How Jalen Green TRANSFORMS From Suns Trade Piece To FUTURE Of Franchise

How Jalen Green TRANSFORMS From Suns Trade Piece To FUTURE Of Franchise

We are just in the dead period of the NBA season and I’m running out of cold open ideas. We already used Gerald’s kid for one. We’ve made lots of stupid jokes. Yeah, I’ve got nothing. [Applause] [Music] Yeah. [Music] Heat. [Music] Psychos and sinkos unite for a mailbag Monday edition of PHX coming to you live from Studio K presented by Circle K. Join the inner circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today. Terms conditions apply at participating location. We’re all back together again for another rousing edition of PH andX Suns. I’m Eric Ruby. That is Gerald Borgay. We’ve got Steven Pjan Garner. We’ve got the freckled mamba. aka Juice Man aka Eritton behind the Mac making all the magic happen. But of course, we are nothing without all of you live in chat with us right now on YouTube, watching on YouTube after the fact, listening on audio, and of course our wonderful TV viewers. Housekeeping, like button, smash it, subscribe button, likely lightly click it, be gentle with it, but definitely still click that audio. Five star reviews go a long long long way. And if you’re watching on TV, I don’t know, like high-five the TV or something, but not too hard. Not too hard because we don’t want you to break your TV. How we doing? It’s it’s a mailbag Monday. We’re in the dead period uh of NBA content. Schedules dropping this week. We got some assistant coaching news. How are we feeling as a whole, folks? Feeling good. Feeling uh like this is the time to dot our eyes and cross our tees and get refreshed and get prepared for the new season. We’ve got plenty of time to do it, but thankfully we have a lot of you that have plenty of good and fun questions for us. So excited to jump into all that. Um just excited to talk basketball here. He wakes up. That’s that’s his default setting though. You know, this is very much cruise control. When when Stephen first got here, we were talking and it was like, “Oh, you know, like what do you do? Like in your free like I’ve known you, but like this is like me like actually meeting you and I’m like, you know, I’m like everybody has advice. Like Stephen, what’s your advice?” And he just stops dead in his tracks, just look at me and says, “Basketball.” Like it was like an offensive question to ask like like what are you what are you talking about? Did you not know? I mean I did know but I I figured it wasn’t as much of a vice and just more of like a lifestyle, you know? Uh but yes, we do have some great questions. One terrible question. I’ll let you guys figure out which one is which. I’m kidding. They’re all awesome. Uh let’s start it off with Gilbert Contras. Thank you Gilbert for your question. Says, “Who are candidates for first and second assistant?” Uh, this comes off of some news that we got over the weekend about Mike Muscala joining the Phoenix Suns coaching staff with Jordan A, but I believe it is safe to assume that it feels like Deari Carroll right now is going to be either first or second assistant as he was also coaching the summer league team recently. It could be. I mean, it kind of depends on the coaching staff cuz sometimes the coaching assistant with the least experience is the one who gets I don’t want to say saddled with the summer league experience, but um they’re the ones that take that on. So, it could be Deari Carroll. Um obviously the options right now, we know that Jesse Murmury’s is going to be the lead assistant to answer the first part of the question. The other options are Deari Carroll, Mike Muscala, Brian Randall, uh Jason Allen, John Little, who was bumped up from G-League coach last year to now being on the assistant staff, and then Matine Cleaves, but Matine Cleaves is more of a player development coach. So, I would imagine it’s Deari Carroll, but I I mean, Brian Randall could be an option. I don’t know if they’re done adding coaches yet, so we’ll have to wait and see. I know Darvin Ham Ham’s name had come up for the lead assistant job, and we haven’t heard anything since then. So, not entirely sure on the second assistant. I’m not sure how many coaching staffs are hierarchically structured like that. Anyway, hierarchally, you said it all. Ran out everybody. How are we how are we feeling now that we do have a good grasp on on maybe there will be another name added in there, maybe somebody with some head coaching experience, but how do we feel about Mike Muscala? How do we feel about how Jordan has assembled his first staff uh here in Phoenix so far? I mean, if you’re hoping that Kaman Malwatch is going to be able to shoot threes, I really like the addition of Muscala for a stretch. We might need him to suit up. I I think we got enough in the four and the five spot. But yeah, um not a stretch big though. Yeah, I I don’t truthfully I don’t know enough about his coaching experience to this point to say, but as long as they’re confident. I like the fact that they have several former players and guys that can put in this way equity with the team. Do you like how how young this coaching staff is shaping up to be, Stephen? Um I think the youth part is beauty in the eye of the