goodwin as well. It wasn’t like he went out uh and just played horribly. Well, Jared Butler balled out. I I love that we’re sitting here debating likely the 15th guy on the roster who will get that spot. But that’s what tonight was about. It was about that and watching youth show what that potential. 26 shots for Jared Butler. 20 shots for Jordan Goodwin. Every time I hear it, every time I say it, it it’s that’s 46 shots. This is what the offense 46 shots. But to be fair, it’s preparing us for what the back court will look like when you have Jaylen Green and Deon Booker there. The combined 46 shots between the two. Listen, I I think that it’s it’s fair to say yes, it’s just preseason. And you could say that about everything that we’ve talked about over now the last four games, including tonight. But this team and these players have all shown discernable flashes in this preseason. And that is the number one thing that you need to see is flashes. I get it. We’re not going to crown this team the best team in the NBA. They’re not going to have a 3 to1 winning percentage. Are you going to do that? You going to crown them the best team in the NBA? No. It seemed like you wanted to do that. No, I was I was saying I loved you to my dog. Oh, sorry. No, that is the reason I’m not I’m kidding. I will I will crown you the best team against the Lakers in the preseason. I’m I’m willing to do that. Hey. Uh, listen, this is a team that when you break down all the things you saw in this preseason, if they can continue to build on that when they eventually get Jaylen Green out, which we got some bad injury news from him that we’ll go over at the end of the show, when you get Mark Williams back, this team is starting to look more and more complete. But back to tonight instead of just the big picture. Let’s just jump right into it. We already mentioned Jared Butler, so let’s just go ahead and name our big bright shining star presented by Hila River Resorts and Casinos. You do you at Hila River Resorts and Casinos. Visit playhila.com for more details. It is Jared Butler and he deserved it. Listen, he took 26 shots, but my lord, he hit 14 of them, five of 10 from deep. Only thing was two of six from the free throw line, 35 points, nine assists, and seven rebounds for him. Now, the conversation goes, Espo, and I know you touched on this. Jordan Goodwin versus Jared Butler. Obviously tonight they they played similar games as they were scoring options, but realistically on this roster they’ll fill different roles. Where would you lean as to who this Suns team might need more in that last roster spot? A defensive guy in Jordan Goodwin or a playmaking guard in Jared Butler? I don’t think either are gonna make a a huge difference unless you believe that the Jaylen Green hamstring thing might might play out, but you’re looking at a guy that’s the break class in case of emergency. And in that, I probably want a guy that’s more defensive focused to be honest because I I I might need that a little bit more at times. I’m gonna have scorers on this roster. You know, I’m gonna have guys I can turn to there, but do I need a little extra help defensively? And it’s not that Jordan Goodwin isn’t isn’t a guy that can offensively put it up there, too. 24 points tonight as well on 50% shooting. So, I might lean more towards a guy that gives me both. Well, and that’s the thing, right? is is Jared Butler can bring you a skill that let’s say you don’t have a Colin Gillespie or you are missing a Jaylen Green that Jared Butler’s skill set is probably a little bit more needed in that break class in case of emergency which is the role that whatever fills that roster spot they will be which is break class in case of emergency you could just see Jordan Goodwin slotting in for more players right if if you need him to play a little bit bigger alongside Green and Booker you can I can’t really imagine Jared Butler defensively playing next to Booker in green. You need somebody to play next to Colin and his playmaking. Well, I think Jordan Goodwin slides into that as well. If the the the scoring and the shooting can carry over, which is a huge if with him. We kind of felt the same way when he was traded here with Bradley. We he did it with the Lakers for part of his time last year. I like But again, this we’re talking that the end of of a roster guy and I’d like to have two-way potential with that, but that’s not Jared Butler deserves a spot in this league. There’s never a never doubt on that. I just don’t know that the fit is on this roster. But he will wind up somewhere and a game like tonight, whether it earned him a spot on the Suns or it was his audition for some other team, it will get him a a a slot, a guaranteed slot on somebody’s roster, I imagine. Yeah, I 100% agree. Jared Butler is an NBA player. And I listen, even when I was even when I was hating on him before, I I literally said in my rant, “You’re making me mad because I know you’re an NBA player.” He’s shown that he’s an NBA player. It It kills me that you got out of dude for season basketball. Come on. If I’m going to give him I’m going to heap praise on him tonight the same way that I heaped hate on him before. And and also like listen, that’s just who I am. Like I understand that big picture none of this really matters, but I’m still going to be in the m It’s the only basketball that I’ve had with this team. I’m going to be in the moment about it. But then you got to be an equal opportunity hater and give Nigel Hayes Davis. We’re going to talk about Nigel hasn’t been We’re going to talk about We’re going to talk about Nigel. Can I talk about the good stuff first? Can I Can I talk about one thing? Yeah. This bad thing. Uh Eritton, can you throw that up? the the NBA apparently when you opened it up tonight. So, Luca uh pours in 25 in preseason uh as the Suns win by nine. I get it. I’m part of the game. I understand that you got to try to draw people in, but really Luca in a preseason game that they lost, you couldn’t give any love to Kaman Malawatch. couldn’t say Jared Butler breaks out or the Butler did it with 35 tonight. Like, put a little effort in. I get it’s preseason for you, too, but put a little put a little effort in there, NBA. Like, were you using uh you know, our our friend JJ Reick’s best friend, Chad GPT, just to create this for you. Put in a little effort. Chad GPT, how can I stop Jared Butler from torching my ass? That was JJ Reic during one of his timeouts. Uh, Esai says, “Uh, hey, my screenshot made the pod. Thank you for for the screenshot. We appreciate that.” Yes, that was sent via Twitter and I appreciate it because that was ridiculous that that was the way that it came up in that app. So, thank you for that. Yeah, that that’s ridiculous obviously because like you mentioned, come on, Malawatch played so well tonight. So, why not give out two big bright shining stars presented by Heler Resorts Casinos? How How could it not? How could it not be Kaman Malawatch Espo? It wasn’t just the stats. It was how he got them. 17 points, eight rebounds, two assists, three steals, two blocks, eight of 10 from the field. One of one from deep. Come on, Malawatch in 31 minutes tonight in his first career start. I get it was preseason, but showed every single asset of a top 10 pick that you wanted to see out of a big man. And it is hard not to get excited about that tantalizing potential. Well, look, you you wanted this tonight for him. We talked about it in pregame how for a guy that’s used to starting maybe coming off the bench in the way he was and later in those preseason games kind of threw him off. This was an opportunity to be in a rhythm and I I appreciated what I saw. Tonight was a glimpse of what the future will be with Kaman Malawatch. I don’t think it’s a it’s a straight line to get there though. I think there will be ups and downs this season when it comes to Kaman Malawatch, but two things you can’t deny is his energy and his effort and you’re going to have that game in game out. Also, he’s a very mature guy, you know, and when asked postgame by Amanda Flugrad if he was tired after after the trip back from China, he said tired’s just in the mind. Uh, and to me, it reminds me a lot of the maturity that Devin Booker came in with. But Kaman Malawatch is a kid that’s only been playing, I believe, four years of organized basketball at this point. So, I think he is he’s going to play a role in terms of minutes, but he’s probably third right now on that depth chart behind Mark Williams and Oso Gadoro. And Nick Richards right now, you go, I I don’t know