KEVIN DURANT TRADE REACTION – Did the Phoenix Suns Get FLEECED?

KEVIN DURANT TRADE REACTION – Did the Phoenix Suns Get FLEECED?

today in a live edition of the Locked On Suns podcast an emergency reaction kevin Durant has been traded to the Houston Rockets our full thoughts and what comes next next you are Locked on Suns your daily Phoenix Suns podcast part of the Locked On podcast network your team every day welcome back in to locked on Phoenix Suns i’m Brendan Clean a staff writer at offline announcing a credentialed Suns media member thank you for making Locked on Suns first listen immediately after the Kevin Durant trade has finally gone down don’t forget Lock Suns free and available on all platforms including YouTube just click that follower subscribe button do what thousands of other Suns fans have already done become an everydayer get locked on to the Phoenix Suns right here each and every day today’s emergency live episode of the Lockdown Suns podcast brought to you by Monarch Money take control of your finances today with Monarch Money use the code locked on NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year joining me to break down this insane unfortunate trade from the Wild West Valley my fellow Sunscredential media member how are we feeling Ben Garcia i kept the energy up for you right up until now but you know take it away uh I’m at a loss for words man i’m at a loss for words i understand that there is um I guess if you’re someone maybe you’re into Jaylen Green that you could get excited about it but as I I’m like I’m parents maybe is that the list of Oh that’s a good one jaylen Green’s uh doesn’t he have like a significantly older girlfriend too like him and Bill Bich maybe he can come coach the team and it could just like be that type of thing but uh I don’t honestly man I think I just I think I might have just kept ke kept Kevin Durant at the end of the day i mean you changed Yeah i just not great man not great i don’t know which one not great chime in in the chat i see Joshua i see Lucky i see animal i see Drew there were people in the comments before we or in the chat before we even hit record or hit hit live so keep going we’ll definitely in the last segment have plenty of time to just cruise and make this a long one if you guys have questions and thoughts to go around so thank you all for being here the big question I think is why did they take this deal what what what was the thing that finally got this over the finish line and so let’s read what the deal was before we answer that question coming back for Kevin Durant who is headed to Houston jaylen Green Dylan Brooks the number 10 pick this season next week and five second round picks per Gambo those second round picks Ben are the Rockets 2032 second Boston’s 2032nd number 59 this year and two seconds that Houston had for next season which I can try to guess at what those were based on what they had available and that’s it that’s the whole deal so notably absent from that list that I just read for you there uh Jabari Smith Cam Whitmore Reed Shepard i mean any any number of people we might have uh expected not in that list not in this package what was your reaction when you saw this come down um I kept looking for Jabari Smith i was I looked I read the Sham Shirania tweet twice i saw Dylan Brooks as the first name that popped out of my mind and then I saw Jaylen Green and I was waiting for the third team that was supposed to be taking on Jaylen Green it was um ultimately man at the end of the day it’s I I cannot believe they took back a deal for Jaylen Green like everything feels like a lie we were told this is why you can’t believe any of the reporting any of the betting markets any of anything man because we were told before Minnesota Timberwolves had a better offer i think the Raptors potentially might have been a better offer than this because we always thought Jabari Smith Jr was in the deal i mean you’d have gotten a better pick too yeah um although freaking Toronto apparently wasn’t even actually going to include Purle so even they were getting getting spicy with their negotiation doesn’t it tell you that the negot that that the offers were so horrendously bad the Suns felt like they had to take this offer before the NBA finals and try to kind of push this bad this bad press down the road like if the Suns do this deal on Monday or they hold on to it till Monday it tells you that they feel like they got a great deal i mean I mean Jerro Borg put out a tweet we thought sounded optimistic what the Suns might get back and the fact that you got it feels like two salary cap fillers in a first round pick like break it down like this jaylen Green kind of a really poverty Devin Booker Dylan Brooks i mean like he’s a good 3 and D guy but he’s not necessarily known as a like a culture guy memphis wanted him gone five second round picks whatever and like the first round pick man you put so much pressure on yourself now to nail that pick and it’s just What trade is that pick my It’s all it is it’s all it is yeah you it is make or break on that pick so I want to get into the package in in depth like next just in terms of how we kind of got here and everything else but just the the negotiations the sweep stakes the the the pattern of everything we’ve been talking about day by day by day throughout this whole off season and definitely over the past couple weeks i guess my question as dumb as this might sound considering they just took the deal is was this the best deal like or or do we think that there’s some aspect of it that they must just have fallen in love with i mean of course you can’t try to say there’s much going on here to fall in love with but did they I I try to look at it from that standpoint and I think okay the pick’s high that’s a That’s a decent thing to get the number 10 pick is a decent thing to get now everybody’s saying that this is an eight player draft so it’s like of course they would get a a pick right outside of that cluster but Toronto had the ninth pick on the table so all right and then we’re seeing from John Gamidoro that allegedly they’re not even necessarily looking to to flip Jaylen Green as I throw that tweet on the screen here the Suns do not play to plan to trade Jaylen Green he is expected to play alongside Deon Book in the back okay so you could have convinced me maybe flipping Jaylen was an aspect of this that they liked because then they’re going to get Did you misspell ham or did you think you were