beholder. Um I think it’s more so for me the recent having played even as role players to a certain level of winning having that relatability but also having um such a such a recent history in the league to where there’s a level of relatability with the players that sometimes can become a disconnect and disadvantage for coaches. um just in simple communication and being able to understand where a player might be coming from and what they might be going through. I think those things hit different for this staff that Jordan Knight is establishing. Um and I also think that the fact that I or the fact that I was in Atlanta as at the same time as Muscala and Dear Carol speaks to the bond of that era and that kind of relationship that they’ve had because that was almost 10 years ago at this point. Yeah. Gerald, when we were doing our like coaching search podcasts and who who do we want in power ranking, one of the big things we talked about was like, hey, getting a former player in here to relate to guys. And obviously that’s not a box that Jordan checks, but now with a couple of of lead assistants, it’s like, all right, I see that he’s balanced that out a little bit. Yeah, absolutely. And and the fact that they’re two players that have played under Jordan speaks to his ability to foster those relationships as well. So, I think it helps when you obviously have former players that know exactly what these guys are going through, you know, how to get better as a professional, all these different things. Um, and now you have two of them with Deari Carol and Mike Muscala. Um, but we’ve also seen Brian Randall in the past play pickup with these guys in practice, after practice, that type of thing as well. So, they have several assistants that, you know, even if it’s not a full-blown five on five scrimmage or whatever, they can get their work in and like I said, put in some of that sweat equity, relate to the players better. You’re not getting five minutes of deep analysis on assistant coaches anywhere else than PHX Suns right here on Monday, August 11th. But, let’s keep moving. Thank you for your question, Gilbert. Uh, James Verb Jones, good name, I think. A little bit of a pointed question here. A little little venom in this one. Why do y’all confuse youth with success? Are y’all looking for a winning team or just friendly, relatable players? P.S. If Katie and Houston do better than the Suns did with Katie, we know who all the problems were. And no, it wasn’t Beal’s contract. A lot to unpack there. Yeah. So, we he somebody had asked them about this and and kind of called him out on it and he was saying, “I haven’t watched the show in a while.” It’s real clearly. Um because I don’t think anyone of us is projecting them to be anywhere like six seed tops and I think they’re going to miss the plan altogether to be honest with you. Like I’ve been pretty upfront about that. We’ve been pretty consistent that like this is a young team. It’s going to be a tough season. It’s going to be a developmental season. It’s not going to be a playoffs or contention or bust. The other thing is like if the Rockets do better with KD than the Suns did with KD, it’s because they built better around him because they had an infrastructure in place that was better than what the Suns did. Uh so trying to imply that it’s Booker that is the problem in all this is pretty lazy if you ask me. Yeah, I’m I’m confused by the yaw part. I’m not He hasn’t been watching the show, right? But I think this is a KD fan, I believe, which is probably why they haven’t been watching the show. They’ve probably moved on to harass like a Rockets podcast or something. Uh, Godspeed to the Rockets podcast out there. Bless y’all. Uh, but I think what some KD fans or NBA fans are confusing where I think like Suns fans are excited about this where they’re like, “Oh, well, why are you excited to have a young team? Why are you excited to, you know, not be, you know, in this contending category? Like wouldn’t you rather be a contending team? To which my answer would be yes. Yeah. But we’re not. But also like last season was so miserable and there are so many things that’s going to be different about this team, Stephen, than last year where it’s like it would be hard if you’re a fan of a team, which we’re all locked in on this, okay? We’re psychos. We’re not going anywhere. Okay. When you have to take a positive of what this team could be, it’s hey, young, fun, scrappy, athletic, right? which is the complete 180 from what they were when they had higher expectations. Yeah. I mean, it’s not hard to tell why someone would be excited about newness when the last two seasons were what they were. Mhm. For individual fans of players for stands, which it seems like someone we’re speaking to right now. Um like that that was severely underwhelming. So, it’s refreshing to have a new crop of players in addition to a coaching staff to be kind of either trying to generate buy into your for yourself to believe in what they’re working to or just being curious more than anything else, right? The curiosity is going to lead to people being engaged and that engagement if they flip it the right way is going to be something that can pull people in and generate the belief that they