where he slots in, but come on. Showed that potential. I liked what I saw. It was easy to get extremely excited for it. I just don’t want people to expect that to be what he does night in night out, but I think we’re going to eventually get there. And he freaking destroyed uh DeAndre in today’s game. Uh and shout out to Kev in the chat who gave him the uh the nickname during our watch along, the watchtower. The watchtowwer. I am all in on on Kaman Malawatch being the watchtowwer. I love it. Here’s what impressed me. me the most from Kaman. It wasn’t the rim shaking dunks. It wasn’t blocking DeAndre Aton’s dunks. It wasn’t the three-pointer. It was the little things. One of the big little things was he had a lob thrown over him early in the game and the Lakers connected on it. They tried to do that multiple times afterwards and he played the drop perfectly and broke up multiple lob passes. It was the defensive presence on a fast break where he ran the floor so fast that he kept up with Austin Reeves who knew that this rookie was behind him and had a wide openen quote wide open layup and decided not to go and dribble out because he knew Kaman was going to be there to at least alter the shot. Guys were driving into the paint and they were going out of the paint instead of putting up shots. They were having to throw up extremely high floaters because of his size. He was in the right place at the right time. Now, he also hit a layup off the dribble, finished an alleyoop on his own, hit a three-pointer, set some good screens, like initiated a little bit of offense as well, and had some monster blocks. You know, if you can have a guy that is that big, that is that long, and is that athletic, do all the little things, play the right way, and attack the rim hard, the floor is so high. It’s so high. Well, I you look at it and if we were to have scripted out the game you wanted to see from him, this would have been exactly what you said in all facets, right? And you did not see him getting caught, you know, up in the air on on plays defensively. He was that rim protector that we’ve heard about. Yeah, some of it was against, you know, the the Lakers backups, but it was a lot of time against DeAndre Eaton, with Luca in the game, with Austin Reeves in the game, and he played very very well. I was very encouraged by what we saw, and I imagine by the end of the season, we will see games close to that in the regular season, probably in a backup role. Uh again, I don’t think it’ll be a straight line, but tonight was was a fantastic performance for for the Watchtower. Yeah, and I mean, multiple people in the chat pointing out how strong he looks. He looked stronger than DeAndre Aiden. And I’m not even trying to say that to to hate on DeAndre Aton, but he is a starting center on a team that has playoff aspirations. Has Luca Don, LeBron James, they went out there and they got themselves DeAndre Aton because they wanted DeAndre Aton. And Kam Malawatch outplayed him in a couple of minutes last game and outplayed him to a big extent in this game. And if this guy can turn out to be who the Suns need him to be, a top 10 pick, a top five pick as a big man to pair alongside Devin Booker as he enters the the middle of his prime and eventually the end of his prime. If they keep Jaylen Green and have Jaylen Green as he enters his prime, well, the perfect compliment to those guys is a center that can do it all like Kam Malawatch. And maybe, and I know it’s preseason and it’s a long shot, but maybe this is the big man that you’ve been waiting to draft with a high pick and pair alongside Devin Booker throughout his career. I don’t know that it’s necessarily a long shot to be honest. I just think it it will take the time to develop and you start to see the vision. A lot of people laughed at the Suns this off season. Yeah. And and sure it might it’s not going to result in in a championship contender this year, but you see the vision of what they’re trying to accomplish, what they hope to accomplish. You understand what alignment looks like on a basketball court. you understand why they drafted a center and traded for a center uh on draft night. You see why they traded up to get Rashir Fleming and you look at why they you’re understanding why they hired Jordan not and the system. Everybody wanted to laugh at oh Michigan State this and oh, you know, no draft picks and they’re going to get owned in a trade and instead you look at it and you go I’m starting to understand the vision. Does it come to fruition fully? I don’t know. But you can at least understand what they were trying to do and understand why some of us looked at it and went, “You can laugh now, but this might not be what you’re uh painting this out to be.” So, oh, let me say this. I believe, right? And I’m just saying that there are going to be people who say, “Well, it’s just one preseason game.” And I don’t think you can obviously make career projections off of one preseason game. I mean, you can. But I I’ve been saying it since the pre-draft process about Kaman Malawatch and Rashir Fleming who we’ll touch on here in a second that these are two guys if the Suns walked away with one of them in the draft it was a massive win. They walked away with both and the best shooter in the draft. Everybody saw how hyped we were. That was the first time it really felt like for Suns fans that the tides had begun to turn in that NBA draft because we were excited and it felt like, okay, the process that this team is operating with, what they’re trying to build, well, it makes sense. It was the first time things started to make sense. I I think Kaman has a chance to be the starting center by the end of this season because he earned it. I think it’s not the most likely thing, but you saw what you saw tonight. If he could extrapolate that, at least 80% of it through the entire season and stay healthy. I don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t be the starting center. And I love Mark Williams in theory, but I think that’s on the table for Kam. I I I agree with Charles. I need to see more. That’s that’s of course you you can’t you can’t base everything on it, but the potential made sense. And and you go from one of the oldest teams in the NBA, they may have actually been the oldest team in the NBA last year to I believe they’re the fourth youngest team now. And you’ve got four young guys that you look at in Fleming, Kaman, Oso, and Dunn that appear to at least right now have a large part of your future. So that’s why there’s the excitement about this too is you go okay I see where apparently all hope was lost there was no chance that you could get any young talent and all of a sudden you have it and then you add in Jaylen Green which we’ll talk about the hamstring later but then that’s another 23 year old Mark Williams is 23 as well there there is youth here and there’s opportunity and promise now you just got to live up to it yeah listen and by the way just to clarify Charles was talking about needing to see more from a not just about the team in general. Yeah. I mean, in general, you know, I I still feel like I need to see a lot from from a lot of people. Jordan, not still. Yeah, you got to prove it. Okay. You can you can scheme in in some preseason games. That’s great. But, uh I it’s it’s all we have so far. It’s all we have. I mean, yeah, that’s the first four games we’ve seen Jordan not as a head coach, and I liked what I saw so far. Yeah. Listen, I I have a thought on that and about how maybe we can judge uh Jordan after this preseason. And of course, we’ll be talking about our PH and X factor, other standouts of this game, and maybe some other lowlights from this game. Plus, Jaylen Green’s injury status is he reagravated his hamstring strain according to Jordan, what Mark Williams injury status is looking like as well. And we officially begin the buildup to the regular season. Plus, Steven Pjan Garner will be calling in from the morg. We’re gonna get into all of it after our first break. First off, uh, Erin, I need to know what a goofing schmidt is. Talk about that later, but what I really want to talk to you about is branded bills. Me love branded bills. Me love hats. Uh, I have hats on hats on hats. Uh, so many hats. Uh, and now I have multiple branded bills because I love them. They are breathable. They are fantastic. You can customize them. We have PHNX ones, Suns ones. There are all the college ones, ASU, U of A, uh, GCU. Me love Branded Bills. They are the best that are out there. I agree, Nookie. Uh, it is unbelievable what Branded Bills