saying i’m sorry that was too funny i Listen man we got our ham sandwich and our Capri son i’m sorry we appreciate you being here but Ben was not talking about a hand sandwich just so everybody knows this whole time it’s ham like the meat you eat okay but anyway I’m sorry i didn’t mean to disrupt no it’s like but flipping Jaylen Green could have been another part of this where it’s like well kind of what we saw with Dame where the the the Blazers end up getting a lot more because they flip Drew Holiday so then okay that’s not clearly what they loved and I come down to like I know you said Dylan Brooks is in a culture think you could look at it multiple ways he does fit a lot of the the uh superlatives and and flowery stuff of grit and defense and it he fits that so maybe they really just actually liked that part of it more than some of the other salary filler type guys like we heard they didn’t like Wiggins gambo called him soft according to the Suns is like that it sounds so stupid to say that this trade came down to Dylan Brooks but maybe they actually did like that part of it more than some of the other things and all other all else equal they just said “Screw it that’s a guy we kind of like having around and we’ll figure the rest out.” This deal wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t so contingent on Jaylen Green like maybe like if the Suns were going to reroute him and get back something in return like maybe another first or something and you’re like okay the Suns are just going heavy into the rebuild but like he doesn’t he doesn’t even fit here man like you’re going to run a Bradley Beal Devin Booker uh uh Jaylen Green trio of a backcourt in terms of like that’s what you’re going to it feel what are we doing we doing dragon what was it uh Goran Dragitch Eric Bledsoe and Isaiah Thomas all over again like this is I can’t wait for someone to eventually post that tweet cuz That’s what it’s going to be i If you’re saying all those things about Dylan Brooks cool man i’ll let you have it and I’m not going after you with this but Jaylen Green is the complete opposite and now they’re saying they’re going to play him alongside Devin Booker you want to talk about redundancy i don’t know i don’t think Gambo knows their training camp plans like he’s not saying that that he’s going to start or I think he just means they’re going to keep him you know i don’t know man i I’m I’m I I’m trying to I’m trying to grasp at it from we got to try to figure out why that I’m saying logistically doing here well like logistically I just the other offers must have been so bad that is the only thing that you could go to the where the Suns you could say that this was a deal that was the best offer on the table and it wasn’t even particularly close i just can’t wrap my mind around the 10th overall pick you couldn’t even get another you if this was Jaylen Green the 2027 first round pick the 10th pick and Dylan Brooks I would sit here and be like okay they’re going straight into the rebuild and maybe Devin Booker agrees to that but what they got back it’s so ass backwards in terms of what they told us they wanted to do they wanted to be gritty they wanted to go get stifling defensive players Jaylen Green is not that I mean the truth is they took Jaylen Green because he got shoved onto them and they’re trying to spin it like there’s Jaylen Green has not proven himself to be a winning player in the NBA he has not proven himself to be any of the things that Matt and Brian Gregory told us they wanted this team to be he has not proven he can fit with a player like Devin Booker and be a a guy that that plays off of other do ball dominant stars none of the above none of the above and he’s about to be paid an incredible exorbitant amount of money and I think if they’re saying they can’t flip him Ben it’s because they looked around the league and already realized they weren’t going to be able to it’s I don’t think that they never tried i think that this is them saying “Uh we called Utah Charlotte and Brooklyn or whatever and they said LMAO and hung up like that that’s what happened here.” Do you think this was ever a four or five team race or do you think that was always a mirage made up by the Phoenix Sun i think Katie wanted to go to San Antonio so it was at least I don’t I the whole time well like I just I can’t believe I’m thinking of the other teams i cannot believe if it was Jeremy Sohan because I would have rather that deal than this deal holding up the deal and Miami holding up the deal where like maybe teams don’t just value Kevin Durant that much but if you are in Houston not only are you celebrating the arrival of Kevin Durant to your team they can still go get Giannis they can still easily get Giannis cuz they gave up nothing in this freaking trade it’s dude they’re also celebrating the departure of Jaylen Green team houston was prepared there’s a lot of them in our chat right now who would be begging to differ these they’re you’re going to love him he’s a winner he’s you’re saying Yeah so why don’t you keep him we’ll just pay the tab you guys can keep him in Houston like send Fred Van Vleet over or something listen man they’re celebrating the arrival of Kevin Durant and I believe most of them are celebrating the departure of Jaylen Green i This sucks man this sucks like I I Yeah sucks i think the bottom line on this one is if you had been able to get Jabari Smith or even a Kim Whitmore or something like that it just the lack of it’s like the 5 seconds god dude you can we’re basically the the cherry on top and they’re just not a good enough cherry as far as the picks we mentioned this the 2026 seconds i want to circle back to that they have Dallas’s and the Clippers so I would imagine that that’s going to be what it is but when you look at the list of things that they have here um they have a 2029 Dallas first round pick they have their own firsts in 20 uh basically every year except for 2029 they they have their own picks you could have gotten one of those especially the in the next couple years when now they’re going to have Kevin Durant on their team you know um and and not to mention Amend Thompson and all the young core that they already have been able to put together so it’s just the lack of of what we talked about on Friday going into the weekend of saying what’s going to be the thing that gets a deal over the edge and if you had told me that that was going to be five second round picks or Dylan Brooks I would have