want. And and this type of thing just kind of annoys me because it projects us as people that are like happy that KD’s gone when all three of us got up on here for months on end saying why did they dangle him at the trans line. Don’t trade KD. We hope that they don’t trade KD because then you’re going to have to take a step back and now you’re in a position where you have to retool on the fly to make sure that Deon Booker stays happy for what’s left of his prime here in Phoenix. Like we’re not excited about that. What we’re excited about is the prospect of getting to evaluate young players, but we are not confusing that with success. Yeah. And I think even like for me and I’ve been on the record once KD and Beiel were gone, it was like I’m glad that they were gone and that’s only because it had gotten to this point of no return, right? And obviously Beal and Katie, they’re they’re in different categories. And and I do agree with with part partially of what James Robb Jones is saying. It’s like we know that like Beal wasn’t the whole problem, right? His contract wasn’t the whole problem. There’s like a whole laundry list of problems that were associated with this team. If it was just Bradley Beal, they wouldn’t have missed the play and they would have just been relatively disappointing. But it’s one of the most all-time disappointing teams I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I I did a a podcast with a Knicks guy the other day and he was just asking about it from like a holistic perspective. I’m just like it’s so depressing, right? And it’s like you have to as a fan at least be somewhat excited to move on even if like objectively speaking your team is better with Kevin Durant than without Kevin Durant. None of the three of us or even Juice Man up here have ever said anything differently. But everything just gets so skewed and it’s so annoying. It’s very bold to say though that deal wasn’t the problem or part of the problem. Yeah. When you have someone that’s withholding that much of a lump sum of your team’s cont or cap on a season and producing like someone that should be a whole lot closer to the league type level. Yeah. Like think about the contract he signed with the Clippers. So to say that like having that lump sum of money not available to the team to build around everything that is and that was Devin Booker and Kevin Durant. I think the KD stands just want us to spend the whole summer being miserable and lamenting the loss of KD. And trust me, I’m not excited to watch a Suns team that doesn’t have Kevin Durant anymore, but we got to move on. There’s a whole fan base that wants to talk about the new team, not the old one. And and like what would that say about us if now we’re what how many months has it been now? It’s been two months. Two months. Crazy two months. Like what would that say about us us if like two months later we’re obsessing over like what already like happened, right? Like that’s just like that’s that’s loser stuff, right? He could he could have took that time to to think about lineups with Tyrie and Jabari Smith Jr. on the court with Kevin Durant instead of worrying about and that’s also it’s like you know it’s so funny because then like you would like we’ll respond to like and then I’m not even saying James Verb Jones is this specifically but now that like we’re on the topic of it like you’ll like give a KD stand like a crumb of attention they’ll be like your head it’s like you’re the one who’s like calling out like to us right like you’re the one like like KD stands are like I’m rooting on the Phoenix Suns downfall it’s like why do you care. Like, why do you like if Kevin Rent goes on and does good things in Houston, I’m not going to like cry about it because it makes sense, right? The only teams that would trade for Kevin Durant are ones that will end up being good with him and he’s a great basketball player. Why do you care about us? Like, that’s like, let me throw it back on you, Uno reverse card. Why do you care? We’re just the lowly Phoenix Suns. Well, because they downplay it as, oh, we just need to remind you clowns that you’re clowns. Uh, trailer Hey, actually, it’s it’s trailer park trash. That’s good. Yeah, if you know, you know. Okay. Uh, let’s keep it moving here. Thank you for your question, James Verb Jones. I think you walked back a little bit in your comments underneath. That whole conversation was not directed at you. More of just a general topic. Okay. Yeah, just like I’m assuming that y’all was a general. No, I think it was actually just only talking about you, Stephen. Uh, like that guy who was in chat last week who like you guys don’t know what you’re talking about, right? No, Ben, don’t watch. Uh Damen Rodrigo asks, “What do you think the future, god forbid we talk about the future, will look like while still paying Beal off and do you think we have enough enough depth to be a playin team this season? I feel like the Suns are getting disrespected by getting put in the 13th seed on all these projections. Go Suns.” Well, in terms of what I think it’ll look like, I think it’ll look like $19.4 million a year for the next five years. Um, but I we’ve talked about this when we’ve gone in depth about the be stuff. I I do think that