has. The amount of different hats that they have to offer. The quality is second to none. It is unbelievable. Me agree. Uh, and they have over 40 collegiate partnerships. You love it. Best part though, me love that they are local. Uh, born in Mesa, uh, now in Tempe. Uh, unbelievable. I agree, Nookie. And I said to him, you know what? We got to take care of our audience. I need to get uh at least a discount uh from them. And they said, 10%. I said, no, no, no. Oh, what’ you say? I say, I I need 15% for these people. They gave it to me. Use promo code BBPHNX for 15% off your first order. Use the link in the description to get that. Clearly, Espo, you live your life by what Hila lives their lives by, which is you do you at Hilo River Resorts and Casinos and any of their four locations. You can be impersonating a Nookie Monster as much as you want at Wild Horse Pass, Lone, but Vquiva, Santan Mountain. It’s the best experience the valley has to offer. Whether it’s the AAA four-star diamond resorts, over 4,500 slots and live table games on their gaming floor, or you can catch any of the action at their sports books. Plus, don’t even get me started. We love action. You love action. You also love the food as well. From upscale to approachable, casual to classy, bar to bar none. Check out Hila River Resorts and Casinos. They have set the bar high and they continue to smash it. You do you at Hila River Resorts and Casinos. Visit playhila.com for more details. Shout out to that review guy, Jeff Blazer, Carlos Diaz, Jackie Daytona, Aiden, who says goof and schm’s Aiden language for goofball. Well, I mean that’s accurate. Uh Matrix, Hidden Sun Village, Kev. Oh, for sure. Brent Tanahill. We have all the stars out in chat tonight, of course, including Meatloaf as well. Thank you all so much for being here. Go ahead and hit that like button while you are here for our final preseason postgame show. If you’re new, we will do a pregame and postgame show for all 82 of the Suns games in the regular season. Plus, of course, that deep playoff run that they’ll be doing, plus live watch alongs way more often than last season. Not every game, but a couple times a week, we’ll be watching the game live with you right here on this very channel. You can also become a member today as well. get experience uh custom emojis. If you hit the all Hall of Fame level, you get access to exclusive videos as well. The join button right next to that subscribe button, which I know you all already hit. By the way, shout out to Bren. You mentioned her, but shout out to her. Fun uh follow on social. We don’t always agree on Suns Takes or Sports Takes, but a great follow on uh on social. All right, we’ve talked about Jared Butler, deservedly so, and Jared Butler has gotten an apology. We gave out a big bright shining star to Kaman Malaw watch the biggest the number 10 overall break the 98 standing reach big bright shining star Espo it’s time to go for the PHNX factor and it has to be the other rookie oh a rookie I thought not a rookie but another rookie that started tonight Rashir Fleming is your PHNX factor for a multitude of reasons but just by the numbers nine points Five rebounds, two stops. Three of those rebounds are offensive. Three of seven from deep on the night in 31 minutes. Not the most incredible stats in the box score, Espo. But the eye test, especially defensively for Rashir Fleming, immaculate. Yeah, accounting stats sometimes aren’t going to tell you the full picture. That’s why the eye test is important. Why analytics always isn’t the answer. And for me, Rashir Fleming, like you said, was everywhere. You saw how that length is going to be so important in his ability to play defense. Some of some of his defense was what led to offense for other people uh as well. This is a kid that has a lot of potential uh and that again you felt very hopeful with it. You saw the hustle. You saw the uh the effort. And these are things that have become cornerstones of what the Suns want their culture and who they are to be. And these young guys are helping define that. And while Rashir I don’t think out out the gates again will be a guy that’s going to play major minutes, he will play impactful minutes when he does. And that that role will grow. And if Nigel Hayes Davis continues to struggle, there’s an opening for Rashier Fleming to get additional minutes out there just because of that effort and the offensive potential that he has. Rashir Fleming I think has the potential to be a starter for this team this year as well. Um I you know me I’m the world’s biggest Ryan Dunn fan. I think what Dylan Brooks brings is great. Rashir Fleming has the same wingspan as Kaman Malawatch. And at the same time he probably has one of the quickest jump shots on the team. That three-point shot was extremely smooth tonight. The multiple defensive efforts, the recovering, he’s had multiple recovery blocks now in his limited minutes in preseason before even tonight. uh the the hustle, the instincts, the everything. Even some of the flashes of playmaking and dribbling where he would have the ball and he would be operating in the middle of the court, he dribbled through a couple guys and he would find Jared Butler out there on the left wing. He’s fast. He’s athletic. And it’s not like he’s just that. It feels like his head is on right, too. He knows where to be. And with a a body like that, with athleticism like that, and a skill set like that, usually the thing that’s missing in a lot of guys is, well, do you understand where you should be? He was in the right place at the right time defensively and offensively. I I would have taken this kid with a top 20 pick. Suns got him at the start of the second round with some brilliant maneuvering to get him. Absolutely brilliant. and and tonight when you see what he does, you understand why they were so uh desperate to get up to 31 because I believe it was Boston had that 32nd pick and said that they would have taken him there. They they understand the potential he has. Potential is is the word of the season other than alignment this year. Uh and it’s as we know potential can be extremely wasted. We got a reminder tonight when we saw our old friend DeAndre Aton. We know it with Josh Jackson and the Dragon and Benders of the world. Uh, and potential can be wasted, but right now you’re banking on the potential of Rashir Fleming, what you saw trading up for him and the flashes that you’ve seen in preeason. And you, I said this to you during the watch along, it may not be the minutes that these guys get in the regular season games that determine what their role is going to be. may be that effort, that heart, that hustle in practice that winds up earning them the additional minutes. That’s where the work, the effort, the potential is going to going to come in big for these guys is what they do behind those closed doors in those practices and how they wind up impressing Jordan Au to try to get those minutes. So, we all know that Dylan Brooks has said that there’s a villain junior on the Suns team and he reemphasized today that it’s not Ryan Dunn. I think the two rookies that we just talked about, he said it wasn’t Rashier. He said it wasn’t Rashir. Then I think it’s Kaman. It wasn’t done. It wasn’t Rashe. I think it’s Kaman. I still think it’s Colin Gillespie. I I I think Collins in my top three. I I think it’s Kaman. I think Kaman played with a real mean streak tonight. I think they they all seem like great guys and seeing them out at summer league. We were out there. Um obviously Kaman is this big bright bulb of energy when he’s out there. He’s always talking. We we obviously got to talk to Kobe as well and just see how Rashier interacts with the team and they all seem like really nice guys, but the way that Kaman played with that hustle and that heart and and that oomph about him. Uh I I think I think Kaman is definitely in my top three rankings for who’s villain Jr. I think Colin is definitely up there as well. I think I think it’s probably Kaman or or Colin. And I could be sold on the idea that it’s come on because he did say that it might be surprising, a little surprising. So I I could see that. But you know what I love about this is people have been guessing on this and it’s not one or two guys that they think it could be. There’s a lot of guys and I think that speaks again to the culture that they’re building, right? that that we we can’t tell who’s Villain Jr. because they all have a little bit of that dog in them that could be that guy that goes out there uh and does that because they’re all