Where do Phoenix Suns go post-Bradley Beal?

Where do Phoenix Suns go post-Bradley Beal?

Yeah, definitely a new horizon. New general manager, new head coach, an influx of young talent through the draft and a couple of veterans no longer with the team. Bradley Beals era with the Phoenix Suns now over with the buyout happening and him landing with the Clippers. Here to talk about the off season and all the activity, the television playbyplay voice of the Phoenix Suns. Not just a voice today, a face too as we can see Kay via video. He joins us here on Bickley Marada Mornings. K Ray, good to have you on the show. How are you? Good morning, gentlemen. You know, it was it was a kind of a scramble here. I got the the text from Jared about can you join us via video instead of just the phone. Uh, luckily my hair and makeup people live relatively close. And so, uh, I I I gave him the thumbs up. So, hopefully this is this is good for you guys. You TV types, the Kay and the Tim Rings of the world, you’re all the same. Hey Ray, I was complaining about the lighting and the camera quality in here earlier. Kay on the yellow. Can we get Can we get some studio lights and cameras in here? Anyway, the Bradley Beal situation comes to a close it and Tim and I have been talking about it all morning. There really seemed to be no other way to go with all that had been said and all that had been done leading up to this. But now that it is over, how do you reflect on the Bradley Beal experiment with the Phoenix Suns, Kay? Yeah, look, I I mean, I don’t think there’s there’s any way around it. I mean just greatly disappointing and and I you know I think that if you ask anybody in that organization uh the people intimately involved in the decision just you know it just did not materialize and um provide the kind of you know outcome that I think everybody had certainly hoped and and imagined would and it’s uh you know I don’t think it’s it’s any one person’s fault. I I I know that human nature, guys, and you know this being in this industry, human nature, especially when the outcome is as poor as it was. Fans always want to blame somebody, right? It’s usually one person they want to blame. And I know that a lot of Bitriel has been thrown Brad’s way. Uh but this was this was uh there there was a lot of responsibility uh for why this didn’t work and it just didn’t fall squarely on the shoulders of Brad. He played a role, but he wasn’t not he was not the the only individual. Totally agree. You know, and and Matt Ishbria now is trying to fix this thing. And one of the benefits of getting Beal off of this roster is obviously Kay, you’re you’re under that first and second apron. He’s going to save a lot of money in the luxury tax, but also the flexibility that it provides now in terms of future team team building. But at the same time, a lot of fans have a problem with paying Bradley Beal 20 million a year for the next five years. How do you look at that as they as as they weighed both options and decided this is the best of maybe the bad options? Yeah. And you said it, you know, it’s it’s bad option A or bad option B. There there’s no good options here. But I think both organizationally and really more importantly, cuz I know some people have suggested, well, why don’t you just keep him and send him home? I mean, okay, but at the end of the day, he was going to get really anxious about playing at some point um because he is still a competitor. But I think more than anything it was really about giving this current both coaching staff and executive staff like a completely clean break and saying okay this is the landscape that we are now operating in so let’s move forward. So, you hit it right on the head. There is no great or even good option, but you take the the best of the worst case scenarios and you swallow that pill. And I know it’s a pill that they’re going to be swallowing for a few years, but it at least gives you um kind of a again a clean slate, a new horizon to look at. Yeah. And and we have recent experience, K, with the whole send him home philosophy. Just a few years ago, the Suns sent Jay Crowder home at a fraction of the salary. And the energy around that team was not the same with largely the same group. The Jay Crowder absence was always a cloud. I was never on board with the just send Bradley Beal home and let him rot on the couch at $50 million. I can only imagine how big and how dark that cloud would be over this team next year. Yeah, and you bring up a great point, Vinnie, because you know what what you have in that scenario. Um, is let’s say that’s what they did. And let’s say that there’s a, you know, unfortunately a couple of injuries that occur and it comes in the back court. And here you’ve got this highriced guard sitting there at home that you’re paying a Kings ransom to. And so then you’re going to create that faction of fans who go, you’ve got a guy right here. Bring him in. get him to, you know, get get him on the floor. Get him on your roster. That’s not fair to to Jordan A first and foremost. It’s certainly not fair to the rest of that locker room. Again, I you know, I want to make it clear, Brad was not a bad guy. No. Uh he he was always great in my dealings with him, so I want to give him props. Um it just didn’t work out. And um sometimes it happens. It’s unfortunate that it it happened, you know, with with this uh current Sun situation, but no, you you could not afford to do that. You you have to give Jordan a this coaching staff and this current roster every favorable chance to start moving kind of the the change forward. Well, let’s talk about that then. Let’s move let’s move forward. So, they’re they’re kind of in the same situation where you’re going to have two two guards in the starting back court. Kevin, I know you don’t have a crystal ball. I know none of us know how it’s going to work, but give me your best theory on why a Booker Greenback court would have success. Whereas a lot of times, and I’m sure health has something to do with this, but in terms of on the court, wins and losses, production, why was a why would a Booker Green backcourt potentially work better than a Booker Beal back court did? Yeah, I I think and again I I don’t have any intimate knowledge of the offense that Jordan is going to run, but I just know based on some of his comments, I think that you can look at what Cleveland ran under Kenny Atkinson as a pretty good framework. And what you saw there is while yeah, Donovan Mitchell controlled the basketball a lot, the the biggest takeaway that I I got from Jordan is the amount of ball movement and player movement. And so with that, I don’t think that you’re going to see again the same guy bringing the ball up the floor every single time. Uh, the one thing that you’re getting with with Jaylen Green that we’ve not had in I mean I can’t even remember how long is just the absolute dynamic playmaker because of his age, because of his athleticism, because of his speed and and so he can get downhill pretty quickly on somebody which puts pressure on the defense and now you’ve got guys who are sucking in and you create kickout opportunities. Um, having said that, I I would, you know, I think we’d be naive to say that um, considering what we’ve seen in recent history makes us feel comfortable. But I I think until we know what that offense is going to look like, I can’t give you a a definite, you know, thumbs up. This is why it’s going to work, but I will trust you or not this system. And the one thing we’ve seen with with book is this guy is so adaptable uh so amanable to doing like whatever it is he needs to do. And I will say also that that he’s gotten much better as a as a ball handler and a facilitator. We saw that last year. And I think what got him and the team in trouble was just the overall stagnation of its of the offense. And I think so if you’ve got a a more motion offense, the ball, player movement, I think that lends itself to both Book and Jaylen being better point guards. K Ray, great stuff, man. Thanks for uh joining us. We appreciate it. We’ll talk again soon. You got it, boy. Hey, it’s just great to see you. Know, normally I get to see the back of Vinnie’s head for an entire game. And Ring Ring I catch up with at halftime as we’re racing to the coffee table. So So good to see you boys face to face. Good to see you, Kevin. By the way, admit it. You’re in California right now, aren’t you? Oh, I wish I was in California. All right, brother. That’s a television playbyplay. A voice of the Suns, Kevin Wright, joining us here on Bickley and Marada Mornings. Thanks for watching Bickley and Marada. 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Phoenix Suns television broadcaster Kevin Ray joined Vince Marotta and Tim Ring to discuss Bradley Beal being bought out by the team and where he sees the team heading after such a big move.

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