The Phoenix Suns Are Using Moneyball to Build a Winner After Big Money Failed 💰🔥

The Phoenix Suns Are Using Moneyball to Build a Winner After Big Money Failed 💰🔥

Yeah. Heat. Money, money, money must be funny in a rich man’s world. Get that stuff out of here. It’s Southwest Bias. Welcome in to Southwest Bias, brought to you by our friends at the Husband and wife Law Team. If you’ve had a serious injury, call the Husband and wife Law Team first at 602-7838841 or visit their website at husband and wifeaw team.com. And we are live from Studio K. Got the point right. You see it right there. Brought to you by our friends at Circle K. Become a member of the inner circle today by downloading the Circle K app for free. I don’t think I fully grasped money and how important it is to manage it correctly until I got into the business world and quite frankly until I left sports for five years and had to work in the corporate world in marketing and manage a budget of $3 million a year in terms of ads. I I don’t think I I viewed it in a way that I could understand the greater picture until then. And here I have to do a similar thing in my GM job. And it’s tough. And you take chances in a budget that you have a and you try to do the best that you can with it. The Phoenix Suns did that. They took chances. They took big swings. As a matter of fact, uh, Matt Ishpia was on Draymond Green’s podcast, I believe it was today, and said, quote, “The Suns have never won a championship. Let’s go try to win that. It didn’t work.” But no one is going to think management doesn’t care. It’s easy to set no expectations and be better. When you set high expectations and missed, you get on. All right, that is that that’s the reality. They took a big swing. They tried to do what led other people to championships in the NBA previously, and it didn’t work because of a new economic system that people weren’t 100% familiar with. Now, you could double down. Go look at what the Clippers are doing. There’s rumors that LA is trying to look at Demar De Rozan now and bring him in on top of the, you know, graveyard of talent that they have there of guys that are past their prime and are trying to hold on. But the Suns didn’t do that. The Suns decided, we are going to cut bait. We’re going to move on because our mistake happened. And in business, it’s fail fast and move on quick if that’s what you’re going to do. If you try something that doesn’t work, the the worst thing you can do is sit there and double down on it. Is sit there and prolong a m mistake just because you were unwilling to admit you made a mistake. The Phoenix Suns admitted that they made multiple mistakes. this off season they corrected it and they went in an entirely new approach to building a team and people some people call it unconventional some people look at it and and don’t fully understand it and I didn’t I appreciated what they were doing but I don’t think until the other day I had really put my hands around what it was that they had done. I don’t know if you’ve ever read Michael Lewis’s book Moneyball. You’ve probably seen the movie and I don’t think that does it justice because really the book is a business book that is focused on uh the Oakland A’s in their days of not paying anything uh and yet having success and Billy Bean’s tenure there and the approach that they took. And the point of the book was finding underutilized talent, guys with skill sets that were undervalued in baseball that you could put together. And despite the fact that when you look at it as individuals, it’s not that impressive talent-wise because these are guys that aren’t viewed as stars. They’re viewed as guys with maybe one or two uh you know intangibles that they have but not a a total package like scouts want to say. In baseball they call it five tool and basketball it’s you know this guy was a five-star recruit whatever the case may be. And it was about understanding the system and figuring out how could you work it how could you find talent that when put together uh the whole was greater than the parts. I think the Phoenix Suns have started to implement a moneyball approach in basketball. Now, they’re not nickel and dimeming the way Oakland had to, but in today’s economic uh reality in the NBA, you have to be fiscally conservative because of the aprons. You have to be smart in the way that you spend your money and in the talent that you accumulate. And they’ve created a a system in which teams and not individual superstars are how you get rewarded. Look at Indiana last year. Look at what OKC’s done. Now OKC has obviously the MVP and some top flight talent, but they’ve built teams, deep teams, teams that can do it at all levels of basketball. And the Phoenix Suns looked at that and started to implement their own version of it. They brought a little touch of the college game with Brian Gregory’s 30 years of understanding and how to build a team with that kind of mentality. And they’ve done it. They look at some of the guys that are they’re getting high production out of. Jordan Goodwin, a guy that the Lakers literally cut, a guy that the Suns and their old regime let walk, but they looked at it and they said, “This guy is tenacious defensively. Is a really good rebounder for his size. Has an uncanny ability at 6’3 to