doing the dirty work. And and I love that about it. And and Dylan did say he’s going to tell us before opening night who it is so the investigation will stop. We don’t have to call Pablo Jory to start digging in and figuring out who it is. We will be told uh within the next week and I think it’s probably going to be one of those two guys. I’ll still stick with Colin because that’s where I’ve been. But it would not shock me if it’s Come on, bro. What if it’s like Jesse Murmury’s lead assistant for the What if he’s like, “No, it’s it’s Jordan.” Jordan. It’s Jordan. Um speaking of Jordan, we’re going to hear from Jordan. He’s got comments on Jared Butler, Kaman Malawatch, and his overall assessment of the Suns pre-season win number one at home. We’re going to get to that. We’ll get to buy the numbers and we’ll hear from Steven live from the morg. We’ll get to all that right after our second break. Every time I walk into a rally house, I walk out impressed and it happens every time because they’re always getting a new collection. But I remember the first time that I walked into Rally House at Tempe Marketplace on a whim of my own. I said, “This place looks great.” It was years ago. When I walked in, I saw every sports piece of gear I could possibly want. From shirts to pants to hats to signage to coolers to socks and even sunscreen, they had it all. Socks. Exactly. They had it all at rally house. Oh, not that sock. And they carry only Arizona sports teams, too, which is very near and dear and personal to me. And this Friday, you can come hang out with me at the Tempe Marketplace location at Rally House for PNX Sunundevils live show. Again, 5:30 Friday night. Me, Anthony Dori, Shane Deepenbach at Rally House. And you can check out all the amazing collections that Rally House has there. And you can also shop online, their entire product assortment, hundreds of pages at www.allyhouse.com. Become a better dress fan today. www.allyhouse.com. And he buried the lead. I’m going to be there on Friday as well handing out gift cards. Oh, $50 gift cards. Come out and find me. While you’re out there, I got to tell you about our friends at Bet 365. Well, Eric and I didn’t hit our bets from pre-season. It’s preseason for both of us as well. Didn’t mean we didn’t have fun with it. And we had fun because we know what over 90 million users worldwide know that Bet 365 is fantastic and it’s never ordinary when you use them. Early payouts across the NBA and NHL. 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Uh I have a request to hear from the head coach of the Phoenix Suns Jordan and his overall assessment of the Suns win at home. talked about it, you know, before the game, even here, just you never know how the season’s going to go. I had before games cancelled, rescheduled, go across the country on a back to back. You never know. So, just our group’s not going to make an excuse. Just go out and compete, see what happens. because both parts like the guys that were in uniform and the guys that weren’t in uniforms showed we do have this thing coming together as as one and you know the joy and the spirit of competing. It doesn’t matter where it is. That’s what we got to find. Doesn’t matter where it is. This team has to come together. As Janu said, this team is not going to make excuses for themselves. I I think tonight Espo just continue to cement what we’ve seen in this preseason. The Phoenix Suns have an identity. They fell down again and defense, grit, and hustle brought them back into it with their third string players against starters for the Lakers. That’s the identity of this team. It’s the John Cena farewell tour. Never give up. Hustle, loyalty, respect. That’s the Phoenix Suns. And it’s the NBA, so it’s scripted. Oh, wait. Never mind. That’s fair. What do you mean wrestling isn’t isn’t scripted? I Huh. I love that we heard an actual answer from a coach instead of and then I’m not going to answer. Uh it it’s very clear. I mean, this team could have used the excuse of we got back from China a day ago, right? A 14-hour flight after being in China for a week. You could have easily gotten blown out by 50 and nobody would have batted an eye with everything going on. Uh, and and I I love the attitude of it doesn’t matter. There’s no excuses. We’re going to go out there and whatever we’re up against, we’re going to put in our best effort every time. And maybe it won’t lead to a win, but we’re going to go out there and the standard’s the standard, right? We’re not going to lower the standard just because of of something, you know? No, the standard is the standard. And I appreciate that. Leadership sometimes has to do that. And I I like that Jordan has made that very clear to these guys and they went out and played like that tonight. Now we need to see it in the regular season. We need to see it when odds are against them whether it’s injuries or whatever the case may be. Got to do it then. But that that I I appreciated and I I like the mindset that they’re going in with. Yeah, I like the mindset as well. We’ll hear more about what Jordan had to say about Kaman, about Rashir, about Jared. When Steven joins us later in the show, he’ll be able to relay that with crystalclear audio. So, why not get into something we can get into, which is by the numbers presented by Desert Financial Credit Union, Arizona’s number one credit union, named by Forbes. Espo, great numbers. Beautiful numbers. I mean, 102 attempts tonight. That is a lot of attempts. 102. You had 21 more shot attempts than the Lakers and you still shot almost a full 2% better than them. You shot 46% to the Lakers 44.4%. Sunsh shot 38% from deep on 42 attempts. You had 10 more attempts from deep. This is another thing that we’re seeing this se this preeason as the Suns are pulling from beyond the ark which was not something we saw consistently last year. Your Lakers only shot 34%. Free throw shooting I still got a lot of questions about. I still don’t know how you miss five of them. You go three for eight. And you got to wonder, you know, when the regular season comes around, I need to get to the line more. But Lakers were 75% on 28 attempts. Rebounding was in the Lakers favors favor 4938, but the assists uh the Suns moving that ball around and not assist him at 27 of them. The Lakers 18. Yeah. 12 steals for the Suns tonight to the Lakers seven as well. Uh eight blocks to the Lakers to the Suns three. Suns also outscored them points in the paint 52-48 but got outscored on fast break points. They also fouled more and they did not have the largest lead of the night. Honestly, you know, one of the other kind of lessons we’ve learned from the Suns is that they just find ways to win games. Like you look at the numbers, sure they put up 102 shots. That’s a lot of shots, but they got outrebounded by the Lakers. Lakers blocked more shots. Uh the Lakers basically almost tied them in points in the paint. Like they had five less fouls, but it was the defense that led to the offense with steals because there was eight more steals for the Suns. 18 uh five more steals for the Suns 12, excuse me, eight more uh turnovers that they forced than the Lakers. 18 to 10 there. And the Lakers, Wow, what a surprise, guys. 28 to 21 from the line. What a surprise. as the Lakers took 20 more free throws. The Suns took under 10 free throws tonight and they won by nine. Yeah. Against the Lakers starters. Yeah. I mean, tonight tonight is a weird obviously outlier. I don’t think we’re going to see eight attempts and shooting 30 some odd percent from three of eight from the line. But I think what is consistent is you’re going to see this team play hard-nosed scrappy defense and that’s going to lead to a lot of easy transition buckets as well and lead to some lopsided field goal attempt numbers throughout the season. And and that is that is part of what Jordan basketball is going to be. That’s part of why the effort, the grit, the grit, the hard-nose players is what you want because you can do that. You can force those turnovers. are going to lead to buckets. And that was not just tonight. It happened in China. It happened in that first Lakers game. That is what I think will be a hallmark of this team this year. They also shot, like you mentioned, 10 more threes than the Lakers. That’s a margin that the Suns, if if we’re going to talk about talent deficit, right? Which obviously like the Suns didn’t play their 10 top guys tonight. So, you’re clearly going to be in a talent deficit no matter what. I think a lot of people would put the Suns in a talent deficit against most