probably just said I’m moving out of Phoenix i’m done i’m done here i’m over this you know and and here we are but uh last thing as far as this deal and everything else Katie was on stage at Fanatics Fest in New York City when the trade went down and he said he he laughed people are shouting at him filming his reaction blah blah blah he’s in a doing a panel conversation with Taylor Rooks and he his only his only words that he gave were “We’re going to see what happens,” which is a bizarre thing maybe he just didn’t know if it was real or whatever but it’s odd that he was on stage if this was close and it’s odd that he didn’t that he didn’t know enough to say more than just oh we’ll see what happens so it I wonder what the behind the scenes of it were for the last few hours into this morning where Gambo is tweeting it’s close and Gerald’s backing that up and then now we’re getting to KD almost not I wouldn’t say he seemed blindsided he was kind of laughing but at the same time I don’t think you would send him out there if you knew that the trade was going to happen while he was sitting there so it’s a it’s a bizarre series of events it doesn’t feel like they got the most that they could have and I don’t see how this trade fits into anything that they told us that they were going to do but let’s look a little closer at some of these players the pick the context of the trade on the sliding scale we’ve been talking about throughout this past month and I want to circle back to Ben something Ben already suggested we’ll do all that next first today’s show brought to you by Lollipop yes there are ads even on the live streams i’ll get through it because I got to tell you about our lovely friends at Ollipop i literally had a a an apple cider lollipop yesterday evening cuz my stomach was feeling a little upset dehydrated etc it’s a new kind of soda it’s for people who love the classic taste of the sodas of our childhood of of of everyday life but you want something that actually supports your health which of course those do not it’s 2 to 5 grams of sugar 9 g of fiber in every can and Lollipop is reimagining soda in a way that’s better for your gut traditional sodas they’re loaded with sugar 39 grams in a Coke 44 in a Fanta but Lollipop flips that script just a fraction of the sugar no artificial sweetener and a gut- friendly ingredient core to the product which is called Olly Smart and it’s shown to support digestive and overall health it’s specifically from Lollipop and they’ve mastered it and it actually does something good for your body so they’ve got a Dr goodwin it is a substitute for you know what they’ve got a cherry cola a classic grape and the apple cider that I just mentioned try your favorite flavor find a substitute for your go-to soda lollipop will have it and it’ll actually make you feel good with those sweet delicious flavors you’re used to get a free can of Lollipop and buy any two cans in store and get reimbursed for one of them buy one get one at any store by heading to a drinkllipop.com/lockton NBA to claim your free can and find an Lollipop near you that’s drinkallop.com/lockedonba appreciate you guys sticking around through that we’re keeping it rolling here we’ve got news galore i I’m missing stuff if it’s coming out now uh we’re live here but uh we’re going to try to talk through this trade I think in more depth right so not just to you know we’ve got people in the chat saying “I’m a Jaylen Green hater i’m a Dylan Brooks hater.” I feel like we have more Rockets fans in here than Suns fans which maybe is just you know Hey man hey listen i I think I I Good for them man listen you’re in the chat your team got a guy like I would do the same thing like I’d poke fun talk talk some crap see how Suns fans feel and it’s a little difficult cuz everybody in here to be loving Houston uh people are telling us we’re not very aligned we’re not very uh we’ve got We will have more episodes we will definitely have more episodes i I don’t know we haven’t made our specific plans of timing but I would imagine we’ll do another one today um but let’s let’s talk through it so it’s it’s Dylan Brooks it’s Jaylen Green and it’s the 10th pick Ben so I I said all along including on I think the beginning of Friday’s episode when you were like I’m not feeling too good whatever i said the criteria for me all along salary filler young player yeah at least one pick they got that i don’t love this trade but they got that i will also remind people that this is more than Miami got for Jimmy Butler now Kevin Durant is a much better player than Jimmy Butler he didn’t create a mess in his wake the way that Jimmy Butler did and get into a a battle of words with the owner and the GM and everything the way that Jimmy Butler did but they got more all that Miami got was basically a pick and Wiggins the Suns got significantly more than that so my view of this like I saw some people saying you know try to try to flip both guys we mentioned how Gambo is indicating they’re not even going to flip green i don’t think they’re going to flip Dylan Brooks either no no i I think that I I I don’t want to overlook that part of this trade i mean this is a guy where he is a good player you know what I mean he is he is where is he on their books oh he’s not on their books because he is now a member of the Phoenix Suns they already flipped that over on spot track he’s under contract for three seasons two seasons oh it’s only two wow i thought it’d be three more it’s It’s this year at 21 million next year at 20 million very solid contract i mean that’s barely more than Grayson Allen makes for context right and the 10th pick is not nothing like you are on your way to a starter for the next couple seasons who does fit all the the flowery stuff that they’ve said and a pick where if they nail it and we will get there too they have to nail this pick but if they get a good player you’re you’re at I do want to say I feel like you are at least holding out enough up not even upside enough value where I don’t think all hope is lost when it comes to keeping Devin Booker and and resetting this thing they’re probably at about the bare minimum where I could say that but I do think that they’re there but it it’s all predicated on nailing that pick and eventually flipping Jaylen but I I think that Do you agree is this is this like a little shy of of disaster scenario is that fair to say uh no this is pretty this is pretty disaster scenario um Jaylen Green I mean we’ve been told