still guard bigger guys than most guards can. And in a league that’s all about switchability on defense, that becomes a very important skill. He’s the last guy to make their roster and yet he’s still having a big impact on this team. Colin Gillespie, a guy that the Denver Nuggets let walk. A guy that the old regime decided, you know what, Monte Morris and Taius Jones and burying him on the bench was the smart play. He letting him play in the G-League. This is another guard that can rebound well, that knows how to pass the ball, has some deficiencies, or at least used to in his mid-range game, and there’s some flaws, but you know the effort you’re going to get from him night in night out, just like you know the effort that you’re going to get from Jordan Goodwin. The biggest one, Dylan Brooks was essentially a guy that was weward in his career. The Grizzlies said he was terrible, a terrible offensive player. Then they said he was a distraction. They traded him to Houston. Houston decided, you know what, maybe he helped build this culture, but he’s dis he’s disposable. And the Suns looked at him and said, you know what, this is a guy that can be the emotional engine for your team. A guy that is not going to let a single individual on this roster rest at any point. A guy that works hard to get his game better. Does he have flaws? Sure. those delay of games, those technicals, those fines that he’s getting, not always ideal. But where that scared other teams away, the Suns looked at all those intangibles, all those other things he does and said, “That is a piece to a larger hole that can make this work.” Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neal had been bit players over the last few years. Uh and and it kind of been that throughout their career and have become integral parts of what they’re doing here in Phoenix. Phoenix Phoenix, Nick Williams. No, Nick Richards. Mark Williams. I always mess that up because of the two Charlotte guys. Mark Williams, a guy that everybody looked at injury prone, can’t can’t help you win. Uh isn’t going to stay on the court. The Lakers, a ma, as a matter of fact, nixed a trade that I actually think would help them and would have actually made them a better team. They said, “You know what? No, no, we’re not. We’re not going to do it.” And the Suns looked at him and said, “You know what? If we manage it right, we can get the most out of him. He’s 23. He can rebound. He’s another guy that works his ass off and has a specific skill set offensively and can protect the rim. And if we put him in the right situations defensively, he can be a very good anchor to your defense. Is he the best? No. But when you put them with everybody, they become a formidable group. Oso Gadoro is a flaw flawed player, but they found ways to put him into situations to succeed. Ryan Dunn, everybody said, “Well, he can’t shoot, so he’s going to wind up on the bench.” Guess what? He’s been one of the most important energy guys on this roster because they’ve found ways to utilize what he does best. The Phoenix Suns are creating basketball, moneyball, ball, whatever you want to call it. They have figured out how to take guys that have specific skills and maximize them. A team that everybody thought if Devin Booker didn’t do everything, they would be one of the worst teams in the league. have actually come together as a complete team and leveraged the specific skills of each guy to raise the entire skill level of the roster. The Phoenix Suns have at least started to crack a code for this new NBA, for this new economic reality. And I love what they’re doing in terms of figuring out guys that can be better as a team than they are as individuals. But maybe that’s just my Southwest bias. We welcome in the mustache behind the Mac, Shane Deanbach. Shane, how are you, my friend? You’re that good, huh? You’re looking sunny today. I’m good. How are you doing? I’m good. Moneyball. Is it Is this the basketball version of Moneyball? Um the Let’s It might be the the prologue, the the start, the foundation. Yeah. Okay. I I think that’s fair. that yet. But I don’t think I don’t think they they haven’t fixed everything. They’re certainly playing like it like this is a team that other teams like when they see them scheduled they’re like, “Oh my god, no, not these guys again.” Like it and it’s not because they’re uberly talented. It’s because they’re going to wear you down. Sure, you can beat them. Sure, Friday night, the Thunder might kill them, but it’s not going to be an easy win. It’s gonna be an annoying win if they do pull it out. Like this team has heart. They have fight. They have hustle. And even if the Moneyball comparisons don’t go all the way to the end like they like they do in the the book in the movie, we still like if it just ends in a plan, we still know that this team fought. To be fair, Oakland never really won anything either. They just actually found a way to to utilize baseball’s economics and find find flaws and and the Suns have done that. They were supposed to have the worst financial situation, the worst future in basketball. And I found creative ways to get it. Now, I don’t think Brian Gregory is going to get played by Brad Pitt. No, I’ll say that much. He might. I I don’t know. Uh I I think Jordan might get played