The Phoenix Suns SOLUTION Is Coming Soon… Or Is It?

The Phoenix Suns SOLUTION Is Coming Soon… Or Is It?

Jaylen Green, you’re our only hope. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Psychos and sickos unite for a please save us edition of PHNX Suns presented by Bet365. Download the bet365 app. Use code phnx365. Deposit 10. Place a bet for five. You get $200 in bonus bets. I’m Eric. That’s Stephen. We got Espo. And of course Eritton behind the Mac making all of the magic happen. Hit that like button. Hit that subscribe button as well. Be like Oso and Bravo who became an MVP aka a member today and gained access to exclusive emojis and content if you become a Hall of Fame member. We are going to talk about what hopefully this week will bring, which is a potential return for Jaylen Green from right hamstring strain. We’re going to talk about the Mark Williams issue and the fact of him starting or not starting. We’ll take a look at some numbers from the first four games of the season. If we have time, maybe we’ll dabble in a little bit of a hoop grid, but the Suns are one and three. And uh how are we feeling now that yesterday’s overtime loss has settled in a little bit? Perfectly fine. this team is exactly what we thought they were. We’re going to go through some numbers that that prove that there’s things, smaller things that they can continue to correct and that they’ll be on the path that we expected. Not great, but with an opportunity to compete on any given night. And that is that’s where I will continue to be. I do not see the reason for the panic or the freak out that some people do. That’s just where I’m at. I mean, I’m right there. I genuinely don’t understand the panicking and the all of that. I’ve tried to suppress those things as much as I can, but I’m only one person. Um, so people just got to kind of learn a little harder of a way that you just got to be very patient with this, especially for one, it’s a brand new team as far as a new head coach, a new philosophy, new approach. Also, they they’ve been without two of their five best players for a majority of the season. You’ve had one in minimum capacities and the other one just outright not at all. Like, I’m not sure like the margin for error I feel like was well understood to be non-existent. You take two players from the full breadth of it all. It’s kind of what you’re gonna get. So, you got to just kind of look for things that you can see that they’re either sustaining or areas that they can improve independent of those guys. I’ve got a stat that really stood out to me that that isn’t one of the ones that we’re going over that I I saw it on NBA.com and their advanced stats. When you look at uh most open players, not a defender within six plus feet of of a guy, the Suns have four of the top eight and three of the top four, which says to me that the offensive system is working. It’s getting guys looks, but the conversion hasn’t been there. And the second half yesterday, you saw them even in the second quarter, you saw them start to hit those, right? They they shot pretty well from beyond the arc. To me, that is a a big thing that system is getting guys open, that Devin Booker is finding guys that that Colin Gillespie is finding guys in terms of that. And over time, you will hit those shots hopefully more consistently and it evens out the offense, especially when Jaylen Green comes back. And the point to the system, I I think is one I kind of want to dive in here as we’re looking at this one of one of three start just from a holistic perspective before we get into the specifics of of what Jaylen Green and Mark Williams could do in different capacities or any capacity for this team. I have already seen comments, takeaways about Jordan in a wildly negative manner. Now, well, will I sit here and tell you that I would have liked to see Rasher Fleming yesterday and and I am in on seeing the young guys because this isn’t a team with super high expectations and there are some things that I think both of those guys could in theory help you out with if they get a shot to, you know, get used to some NBA minutes. Sure. We’ve already seen Jordan make multiple adjustments in game. We have seen him go with what works at the end of games despite including myself people disagreeing with who the starting lineup is. And then people are like, “Oh, well, he’s not delivering on what he promised and this and that and this and that.” And I I mean, I get it. One and three is not great. And I I know I was on the more positive side of what the season could be, which excuse me, it could still be, but people making like grand takeaways about Jordan as a head coach when we are literally not even a week into the season is insane to me. He’s four games into his coaching career and hasn’t had two of his most two of his three most important players. None. and pulled pulled a lever last night in and Isaiah livers that paid off like these things that that he’s doing. Sure. Can you question Oso being the starting lineup? Of course. Uh you know, some people looked at Royce O’Neal starting last night and had questions about it. It paid off in term ter terms of it like this. Why did people think that this wasn’t going to be some kind of learning experience for a completely new roster and a completely new head coach? It boggles my mind. In that front, I you and I are on different sides of the fence when it comes to the young guys. If they don’t feel like based on what they’ve seen in practice that they’re ready for those minutes, I do not want to just thrust them into that situation because the mid2010s taught us that you can ruin young guys if you if you put them in situations that they are not ready for. If you do not develop guys correctly. So, I’m much more concerned about the long-term with those guys than I am an instant gratification. I know there’s a lot of calls for Rashier Fleming is the guy that’s going to save this team. If he is not ready, he is not going to. And you could do irreparable damage to what his future development is if you do that. Like, so I we’re four games in. I’m going to let it play out a little bit more before uh before I start freaking out. And Ma watch the same. You know, Humble Rumble asked that. Kids 18. If they don’t feel like he’s ready for for you know this the main stage, I’m going to trust that develop the guy do the things that it requires to get him ready to be that impact player. I would like to challenge people in their thinking. So it is a mission of mine to disrupt the team not playing well coach’s bad pipeline. The conclusion jumping is Olympic level with that and we see that across all sports. Just because a team is not executing to the level that you might expect or the level that you hope to see does not mean the coach is not doing what they’re supposed to do. Because and this is where the challenging part for me comes in. I urge those people that have that train of thought to go watch the game again. Look at what a team is attempting to accomplish based off of what they’ve expressed that they want to do as far as style of play, execution, identity, what lineups they might be using relative to what matchup they’re going up against. And look at what the players are doing in respect to what that game plan can either be assumed to be or what the coaches might maybe even tell you about after the game. If they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing to the level that they’re being asked to do it, ultimately doesn’t matter what the coach is going to be asking from them because the execution level is not there. Look at the game against uh look at the first game honestly against the Kings. I know we talked about him saying, you know, he pointed it out about switching and whatnot, but you saw he wrapped up the answer. It’s less about the scheme and it’s more about the execution level and the sustainability within that. If the execution is not there, Jordan I could be Greg Papovich for crying out loud and it might not matter at all because guys aren’t executing to the level that they need to. Yeah. I mean, there’s certainly nuance in it and and I I get what you’re saying where you can’t just automatically blame the coach for everything. And this is in all sports. If your team overall or your unit is performing poorly, the coach is usually one of the first people who who gets blamed. And I think a lot of people just have PTSD for the last couple of years of not having a good coach. And that’s understandable for sure, but this is not the same situation. It’s not. And and I wanted to be clear like I have so much faith in in Jordan and I think that he’s the coach of the future. I think all three of us have that and have sustained at that level. But I will say this, when you