since February that the Suns didn’t even want him here i’m not going to buy the flip-flopping and reporting now that the Suns just want Jaylen Green that is called flipping a narrative that we know is not true they don’t want him here they were already exploring before trying to trade him and now Gambo’s trying to put out fires for them saying like “We’re not going to trade him.” Yeah we know cuz you’ve already tried no one wants him i do like Dylan Brooks like I I do genuinely like Dylan Brooks the player um because fine three-point shooter fine contract good defensive player i don’t really care like when you’re talking about the salary fillers that you could have got I probably would have rather Andrew Wiggins over him i pro definitely would have rather Dante Devenzo and Rudy Gobear over him and then again with Jaylen Green you’re talking about that young player like Yeah you’re right you and I both agreed a good pick a young player that shows some upside and potentially one to two salary fillers if we were ranking those players who’s the best salary filler you got the worst one in Dylan Brooks I think um maybe second to worst because of the Spurs deal he’s probably a little bit better than Harrison Barnes if you’re talking about the young good asset right you probably got the most depreciated one jabari Smith I would have taken over him it’s not just Jaylen Green the player it’s Jaylen Green the contract he is owed $100 million over the next couple of seasons man it’s not good enough so let’s talk about that part of it right so they clear like I said and I’m not backing off of it i think that them saying or or leaking to Gambo that they’re not trading green means we tried to and we couldn’t like I’m sticking to that until I I’m going to I think that’s just the truth but it’s not impossible dude is 23 he’s had flashes it’s just about sustaining it and doing it in a winning environment and doing it as a member of a successful unit rather than it just being the Jaylen Green Show right there is a world I I don’t think it’s likely on a team that already has Devin Booker Bradley Beal and Grayson Allen on it but there is a world where he improves his value maybe by February maybe by next summer and the Suns have an opportunity to trade him then i’m not saying that’s likely but I’m I’m not saying it’s impossible either so that would improve this trade gradually over time the same way that now people go “Oh well the Nets got 130 draft picks instead of the five because they flipped Male Bridges and they’re going to trade Cam Johnson and blah blah blah.” Right like it it can do it can become something like that so I’m I’m willing to hold out that hope but right now the the Yeah you’re right in terms of the young players side I think this was one of the worst outcomes to me because there was a version of this trade we thought might happen where Jabari Smith was the young player and Jaylen Green was just the salary right like that was kind of what we thought was going to happen and now this is a lot worse but it could improve over time if they trade green that’s all I’m saying i and I get what you’re saying i know that there is a a side of this where like you can only doom and gloom forever at some point you do have to turn the page i totally get that and I’m not sitting here acting like you’re trying to defend this unspread office that’s not the case i’m not at all this is a disaster so now we got to sift through it exactly at some point we have to turn the page um I’m not turning the page yet because I would have been livid with this deal if they got Jaylen Green with Jabari Smith i wouldn’t have been thrilled but they brought him here like I don’t even know how they’re going to like where are they at in terms of Second Apron stuff how are they so the trade I should have said in the first segment and we were running out of time so I didn’t it’s not going to happen until July 6th i’m not smart enough to know the exact specifics of the money because all the trade machine stuff that we can use it doesn’t it can’t tell us in July yet but uh or at least I haven’t gone in and looked but this is from Bobby Marks um trade kicker for Jaylen Green million-dollar bonus for the first round of the playoffs blah blah blah he doesn’t really have anything about you know them saving money i tried to check in for that but I believe this trade will save them no I I I it’ll be negligible if it saves them any money because you’re adding the salary of the 10th overall pick so yeah I don’t even think it really cut I don’t even think it really helped them in that regard that’s why I’m like why didn’t you just take the Miami deal then at least you could it was the Miami deal we don’t know i don’t know i guess that’s I guess that’s also there really was a Miami deal that made sense if it wasn’t going to include where to be honest with you meaning there probably was never a Miami deal in the works but I I just What are the Suns now like what are they now i think it is Yeah let’s just get to the next segment if we want to do that because we’re going to talk about next steps but before I say that I saw somebody mention this in the chat and I I think it’s it’s valid at this point we know that the offers on the table for Katie in February were substantially better than what they got miami’s offer in February you know no KL Wear we didn’t really know what Khal Wear was going to be by that point because he hadn’t really broken out but it was Jimmy Butler remember him josh Richardson a first round pick and Nicole Yoic and then you got Jaylen Green Dylan Brooks the 10th overall pick so what happen this is this is what happens when you hire this is what happens when you hire your fraternity brothers like this is what happens when you do that when you mix relationships with business this is what happens you get fleeced i hope Matt Ishpia’s head is out of his you know what i don’t know if I can say that far and realize what has happened here is a complete catastrophe you have sunk yourself and I think you can make a strong you can make a strong inclination that potentially this is affecting Deon Bookers down the road i I don’t know maybe they have great word from him but like I can’t see this team competing like I could see Devin Booker take a group of Dylan Brooks’s but I can’t see him take a group of Jaylen Green and Bradley Beals this is You want to talk about redundancy before it’s too much redundancy on this team now like are they small they got smaller