by the uh the neighbor kid from Toy Story. he might get get that casting, but I I think they’ve they’ve started something that that looks special from initial glance and better than we thought. Uh want to say hello to the bias in the chat. Uh Deborah saying they root for one another another which is key. Mesa or Kev from Mesa says you ought to know better uh than u O TTA uh than to overlook this team. Hello says if Dylan can blow into LeBron’s ear in the last Lakers versus Suns, I’d be happy. Uh Cara, good to see you as well in there. Lots of interaction. I want to know uh are they the Moneyball of basketball and who would you cast if this turns in to a movie as well? One other Suns thing I want to hit on. Uh no Kevin Durant tonight in this uh Suns versus Rockets game. And I know people online want to go to the oh he’s ducking the sons this that the fact that it said that it is a family issue I believe because Kevin Durant is a family man. He is a guy that is extremely close to his mother, extremely close to his family. And there are some things that are much bigger than basketball. And I will not I I know that we’ve joked about things and we’ve talked about how poorly things have went and how fired up we were to hand the Rockets and L because of it, but some things are bigger than basketball. Some things are bigger than rivalries. Some things are bigger than all of that. And you got to respect that if there is something going on with his family, you hope that he winds up and they wind up all right. And you also look at it and you go, if there’s a guy that wouldn’t miss games just to miss games, it’s Kevin Durant because the love of his life outside of his family is basketball. So if if you want to rip on him, do it in in your own uh ridiculous echo chamber. I’m not going to pile on to it because the guy obviously has something going on and we got to respect that. Something fun coming out this morning though. The Phoenix Mercury have unveiled their new logos. Uh I got the pleasure of being at an event this Saturday, this past Saturday, uh where they kind of walked us through this new look, explained the details, and I want to do that with you because I actually really like this. And I know at first look some of the X factor uh may think, oh, it’s too simple. Whatever the case may be, but to me, uh I want to look at this first one. Let’s take a look at the new uh circle logo here. uh the the simple Mercury M. It is not too far of a a escape from the original logo. I love that the M’s still there. The Mercury planet. I don’t mind that the three rings are gone. I do like that they’ve used the M uh to kind of protrude out of that planet circle to show a similar kind of approach to what those rings were. I really like it. Can we go to that circle one with the Phoenix Mercury on it as well, Shane? This one is is kind of their primary word mark. And you see the M, but then you see the lines. Fun little touches here. A uh they hearken back a little bit to the Suns of the ‘9s. uh that they said that uh the lines there’s eight of them which represent the original eight teams in the WNBA to make it very clear that the over these 30 years the Mercury have been proud to be one of the first franchises in the league. But another very cool thing those lines and the M they are at a 19.97 degree angle which represents 1997 when this franchise came into being. It’s the little details in this that I love and the story that goes with it. Let’s take a look at that uh that second or the tertiary logo, the state of Arizona. Uh one, I love that they’ve embraced the nickname Merc that they’re saying, you know what, we may have Phoenix in our name, but Arizona is the mecca of basketball in our minds and that they embrace the entire state. I think it’s sleek and I love uh the look. And then uh Shane, if you don’t mind, let’s take a look at the full thing. all the word marks and everything. Uh here we can start here. The evolution of the logo. I I it was very much time for a refresh. I and I think that this is a way to take this into the new era of Mercury basketball and give them a clean look. I love that. Uh and I think it’s great. But then you look at the different word marks. The PHX is staying in honor of the X factor. And I love that they’re going to use that X to embrace different things and causes in the community. Uh there’s going to be a pride version of it, which they showed us where you get the pride flag in that X. Uh there’s going to be one that honors cancer and in particular breast cancer. They’re going to use that as the way to tie uh the community together with all this. And a very cool thing that they’re doing right now at the team shop through I believe December 5th is if you have any piece of Mercury merchandise with the old logo, doesn’t matter what shape it’s in, what it looks like, you can bring it down there and they will trade it in for free. For free you will get a new piece of merch and then they’re going to donate all the older merch to uh people in need this holiday season. It is a great way for for them to give back to the Mercury community and the community as a whole. Plus, right now, and this is a fun one, if you are so inclined, the first hundred people that decide to do this, they’re going to pay for your tattoo to get the