spend the entire off season from an alignment perspective, management to coaches to players speaking about playing a certain way and now in almost every single game, you have seen at least a half of not that identity showing through. And then when you talk about the young guys specifically where hey we’ve revamped this roster to be young and lengthy and athletic and two of your youngest lengthy most athletic guys are on the bench even if it’s for understandable reasons when you as a fan hear that for months and months and months and months and then you come out of the gate and it’s okay we look small in our starting lineup. We’ve got multiple vets out there who are on the slower side and our defense has had some pretty significant lapses in the form of 70 point halves and 40 point quarters. What slow vets do you have out there in the starting lineup? I know I’m just say just out there in general like that’s what and I’m just saying when you are looking at that perspective from a fan and I get it if if you don’t look at that way. I kind of see it from both but trying to understand where these people are coming from. I think it’s a tough pill to swallow to see these things that you thought were going to be strengths, even if they weren’t going to be coming in the form of wins for this team, end up being something we talk about four games in as as a weakness. Yeah. But I mean, I get it that nuance isn’t always the the easiest thing to have with it, but you’ve seen the flashes of it. The reason that they came back from 20 in the in the first game against the Kings and on Monday against the Jazz is because they were exactly what they were buil as. Yes. Have you seen first quarters that have been rough? Definitely you have. And there, if you watch it, there are small mistakes that are adding up over time that they clean up eventually in those second halfs at least against the Jazz and the Kings. And again, why? It’s like people are projecting a championship expectation onto a group that you already have have decided that we know that they’re not going to be anything overly special in terms of, you know, they’re not going to be competing for a West title. If they get in the playin picture, we’re all going to be thrilled about that. So through four games, I I don’t understand how there’s any kind of promise that hasn’t been lived up to. They’re still figuring out the rotations. And I’m sorry, but yeah, you’re still younger. I mean, Mark Williams is 23. He’s he’s playing minutes. You Jaylen Green when he comes back is 23 and athletic and is playing gonna play minutes. Just because you aren’t playing Rashir Fleming or Kaman Malawatch major minutes four games into their career doesn’t doesn’t change my feeling. I mean Devin Booker didn’t play major minutes in the first you know three months of his NBA career. He was in and out of the lineup like this is not an insanely uh you know different thing than than you approach a lot of rookies with. I’m not too much of a fan of the scapegoating of Oso Gadaro that we’re seeing in a lot of conversations just because the starting lineup is not has not been working to a certain extent. Yes, I think that’s unignorable. Also has not been the best version of himself within that. But how many of the five starters comprehensively this season can we just flat out say have been the best version of themselves? Some guys might have quarters, some guys might have halves. No one’s had a comprehensive game, maybe withstanding Deon Booker from last night, but we saw the conversations that people were having on social media and opened up the post game with the response that we were getting. So, for general perception purposes, you can’t even say Booker has had one of those games yet. We might think differently, but generally speaking, that’s not what it’s being perceived as. If you’re looking at what Oso was doing in the starting lineup, and you’re looking at what maybe wasn’t working, how much of that was his fault? So, if you’re talking about paint points and you’re talking about grabbing rebounds, is that solely on him or is that a fiveman group? Because we came into the season talking about the Suns have to be a team that has all five players crashing the glass. I’ve detailed their rebounding process on both ends of the floor. How many guys been upholding that? Similarly, you’re talking about protecting the paint. Your best paint protection is containing a basketball or being able to stop someone from cutting so comfortably. How many times have we seen them control those controllables to the extent that they showed to in the preseason? That’s the difference. Those lineups were working obviously two teams that were different in the preseason, but those things were working in those lineups, but also in the preseason. And that’s because the defense was at a significantly higher level than it has been through these first four games. Yeah, I think I I think it’s a little of both, right? And there are things that OSO could do better, but there there’s limitations that we already knew in his game. I I don’t think long term or or even short term he’s the answer starting which we will get into but like I yeah there’s not one guy you point to right now and and I know people like well they’re they look small well a most teams are going to look small when you’re playing the Utah Jazz and they’re starting three sevenfooters and b we knew they were small coming into this like there was there was no doubt that this was a small team even if you play Rashier Fleming, this is a small team. Uh, and it it’s a flaw in the way it was constructed and we were aware of that because this is a flawed team uh, in many ways and and nobody denied that going into this, nor did the Suns for an office. Yeah. And and look with with OSO again, I’m not going to go out here and say that he’s a he’s a trash terrible player and he shouldn’t play, which a lot of people are saying. I do think that he’s miscast. I I don’t think that he’s a starting center and I don’t think that’s a mean thing to say. This is a guy that again virtually has no offensive game, especially when it comes to self-creation. He’s he’s touted as a passer, and we’ll get into some stats later, but he’s not exactly racking up assists out there. He is undersized, but he’s a good switchable defender. And he’s gone up against some pretty tough matchups in the form of Zubat, in the form of Joic, and now in the form of Kesler and all the other two tall white guys at the Utah starts. You know, you you have put him in a position to fail, and it’s not been pretty. And I think it’s also a little tougher to stomach when you have a guy like Mark Williams who doesn’t have the same deficiencies that Oso Igodaro has that is coming off of the bench. We’re going to talk about those two. We’re going to get into the tale of two halves defensively and then we’ll speak about what does Jaylen Green do for this team and we’re going to get into all of it on a rare inseason daytime version of PHNX Suns. And we’ll do it after our first break. Sometimes for these ad reads, I’m speaking to myself, but this is specifically for all the people out there on Twitter. Chill out. Let’s just take a breath. And you know it’s serious when I’m saying that. That’s why you should indulge in some Pure Edibles if you are over the age of 21. They’re not covered in sugar like all of their competitors. Pure is a full-fledged candy company offering gummies, kicks, Starburst, which is their their kicks, which is their version of Starburst, chews, hard candies, and everything of the sort. They blend CBN, CBG, CBD all along with marijuana derived THC to get you the exact effect that you want. The thing that I like about Pure is that their effects are clearly listed on the tin. So, if you’re going to be sleepy, uplifted, relaxed, balanced, whatever it is, you’ll know. 