okay well I wouldn’t say that’s true i mean KD was gone what katie was gone regardless you’re not getting a 7 foot freaking unicorn seven foot rudy Gobear was 7 foot these are the deals that we said could potentially be out there if those deals were never out there they got smaller versus the hypothetical trades we talked about i thought you were saying compared to the team that they had last year which at that point it’s kind of kind of the same more of the same dylan Brooks is going to be a wing i’m wallowing i’m Dylan Brooks will will start he’s 66 that that’s their starting three ryan Dun’s their starting four and yeah I mean they were never going to be as big as having KD at the four cuz that’s like a godsend of a of a team building little tool but okay you mentioned this earlier and I want to close this segment here even though it’s running long okay Major Awesome i’m not putting your chat on the screen but you’re insane i just want you to know that i want I I got to see what this guy said um I’ll let you look you said you would have rather just kept KD than take this offer potentially do you do you do you feel that way cuz what would the what would just quickly what would it what would that have looked like could you have got this deal at the deadline that is my that is my only argument could you still trade him at the deadline could you have gotten the same deal at the deadline if the answer is yes I would have just waited until next year because the 10th pick was only in this draft and I don’t run pick yeah they wouldn’t have given that no they didn’t even want to give that now they’re definitely not going to give that for for just the rights to have him his bird rights basically next next February but not have this whole season of him so I I I think that B they basically made that 2027 pick up not available and by February you’re talking about a half a season of him and and we saw how that worked for the Suns in 2023 it’s it’s almost impossible to go far in the playoffs if you only have a half a season of somebody so I don’t think this would have been available i I think I I think I just barely above the threshold for me i think I would have done the deal still but it’s really close and I should not be thinking this way i should not I I would not I wouldn’t about what they got back at least to some to some degree and we’re not at all god I’m not I’m not excited about what they got back that’s the That’s the other thing man is is now I’m just I’m I shouldn’t be pointing towards the draft and that’s what I’m doing right now right i’m immediately trying to talk myself into Carter Bryant who I told you I was like if they take that guy with the 17th pick I think I would like Carter Bryant but now God Lord knows it’s going to be Jace Richardson Bradley Beal Devin Booker and you’re not excited to see where they get at 59 i You know what i was actually pissed off about that cuz I was like great now we have to do a video and I have to act like I know who the number 59 guy is going to be and we have to act like we know who potentially they could get there like it’s I the Suns really thought they did something by adding five seconds that that the Suns won the pick won the trade i know you’re a Suns potted but honestly you guys won this trade that’s just my burner just my burner account got it yeah yeah yeah all right let’s get to what happens next we’ve already kind of uh jumped the gun on the green side of it but I think it all comes back to number 10 let’s get into it next first today’s show is brought to you by Monarch Money do you ever look at your bank account and wonder what on earth just happened where did it all go between dining out online shopping and entertainment it’s easy to lose track of your finances but that’s where Monarch Money comes in it’s your personal CFO giving you full visibility and control over your finances monarch Money isn’t just a budgeting app it’s a complete financial command center you can track all your accounts investments and spending in one place so you stop just managing your money and start building wealth we all have plenty of ways of keeping up with your money i mean if you’re you’re probably in pretty rough spot if you’re not but it’s a pad of paper it’s some app on your bank it’s maybe like this one conversation you had with your spouse or whatever once upon a time that you’re trying to remember but it doesn’t all stick well Monarch Money solves that it’s all in one place and it is the best way to keep track and take control of your finances use code lockdown NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year that’s monarchmoney.com code locked on NBA for half off your first year alrighty drop your questions in guys we are at the point in the podcast where we don’t have to run so smoothly and we can get into some of what you guys are thinking i see Michael in here i see Daryl we got 600 strong appreciate you folks that is uh by far the most we’ve ever had live so I think that’s awesome i think the last time we went live though was actually when they traded for Kevin Durant so it’s been a minute was it i I looked at it i think it was Deion I think it was trading DeAndre Aiden i think that might have been the last time there you go but I wasn’t here at that point hey um I hate to to I want to ask the first question to you do it um what do you do now and you know you’re what do you do now with Jaylen Green in terms of what does a rotation look like who is starting on this team so I think uh he has to come off the bench in my personal opinion do I think he will uh not optimistic because if you’re trying to have him if you’re trying to build up his value and you’re trying to not piss him off and and keep keep things as good as possible with him then you would probably appease him and appeasing players doesn’t tend to be uh doesn’t tend to mean benching them so I I don’t know but he’s not a point guard and I don’t want Devin Booker as a point guard so I don’t know i mean that’s why it’s so awful that’s that’s why we didn’t want him to be here this whole time during this process so to me I think the other question though quickly Ben becomes does this I almost hesitate to even say it because it would indicate like a level of of strategic thinking that this front office doesn’t hasn’t earned us assuming that they have but I would hope that they at least have an indication that they could get rid of Bradley Beal because you can’t play all three of these guys in one rotation