teams in the Western Conference, right? I think initially at least at least initially and that’s why their overunder is so low around 31 and a half depending on where you look but you go up against this Lakers team you’re going to be in a talent deficit the Nuggets the Thunder the Rockets the Clippers like you’ve got teams that on paper clearly have more talent than you. The great equalizer and something that’s obviously been bumping up in in recent years in the NBA is that three-point shot. Now, a big question has always been, can Phoenix shoot a good enough percentage to do that? And I think it’s hard to take away when your starters aren’t playing. But guess what? That OT game in Brooklyn that they ended up coming back and winning. They took 42 threes to Brooklyn’s 29 threes. Okay, that’s 13 more. We’re talking double digits and now two games. And we go back to this first game against the Lakers. Well, how many threes did they attempt there? Guess what? It was 42 uh to 30. Actually, that’s the same game I’m just looking at. They played the Lakers twice. My bad. I do believe it was it was I think it was 40s. Yeah, I think it was it was 41 for the Suns, 35 for the Lakers. The great equalizer for this team has been three-point shots and again that arcs back to pun intended Jordan’s identity with this team. Usually the teams that shoot a lot of threes aren’t the gritty hustle teams, but if you can marry those two things together in the modern NBA, you’re going to be able to, again, I’ve said this so many times, win games you’re not supposed to win. Well, yeah. I mean, you get you get additional three-point attempts. You get those easy looks in the lane and those lobs that we’ve seen. And that’s modern basketball now. It’s easy high percentage shots near the rim and converting on three-pointers. And you know, it’s the three is greater than two. The math easily maths, right? I mean, that’s that’s just the simplicity of it. And if they’re going to get more threes and hit more threes like they have, that’s going to be a winning a a winning philosophy throughout this year. And that is what Jordan’s been preaching obviously. And it’s been a winning philosophy. And I get it. It’s preeason. It is what it is. The only game that the Suns got out attempted in three-pointers. Well, you guessed it, Espo. It’s the game they lost to the Brooklyn Nets 111 109 38-40 on three-point attempts, but they made four less than Brooklyn. If if this team is going to overcome some of the deficiencies they have, it’s going to come down to coaching. It’s going to come down to, you know, bringing out the best in each individual player, which I also feel like we saw tonight with with Jordan Goodwin alongside all these other players who’ve been talking about. The thing I love about Goodie that he’s also been showing with was that three-point shot. And if he can hit that three-point shot consistently, then hey, welcome welcome to the rotation when needed. Jordan Goodwin. Yeah, I there’s there’s a wealth of possibilities in terms of what they can do, but I think the bones of Jordan’s not system, we’re seeing it. It it is getting those three-pointers up. It’s getting those easy baskets is playing hard-nosed defense. There will be things obviously that will adjust. We’ll see new wrinkles. We’ll see new sets. and and we know that Steven will break all those down for us when we see him, but the the basic principles are there uh that we’ve seen throughout this preseason. We’re going to get to Stephen here in just a second. Uh first, a super chat from Trevor. Trevor with a 199 super chat says, “This team will surprise us this year. I think a lot of people are starting to turn around on maybe the doom and gloom that they felt in the offse.” I think it I I think it depends on what your definition of surprise is. I I think we I’ve talked about it. They’re going to be better than last year’s team. A more entertaining, but they’ll have more wins. I think a surprise and a success is being a playin team and maybe scaring a couple teams in that playin. You know, that that is success to me. That’s my bar is there. And if they exceed that, great. Uh, but I think they will surprise a hell of a lot of people nationally and some locally that are looking at that 31 and a half over under and going, “Yeah, I might hit that under.” Yeah. Well, I know one guy who’s not hitting the under. Lock it in. And he’s about to join us from the morg mortgage matchup center. Our own Steven Pjon from the first home game of preeason. Stephen, a win for the Phoenix Suns. Massive games from Kaman Malawatch, Rashier Fleming, and Jared Butler. What stood out to you in the preseason finale the most? I mean, I think it’s the determination from everybody that was in the rotation for today’s game. Obviously, you didn’t have what the top eight to nine guys playing, but what they had was the guys that were playing was the connectedness. They all had a certain type of belief even after the rough start. And after the first time out, it pretty much was a different team. and they got settled in and I think Jordan not mentioning it post game they just had a certain type of urgency that they worked with and I think that kind of showed as they worked their way back into the game and ultimately finished it with a win. Stephen, when you look at kind of what we’ve seen from Jordan’s system and what we saw tonight, we were talking about uh the the discrepancy in three-point shooting, how it’s been in favor for the Suns for most of the preeason. What do you think are kind of those mile markers that we saw that will be what we can expect from a Jordan Knaut team and and how you feel that’ll play out as we go along? Yeah, it starts with the defensive end and that’s them being active with it. So, it’s not just being solid defensively, but finding opportunities to earn extra possessions. And I think that extra possessions part, they’re touting as importantly as anything else because simply put, if you get more shots on goal than your opponents while also taking away the amount of shots that they’re able to get on goal, the math starts to work in your favor, even if you aren’t the best shooting team from deep, per se, or if you are on a team that gets to the rim or to the free throw line as often as other teams. if you just simply get more opportunities on goal because you spend more time with the ball in your hands. Kind of like in football, teams want to have the ball in their hands for as long as they possibly can. The way in basketball to do that is to maximize your 24 seconds, but also create more opportunities within that. And when they do that, they can operate more comfortably than not on the offensive end of the floor. And I feel like we saw a lot of that in today’s game. Uh Kam Malash was very impressive with his uh with his defense and job coverage. obviously dealing with Austin Reeves and Luca Doners, but also making sure that he’s not allowing for someone like DeAndre Aiden to get behind him in his pick and roll coverage and then um obviously you got Rashir Flaming flying around with all types of multiple efforts, Jordan Goodwin doing his job, Jared Butler staying solid at the point of attack as well. So they just had a compilation of efforts that kind of for Espo’s point aligned with everything that is the coach and the front office desires to see from the team. So, Stephen, uh, what we’re going to need you to do here, because we’re having some trouble with your audio, we have you turned up on our end. We’re going to have you hang up and then call back maybe without the headphones and we’ll see if that’s a little bit better. If not, then we’ll get all the breakdown from you on tomorrow’s show just because the people can’t hear you that well. So, we’ll take a second. We’ll give SPG a second to sort out that. Uh, well, we appreciate everybody who is hanging out with us here uh on PHNX Suns. Uh, Espo, is there anything about tonight specifically uh maybe that you haven’t been able to talk about tonight that you’d want to get into that? You know, I don’t want to I know I’ve probably come off a little bit like a wet blanket in terms of uh not wanting to get too high on on anything. I’m believe me, I’m mainlining theopium like everybody else. I think that I I I’m excited about where it’s headed. I just we have we have fallen into the trap of raising expectations higher than they should be in in times. Last few years they were raised for us based on the roster and then being disappointed. I I just I want to keep some reality with it and and understand there are extremely