that’s a considerable chunk of change to commit even as the salary cap continues to rise and that percentage of how much space his dead money is taking up falls. But at the same time, you look around the league, that type of cap space only affects teams when it comes to two things. When it comes to teams that are under the cap and want to preserve cap space to outright sign other free agents or teams that are dealing with tax apron stuff, the first thing that I talked about is not going to be a thing. How often do star players make it to free agency, let alone sign with teams for like big contracts and actually work out there? It doesn’t happen where stars even reach free agency a lot of the time. Now they just sign an extension and then dictate where they want to go on the trade market. like several players that have come here for the Suns. So, I don’t think like they’re going to be an above the cap team. That’s 99.9% of the league most years, but the tax apron stuff is where it could come into play in terms of we need to get below this apron and we’ve got 19 million that is boosting us gradually towards it. So, it’s too soon for me to say. I do think that like it will affect them in a couple years time, but for now when they have all these younger contracts, rookie contracts, it’s not that big of a deal. It’s going to be annoying. Yes. And and there Stephen, there might be a conversation that we have to have three years from now when the Suns are in this this chance to make a move and it’s like, well, they could do this, but they have money tied up to Bradley Beal. But that’s all conjecture at this point. Who even knows what this team is going to be like in three years? Yeah, exactly. Uh that’s why I want to go to the latter end the latter end of the asking about the 13th seed. So last year 13 seed in the Western Conference was the San Antonio Spurs at 34 wins. I think Gerald had them about around that 34 win. Not officially saying it, but just in projecting just kind of thinking about the way the roster’s come about, all of the newness. You were kind of expecting them to be around the 30 to 34 win range, right? Yeah, I’ve got him like 30 35 wins. I I’m going to look at all the teams in the West more in depth and kind of Oh, especially once those last restricted free agency moves are all ironed out, but probably somewhere in that range. Yeah. Uh Eric, I think you and I are a little bit higher, closer to the closer to the 40 to the 40 win range. Me, I I don’t know. I like I see the potential and when we talk about things working out and the Jaylen Green maybe succeeding in a different context and if Devin Booker goes you know MVP mode for the whole season like I see a path to them being better than that. I do think realistically speaking you’re looking at a team that’s going to be bottom of the play in contention there because it’s a tough conference. There’s a lot of moving pieces and parts but like when you break it down individually I am more of a positive person. And I do believe in Jordan, you know, I do believe in Mark Williams if he can stay healthy. I believe in Malawatch. I believe in a done leap. I think Jaylen Green will be fine. We’ll talk about him a little bit more in a second. I think 40 wins, like 40 to like 43 wins, I think is like if that happens this season, you’re talking about one hell of a bounceback, you know, in one season turnaround for the Suns. Realistically, in the 30s is is is likely. So, ninth intensity last year. Sacramento Kings 40 42. Dallas Mavericks 39 and 43. I don’t think it’s out the realm for them to get to 40. Mhm. How many more than that? I’m not sure. I just don’t think it’s out the realm for them to get to 40. But it’s also not out the room for them to get around 34 wins either. Yeah. It’s just a matter of how quickly do things come about. How do they play in close games at the end of games as far as execution and u more importantly the skill development of multiple players including Jaylen Green. So, if we had to put like a seed on it right now, I I think like OKC is number one, Houston, Denver, however you want to put them through three. Then you’ve got teams like Clippers, Lakers, Timberwolves, U Warriors. I think Blazers could be in that conversation. Grizzlies are still around. Spurs have a better Web and Fox for a full season. Mavs could be healthy. They were scrappy. Kyrie, we know he’s going to miss if most if not all of the season. Cooper Flag is good, but Cooper Flag could be good. I’ve got them somewhere around like Mavs and Kings range. I’ve got them 12th right now. Just kind of preliminary early early rankings. And I think that’s fair. What I will note is Portland will be better this upcoming season continuity wise. They brought some pieces in. San Antonio will be significantly better. Their record might flip from 34 and 48 to 48 and 34 if they sustain health and hit their ceiling. Mhm. There’s some work to be done, but I do think it’ll be like a Sacramento, Dallas, Portland, and Suns type of four player or four team group that’s vying for like nine and 10. And let’s just be honest here, right? How many seasons do you go in and you say, you know, these are the good teams in each conference and it ends up being that, right? Like there