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One thing I wish that I missed is these first halves that the Suns have been playing because they have not been pretty. They’ve led to some pretty incredible comebacks, but Espo, when you look at the numbers, it really is a tale of two halves for this team. Yeah, it’s been crazy. I was looking this up earlier today on NBA.com. In the first half, their defensive rating is 29th in the NBA. In the second half, they’re ninth in defensive rating. Uh when it comes to steals, they’re 17th in the league in the first half. They’re fifth in the second half of games. Uh they’re 10th in blocks in the first half and fourth in blocks in the second half. So, they have gotten better when it comes to defense in that second half. uh these these first quarters that they’ve had rough outings uh and and bleeding into the you know second quarter in particular the end of second quarters a lot this year have been rough but whatever they’re finding whatever adjustments they’re making if if they can clean it up in that first half this defense lives up to more of what you expected more of what we were sold on if you will and it somehow it doesn’t surprise me especially in that Kings and Utah game because you you saw it with the eye test, too. Things went shifted dramatically. They’re getting easier buckets because of better defense. They’re they’re contesting shots better. They’re getting blocks uh like we saw uh last night against the Jazz. Again, to me, this is this is small things. This is communication. It’s rotating the right place. is, you know, understanding your defensive philosophies fully and being able to uh to do those night in night out. And again, four games into a new system. I’m hoping those second halfs start to, you know, the the first half start to look a little bit more like it. What is it about halftime, Stephen? Is it simply coach tells us to make an adjustment? We adjust how we’re defending. like why would there be such a steep drop off when the same players play the first half and the second half? It’s not always about the adjustments. It’s more so about them just doing things better at times, but I do think that they’ve shown to be based off of those numbers and the actual games themselves. Um they’ve shown the ability to receive adjustments well and execute upon those with a certain type of urgency. Now, there’s some teams in the league that are there’s some championship teams that have been slow to the party. They usually get there a quarter late, half quarter late. Some good teams get there a half late. This Suns team does not have that margin for error to be even a half a quarter late. They got to be early. And that’s a that’s like a quadruple lantra for a lot of the things that they need to do to be the best version of themselves in any given game. But this is why I set the tone has been the one of the keys for like three of the four games that we played that we’ve seen them play so far is because when it’s not there that uphill battle is not something you can always bet on being able to fully climb back into quadruple on Tandra like that. And you got to be early with your you got to be early with starting games. You got to be early with your help defense. You got to be early with your activity. You got to be early with a lot of different things for them to be the best version of themselves. And you put that antenna with the adversity of injuries right now too, you just don’t have that that comfortability that other teams do. As a great philosopher says, top of the top. Uh, one of the things that, you know, we we see is the defensive drop off in the first half compared to the second half. I think when you look at how can the Suns just get off to a better start and it goes back to what you said earlier, Espo, it’s very simple. you got to hit your shots and you got to hit your open shots because not only does that put you in a position where you’re not down 20, but then in that second half when you’re generating turnovers and you’re playing good defense, you kind of feel like you need to chuck and chuck and chuck and chuck threes. And this is a team that is chucking a lot of threes, but they’re not exactly shooting um a fantastic percentage of it. Uh our guy, uh Zona, AZ Sports Zone, pulled the three-point percentage leaders for the Suns through four games. I don’t know if you guys have seen this. Do you know who’s leading the Suns in three-point percentage through four games? I mean, it’s I would assume it’s Grayson. Okay. But do you know what percentage without looking at the screen as you just looked at the screen? Closer to league average than he is elite right now. Grayson Allen’s leading the Suns at 38.5% from deep. Devin Booker at 37.5% from deep. Royce O’Neal at 37.1. Colin Gillespie at 35.7. Everyone else on the roster is sub 33.3%. And as a team, Phoenix is shooting just under 34% from deep. They’re getting good looks, but they are not hitting it at a rate that they they need to be hitting it at in either half. No, I mean, and Royce until last night wasn’t hitting it on the regular as much as you’d like him. We know he’s a streaky shooter that even Grayson has has had a few games where you’re like really would have liked that to to have been better in terms of his shooting. They are getting the looks. Can they connect? Your three-point shooting isn’t get better because of Jaylen Green because that’s not his strong suit, right? But you hope that these other guys that have been a little bit more known for it will will find that rhythm and and will hit those shots when they get the open looks. But this is where we talked about it last night. You need Ryan Dunn to find a serviceable three-point shot along the way to help you here. you know, other guys because you are going to find yourself with the opportunity to connect and uh and if you’re not, I think you might see your time limited. I think that’s why we haven’t seen as much Nigel Hayes Davis uh lately because not hitting those shots. If you’re not hitting them, you’re not going to be out there. And that goes back to the point that you made to start the show about the three-point shooting and the amount of open shots they’re taking relative to others. Some of that is, yes, that’s their offensive process, but the other half of it, it might be 6040 in favor of this side of it. Defenses are making decisions. They’re saying, you know, the scouting report, if Devin Booker is swinging it to player X, player Y, or player Z, you can hold it be to make sure he’s making that pass so you can get early in the gap to make sure that he’s not able to turn a corner comfortably. That’s why we’ve seen some of the uneven shooting performances in terms of volume nip. A lot of conversations were coming from because he comes off a screen, he sees the screeners defender and the defender that’s one pass away comfortably early in their positions. He has no choice but to pass that. If he doesn’t, it’s just bleeding away the shot clock which leads to a hotly contested shot at the end of it. So, it’s kind of push and pull there. They have to start knocking down their shots though 100%. That’s why the lineups have shifted from the first half relative to what the second half has been. What I found interesting though was Grayson was one of those guys at the top. Royce was one of those guys. Colin was the one that didn’t shock me was Dylan was was that and you can see it in those in those first few games why he was taking so many and he was not connecting at a high percentage. I believe he’s close to 29%. Exactly 29% which is 10% worse than what he shot last year in Houston. Now was he always going to be a 40% three-point shooter? Realistically probably not. But the years before that 35.9% 32.6% 30.9% 34% 35 37 35. So he’s never been sub 30% in his career. So far this season he is. Uh permission to look at this in a glass half full perspective everybody. Permission granted. I mean you can join us on that ship. Sure. acting like I’m crashing out about stuff is not happening. No, it’s not. We mentioned the Dylan Brooks part. I think realistically, even if he doesn’t get to 39%. He’s going to go up, right? We know what Grayson Allen has done, and we saw him have a colder start to his season before. We know realistically that’s going to go up. You’re going to add Jaylen Green, who is a shot creator, and he’s going to have games where he misses a lot of threes. He’s also going to have games where he makes a lot of threes as well. This is something that I could easily see swinging at least slightly more in the Sun’s favor. And when you look at a game against Utah, missed threes and missed free throws uh in an overtime game on the road. If one of your guys shoots closer to what they could be averaging, either from the line or from deep, you win that game. That’s how close the margin is right now to being two and two. and maybe you don’t fall down as big to either the Clippers or the Nuggets if some guys could hit some more timely threes or you have another creator out there which we’ll get to later in Jaylen Green. Yeah, I I think you will see some of this tick up. I think we know Royce will be hot or cold in it. Grayson, you know, will likely be around that 40 to 42% where he hovers. Devin’s kind of where where he’s been. I just I don’t have a lot of faith that Jaylen Green’s going to come in and and be anything to write home about from them. Maybe maybe he surprised him. Maybe that shot has changed. If Dylan Brooks can can up that five or 6% and get in that mid30 range, that will make make a difference as well. It’s small things that that they need. You can’t shoot 50 