new Mercury logo on you. 100 people for free, you can get the tattoo. I love it. Uh, another announcement coming tomorrow. May or may not have to do with uh with uniforms. So, stay tuned to that. I love it. I hope you guys do too. And I love what the Mercury do for the community and how they embrace it. Uh, and I got to tell you a really quick story. My wife went up to Diana Terzi at this event on uh, on Saturday and she wanted to tell her the story of uh, my wife had a double massctomy a handful of years ago. Rough time for her obviously, rough time for my daughter uh, who was four at five at the time. And uh two weeks out from the surgery, the Mercury were kind enough to let us go to a game and sit kind of in an area that was uh sequestered from other people. So nobody bumped into my wife with her painful uh surgery scars that she had. And it was the first time my daughter went to a game and she wore a bun because she knew Diana Terzi wore it and Terzi was out there and she fell in love with the game. My wife walked up to Diana to tell her the story and show her the photo. My wife was super nervous and she went up to Diana and Diana and Penny Taylor talked to her for 10 minutes and they cried together and they hugged. Like that’s what this Mercury team and and that whole organization is. It’s part of the fabric of this community and they embraced the fans and they embraced people and Diana Terzi is in my books the greatest woman’s basketball player ever. she didn’t have to give my wife the time of day and yet she did and she had a conversation and there was a connection and Diane and I wound up talking about our kids uh for a good five minutes as well who will my wife talk to Penny Taylor. That’s what this team is. It’s part of the community and I love that this new look represents this new era and still represents the community. On the other side of the break, we we’ve talked about things we really like. I got to talk about the Cardinals after this. Coming up right here on Southwest Bias. Our friends at Circle K, you heard me talk about becoming a member of the inner circle at the beginning of the show. And you know why you want to do it? Because there are great perks when you become a member of the inner circle. I’m giving thanks for Circle K this week. Because as a member of the inner circle, when I joined, I got 25 cents off per gallon on my first five Phillips. Then you get 3 cents off per gallon. Then you hit the mustache behind the MAC level and then you’re going to get 5 cents off per gallon. But it’s not that. I stopped. I got a Polar Pop today. My Coke Zero. Uh.79. It’s the best value you can have. They hit me with a free coffee as well. I said, “Thanks for stopping by. Here’s a free coffee for your next visit.” You never know what they’re going to do. There’s always surprise and delight things that come up. 99 cent frosters as well. Uh and you know what? You’re going to get fuel days that you get hit with. Last week there was one we saved 40 cents off per gallon. Uh so you’re going to want to check it out. Join the inner circle today for free by downloading the Circle K app. Terms and conditions apply like everything in life. Uh visit circlek.com for more details. And Hila River Resorts and Casinos. You do you at Hila River Resorts and Casinos. I know uh it’s aggressive and when I say it, but I mean it in the best possible way because when you go out there, you’re going to achieve legendary status. They’re going to treat you like you’re the superstar. Unbelievable uh food options. You can go from casual to classy. Uh their steakhouse at Wild Horse Pass uh Prime is unbelievable. It’s a Shoula steakhouse. You know it’s good. Uh and then they have other great options there as well, but it’s not just the food. 45,500 uh live games and slots out there, plus the best sports books in the valley. Visit Wild Horse Pass, Lone Vqua, or Santan Mountain because you do you at Hila River Resorts and Casinos. Visit playhila.com for more details. Oh, and you know what week it is. It’s Thanksgiving week. And what happens uh during Thanksgiving? Well, first it’s the Territorial Cup. And you can visit the ASU guys. They’re going to be out uh for an event postgame show. So Shane, why don’t you give the people the details? What what are uh what are the people going to be able to expect from you guys after the uh Territorial Cup on Friday? Well, I mean us, which is a huge sell. Well, that’s the only sell. Yeah. Uh well, hey, there’s a lot of fun stuff at Loco Patrone. Um right across the street from the stadium, so if you’re going to the game, it’s an easy little walk over. Literally will take you five minutes from gate to entry. Um great food, great vibes, great fun. and we’ll be celebrating a Sunundevil W. So, make sure to come out um and celebrate with us at Local Toronto Mill after the game presented by our friends at Captain Morgan. Yep. The captain ship will be right across the street and I’m not even lying. The captain uh will be out there and also it’s obviously Black Friday coming up on Friday. I like to think of it as my birthday sale because it’s my birthday Sunday. So, I’m just giving the people what they want. Some great deals on amazing merch uh with our friends here at PH&X in all city. You can save up to 