might be a team that that’s and sucks but like suffers a pretty massive injury and knocks them out or maybe a team doesn’t click as much or maybe a star request sound and there’s always a young scrappy team. Like if I told you Portland ended the season how they would end before, like what do you think from them? Maybe they jump a lot more teams this year postandreon, right? Like the Rockets were the two seed last year. Like again, they’re relying a lot on the health of a Kevin Durant and a Fred Van Fleet, right? And if if one of those guys is missing, then there goes you have no shooting. You have no shooting at all. So, you know, we’re going to see what they have to do, but they’re one of these teams that we are assuming that’s going to be really good that are probably not going to fall in that category. And then there’s most likely going to be some teams in both conferences that you have on the lower end that are going to surprise some people. Like that’s just how the sports in the NBA works. Maybe the Suns can be a team that surprises people. If you really buy into culture shift and and being lengthy and athletic and hustling hard and you believe in Jordan A coaching and and Devin Booker being an allNBA caliber player, an MVP candidate, you can squint and see a team that’s at the top of the play and and and makes the playoffs off of a couple of wins in the playin, right? But that’s what we’re talking absolute ceiling for this team. And and as we’ve all noted the last couple of years, usually not everything goes right for any franchise, but let alone this one, right? We need to get back to resetting our expectations and remembering that sometimes it’s okay for a young team to reach the playoffs and get swept and lose in the first round as long as that young team is gaining experience. As long as they’re building continuity, as long as they’re on the right trajectory, because I I feel like the last few years have reset expectations here where it’s constantly thinking about what is our path to a title. Well, right now it’s getting a young team to the playin to the playoffs and then letting them get some experience because I got news for you. Even if you make the playin as like the seven seed, your reward is a matchup with like Denver or Houston or OKC if they choose to play cinema. Yeah, I would hate that. But yeah, horror has is a good year, Jar. Yeah, horror is a type of cinema to be fair. But yeah, uh any final thoughts on on this before we we keep it moving? No, we’ll be talking a lot about this going forward. You know, wins and losses is something that I don’t believe we’re going to be judging this season a ton based off of. We’re also going to be looking at individual players and do they help, do they hurt, you know, their standing in the franchise. And I don’t think anybody has higher variance on what could happen this season and how fans in the franchise view them than Jaylen Green. So, what does he have to do to become not just trade fawner, but a franchise cornerstone? Somebody that they will build around going forward. We’re going to talk about that. We’re going to get trade value for the entire roster. And of course, we always have fun questions. On a mailbag Monday, PHNX Suns, we’re going to keep it rolling right after our first break. Right before the show started, Stephen looked at us and just goes, “It’s hot.” And Stephen, I agree with you. literal record setting temperatures here in the valley in the month of August, which means that you will probably be paying record setting bills to keep your home the same temperature as you did a year ago. 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And of course, from My Style to my close personal friends, all of you in here on chat with us on YouTube after the fact, those of you tapping in on audio, on TV, well, we’re just everywhere here on PHX Suns, but we’re nowhere without you guys. So, hit that like button, hit that subscribe button as well. Five star reviews go a long way. Let’s keep things chugging along here on our mailbag Monday, which we do every week, so make sure you get your questions in on Sunday. Omar asks, “What does Jaylen Green have to do this season to be considered a main piece for the future? What do the other guys have to show to have people say they’re not just potential trade pieces, but key cogs to the team?” So, let’s start with Jaylen Green. Gerald, I think out of the three of us, I would say, and you can disagree with me, you’re probably the lowest on his potential fit here in Phoenix. For you personally, what does he have to show this season for you to be confident in him being a backcourt partner with Devin Booker for the future? Well, Eric, I’m glad you wrote about this because over at goph.com last week, I wrote about this. Um, and that is free for everybody if you guys want to go back and read it. I do think he needs to do all of those things that I wrote about in that article and that we talked about on the show. But just in a broad strokes kind of answer, um I think this team needs to be pushing for 40 wins because I I think for Jaylen Green in particular, he his fit with Devin Booker is going to be a direct fuel for that. If they’re pushing for 40 wins, it’s because Jaylen Green and Devin