threes and only make 17 of them. That’s not going to get it done. and we’ve seen that happen a couple times already to this team. So, you’re going to have to find it somewhere and hopefully it is a couple of those guys that haven’t hit at the clip that you hope. Is it time to talk about Jaylen Green? I think we’ll get to we’ll get to Jaylen Green. Uh we’re going to get to the Mark Williams and Oso conversation. So, I think we put a bow on that first, then we get into just how much does Jaylen Green help? Uh we’re going to do all of that and maybe just maybe have some fun at the end of the show. We’ll see if we have time after this break. Just kidding. We always have fun on this show, but it’s never ordinary over at Bet 365. I can tell you about all the different sports that they have and the different deals they have like the MLB early payout offer, the same game parlay boost that they have over on Bet365 for basketball, of course, all the Thursday night and Sunday night and Monday night football bets. But I just want to tell you about the app. It’s the best betting app I’ve ever used. It’s easy. It’s great to get around. Everything’s clearly listed. There’s no bugs. I personally absolutely love it, let alone what I can actually bet on there. And right now, new customers get $200 in bonus bets when your bet when you bet $5, win or lose. Sign up. Use code PHX365. Deposit 10. Place a bet for five and get $200 in bonus bets if your bet wins or loses. Bonus bets can be used on spreads, totals, player props, futures, and more. Whatever the moment, it’s never ordinary at Bet 365. You must be 21 plus and physically located in Arizona. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1800 Nextep. Text nextep to 5342 or visit problemgambling.az.gov. Got to tell you about Mountain America Credit Union. They’re the home of the Suns debit and credit cards and they are the home of the Mystyle checking account. You want to make my style your lifestyle because they have great perks. Just because you are a member, just because you are part of the my lifestyle checking account, you are going to get great deals on uh loan rates. We all want to do something, accomplish something in life, get a house, start a business, whatever the case may be, maybe even consolidate debt. You can do that at a lower rate because they can help you there. They’ve got phone protection, telealth access, and so much more. And you can rep your Phoenix Suns while doing it. You can apply at any Arizona branch. Visit macu.com/sons. To learn more, and remember, they’re insured by NCUA. Terms and conditions and exclusions apply. Loans on approved credit. Make sure to check it out today with our friends at Mountain America Credit Union. Before we get into it, I have to call somebody out in the chat. Oh boy. Boom. Shakalaka. Love is his or hers avatar, his or her uh uh name. But they say that Wings is the greatest sitcom of all time. And this is just atrocious atrocious take. Wings is nowhere. Wings is in the top 15 sitcoms of all time. Like it it is not. It is about be so honest. It is it is about a a place called San Piper Airline in a little tiny uh airport on Nantucket, Massachusetts. I believe it’s Massachusetts. It is not even a top 15 sitcom. It was not even that funny in the early 90s. Most people don’t even remember it. And I’m pretty sure that’s what Eric is about to say. I’m going to be honest with you. I thought I thought they was talking about the Dallas Wings. I didn’t know nothing about Listen, I’m like, were they a sitcom this year? Yeah, they were for sure. For sure. Like unaware of ’90s sitcoms, but I Wings has never come across my desk. I don’t think I was aware of Wings either. It’s not even a top 10 90s sitcom. So, sorry. I could Espo hates the wings of the show and the food. Wow. This is true. There’s a lot of Wings hate, you know. Let’s throw Dallas in there, too, just for good measure. All right. Uh, and and the Red Wings up in Detroit. All wings. I’m out on birds. You like birds? It depends on the bird. Planes. Some birds are [ __ ] Do you like planes? Uh, no. I honestly I mean I don’t I take them because I got to get places, right? But you know I could do without all wings in general. So no good arrested development is spectacular. Yeah, we can we’ll save that for when the Suns are 40 games under 500. Uh we’ll do our sitcom. By some people that’ll be next week in courting their It might be. They do play every other day so it’s got to add up at some point. Craig Faulty Towers. That’s that is quite the pull there. All right, let’s pull out of the old folks home and let’s get into modern NBA basketball. Uh Oso Gdaro and Mark Williams has been a a storyline. We talked about it slightly earlier on this show, but Mark Williams last night plays 30 minutes and has the the game of the season, his best game as a Phoenix Sun. And his averages are are starting to look pretty pretty decent for the season, especially coming off of the bench so far uh in just three games because he did miss that back toback. He’s averaging 11 points per game, 9.3 rebounds per game, 7 blocks, seven steals, and shooting over 54% from the field. Of course, all of those uh from two-point land, and 22, not steals per game, minutes per game there. I was I was surprised. 22 steals. We’re not talking about this guy. So, he’s 22.7 minutes per game, 119, one and a half stocks, shooting over 54% from the field. Pretty good numbers. I’m not bringing this up to bash on Oso Gdaro, but just to set the scene, this is what Oso Gdaro stats have been in a starting capacity for the Phoenix Suns. The number I’ll start with is minutes per game. 19 minutes per game. So less than Mark Williams, averaging 5.5 points per game, three rebounds per game, one assists per game, half a block per game, shooting under 48% from the field. Of course, like Mark Williams, all field goals coming from within the three-point line. I get that there’s a plan, and we’ve heard the plan. the plan, the plan, the plan, the plan. But if Mark Williams is already playing more minutes than Oso Agodaro and is clearly having a bigger impact than Osu Gadaro, at what point does that plan go to you are starting at center for the Phoenix Suns? Because in my mind, I feel like it’s got to be soon. I’m I don’t think it’s going to be anytime soon because they’ve preached the plan. This is what we’ve seen. Now, I don’t think OSO I don’t know that Oso is going to be the guy. I think you might see Nick Richards wind up there, but I I don’t see them rushing this. And quite frankly, who knows if that’s even their plan to ever start him. They they obviously think there’s a path to getting the most out of him. And right now, they are playing those minutes at the end of the game and to some success with it. You look at those averages and it’s working. last night it worked. Uh, does does shifting that into the first quarter have the same impact? I don’t know. Wouldn’t you rather have him ready to close the game with the lineup than putting him in early using some of those minutes if you’re going to keep him on a strict minutes restriction, which it seems like they’re planning on doing. I’m I’m not expecting him to to start anytime soon if they’re following this strategic plan to put him in a position for long-term success. Yeah, I think I think if I’m looking at projecting OSO’s career, his ceiling is probably a change of pace big. Mhm. So maybe not a starter per se can play starter minutes on any given night depending on matchups and how you want to flip those or maybe switch up because you’re initial approach isn’t good enough for that team or that night or whatever obviously Mark is the better player. Mhm. Um, so I’m not sure when they actually get to start in Mark, but I think the telltale sign is who’s been closing games. And Mark closed even the very first game of the season, which was his very first game since last year against the Kings. And he was out there doing a lot of the same things that OSO was doing. Maybe not in the exact same way, but as far as versatility and activity, he was doing all of those things on both ends of the floor. So, um, obviously we have no choice but to trust the plan and be patient to see it play out, but I’ve continued to harp on you have to do something different with Mark because what was being done prior to him getting to you is not what bred the most sustainable success for him. And that’s more than anything leading to health than anything skill-wise. If Mark Williams didn’t look good out there or he wasn’t playing more minutes than Oso, these are all things I’d be like, “Okay, continue to bring him in off the bench. he’s not ready for that workload. I don’t see why it has to be a mutually exclusive thing finishing and starting the