big reasons to be excited about this team and to be hopeful about these young guys, but have it with a little bit of those those tempered expectations that there may be rough patches as these guys learn. And that does not make somebody a bust if Kaman Malawatch has two bad games in a row. It’s it’s simply it just it takes time. Well, I’m going to get someopium and I’m going to hope that a little bit of time has helped our audio situation. Let’s go ahead and bring Stephen back in. Uh pre preseason for uh for all of us here uh folks. We do appreciate everybody just hanging out with us and and uh standing by as uh as we try to figure this out. Stephen, uh, let’s let’s see your your initial thoughts on the game. Hopefully now in in HD. And now I got nothing. I got nothing. I’m jinxing it. I’m jinxing it. Are you muted on your end, Stephen? Are you muted on your phone? No. All right, we’re going to have to call it an hour. We’ll get We’ll get it all figured out and we will figure it out. You know, uh, this is just a ploy by Espo and I to seem like the two smartest people on this podcast. Uh we we we tried to sound bar and we know it’s Arritin that’s the smartest guy on this. Well, we muted his mic too. We muted everybody’s mic. Well, yeah, it’s it’s Stephen that we know are the smartest guys. You and I are in a battle for last. Here we are being stupid. Yeah, Sean, I hear you. I hear you. Okay. Uh we love Stephen. We appreciate Stephen. Make sure you follow Stephen at Steven PG3. He’ll be bringing you updates from the arena all year. Uh, it’s going to be an extremely good time with him and I promise you by next Wednesday we’re gonna have it all figured out. So, don’t you all worry. Get your jokes off now. We will get through it. Let’s talk about some other players tonight, Espo, that we have not been able to dive into yet. Specifically on the uh more disappointing side of things, unfortunately, we celebrate so much of the good. We got to talk. Do we have to? No, we have we’ve talked about so much Pat over the last season. So, so the statline for this guy at the end of the game doesn’t end up being too terrible. I’m talking about number 21, Nigel Hayes Davis. 10 points, six rebounds, and an assist in 27 minutes tonight. Two of three from deep before 12 from the field. It was a really rough start for him and then it felt like he settled in as time went on. But I’d say a relatively disappointing preseason from a guy that all of us here at PHNX Suns were pretty high on. It it was a continuation some of what we saw of what happened in the first three games early in this one. Yeah, he found his his stroke a little bit from three. He went two of three in the end, but you know, I think he was pressing. We talked about that. I I think he was pressing and there probably is pressure knowing that you left a lucrative uh you know lucrative contracts in Europe to come and try to make it in the NBA again and you’re trying to prove yourself. I I hope at one point tonight Jordan not was just kind of pulled him over and said it’s okay. Just go out there and play within your game. you don’t have to force things because it did seem like he got a little bit more comfortable as it went along and did some of those little things. Uh but I think Rashier’s game today should have been a little bit of a wakeup call too that there’s just not there’s not guaranteed minutes just because you’re one of the few uh you know power forwards on this roster. There’s going to be competition for those minutes. So uh you got to find that stroke and find it fast. I definitely think there’s something there for Nigel Hayes Davis. You got to understand with this guy too, he has been in this prove it, scrap it mentality forever now. I mean, the last time he played in the NBA was literally last decade. And he’s had to go on this journey overseas and rise his way to the top, always feeling like he had a chip on his shoulder and something to prove. He definitely has to still be feeling that right now, but also feeling the pressure of the fact that, hey, I got a guaranteed contract. I I need to prove that this team that took a chance on me, that saw something in me and brought me back to the NBA, well, that they were right. And now you’re here through three preseason games coming into tonight and you haven’t really seen those flashes you wanted to see. Now you’re starting and you know that you can do these things. You’ve done it a million times in your life, but you’re right, he was just forcing it. But once he settled down, he hit some threes. He was in his rhythm and he wasn’t playing outside of his game. I think he was what, one for six at the start of the game. Ends up being 4 for12. That’s not as bad. No, I He is a guy. We saw it when he was here when we talked with him, but then at media day as well. He’s a guy that that likes to tap into the uh nobody believes in me uh and use that. And I think sometimes you can overuse that as motivation. psych yourself out a little bit thinking about I I’m going out there and I’m gonna prove somebody wrong. Sometimes you just got to go out there and and be you, right? Just play your game. Let it come to you. And and we’ve seen a lot of athletes press and when they finally let that kind of go a little bit, they perform. Now, to your point, it’s a guaranteed contract. He’s not a guy that’s on the bubble here and he’s another guy that I’m guessing in practice looks different than what necessarily we’ve seen uh in preseason. So, he will get his opportunities, but he’s going to have to play within himself. And it’s you did make this point and I don’t think I gave it full credit earlier that it will look different when he’s playing with certain guys in this rotation. tonight. It felt like he felt he had to be like, I got to be the guy. I’m back overseas. I’m the oldest guy out there playing tonight. Right. And I think Brenn also makes up a good point. Uh his plus minus numbers have been solid throughout the preseason because his maturity and knowledge of the game allow him to make good decisions. Even when the shot wasn’t following, he was hustling for offensive rebounds in which he grabbed three of them. That’s half of his rebounds. He makes good reads. He doesn’t make bad decisions. In 27 minutes tonight, he had one turnover and one personal foul. Right. I like what he’s been doing defensively. I like the hustle on the rebounding side of things and more so than the self-shot creation, which is where he has been struggling. That’s where he’s going to make his mark on this team. And the three-point shot 412 from the field. Well, guess what? Two or three from deep. If he can just take that two or three from deep and limit some of those shots that he was rushing that they’re not going to need him to take, win a book, win a Green, win a Gillespie, win a Grayson’s on the court, he’s going to be just fine. I just think it’s also fair to look at at saying, okay, he’s been a little bit lackluster from what we expected. It’s been a bad preseason, but it’s also it’s also the burden of expectations of a guy that, you know, we met here in person. We talked to we are extremely high on obviously we’ve done some film studies. Stephen has a whole film study for him on our channel. Like we think this guy could be a really big key to this team, but yeah, he does have competition. Rashier, Ryan, Dylan, these are all wings that are that I think can play at an NBA level or have not proven it. I need to address something, Brin. I take back all the nice things I said earlier because much like Bruno, we don’t talk about plus minus here. We definitely talk about plus minus. All right. Nigel Davis plus five tonight. Uh Jordan Goodwin a team leading plus 14. Your king Jared Butler plus one with 35 points, assist, seven rebounds. Worst plus minus on the team tonight. Come on Match with a minus seven. It doesn’t matter. Doesn’t it play into what I’m telling you? You listen. All I’m saying all I’m saying Why do we have ASU comments in the chat? Because you draw those you draw those people in. That’s a Texas Tech fan, I’m pretty sure. Um anyway, all I’m saying is that plus minus is fun to mess with you. That’s that’s all that I’m really saying. Uh we are going to get to the bench here in a second, but do you have any final thoughts on the starters? 