no you can’t i agree with you that means you know what that means they’re going to have to stretch and wave Bradley Beal dude if they couldn’t find a suitor for Jaylen Green how are they going to find a suitor for Bradley Beal you cannot trade the draft assets you just got back like you can’t you can’t you’re not trading 10 i If they traded all five seconds whatever i could care less go ahead i I just I don’t know i I would I don’t think that they’re going to be able to trade Bradley Beal i mean that that didn’t change just because Kevin Durant tra got traded so I’m not talking about a Beal trade i’m saying they they Well because But again when we say wave and stretch that’s predicated on them allowing him to go find a team that’s going to sign him for enough money where they can wave and stretch him and he can give them enough money back to where it’s legal that’s what this whole thing has all been has all been based upon so I guess I would hope that they figured that part of it out before they move forward with this but cuz like you mentioned before like Jaylen Green is a bad like a poor man’s Devin Booker no he’s a poor man’s Bradley Beal like even even putting him in the same breath as Deon Booker is kind of a is kind of a joke so he’s really like a a microwave scorer type of player like Beal is so it’s that’s the fit that’s even worse to me like we were already saying “Okay if Beal has to come back put him on the bench and and just try to let him score basically.” Um similar to what they did last year now you got two of those guys so I I I don’t see any world where that goes well but I mean what’s your answer um you can’t have Bradley Beal here man you like you you you legitimately cannot have him here there’s no world Bradley is a poor man’s Bradley Beal dude king Nacho hates Bradley Beville i love that guy he’s hilarious um I would say you can’t bring Bradley Beal back but like I got no more to build off that point with you let me just let me throw this theory at you what if the Suns because we’ve seen in mock drafts and again this is off the rails this is off the rocker we’ve seen Ace Bailey fall is there a world where the Suns can package Jaylen Green the 10 pick and the 29 pick to move up to get a guy like Ace Bailey with the sixth overall pick in the draft like is that something that could happen i mean no i’m not I’m not I’m not huge on it but I know there’s no way Matt is likes this deal there’s just no way man you can’t be that physically wrong about basketball or I guess I should say mentally to not have another ace up your sleeve could they be trying to move up in the in the draft to get a guy that they really like or move up to get Jay Rich horrible pun by the way what did I say you said ace up your sleeve literally that is not what I meant to say that is not what I meant to say so I uh I think I’m trying to look for a way out of this man i hear you i don’t think that’s enough to move up in a in a draft where everybody’s saying it’s an eight player type of block at the top i mean 29 and a guy who no one likes that’s not going to be They just tried to trade Jaylen Green if he was good enough to get them from 10 to six then they probably would have been off of him already i think uh Sorry i I think that it’s all about and like you could trade you could flip Brooks eventually too i just don’t think it’s going to happen this season i I think that he’s going to help raise their floor this ceiling in a way that’s that’s valuable um to them to what they’ve said that they want but I think that it it really like not to beat a dead horse and we’ll have you know the next few days to talk about this it all comes down to 10 they absolutely positively nail that pick i like Cedric Coward of the guys that are in that range i mean of the people we’ve looked at and the people that I I would say I’ve spent time thinking about he he would be high for me because he checks mult he checks a couple of boxes where I think he could play for them this year because he’s older and he he’s he’s already kind of dominated as a typical three and deep type of guy but because he’s a late bloomer I could see him getting better mhm he’s he’s clearly a hard worker where he made the most of a pretty terrible path to the NBA you know and and trusts himself to get better because he turned down was it uh Duke right duke duke so you know if they if they get him and that’s another piece here and he has a good rookie season I mean we would feel differently about this trade regardless of what happens with Jaylen Green right i mean like if you if you just say forget Jaylen Green and they flip him for they maybe they even dump him maybe they have to like send like you know the five seconds type of thing for him next summer too and it’s ugly i don’t know i don’t want it to end that way but let’s say it does but they get a a promising player at 10 and Dylan Brooks helps them i mean you’re not going to be feeling like oh my god the sky is falling but the upside man of this trade is is horrific there’s just not a lot to look at to say it’s gonna become a great trade there’s no path to this becoming a great trade the bare minimum is that it it it’s you know even we can take some questions here and just like after you know this one thing because I know you want to get Do you like anyone at 10 uh I think I’m starting I think I’m starting to gravitate to a guy like Carter Bryant who I would have rather picked at 17 but like at this point man like you’re not taking a guard like I like Jace Richardson in terms of a deal before this if but maybe this one’s got wear but again I think you’re looking for trying to hit a double here not trying to swing for the fences because you cannot f up this pick carter Bryant maybe uh the kid from Duke I forgot his name khan I think his name is he’s not dropping to 10 he Okay well then there you go like I’m I’m looking for someone else to make a mistake in the top eight picks and fall to the Suns at 10 i think that would be that would be that would be the the ideal outcome right is even if it’s Ace Bailey like I I would be I would be very nervous but you have to take that chance if it happens if he really really falls like that um but I mean I’m just saying no to Canipple because people are talking about him as a top five guy i just I just don’t see him okay the issue is as well is like you see guys like Queen yeah that’s what I was going to Jacosonus or Yakosonis I think is how you say it igor Deman from BYU there’s