game, right? Just because he finishes the game doesn’t mean that it’s okay be he’s not starting. I mean, we’ve even seen the Suns, you pull up the numbers defensively. Sure, he doesn’t solve all of that, but he he solves a lot of these problems that the Suns are having with Oso in the lineup. And again, I don’t think it’s Folioso’s fault. And if you want to get the most out of a guy that you traded f two first round picks for, having him continuing to come off the bench and play catchup for your guys isn’t the best situation to put him in. I don’t get why he can’t play 24 to 25 minutes per game, start the game off, put some pressure on a team, maybe build a lead for once this season, then bring him off the bench. OS comes in as a change of pace. Nick Richards comes in as a change of pace. They share those minutes until you can bring Mark back on. I just to me it’s like I don’t get why the plan is he can play the most minutes out of any center on the team. He can finish the game against the starting lineup, but for some reason when the ball is tipped off he can’t be out there. I guess just it doesn’t make sense to me. It I I guess it’s just about minutes distribution like it’s not does it matter that much if he starts? I think the problem is OSO isn’t helping you on the defensive end. If Nick Richards can go in and start a game that way, if the plan is you want him playing significant minutes in that back half of the game and that’s the way they view to keep him healthier, I don’t I I guess I don’t understand getting so caught up in the is he starting does because they suck. I get that. But there’s there’s multiple solutions to try to try to mess with that and mix that up without impacting what we’ve already seen him be successful in at the moment. I I I don’t mind his minutes aotment and way he’s played. I would like them to get creative in how they start a game, but again, to your point, I don’t know that that’s fully on OSO either. This is, you know, I think there’s a lot of factors that go into it. I wouldn’t start Oso. I’d start Nick Richards uh over the next week or two uh and and see how that goes and make some determinations. But I don’t know it it it’s just for me if OSO was doing better or if you had a better option or your starts weren’t bad, there’d be a lot less pressure on it. But Stephen, the beginning of the games, they’ve hung in there a couple of times, but the reality situation is they’re usually going down double digits at half. put some pressure on a team and start with a lead for once and Mark Williams is the best option to do that at center. Not saying play him 35 minutes. Uh yeah, I mean we came into the season knowing that Mark has the highest ceiling if you’re not including Malawash with that group of three centers at this present moment. Um, I do think that the starting lineup would benefit from the forcing physical nature of Mark or excuse me, of Nick Richards if Mark Williams is not going to be starting uh for whatever a lotment of time that they’re working towards with their hashtag playing. So, I would like to see Nick get a couple games, especially over this home stretch, just to see if that sets a better tone for your team. And naturally, if you swap Nick and Oso, now Oso can just play in Nick’s place where Marcus is still getting minutes, but you’re still getting some usage out of Oso. And I feel like, like I mentioned, that’s in the last um in our last segment, change of pace might be his best role for him to be his best version of himself, but also have the most impact over the course of a game. If he’s not going up against starting fives, that maybe that helps him a lot. But I think the other side of it too with Nick, that force part, I just think having a bigger presence around will help them with some of the things that have shown to be issues for them. Primarily being able to contain the ball in the perimeter. You would rather not have to ask or throw a life raft out saying, “Can you please protect the rim?” You would rather say, “Hey, can we please defend the ball better?” But if that’s just not what’s going to shift this soon, having a sort of stop gap in there could help you a little bit. I I need to go and do the research and I didn’t have time today to do it, but I I want to go see how many of of you know Mark’s minutes initially are against backups. if there’s a strategic way they’re going about staggering these uh to get him uh easier matchups early on and then letting him play through the fourth where you’re playing everybody if there if there’s a strategy to it beyond just we’re not starting him and we’re just stacking those minutes up later because there could be a benefit to that too and I need to see what exactly specifically they’re doing in terms of how they’re using those minutes. Sure. I mean, at the end of the day, he’s still ending games, which of course is against the starters. I’m not advocating for him to play more minutes. I think the plan very clearly could be you’re on a minutes restriction and you don’t play backtobacks. To me, that to me that feels like a pretty solid plan for the long term. But again, they they know more than any of us, and we’ll have to trust them. So far, Mark looks good. But I agree, Oso Gdaro starting at center. I just it’s not the best case for either side. I do want to get to super chats because we forgot to get to Psych Blue’s super chat a little bit earlier and be calm just dropped one. But to read this one from Psycho Blue 999, thank you so much. Uh, Psycho Blue says, “Basketball Cthulhu is projecting a vision to his disciples. They don’t see Grayson Allen and Royce. They see Ryan Anderson and Trevor Arza. The 19- win season started with the promise of playoffs from the owner, too.” But nobody promised playoffs this year. There was never a promise. They just said they were going to be competitive and and that they might lose more games, but you would be prouder of the product that you were seeing out there on the floor. Those were the exact uh things here. Like this is this is not trying to sell people on Ryan Anderson and Trevor Arza. Believe me, I remember I was around for that. Like it’s it’s not that. This is Hey, Ryan Anderson. I would love if they had Ryan Anderson and Trevor Reez on this roster right now. Stretch five. Ryan Anderson. I think they’re both a little too old right now. Trevor Reza would probably be just as good today as he was with us back then. Well, no, because he’d actually like it now. There’s decent there’s a decent caterer now. So, yeah. Uh or just find a player that fits those two archetypes and bring them into the mix. There’s a request in the chat from Sean for you to read the B COMC clearly super chat. Stephen, me. Yep. Hell yeah. No, that’s Everybody’s got a role. Yeah, Eritton’s got to play his role. Didn’t you say your voice was feeling a little scratchy? Maybe you’re a little under the weather. It’d probably just be nice. Take one for the team for Steven. And then I mean the people are asking for it, too. We do not put Steven under peer pressure. This is a bad one. Use your scratchy voice. It’s not. But it’s not the point. We got rolls for a reason, right? All right. $2 be concy legs. Deir legs. Bombastic legs. laughing emoji double lightning bolt. Mr. Bombastic appreciate y’all for these super chats. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Be comy clearly. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I think I’m going to start reading basketball cthulu and we’ll come up with some voice for it. That’ be great. We’ll get we’ll get some fun with that as well. Shout out to Eritton. Okay, I think we we’re about 45 minutes into this episode and we should probably talk about the other guy that’s on the thumbnail and that is Jaylen Green. No actual injury update for him for tomorrow. You can keep it tuned at phnx_sons on socials and Stephen social at Stephenpg3. Uh for the up-to-date updates when it comes to Jaylen Green and his right hamstring strain, but it’s clear the Phoenix Suns have a lot of problems. What problems does Jaylen Green fix? Before we get into that, just gut feeling everybody. Does Jaylen Green return to the Suns tomorrow? And if your answer is no, when does he return? I have my black fingernail paint ready for Friday. Friday, I’m guessing I’m guessing Friday since you know we last we heard he’d only played some some ball with the coaching staff. Not so Halloween against Utah at home. That’s that’s where I have it right now. Stephen, what does your gut tell you? Uh I think he plays tomorrow. Okay. This is not a sourced or informed perspective. This is just my not even my gut, just a a itch if you will. It feels like he’s close and it feels like tomorrow might make the most sense. It would make sense considering that when they initially gave the the injury diagnosis at the beginning. It kind of landed over the weekend and they had a backtoback and really tough places to play and then they went to Utah and nobody wants to play in Utah. So, might as well start when you get back home against Memphis. If Jaylen Green does play tomorrow, we’ve just spent the first 45 minutes talking about the problems with this team and how adding a center into that starting lineup that could make an impact could change it. How much does swapping out Grayson Allen, moving him to the bench, and starting Jaylen Green actually help this team? I think it helps your bench immensely because there’s somebody that can help score. It also, I think, helps the free throw discrepancy that you’ve battled throughout this this season and will be able to get the line because he’s aggressive on that. I don’t think it changes your your three-point shooting vastly, but it will take pressure off of Devin Booker and hopefully will get him some additional looks that are better than what we’ve seen. I think that’s probably the biggest benefit you’re going to have there. uh and hopefully can lead to Devin Booker having a little bit more energy for the defensive end as well because he doesn’t have to carry all the offensive load in terms of trying to make things happen out there. It’s a couple of areas for me, but I’ll kind of Craig, chill out. Um but for me, I if I condense it, it’s starting with free throws, the free throw rate. The Suns are 25th in free throw rate through these first four games. Jaylen’s going to put pressure on the rim. He’s going to be able to go and self-create. That’s going to draw a certain type of attention that’s going to allow for them to play through fouls, if not just put a defense and compromise more, which might lead to fouls for others because of the way he sets the tone for that. Number two for me is catch and shoot threes. So, he might not necessarily affect the efficiency, but what he will affect is the shot quality. So, what’s the rhythm and cadence of the threes that they’re getting? Is it just swing swing because we’re late in the clock and someone’s got to put something up or is it a paint touch or extra defender in addition to a paint touch that leads to someone being open for a three and what does that rhythm do for their team? And the other one for me is with Devin Booker specifically with the catch and shoot threes going into last night’s game. Do y’all know how many catch and shoot threes he took on the season? Book going into going into last night’s game. Five. Three. Yeah. And he didn’t take not he didn’t take one catch and shoot three against the Denver Nuggets. He took five last night. So he’s up to eight now on the season. Five of Jose came in yesterday’s game and two of them came in the last 23 seconds. Correct. And it’s no surprise that they came in what was their best comprehensive offensive performance which was the game against the Jazz. So Jaylen bringing more organization for them, giving them a play finisher to go to Devin Booker’s play starting and um advantage creation and being able to set the table for that is going to give them a different pop to their offense, especially in the half court. The last one for me, transition, that’s the one they held as one of their most important kind of pillars. They haven’t been able to play to it yet this season. Jaylen’s going to be someone that pushes it. He’s also going also going to be someone that gets out to fill a lane and they’re going to find ways to get him that for hit aheads alleyoops and all of those kind of things and that transition layer is going to be as important as anything for them. I think there’s a lot of ways that Jaylen Green benefits this team. I actually think it’s going to be mutually beneficial because this is by my money the best offensive setup that Jaylen Green is going to have as terms of his usage rate but also the spacing that’s going to be around him. the best player that he’s sharing the court with and Deon Booker is the best offensive player he’s ever shared the court with. And those two, I think, are going to be bouncing back and forth. It’s like, wow, Jaylen really helped Devin Booker. Devin Booker really helped Jaylen. And when you look at elite guard combinations across the league, they play off of each other so well because of gravity, because of that pull of the defense. And look, there are a lot of faults to Jaylen Green’s game. And there will be a graphic here that we bring up in a second that has a very clear color code as what are the positives and what are the negatives that he brings. But he is so much better at so many things than anybody else on this Sun’s roster is. He is in my mind clearly the second best player on this roster. And you’ve been missing him. Your offense was built around him. Guys are being miscast. Role players are moved up into their uh into the rotation because Jaylen Green’s not there. And we talk about energy, stopping a run. Sometimes it takes a big play, a transition dunk, a poster on somebody, a highlight layup, a fadeaway three. These are shots that Jaylen Green is the most equipped on the team to make. Sometimes it comes in the form of nobody has anything going. Go out there and create a shot. Jaylen Green is one of the best shot creators in the NBA. And we have the stats to prove it. It might be my favorite graphic that Erit has made uh in his time here. Shot creation for Jaylen Green. His overall shot creation, he’s in the 96th percentile. If you need a reminder, the higher the number, the better. Rim creation, he’s a 98th percentile rim creator. Paint 97th percentile. Mid-range 90th percentile. Pull-ups 97th percentile. And three-point pull-ups 98th percentile. Now, when you get to shot quality and shot making, there is a lot of red and a lot of yellow and a very little bit of green. But Stephen, I think there are a lot of people who ignore how important that first row is and how important shot creation is, not just to Jaylen’s game, but to everybody’s game around him. Yeah. I mean, some of those things, especially the top layer of just creation. You can’t teach, you can’t create, you can’t develop skill-wise. Some guys are just God-given with it. Some guys just can’t have that. And not to the extent that he does. He’s probably a 95th percentile athlete in the league if we’re looking at the the topest of the top being someone like Victor Wayyama who’s quite literally not from this earth. And then you got other guys that are a little more from earth than Victor Wayyama, but Anthony Edwards is a otherworldly athlete. Jaylen’s not necessarily that percentile of guys. But that cut just below those guys, he’s in that mix somewhere. That comes with a lot of the numbers that we’re seeing that just ability to He’s a coupe. I won’t give away free ads, but he’s a two-door car that goes over 200 miles an hour within a blink of an eye. The Suns haven’t had that pop to their approach. Where do you best see that displayed? It’s in transition. Now, obviously, you have to get stops and grab rebounds first and foremost, which they haven’t been grabbing rebounds, but if they’re able to play off of stops more often, like no different than we saw against the Jazz last night, some of the most sustained defensive success that we’ve seen from them this season, that puts Jaylen Green in the best context to play for himself. if he’s feeling good about himself in transition and now they start to get to possessions in the half court and he’s in a rhythm playing off of Deon Booker on top of that. That’s where this is the best version of the Suns that we’re going to see. Yeah, Deon Booker benefits the most by having Jaylen Green out there if we’re talking about what his impact is. It’s going to be a direct impact on Devin Booker. I don’t understand the people like it’s just another Bradley Beal like when when I’ve seen that they don’t even like to be able to play basketball. I I’m like that that no I mean outside of yeah he was injured for the first handful of games but that’s not the game this guy brings to the table and like your whole point and Aiden in the chat said it too and and I kind of hinted at it that you have to respect what he does in the lane which then opens up opportunities for everyone else including for Devin Booker. So it changes the whole weight of the offense and the way way that it works. And to your point, you take that guy out in a system that Jordan Knot prepared for him to be there. And as much as we love Grayson, not the same guy in any way, shape, or form. So it dramatically changes the structure of your offense there. So there there’s a lot of things that will will benefit from Jaylen, but the biggest one for me is Deb. And I mean, think about it. We we’ve talked about at the beginning of this episode, guys are getting open shots, right? Like Jordan is clearly making adjustments and scheming. Jaylen Green is an incredibly interesting like tool to have in your toolbox. And in Houston, not only was he the number one option offensively, but like Eudoka is not like an offensiveminded coach. He’s very much focused on the defensive side of things. And to put Jaylen with a coach in in a who was, you know, given a lot of the credit for orchestrating Cleveland’s offense last year, which was very very ahead of the game, very well-maintained and very much an evolutionary offense and didn’t stay the same throughout the season. Having a piece like Jaylen Green unlocks so many things the Suns have just not been able to do. And then like Grayson Allen, come in off the bench and just be a hotand shooter and do all the things you’ve been able to do. decrease the amount that you’re needed, up your efficiency. Grayson Allen, you could be in the six man of the year competition. Like, there are guys that continue to be miscast and Jaylen Green was miscast at his old place. I think he steps into this one as the second best player and as somebody who’s still going to be relied upon and put in a good position to succeed. I’m really excited to watch him play basketball. Yeah, me as well. I want to address something Melissa said in the chat, if you don’t mind. She said, “Listening this pod 5 minutes a day increases my hoop IQ an average of 3.2% each time I tap in. She must only be listening to the Steven parts of this.” Well, it it’s 10% from Steven and then minus 6.8%. Okay. For appreciate you. Hman with a $5 super chat says book and Green will benefit more if the number five spot actually requires somebody on defense to guard him. So basically saying yes, they’ll help out each other, but they would benefit the most by having a guy like Mark Williams in there on the court with him. Which actually leads me to kind of the question that I want to ask you guys to to round this all off. So I put it out there on Twitter. Jaylen Green and Mark Williams starting makes the Suns blank percentage better. So, let’s assume a fully healthy starting lineup of Devin Booker, Jaylen Green, Ryan Dunn, Dylan Brooks, and Mark Williams. What percentage better is that than what we’ve seen from the Suns in the starting lineup capacity so far this season? We considering we haven’t seen those guys start. Two- fifths is 40%. So, it makes them 40% better for me. I’m not good at math, but I’d say 25% because it would make your first quarter better. And that’s a quarter of uh of the game. So, I’m guess I’ll say 25%. I I like the 40%, maybe I’ll meet somewhere in the middle, like 30 to maybe 35%ish of an increase. But when you think about it, you think about that Jazz game. If they had a 5% increase, yeah, that’s a win, right? If you have a 30% increase against the Nuggets or the Clippers, that game can be more competitive because hopefully that percentage comes in the times that the opposing team is going on a pretty massive run. This team has been put in a rough spot with the teams that they’re playing, the schedule, the injuries, all of that. Is that an excuse for being one and three? No. They will tell you that. But it is the reality of the situation they’ve been put in. And we’ll wrap up our conversation on this and then we can get into a really quick hoop grid, but we’re going to do it in overtime. If you are watching on TV, the party always continues over at gophnx.com. Any final thoughts on Jaylen Green, Mark Williams, what changes the Suns maybe need to make as they host the Memphis Grizzlies at home tomorrow night. From a Jaylen Green perspect, I just I need to see it on the court. I we still have zero idea what this actually will look like in practice. We can we can say here’s what we think this is going to look like, but until we see him out there in that number four jersey with Devin Booker, we’re not going to know. And and I I cannot wait to see that. In terms of what they need to change going into Memphis on Wednesday night, give me Nick Richards starting. I I need I need to try something different at that position to at least make me feel like, okay, you see what’s going on. Let’s try to figure out another solution for the time being. Um, just on the Jaylen Green part, if you look at the Suns through these first four games and you apply what I’m kind of looking at and see where they’ve been okay, where they’ve been bad, and where they’ve been standard, goal of any offensive possession, get two to the ball, get a paint touch, or get a defense in rotation. How many of those three boxes did Jaylen Green check off just as an individual player? I would say all three in glowing fashion and like standout fashion. having that without your roster and you’re checking off one and a half to two of those with Devin Booker as the kind of driver of the offense and now adding the Jaylen Green dynamic to the fold with that and them being able to play off of each other. It changes a lot for them. If you’re scoring the basketball more, you’re keeping your defense set more. If you’re keeping your defense set more, they’re pressing teams. They’re able to kind of get more comfortable, find their footing. Things look a lot different in terms of the complexion of the game and it kind of es and flows. I think that organization dynamic with Jaylen being in the mix is very very very very important. Yeah, I I think that the the eventual debut of Jaylen Green and hopefully Mark Williams being in that starting lineup or just playing more minutes with the starters or checking in earlier like he did in the second half. I think it’s going to have a lot bigger of an impact than some of the the doomsday uh fans that have already been hitting the panic button on this season. It’s a long season and they will get better. uh will continue to be here throughout the entire season, but we like to have fun on this show as well. And I I say we end today off with a little bit of a hoop grid. I I kind of like the last time we did a hoop grid. I like that you refuse to guarantee that we’ll get better as the season goes on. I can’t make I can’t make promises. I’m not Draymond. I’m not going to write checks that somebody else has to cash, you know. So, I I just I like to make sure that uh you know, we are keeping the standards nice and low because I don’t want to be like the Phoenix Suns where we tell everybody we’re going to make it to the playoffs. It’s like, “Hey, I ain’t making the play in here.” I’m kidding. All right, I think it’s time to get into a hoop grid. Of course, if you don’t know what hoop grid is, it’s basically the ultimate NBA trivia where you try to get the lowest score possible by picking the most niche players. Arritin has gone through and selected a couple of hoop grids for us throughout the season that have direct suns ties. Eritin, uh, what is on the menu today? This one has the theme of DeAndre Aton as you guys can see. So on the top we have player of the Denver Nuggets, player of the Portland Trailblazers, and then a teammate of DeAndre Aiden. going down. We have played in the 2020s, a Phoenix Sun, and then someone who scored five plus points per game in a season. All right, we’ll cover the chat. We will just do this ourselves, and then we’re going to try to get the lowest score possible. Uh, anybody have any names that comes to mind first? Jeremy Grant for played in the 2020s and Portland Trailblazers. But that I mean that’s going to be a pretty high number. Let’s see. I mean, Jeremy Grant’s gonna be like, “Yeah, that’s gold.” I feel like that’s that’s still high. We can get we can do better than that. There’s got to be Oh, you you know Ish Wayne. I think that’s a good find on the Blazers. This might be a good find. I like that. Um, can we do for There we go. For DeAndre and teammate played in the 2020s, Epha uh Londonberg Lundren, I think it’s G. His first name is technically Gabriel. Whoa. free ads. Uh, yeah, it’s like Gabriel Lindberg. Yeah, there we go. Bang. All right, let’s fill out the first row. Denver Nuggets 2020. Was Davon Reed on the Nuggets in 2020? Davon Reed was on the Nuggets. That’s a great dude. I was really high on Davon Reed. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. All right, that’s a great first row. We just got a dislike for that. That’s crazy. Uh, that was Max because there was a free ad that got snuck in there. Let’s save the Suns row for last. So, five plus point per game season. DA teammate, Portland Trailblazer, Denver Nugget. Uh, Dooop Reef for Portland Trailblazers. He might just because he’s recent, he might have a decent amount of of guesses. He dop wreath. Okay, we’ll take that. We’ll definitely take that. All right. Uh, five plus point per game Nuggets or eight in teammate. Who’s an obscure eight in teammate? Langston Galloway. Did he didn’t average five, did he? In one se in a season. I think so. My guy Langston Galloway. Hold on. Is this ever or when he was a teammate? Oh, I thought you meant when he was a teammate of DeAndre Aton. Yeah, he’s also diamond. So, we’re all diamond all across the boards right now. Five plus point per game Denver Nugget. Walter Davis. Gary Harris. I mean, we could try Walter Davis is old, but if not, then we can we can try Gary Harris. I just Walter Davis is a better player. Gary Harris is a more recent player. Mhm. What about uh Oh, what’s his name? Robert Pack. Oh, Walter Davis. Geez, that’s a unicorn. Wow, that’s crazy. Let’s go. The old players are are are definitely cheat codes on this game. Mhm. Um, okay. Suns Nuggets, Suns Trailblazers, and Suns DAT teammate. Ellie Aobo for DA teammate. Ellie Aobbo. Drake’s favorite poker player. The Oh, gold. Really? That It’s that Drake. It’s that Drake. These freaking people know Ellie Kobo as a Can we do Jaylen Mchugh? Argo. You mean uh mini Russell Westbrook, what do they call him? Bang. All right, that’s a good poll. You guys think Don Holmes II is too known because he’s playing Does he count? What do you guys think? I don’t know. I don’t know if he counts if he for Suns Nuggets. For Suns Nuggets. How about Antonio McD? Gold. Gold. Really? Suns. Suns. Nuggets. Lafayette. Lever didn’t play for the Suns. He played for I tried Don Holmes. I don’t know if that’s J McGee. Jail. That might be okay. It’s still high. Um, Nuggets Sons. Dario Sich. I mean, yeah. Sich Walter Davis would technically fall into this category. Yes, he would have uh but we could try Dario’s probably going to be gold though, too, because he’s he’s recent. Recent silver. Okay. I mean, he literally just played on the Nuggets. There’s got to be somebody. Is there Can we find a better five point not a better, but another really good five point per game poll for Nuggets? Five points and see what Walter Davis has for Nugget Suns. Since clearly people don’t know Walter Davis ball, if we can’t think of of of a at least a diamond, we got we got to be real ball knowers here. We got to be a diamond. Trying to dig deep. It got to be some like random role player. Oh, the Nuggets and the Suns. Who would have played? It’s weird that there’s not more people that are coming to mind. Isaiah Thomas. Did he play in the Nuggets? I think he played with the Nuggets for or was he just make sure it’s the right Isaiah Thomas. Yeah. He just with the silver. Wow. Okay. So, do we have one more or is that No, we can keep going. It’s just once we fill in that final square that that’s final. I thought you only had so many guesses in one square. Uh did Alfred Peyton play for Denver at all? Yes. Oh, hold on. Ish Smith. Okay. Is Smith silver? Really? He’s a jury. I will say for guy for on stuff like this guys like Ish Smith and Isaiah Thomas they’ve been on every team so people will just put them in just to like get the points. Yeah. Can see I’m looking I’m looking and trying to do some strategy here. I feel like it will be easier for us to find an old school like Robert Pack Denver Nuggets five plus point per game season. Can we see how how low that is? Because them putting Walter Davis up might even it out. Can we see Can we see what Walter is there? It’s probably I’d imagine it’s the same. Okay. It’s still It’s not as It’s not a unicorn, but that’s better than a gold. Do we think that we should replace a Portland Trailblazers player in the 2020s? Because we can get real niche with that and then use ish for Suns Trailblazers. Unless we could think of a more unique Suns Trailblazers crossover than Ishmael Wayright. Because that’s kind that’s kind of where I’m thinking about like allocating our resources because we can think of an obscure Portland Trailblazer for sure. The crowd goes, we can try it. We can try. Well, let’s let’s think of I would probably move to Suns Blazers because I can’t I mean Danny A is one that comes to mind, but I imagine I bet Danny A is pretty low. Let’s do we want to roll? We can’t go back. out these first. Okay. And then 2020 Trailblazers that play for the No, just just 2020 Trailblazers. Just that. There’s got to be some some end of bench person from way earlier. Uh, doesn’t Jeremy Grant have a brother and did his brother play on Portland? or my Jerion isn’t. I swear he has a brother. I don’t think he played I don’t think he played for Portland though. Um 2020s Portland Trailblazer. God, they had some stinky teams. There’s got to be somebody. Who’s on the team that in the bubble? Oh, the bubble was Is that 20 or 19? It was 2020. Who was the team on the bubble that lost to the Allen Crab Brooklyn Nets that ruined our our hopes and dreams? Who was on that that team? CJ was on that team. Oh, Melo was on that team. Melo’s probably going to be pretty high, of course. Was Alan Crab there in Alan Crab? I thought Alan Crab was on the next. He was in Brooklyn by then. Yeah, he But he did he play on Portland in the 20s or No, that was earlier. If he was if he was on Brooklyn, he didn’t go back to Portland. Do we just roll Danny A in that middle spot? Yeah. Call it a night. I say we do that. Let’s just throw Danny A in there. 52 possible options for a full diamond grid. Danny A, you are go No, that’s rough, man. Yikes. What a bummer to end the show on. For the life of me, I cannot think of any more obscure Suns Blazers crossovers. Cliff Robinson isn’t that obscure. Try Can Can we still type in one in there or No. Can you try Cliff? RIP. Still going. Yeah. Damn. There’s Who else? Yeah. Wait. Nerk. Nerk. Yeah, Nerk’s gota be high. Yeah, bronze. Uh, can we can we just put like CJ McCollum in the in the top Portland one and then move Ish down in the middle and see what Ish would have been there just just because how is CJ a gold? Oh, he would have been gold there, too. Okay, so it wouldn’t m that would have been really disappointing. Oh, yeah, that would have been Okay, well that’s going to do it here for PH and Xons. Hope you all enjoyed the hoop grid. You know, we we did okay until the We told people we were going to be like alltime great and then we just What do we think we Oh, Channing Fry for Blazer Suns. Keon Johnson. Nas Little. Oh, Nas Little would have been Nas Little or TM would have been great. Steve, Steve Kerr. Steve Kerr. Most people do not remember him as a son. Damn, that was good. This Rodney Rogers. This is why we don’t look at the uh this is why we don’t look at the chat because it would make it too easy. You guys are absolutely too smart. Thank you all so much. How many of them were googling though? We’ll see. That’s what I I don’t know. I think if you even you Googled Keon Johnson, nothing would come up. Uh appreciate you all being here with us on a Tuesday. We’ll be back tomorrow pregame postgame for Suns Grizzlies. So, make sure you check out that. Uh in the meantime, if you want the latest updates on Jaylen Green, all the other injuries and all the other news that comes through for the Phoenix Suns, make sure you follow us on Twitter and on Instagram, phnx_s. A shot of the freckled mamba making the hoop grids and all the magic happen behind the Mac. You can follow him at freckled mamba. For all your game day reporting at the arena, practice shoot around and everything like that. Steven is a mustfollow at Steven PG3. That’s Steven with a ph. Of course, you can follow Espo and catch him on Southwest Bias as well. You can find him at Espo. You can follow me at Rik Ry. And remember, I have nothing else to say right now cuz I didn’t prepare anything. And as Don says, be safe and naked. Oh, hoy. [Music] [Applause] [Music]

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The Phoenix Suns have dropped to 1-3 after an OT loss to the Utah Jazz, but are their solutions to their problems closer than people expect?

With Jalen Green looking to return soon, and Mark Williams playing thirty minutes for the first time all season, would their additions to the starting lineup be enough for Phoenix to fix a lot of their issues?

Can the Suns fix their defense with offensive additions? What else do they have to fix, and how can they fix it starting their stretch at home?

PHNX Suns breaks it down on their first daytime live show since the season started! Follow us @PHNX_Suns, @ErikRuby, @StephenPG3, @Espo & @FreckledMamba!

0:00 – Intro
1:45 – How Are We Feeling? What Changes Need To Be Made?
18:40 – It’s Really Been A Tale of Two Halves So Far For The Suns…
32:35 – We Need to Talk About Mark Williams And Oso Ighodaro
45:25 – We’re SOOO Close to Jalen Green Time

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