35 from Jared Butler, 24 from Jordan Goodwin, 17 from Kaman, 10 from Nigel, nine from Rashier. No, the only the only thing I take from it is Kaman and Rashir’s promise, you know, and and potential. The rest of it, it was the fourth preseason game. And those are the kind of stats that sometimes you get when when you’re not playing your starter. So, yeah. Well, guess what? We are going to get into the bench. It’s getting real nasty, real sicko hours. Isaiah Livers, CJ Huntley, David Duke Jr., Kobe Brea. Uh, no, we’re getting into the sicko stuff here. We got so many sickos. This is beyond sicko. This is like we’re talking about the future of the franchise and the Valley Suns right now. I mean, yeah, we we are. No disrespect. I appreciate all that our G-League team does, but that’s that’s the reality here is this is the these are the guys that are going to fill out the Valley Suns roster and Kobe Bray is going to be back and forth. Yeah. And guess what? You want to know who’s on the Valley Suns last year? Colin Gillespie, who’s on a standard contract. Also, we have a couple injury updates to pass along about Jaylen Green and Mark Williams, but we’re going to do it in overtime. If you are watching on TV, the party always continues over at gophnx.com. While we get there, hit that like button, hit that subscribe button, become a member today. Become a diehard today. Die hard chat was popping during the game. Uh, real sicko hours in the Die Hard Discord and and love y’all. You’re right. I love the Valley Suns. They are ballers. It’s a fun experience to be out there. And I don’t mean that as a knock. I just simply mean these guys that we’re going to talk about will be the guys that are starting for the Valley Suns in all likelihood. Paul Jasperson’s knocking at your door. Um, okay. Isaiah Liver, CJ Huntley, David Jr., Kobe Brea. I will say that there were a couple flashes tonight that I enjoyed. Um, Isaiah Livers definitely falls into the I was really excited to play basketball category. Same with Nigel Hayes Davis, three of eight from the field, but one of six from three. He did grab five rebounds, two assists, one steal um in his 25 minutes that he played tonight. I like some of the hustle and the activity. CJ Huntley only has two points, but a plus 12. I know, I get it. But three steals for him. I thought his timing on defense was good. David D Jr., happy birthday to you. You got hit in the nuts and scored five points. And Kobe Bray is the guy that people want to talk about. Espo 25 minutes, but he was two of 12 from the field, 06 from three, five assists, and a steal. four points for him, plus seven. But he looks smooth. He looked, Here’s the thing. He’s the guy, and we said it on the watch, he’s the guy that anytime he hits a shot, it just looks so good. It just does. It just looks good. You only get a chance to see it twice. Yeah. But it looked good. Uh, no. What I actually liked, I was impressed with with his ball handling skills and and the confidence he had. It was a terrible shooting night. This is a reason why he he’s a two-way guy. I mean, you don’t forget how to shoot. You you don’t this is one of the best shooters in the country. He’ll find his rhythm. But tonight was not that night for him. No, it wasn’t. And honestly, you know, this is a guy who hasn’t been getting consistent run obviously in the preseason and shooters need rhythm. Shooter shooters like he can walk in and he hit that mid-range shot, right? He he hit a couple good shots, but he’s going to get a lot of extended run in the G-League and that’s going to be the real test. And then he he’s going to get minutes this year. He’s he’s going to get minutes this year up top. He’s not going to get minutes on this team. Somebody’s going to somebody’s going to be injured. You know what I would have to get injured for him to get any kind of significant minutes on this team? Did I say I didn’t say significant outside of outside of blowout stuff. Kobe Brea is is not going to see a lot of time on the court. So I just said for the Suns. I think if I think you will have games where he hits like five, six threes for the Valley Suns and you’re like, “Okay, I understand that that shooting percent or that potential there.” But again, pump the brakes. I know everybody wanted to be like, “It’s another Devin Booker at Summer League.” Hey, don’t get mad at my tweet. It’s it’s it’s Kobe Brea and he will have an opportunity to become who he’s going to be, but part of that journey is going to be with the Valley Suns. Yeah. Uh numbers really consistent in college like Bren mentions. Bren, why don’t you call into the show? Uh I No, look, I’m I’m right there with Bren. I said it. This is This is an outlier of a night. He’s not a bad shooter and you don’t forget how to shoot. Yeah, you don’t forget how to shoot. And I think the other parts of his I think the handle was really encouraging tonight. Uh usually guys who can shoot really well, they need to be able to just do one other thing. Just one other thing. And if he could take a little bit off the dribble and have a mini game while being the type of three-point shooter he was in college, which by the way was the best in the country for multiple years in a row, I think there’s something there. I do think he will play some minutes up here, but obviously the vast 98% of the minutes that he plays will be in the G-League, which gives you a reason to go to Mullet in Tempe every night. Well, and his his distribution, you know, could be that other thing, passing like five assists tonight. True. Those are the kind of things that can help keep you on the court as well. Can you effectively run a system and help move that ball and hit those threes when you get the opportunity? That that’s fine. And I think that’s why you why it was so important to get a G-League team is so you can give a guy like this the minutes that he needs to find himself and learn the system where you weren’t going to be able to do that on a regular basis on the NBA side. So I I think he will wind up there and and be very very good eventually as a as a bench piece shooter. I just I don’t think it’s right now at the moment. Who’s more likely to get NBA minutes this season, Isaiah Livers or Kobe Brea? Kobe Brea. You think so? I think Isaiah’s got an argument. I I think I think I think I think he’s got an argument. Depends. Yeah. I mean, Isaiah is older. He plays a premium position. He’s a wing, right? Obviously, it’s it’s Hey, whatever whatever position is more injured is usually going to be the answer there. Why Why do people think this is Brea hate? It it’s it’s a numbers, dude. You’re you’re being real nasty. It’s It’s a numbers. You’re being You’re being real nasty. It It is Come It is It is so It is so a numbers game with it. I think I think he will be a fantastic shooter for this team eventually off the bench. I just He He has to get those minutes in the G-League to get that rhythm. So, you heard it here first. Espo thinks the Suns are going 0 and 82 this season. Yeah, you can you can put words in my mouth. That’s fine. Listen, I I’m just telling you what I’m hearing. being right. I told you exactly what was going to happen in this game. It played out exactly that way. Did it? Did you say you said the Jordan win and Jerry brother? Did you say the Suns were going to win? Yeah, I said they were going to come back in the second half and win. Uh, and that So, start saying good things about Kobe Bryant. I just did. I said he’ll be a good shooter and he’ll be back. Oh, just messing around. Uh, well, some not so fun news to end the show on here on a Tuesday night. We’ll be back at 3:00 tomorrow to talk a little bit more about this. We got some injury updates from Jordan uh at the beginning of uh pregame availability. Obviously, starting with Jaylen Green, news circulating on Twitter. If you’re following PHX Suns, you already know this on Twitter and on Instagram. Jaylen Green will miss the start of the regular season as he reagravated his hamstring strain in China. uh 10 days he will be re-evaluated which puts him on October 24th game two against the Clippers. I know we talked a little bit about it in pregame. I think we touched on it here. Uh disappointing but not the end of the world. Oh, you changed your tune from uh I mean I want to see him. No, it’s not the end of the world. I say don’t play him, but I wish that we could see him. I I’m very much I’m the optimist. And when I look at when I look at what we uh what we hear from a coach, to me, all that is is don’t ask me about don’t ask me about Jaylen Green, right? That’s that’s what what he’s saying. I think he could actually be back uh prior to that to that 10 before they say the re-evaluation date. Yeah, because sometimes a guy guy responds better. I and and the the re-evaluation is simply I will tell you something in in 10 days and I will