some you know Colin Murray Boils who we talked about you know before he rose a lot we talked about him maybe could get him at 29 sorber the center from Georgetown obviously we know they want a center there’s a lot of interesting players i mean a 10th overall pick is is a significant asset and it gives you the potential to get a very promising good player on your team um do you think I just going to ask this one last time Booker’s still not going anywhere right i just see people saying in the chat still not going anywhere he’s got a big deal he’s got a big I wouldn’t think so i You wouldn’t think your opinion hasn’t changed I guess I would say okay well then I would agree with you man i I The only reason my opinion would change is if I know how he feels about the trade i’m not going to just decide I don’t like the trade so therefore I’m going to project my opinion onto Devin Booker and now decide he’s choosing like that’s all mind readading i have no clue do you think that this Do you think this trade was ran through Deon Booker do you think that this trade was ran through Deon Booker and he put his stamp of approval on it or do you think he might have said keep my guy well that’s the thing right that’s why I mentioned the Fanatics Fest part of it where KD Katie at least seemed to be surprised by the timing obviously we know he had an openness to going to the Rockets because that was part of the original three teams that he put out there even if we know he mostly wanted to go to San Antonio he at least was open to the Rockets but if he was on stage and said “Oh we’ll see what happens.” type thing that tells me that maybe there wasn’t a level of communication which I’m going to be honest with you Ben doesn’t exactly surprise me given that Matt Ishp had tried to shank this dude in February i don’t know if he was exactly on the up and up in terms of letting everybody know and crossing all the tees and dotting all the eyes that needed to be crossed and dotted on this part of it so if he did run something through without you know giving a a final once over with Rich Kimman or Kevin Durant or Deon Booker or anybody else or heck his own freaking GM I wouldn’t be surprised um are you rooting for Katie are you rooting for Katie to succeed in Houston why are you making me answer that i don’t really care this this makes it kind of tough for me cuz I thought the Suns would get back a little bit more now I’m just kind of hoping I don’t have an affiliation to Kevin Durant i mean I don’t have a moment in this time of him this is no disrespect to him he and I have have talked I think he’s talked to every freaking media member in Phoenix i don’t have an issue with Kevin Durant personally i have a shirt a jersey in my closet I can go get of him in Brooklyn he’s an amazing player that I love to watch him in the Olympics has been some of the most awesome memories that I’ve had as a basketball fan him in this portion of time in Phoenix I could care less it it produced nothing of substance or or or interest to me i I I don’t have any him coming and going through here will be a weird memory we all have i’m not more likely to root for him in Houston than I was before like I was when you know Steve Nash went to LA or you know oh it would be would have been cool if Barkley got a ring in Houston or any of those types of things i I don’t I frankly don’t care i I’m rooting for Katie to get another ring because I think it would help him be be at peace a little bit and not have it just be all with the Warriors and I like I I would like that for his story but I don’t have a fan affiliation with it anymore if I’m being honest um I I I was really looking forward to rooting for Kevin Durant somewhere else because I thought the Suns were going to get a deal that benefited both teams jabari Smith maybe Dylan Brooks and the 10 pick like this changes a lot of the aspect of what the Phoenix Suns got now that he’s over there i’m bitter like I’m just ultimately bitter i’m like great we are we of course like this is not I don’t want to wallow but I’m going to for a little bit here is like of course we were the ones that when KD has been moved we got jobbed and no other team has brooklyn got a lot the Warriors even got something but every time Kevin Durant was traded which is now the third time because the last one was a signing trade and then the Brooklyn trade we were the only team that got fleeced into it and that’s what it feels like and so now I’m like well screw the Rockets and like I like Kevin Durant obviously he doesn’t have any love for me at all but he is like I don’t know man i’m I’m immediately just looking at damn dude that team’s loaded like you mentioned it as well it’s a really good point is they still have a lot and they could go get a guy like Giannis too man I cannot believe and someone put this in the chat too the Rockets chose Cam Whitmore over Jaylen Green i know moneywise that isn’t exactly true but it is kind of a funny thought exercise of like you couldn’t even get Cam Whitmore back so that’s the thing is a more competent front office I think could do you think Blazers who have a a I mean he’s done more than I’ve ever done he he’s a relatively anonymous type of guy who got promoted suddenly to run the Damen Lillard sweep stakes and then ended up getting Tammani Kamar as a throwin even Joe Cronin negotiated more shrewdly to get some some tasty stuff thrown into the trade that ended up being you know better long term um it’s similar to like when when the suddenly Jay Crowder was in the KD trade the first time and you’re looking at it like why couldn’t the Suns be the team to flip Crowder how do you not put Charich in the deal they weren’t getting enough they got Male Bridges Cam Johnson and every freaking pick under the sun you couldn’t even be the team to get for the 5 seconds for Crowder you had to throw him in like the Suns are constantly on the wrong side of those little things with this stuff that always add up and so yeah how could you not just or like frankly I don’t know get find a way to get like I know he makes a lot of money but like Jo Landell would play here get him as a like just to get nothing to get these stupid seconds that that don’t that don’t get you anywhere just to say we got a little more no you didn’t dude the Suns9 and a bunch of other nonsense so the Suns turned Cam Male Jay five first round picks into Jaylen Gur Dylan Brooks one first round pick in five seconds that is a Matt Ishbia front office this whole