90% on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. But guess what? Uh right now, uh you’re gonna get early access if you are a diehard. It starts now. You want anything you see on that screen at a discount. Become a diehard member. If you are already a diehard member, log in and you’re going to get these discounts starting today. So take advantage of our Black Friday sale. Save up to 90%. Uh you can do that starting now if you’re a diehard member. I got to talk about the Cardinals. I really I really don’t want to. Uh you look at what they did yesterday and I guess they accomplished exactly what I had asked. Make it interesting but lose so you don’t hurt your draft stock. But my god, they are finding you new and unique ways uh to screw the pooch. All right. They are finding new and unique ways to crap the bed. However you want to say it, they’ve figured out how to do it. The end of the game, you get down there and you have an opportunity to score a touchdown. Uh the clock is running. You’re running out of time. And instead of spiking the ball, you run a play. You you you run a play, it’s incomplete. Uh you don’t get a touchdown, and you only leave yourself with enough time to get the game tying field goal to send it to overtime when you could have won. You could have had two chances and shots at the end zone. And I do not understand how spiking the ball wasn’t what you did. You’ve got a headset in your quarterback’s ear. You got a veteran quarterback out there and nobody thought, “Hey, let’s spike the ball in this situation.” Instead, you line up and shotgun and you throw the ball. Spike the damn ball. I put that on Ping. I put that on Ganon and I put that on Jacobe Brassette. They had four turnovers. They they created four turnovers and had none themselves and they still lost this game. Shane, do we have that tweet from Blake Allen Murphy? Uh NFL teams entering this game were 50 and 0 when they had a plus4 turnover differential over the last 25 years. So since 2000, I was in high school. I was a sophomore in high school. It’s been 50 and 0 since I was a sophomore in high school. Well, guess what? The Arizona Cardinals found a way to lose a game when history told you it was next to impossible to do it. In fact, for the last 25 years, it has been impossible. But guess what? Your Arizona Cardinals found new and exciting ways to do it. And in overtime, they get they get the opportunity. They’re they’re marching down the field. Okay, they’re not marching. They’re slowly uh crawling to try to get down the field for a touchdown. and instead of on fourth and four trying to get the fourth down and get the first down and keep moving the ball to try to score that touchdown or uh kick a field goal to extend overtime. You know what they decided to throw the ball in a long uh basically throw a a Hail Mary down the field to Xavier Weaver, your least experienced wide receiver on the field. And I know they try to claim it’s single coverage and what we’re going to hear in a second, but that was certainly double coverage when you see the safety coming over the top. I thought it was an abysmal play, but here’s what coach Ganon and Jacobe Brassette had to say about it. Oh yeah, they played double double, so he threw it to the one-on-one. Loved the decision. Go trying to go win the game. Uh was the coverage for him. Um you know, I got to make a better throw. You liked that play. Are we really trying to protect Drew Petting that much that we have to come out and say we liked that play? The only double double was the double double on the menu over at In-N-Out. Sorry, free ads, Max, but come on. Like, it was a terrible play call, a terrible read, and a terrible throw. You were a bad team. and you continue to prove that you can’t get out of your own way. And that’s the most frustrating thing is with better coaching, maybe they’re not a bad team. Maybe they’re an average team. Maybe they’re an above average team. But game mismanagement, clock mismanagement, play calling, that’s been atrocious is insane to me. I do not understand how you continue to do that. But at least you preserved your draft standing. That’s another edition of Southwest Bias in the books. A big thanks to the mustache behind the Mac, Shane Defbach, who does the Lord’s work on this program to make sure everything runs smoothly and I don’t do anything stupid. He fails at that sometimes, but it’s not his fault. You can follow Matt Shane Def. You can follow the show at PHNX_ports and you can follow me at Espo. And remember, sometimes just because you’re not spending on superstars doesn’t mean you can’t find stars in their own right. Ohoy. Hoy.

The Phoenix Suns tried the big-money, superstar-heavy approach — and it didn’t deliver the results fans hoped for. Now, Phoenix has shifted to a smarter, more efficient Moneyball-style roster build, focusing on value, fit, and depth instead of massive contracts.

Espo talks about how the Suns rebuilt their roster, why players like Colin Gillespie, Jordan Goodwin, Dillon Brooks, and the new supporting cast fit the Moneyball mold, and why this approach may finally be the formula that works in Phoenix.

0:00 – Intro
1:15 – Moneyball Suns
15:00 – Phoenix Mercury New Branding
24:30 – Arizona Cardinals Stink

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