give you an update and if there’s something to tell you before they very well may now I think he misses two games but a hamstring is not something you want to screw around with either so you want to make sure that he’s fully healthy we already saw he had a setback so you got to make sure soft tissue issues can be a problem so you got to make sure but I I I’m not I saw some people on social panicking about it. I’m like, okay, it just feels it feels it feels a little bit like we’re cursed. Feels a little bit, right? Guy Guy hasn’t missed a game in almost 200 games, shows up on the Suns, can’t hasn’t played one yet. And it’s disappointing, right? You you want to be cautious. You want to keep him out. You want to make sure he’s fully healthy. That one bucket. It’s PTSD because if you not No, but there’s a re like if you’re not dealing with Bradley Beal, uh, you know, residual feelings, it’s probably okay. It sucks. But you know what? If he plays 78 out of 82, we’re just fine. Sure. But you don’t know that, especially with a hamstring injury like Sean mentions. We’ve seen it with Book uh and we’ve seen the the hammy can can be a lingering effect. And yeah, you you want to let your hamstring heal for sure. That that all is in one bucket of this is the right decision. Now, from a fan perspective and from a perspective of people who have been covering this team, and I’ll just say from my perspective of it’s been months of how will Jaylen Green fit with this team. And honestly, I’m loving how this team is working. I’m loving how they’re playing and the additions of Mark Williams and Jaylen Green. We did an episode about it yesterday. They’re they’re fascinating. They’re tantalizing. What can Jordan and this crew do with Jaylen Green and Mark Williams? You’re going to see Mark hopefully in game one on Wednesday against the Kings. Sounds like it. He was warming up. He was playing 5v5. Some light contact today in practice. Jaylen, you’re gonna have to wait a couple games, but again, that’s a re-evaluation date. I just want to see him play basketball for the Suns. And it sucks that it had to happen now. It almost would have been like not better, but like if you saw it and it was good and then like you missed two weeks in the middle of the season and then you kept going. I think that’s worse. I mean, I guess maybe Mills, but I think it would have been worse if you saw it in the first game. Yeah. And then then we’re sitting here waiting two weeks of of actual meaningful basketball that you miss out. I I’m okay with where we’re at. I’m not overly worried about about Green and I I got to I got to see how it progresses. I’ll make some phone calls. I’ll I’ll find out uh from some of the people I talk to if there’s any reason for concern. I’ll try to find that out before tomorrow’s show. But as I sit right now, I’m I’m I’m not overly concerned. I thought the gorilla couldn’t talk. He can text. No, that’s that’s that’s that’s fair enough. Uh we’ll keep you updated on Jaylen Green, on Mark Williams, anything from practice and we will hear Steven’s thoughts tomorrow on the Phoenix Suns 113 to 104 preseason finale victory over the Fakers and Luca Donuch and a bunch of other starters for the Lakers as well. I know we focus on Luca, but Austin Reeves played tonight. DeAndre Aen played tonight. I think Jacob Laravia, who I think is going to start for them, or Marcus Smart, one of them is starting. They both played tonight as well. Played. He’s not going to start. Well, no, he might not even play. That dude is not good. Sorry. I hate to break it to you. I’m I’m not. Yeah, I know you’re connect truther. Um, but we appreciate everybody who’s tapped in throughout this entire preseason, tapped in for the watch alongs. We got plenty more of that coming for you. Make sure that you’re subscribed to this channel, not just for our Suns coverage, but Cardinals, I know it’s depressing, but there’s no better place to be a Cardinals fan than right here. ASU football’s through a very treacherous time right now. No better place to be a fan than right here. Got to give a shout out to the Wildcats show. I hate the Wildcats, but I love those guys. They’re doing a phenomenal job. Best place to be a Wildcats fan, right here. And Dbacks offseason time. That’s where we own it. Derek and the Dbacks crew. Amazing. Don’t forget about Rising. Mercury just wrapped up incredible coverage. And of course, what was that? No. Was that a backhand at like your Dbacks offseason? We own it. Well, we own it in the regular season. No, we do, but they’re in the offseason. Okay. I just want to make sure. Yeah, I’m going to diss. Yeah, that’s smart. I don’t know. I We suck in the season. I suppose you don’t know if you and Dererick have beef during the season. All right. No, I just, you know, he’s going, they’re going through it right now. They’re going through it. Yeah, that’s right. GM Ben, you should be sorry that you trade Luca into my division. their friend at our DLS. DLS GM. Listen, we know. By the way, the one show that he didn’t mention is the next one that’ll be happening on our network is Southwest Bias. I literally was about to lead up to that. You cut me off. I will be back. You cut me off. I was about I was going to say and of course. I was going to say and of course and then you tried to point some beef between me and the the PHNX and Derek. Say and of course. Strategically. Espo has Southwest bias tomorrow. We’re talking about and every day uh just diving into the deep despairs that is Arizona sports, but we have it all covered right here on PHNX Sports. So many of you are already members, including Deborah who’s in here right now. We’ve absolutely dominated with members. Uh so many and so many who have enjoyed the Cardinals first ever mockdraft. That’s members only right now. We have some Suns content that’s coming your way. All the Beats are going to be putting some stuff out there for members only, but automatically you get access to a free super chat every single month that’s uh prepaid for with your membership subscription and access to a bunch of really fun emojis, including some extra Suns emojis that we’re going to be adding in there as the season starts. We’re going to do Steven’s Mime Time uh for Wow. M. Yeah. No sound, just Stephen doing hand motions to try to explain to you uh what went on in the Suns. You know, I’m disappointed we didn’t get to talk to him about your proclamation about we would have had him twerk if we added three more members to we already we already know what he would have done. He would have started twerking. He would have said, “I’ll do it for two members.” He would have given me the the face like, “What the hell are you talking about?” How great would have that been if we just kept him on and we started just like saying things like that. Like Stephen said that he was going to twerk if we had another member and we just like kept him in that little box on the screen. Uh Sean says, “Better learn ASL people.” We’ll get it figured out sign language for those of you that aren’t familiar. We promise preseason for all of us. Our first regular season pre and postgame show of course will be just a little bit different. We’ll have that. We’ll have updates from practice and everything tomorrow. But of course until then you can follow the show at phnx_sons. That’s on Twitter and that is on Instagram as well. You can follow the freckle mamba behind the Mac making all the magic happen at freckled mamba. Of course you follow Espo at Espo. You follow me at Riky. And remember, oho hoy [Music] [Applause] like the mayor.

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The Phoenix Suns ended the preseason on a high note, taking down Luka Doncic and the Los Angeles Lakers to move to 3-1 heading into the regular season.

Erik and Espo dive into the incredible performances from Jared Butler, Khaman Maluach, Rasheer Fleming and more! What went right? How involved will the rookies be in the regular season? Should Jordan Goodwin or Jared Butler make the roster?

PHNX Suns reacts and breaks it all down on another postgame show, where Stephen calls in from the arena!

Follow the show @PHNX_Suns, @ErikRuby, @Espo, @StephenPG3 & @FreckledMamba!

0:00 – Intro
2:20 – Erik Issues His Official Jared Butler Apology
5:45 – Our Bright Shining Stars Are…
10:50 – KHAMAN MALUACH!!!
24:00 – Rasheer Fleming is YOUR PHNX_Factor
37:00 – By The Numbers of Tonight’s Win Over the Lakers
58:30 – Let’s Talk About the Bench
1:03:55 – Jalen Green and Mark Williams Get Injury Updates

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