front office dude if it didn’t have to go before how many more disaster classes do we have until someone pays the ultimate blame i think James Jones gets more than Brian Gregory got maybe not a ton more i’m not here banging the table for James Jones but I mean come on man like how bad of a negotiator are you how much of this my guy Are you saying who gets the blame for the bad deal ishbia wrote a note to his front office saying it was him he gets all of the blame i don’t care about Brian Gregory what does that matter he doesn’t Okay you know um how much of this How much do you think the Suns got bit in the ass by negotiating out in public do you think the Suns did themselves no favors by letting so much stuff leak over the last couple of weeks that ultimately it bit them in the ass and teams didn’t want to play ball with them oh Ben look here hold on before I answer that don’t worry deon Evan Sard already put it out there that they can still pursue so he’s on the case so the Rockets are coming to get book according to the number one insider in the NBA um I would say that Sorry what was your question um my qu you mean you you threw me off with the Evans Cidery thing i was What the hell was I saying um whatever man i was I was trying have to wrap up but wrap it up wrap it up at this point because I’m already losing it but I was I was trying to say like I just It’s fine it’s gone it’s gone it’s gone it’s gone it’s gone we got the the bombshell about Deon Booker and and the brain cells in our in our boots now because we uh oh the troll on patrol is tired of us hearing hearing us complain about it so let’s wrap up there we’ll have another episode for you probably today guys with more thoughts appreciate you all watching live we don’t love this there’s no way around that this is this is damaging this is a problem um I I think that you know it’s it’s setting themselves up to be on a wire’s edge a razor’s edge I should say to be able to keep Devin Booker happy reset this team be competitive all the things that we were just hoping upon hope against all odds that they could pull off this did not really set them on a course to do that and and you have to be nervous uh I just I know you want to wrap up but it got brought up it made me remember what I was thinking because the Kevin Durant found out in front of the Rockets at FanFest but uh do you think other teams were annoyed with the way the Phoenix Suns front office was was doing business in terms of letting things hit them in the ass i think it’s I don’t know if they were necessarily bothered um by that i would say that what I don’t understand and I hate to I I know I always bring it back to February and it’s probably it’s just it’s old by now but they should have just taken the packages in February the way that they handled this I don’t think it really matters that they did right by Kevin Durant because they’re still the joke of the league right now so you know Miami ended up being on Katie’s list this time around anyway right so if you had sent him to Miami in February even though he was behind his back and I think that that that is a really crappy way to do business he would have probably gotten over it right he he w he like he wanted to go to the Heat this time if you sent him to the Heat and I read the package Jimmy a first Josh Richardson who cares and Nicole Yoic you’d have Jimmy Butler on this team right now and a young guy who’s better than Jaylen Green in my opinion or at least more valuable right now i understand his upside is not as good i get it rockets fans stop but and not as good of a pick but still a pick just do those trades it’s like that is the problem here is that that is what’s highlighting to me that Matt Ishpia is in over his head trying to do these types of negotiations is he doesn’t have the the confidence and the the the skill doing this type of thing to get it across the finish line in a way that maximizes what he’s trying to do you know what I mean he doesn’t go all the way in February now he goes too far and and and gets himself on the wrong track and has to take a bad deal i just it’s not going to be better until he stops doing that and I’ve been saying it for two years yeah well that was my question man because I saw someone put it out there a couple of days ago it’s like I think the Suns putting doing were not doing business correctly i don’t think they were doing business well and I think people were sick of it um but we’ve known that and they got what they got what we’ve known that i thought Kevin Ray might be different man such a hot commodity i thought people might be able to put up with the Suns BS and uh well you were always going to get some stuff for him you know they got the 10th overall pick but that that’s the difference that’s the difference between getting the bare minimum where we’re trying to sit here and go well if this works out then maybe it’s this and that versus nice deal really knocked it out of the park right that’s the difference between a good front office and a bad front office this is diabolically bad this is a diabolically bad front office but I mean we can end it there man that’ll wrap us up hit follow subscribe if you haven’t already appreciate all of you being here live chiming in with your thoughts we’ll have more episodes for you throughout the week we got to do some last minute research on the 10th overall pick because we’ve looked at like two guys in that range so we’ll do that and plus much much more of what comes next for the Suns enjoy the rest of your Sunday will be back before long

The Phoenix Suns at long last traded Kevin Durant to the Houston Rockets on Sunday in a deal that is sure to underwhelm most Suns fans.

Brendon Kleen and Ben Garcia react to the trade which will bring back Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks and a lottery pick, how we got here, and what comes next.

📲 Follow Locked On Suns on TikTok
Locked On Suns https://www.tiktok.com/@lockedonphxsuns?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

📲 Follow Locked On Suns on Instagram
Locked On Suns https://www.instagram.com/lockedonphxsuns/

📲 Follow Locked On Suns on X
Locked On Suns https://x.com/LockedOnPHXSuns
Brendon Kleen https://x.com/BrendonKleen14
Ben Garcia https://x.com/BenGarciaShow

Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOSuns?sid=YouTube

Locked On NBA League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft, WNBA & More
🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNBA