Bickley Blast: The Phoenix Suns have our attention in a very good way

Bickley Blast: The Phoenix Suns have our attention in a very good way

and Marada Mornings. Arizona sports, the local sports leader, Bigley Blast. Public pressure can doom a sports franchise. It can make you draft a local kid rather than a transcendent player from Europe. It can make you give into a pesky agent and hand an enormous contract to a dimminionative quarterback. And his buddy Ryan once said, “If you listen to the fans, you’ll end up sitting with them.” Which brings us to the Phoenix Suns. 11 games into a new season, and we are beginning to appreciate once we what we once mocked, namely Matt Ishb’s commitment and conviction to doing things his way, to zigging when everyone else zags. for speaking new life and authenticity into a jaded stale basketball team. For choosing Jordan Aut instead of the more seasoned Johnny Bryan, aware that Aut would only heighten the Michigan State bias attached to the Suns. So far, the Suns owner is being handsomely rewarded because this team is doing everything he predicted. Jordan not is soaring in local popularity, delivering exactly the kind of immaculate vibes Ishppia was seeking. Now, can it be sustained when the rest of the NBA gets as serious and as engaged as the Suns are now? It’s a really good question that is impossible to answer at this point, but the Suns have our attention in a very good way. And three weeks into a new season, the very first box has been checked. All right, today’s Bickley Blast brought to you by my great friends at Chapman BMW who make luxury attainable. Find them online at chapmanbmw.com. You know, the couple games stand out was was early in the game early in the season where our defensive activity just wasn’t good enough. I think always some of that shot making in LA that first time was an incredible shot making. Denver on the second night, but back to back. So, I think overall our season overall this season, we’ve been a really good halfcourt team defensively. transition. I think we still need to clean some of that up, but part of that’s our offensive turnovers. So, I think overall, we’ve had pretty good stretches of our defense. Probably more recently, we felt that that it’s been at a high level. Now, it’s just about maintaining it for 48 minutes. That is Jordan not talking about the stretch of defensive games the Suns have had right now and acknowledging the tough start this defense got off to uh to begin the year. They’ve made a lot of improvements on that side. And look, you’re playing against a short-handed New Orleans Pelicans team last night. uh you held them to 98 points, 19 or 20 turnovers leading to 29 points for the Suns. Uh they’re doing a much better better job defensively. They’re spacing the floor better. Yes, they’re sharing the ball. They’re sharing the ball. All these little things. Now, you remember if you go back to last year when when a second head coach for Matt Ishbia was flaming out and then we got out of that season and there was all this heat on Matt Ishbia for bringing in Kevin Durant in the first place for not having patience with Frank Vogle for everything he had to say for flexing before he had the results. There were any number of national media people who were mocking him. He was certainly getting criticized locally, but the mockery came from the national media, from the Bill Simmons types, from the Stephen A. Smith types, from people who suddenly had a new owner that they could kind of what does this new guy think he knows about basketball? How dare he? That kind of stuff, right? A and then there was very valid criticism that okay Matt you might want to just kind of slow roll this a little bit and let the team do the talking and then maybe you can come back and surface when you get the results. To his credit everything that Matt Ishbia said he was going to do that made people roll their eyes is working. It doesn’t mean it’s going to continue working. It doesn’t mean the Suns are going to the playoffs, but it does mean that a vision that was spoken is being realized right before our very eyes. And the Jordan Knot component, I want to vibe on this real quick because I want to get your thoughts on what you’ve seen from Jordan Kn. Johnny Bryant was also a an assistant on that Cleveland Cavaliers staff who had far more NBA coaching experience. He was higher up the food chain. Jordan Kn had a loose tie to Michigan State, but it was a tie nonetheless. And the selection of Jordan Knot brought a lot of that criticism like uh of course you chose him over him. Jordan Kn has been terrific and he’s been terrific in my opinion in all the right ways. He is he he is all basketball and no BS and and what he is giving these guys they’re believing. They’re vibing on it. Devin Booker. I think one of the interesting things to me is that Devin Booker on media day when Brian Gregory got up there, when Nattishba got up there, when Jordan not got up there, the first two more than anybody really peding the optimism hard. Devin Booker wanted no part of that. Devin Booker having been here 10 plus years understands that you get yourself into trouble raising expectations before you play a game. So, so Devin Booker was very kind of even kill about the whole thing. Kind of like, okay, we’ll see where this thing is going. The other night he comes out and says, “Yeah, I’m vibing with this.” That says a lot to me. Your thoughts on Jordan Nod so far? I think it’s been uh overwhelmingly positive. And you know there were moments obviously early on and I think what we saw early on from from Jordan not um it was a transition but I think a lot of it bled down to Devin Booker as the de facto leader of this team in his 11th season with this franchise and has stated over and over he doesn’t want to go anywhere. We had talked briefly about when things weren’t going well especially on the defensive side of the ball defensive side of the floor for the Suns. There was a little weird body language from book and and and you brought it up and Kellen Olsson who watches the Suns not only more than anybody but differently than anybody. He noticed it as well. So something’s not quite right. I think those issues have been solved. So do I. And I think a lot of it has to do with what has transpired from Jordan not the coaching staff getting the players to buy into this defensive philosophy and again going into the vibes. You you just mentioned it again. Devin Booker last night talked about the style of being basketball being played by the Suns. Listen to this. For a few years now, we’ve talked to you about your ideal style of play offensively. Is this it? Yeah. What factors make it that? Uh it’s just spacing. You know, it’s constant movement. Um you know, there’s different doses, you know, different points of attack. Um, you know, it’s hard to, you know, defend the control chaos or, you know, the, you know, what looks like freelance out there, but, you know, we’re taught in, you know, certain spots of the floor, the type of spacing you’re supposed to have, the the cutting and sliding, um, big, set, and unbelievable screen. So, you know, we’re locked into the details right now. And look at the way that this is transpiring. The Suns for large portions of the game don’t have and and a lot of teams are doing this now don’t have what they would call a traditional point guard. Colin Gillespie is the closest thing they and he is a traditional type point guard, but he’s not on the floor all the time. And you look at the number of different players that are initiating offense. It could be Devin Booker. It could be Dylan Brooks, could be Oso Gdaro, could be Grayson Allen, could be Royce O’Neal. All of those guys are giving different looks and leading into this offensive philosophy. And if Devin Booker’s been through, he’s he’s seen a lot of stuff at his time in Phoenix. For him to say, “This is my favorite style of basketball.” You’re keeping him happy. And he’s been remarkable. Uh and last night had to be a relief for him. Didn’t have to carry a heavy load offensively, was very efficient, but to watch Grayson Allen do what he did, got to be satisfying on so many levels for him. I would think so. what what I see with the Suns team so far and and nothing drives me more crazy than basketball players who just pound the ball into the floor thinking about how am I going to shake this player wasting time. Purpose- driven basketball is the way to go. And that is when you get the ball, you’re going someplace with it immediately. You’re making quick decisions. You’re cutting. You’re you’re doing all those kind of things. And it’s all kind of materializing here. And it’s interesting to me that that Devin Booker has kind of really come around to this. It it’s it’s tremendously inciting exciting. It it’s kind of proof that as jaded as we can become about some of this stuff, sometimes sometimes you can you can pull something real authentic out of the rubble. Yep. Thanks for watching Bickley and Marada. Click to see the latest Bickley blast and hit the button in the middle to subscribe to Arizona Sports.

Dan Bickley says Mat Ishbia seemingly pushed all the right buttons during the offseason. Bickley asks how long the early-season success will last on his Bickley Blast.

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