Booker are cohabitating that back court in a really good way for the team, not just for their own individual stats. that means they’re defending at a well enough level. Um, so for me, I want to see it in the win column. I want to see his efficiency go up. I want to see him have a career shooting year, especially from three-point range. I want to see him finish a little bit better at the basket with hopefully better spacing around him. Um, and I just want to see him be able to make good decisions with the basketball, not get tunnel vision when he does get going downhill. If he does those types of things, I I don’t know if you can put a number on all of these different elements of his game that we’re talking about here. But if he can just prove that he’s a good fit next to Devin Booker and that you have a foundation you can build on, then I will be swayed and be happy to eat my words from most of this summer. Um, but there are a lot of areas of his game and his approach that he is going to have to tweet tweak now that he’s in a new context here in Phoenix. Yeah, it’s it’s it’s maturity and coachability for me. Mhm. Uh, is he going to be as coachable as Jordan not is wanting to kind of steer him to get the most out of him? Um, and also will he be receptive to that coaching, but also how much will he mature in his game? How much of the changes that we’re going to see from Jaylen Green come from his own accord? seeing what worked to an extent with Houston last year in his career best season then didn’t work in the playoffs and trying to fine-tune and groom his game on his own accord in addition to the tweaking from Jordan Nen company to comi to combine for a player that’s more comprehensive with this game and something that should help to translate better to the playoff stage or just generally in games that grow more meaningful for him um in this upcoming season with the Suns if he’s able to do those things. I think that he he can prove to be a piece that works next to Devin Booker and something that they should be considering building around instead of using to help build around. I think funnily enough, I’m kind of in the middle ground between you two when it comes to Jaylen Green’s fit. I don’t think I’m as high as as you are, Stephen. Even though I understand the context, I don’t think I’m as low as you are, Gerald. Even though I’d say I was a lot closer to where you were when he was floated out there as a main return for KD. And I remember I think it was you and I did a tier the tears. Yeah. And and I I for some reason I don’t remember if Stephen was there or not but we put Jaylen Green at the very very bottom like that there was no value there in the Suns getting him because of the overlap with Booker. And I’m going to be completely honest with you Jaylen Green could play out of his mind this year. Um, I don’t know if there’s something that he can do to where if if a better fit positionally comes up of a similar value that somebody would trade for Jaylen Green comes up that this franchise wouldn’t seriously consider making that move just because having a if Jaylen Green improves all of these things, which is awesome and and good for his own value and for the Suns and I think it’s on the table, but if you can get a forward or a center if Malawatch doesn’t work out or whatever it is in exchange for somebody who’s a little bit more overlapping there. I I don’t think there’s really any way to make Jaylen Green untouchable unless we’re literally talking about him fixing his efficiency, his shot diet as well, upping his defense, and becoming a better like literally fixing all the holes in his game while staying supremely athletic and and growing year-over-year, right? And that’s a lot for somebody to do. But as far as like this season, I think there’s a good chance that if he has a good above average season, the Suns are going to still try to look to move him at the deadline. And and as far as being somebody where the Suns will look at him and say, “You will be who takes the mantle after Devin Booker.” Right? That’s what the next franchise cornerstone is going to do. You’re going to play with Devin Booker and then when Devin Booker is gone, we’re handing the keys to you. Right? That’s what a franchise cornerstone is. I don’t know if there is anything that Jaylen Green can do to be that. Even though like in an ideal world you close your eyes and you’re like what would be the most fun basketball player to make in 2K it does end up usually being like a Jaylen Green type. You you would need like a Goran Drag Eric Bledsoe 48 win type season where no one was expecting it because you have two point guards and in this case it’d be two shooting guards. But um yeah I think in terms of being a main piece like cornerstone I don’t think you prove that in one season. main piece. I think you can potentially if the fit works out and you kind of touched on something that I think applies to the second part of the question in terms of the younger guys. I don’t know. I think they can prove that they have value and that they could be key to the future, but we saw male Bridges and Cam Johnson get traded for Kevin Durant. That was coming off of a finals run in a 64- win season. I love Ryan Dunn. Love Osdaro. High on Come on Model Watch’s future Rashir Fleming. None of those guys are going to do anything in the next season that’s gonna put them in that untouchable Yeah. box for me. Like I I just don’t think that’s realistic depending on what comes along. They can increase their value. They can prove like, “Hey, I fit in good with this team and for the future.” There’s hope there, but I I don’t see any of them cementing themselves as like, “No, they’re in Devin Booker untouchable territory because this is a front office that is going to be continually monitoring. how can we get back into contender status? Um, and this is the same front office that traded some fan favorites who had been a part of a finals team. So, I don’t think anyone but Book is going to be off limits for the foreseeable future. Yeah, agree. We talked about that at the end of last week. And we’re going to do a trade machine uh Tuesday tomorrow. We have a question that we’re not going to dive as much in here from I think it was like King Gedora or something like that who, you know, asked about what’s a realistic star. If it’s not Trey Young, if it’s, you know, if it’s not Jaylen Green, who could the Suns go after? And I’ll be honest with you, on paper, you’re going to look at these trades. I don’t think a lot of people are going to like them because if you’re trading for somebody who’s high level talent, you need tradeable picks. And that’s just one thing the Suns don’t have, which means you have to include Orion Dunn or Anoso Gdaro in place of those picks or even maybe some of your other young guys. So it right now you’re in a tough spot as far as acquiring stars. But we’re going to break that down for you tomorrow. And more than people not liking the trades, the teams you’re trying to trade with are not going to like. So that’s what matters more than anything else. Sure. I think I think really when you look at the young guys, if Kaman Malawatch shows like that he’s ready to play this year, which is going to be a big leap for him. I I think he puts himself in the untouchable range as a top 10 pick. And if we’re talking like an ungodly jump from Ryan Dunn in year two, right, that positional wise, like his offense works out, he he’s good on defense. He could play the two through the five, like, okay, then I think Ryan Dunn becomes an untouchable asset, right? But it’s like it’s a lot higher of a floor or of of a of a mantle for him to take that than I think a Malawatch where if he shows a good amount like I don’t know if you’re going to move on from from a guy like Malawatch unless it’s cuz if they had draft picks I’d agree with you but I think even if Ryan Dunn makes unless it’s like a superstar but that’s what you say like the super like a super leer which probably isn’t on the table right so like I I don’t think anybody but books off limit like I think even if Ryan Dunn makes a considerable leap if anything that might make him more tradable just because you don’t have draft picks and he’s the only guy that could actually go out and get you something. Same with Malawatch. Like I I think this franchise is still like kind of antsy to get back. And I’m hopeful that they’re patient and let these young guys develop on their own timeline, not just the Devin Booker, we need to get back to contending timeline. But if that’s what they’re on and we know is competitive, we know Deon Booker is almost 29 now. I think those guys playing really well might make them more tradable if anything. Yeah, I think they’re looking at this roster as a project, trying to build around Devin Booker best, figuring out who fits in the lines with that, who doesn’t, and trying to get the most out of the pieces around to ultimately get to that step of addressing who doesn’t, and bringing in pieces that do. And whoever is available also very much determines like who who like, hey man, are you giving up Ryan Dunn for like a lower tier star? Yeah, you know, you’re probably gonna hesitate to do that. If you know, Tyrese Hallebertton demands a trade to Phoenix, you’re trading Ryan. You know, like there’s there’s levels of this. The same way it’s like you’re probably not trading Male or Cam. And that was even the holdup with the Kevin Durant trade. And why it was flirting consistently for like a year of Brooklyn and the Suns doing a trade was because they did not want to include both Male Bridges and Cam Johnson in that trade. And then you know Matt Ishpria takes over. Obviously what happens happens but like you know it takes a star of that level and when Kevin Durant was traded he was playing as like a top three player in the NBA right that also determines on if somebody is a tradable piece or not at the time but we appreciate the question Omar we really do and we’ll trust me we’ll be talking more about trades like our next question from a sports fan 97 in our die hard discord uh says could we get a list of the current roster and their current estimated trade value comparison based on draft pick compensation maybe would be easiest by tier, but would be cool to see it by collated for any stars and potential trade pieces. A current estimate and projection for the trade deadline might be fun so it could be reviewed at the deadline. I think this is something we can really expand and maybe dive into in a full episode in the future, but let’s just let’s go really quick here. Let’s name the top five trade assets for the Suns right now as far as players go. We’re leaving book out of this. I think you I think as of right now he would be surefire number one but also the least likely to be traded. So let’s just put him to the side. Uh who’s number one? Probably come on Malawatch. Number 10 pick recently most potential of any of the pieces on the roster. I would say Malawatch is number one. Number two Jaylen Green. Jaylen Green. Yeah. Number three. Grayson. I don’t know. I I think Ryan Dunn has more value than Grayson right now. I would say either Mark Williams or Ryan Dunn. I think Ryan Dunn has more value than Mark Williams right now. Uh I don’t know how quick teams are gonna want to trade for Mark Williams with the health part. I and that’s why I think I mean Mark Williams is a better player than Ryan Dunn right now, but the availability versus looking at the type of player that Ryan Dunn could be betting on the upside, the the health, you know, I I would say I think we’re higher on Ryan Dunn than people are on the outside. That’s why that’s why I had Grayson Allen is my third. Grayson Allen third in all of this contract as well as the skill as well as the age. And I had Grayson Allen hired, but hearing the Warriors didn’t have interest in him just because of his contract was weird to me cuz I don’t I don’t think it’s a bad contract. It’s three years and it’s like 17 18 mil a season, whatever. I don’t think that’s terrible, but they were treating it like the plague, which gave me some pause. I think Grayson is top five, but in no particular order, I think Mark Williams, Ryan Dunn, Grayson Allen are the next three or four. Dylan Brooks, Dylan Brooks, yes, Dylan Brooks is in too. Dylan Brooks right now is more trade value than Ryan Dunn and probably more trade value than Mark Williams. I mean, he’s a big contract, but he’s like he’s a proven impactful player and his shooting leap I it I mean, I I would say that that could easily change halfway through this season. Um, but I mean, hey, this is a good conversation. I love questions that it’s like, hey, we got to table this conversation for later so that we can get into it in full. So, sorry for not giving you the full answer, a sports fan, especially because you are a dieh hard, but trust me, that’s going to be a whole episode. We’re going to take your question and make a whole episode out of it. And that’s the highest honor. Yes. And that we’re doing that with Kingdora’s trade question tomorrow as well. So, that’s how you know it was a good question. So, we’ve got a lot more good questions and some fun questions. Let’s get into all of those after our final break. 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I mean, they literally have everything at Circle K. and they want to give it to you for a lot cheaper than non inner circle members. Like a $5 meal deal meal deal, two slices of pizza and any 20 oz soda or Polar Pop up to 44 ounces. Listen, join the inner circle for free by downloading Circle app today. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit circle.com for full details. If there’s one thing I hate, Gerald, what’s that? It’s big box stores. Oh, me too. Big box stores do not have BDE because they are just so hard to navigate. They leave you high and dry. It’s that something you need in a big box store. I I mean, is that what you look for? I look for good deals. I look for helpful people. And I can’t find that in the big box stores, but I can with Empire today. Not only will they give you $350 off for listening to the likes of us, but also they’ll have a free in-home estimate. Pick the right flooring and the right colors for your space. see how it looks in your home with your furniture. And the convenience of it is topnotch. You get precise measurements taken, have all your questions answered, and there’s just no surprises. Plus, clear, upfront, all-inclusive pricing and installation as soon as the next day. That’s BDE from Empire today. Schedule free investment today cuz some things are just better off at home. PHNX listeners can receive a $350 off discount when using promo code phnx. That’s right, $350 off when using promo code phnx. Restrictions apply. Visit empire.com/phnx for full details. And by the way, just to clarify, BDE means big discount at Empire. Okay, so I just want to make sure that we’re all on the same page here, especially if they didn’t like it. What else would it have been? Um, well, nothing. I just wanted to I just wanted to make sure um acronyms are hard. And also, um, I thought it was obvious. So, you know, uh, yeah. Yeah. And if Empire today didn’t like me saying that, just that’s what I meant. Big discount energy. Okay. Thank you for clarifying. Hit the like button. Uh, hit the subscribe button. Andy Cruz is pointing out that there’s not enough likes in in chat, and I I agree with that. It’s free. Where’s your BDE? Hit the like button. Anyway, well, not the big dislike energy. Oh, no. Don’t say that, Gerald. Don’t say that. We need your Ble. Oh, yeah. We need your BLE. Big like energy here. All right, let’s keep it moving. Stephen’s just like, “What’s all the spelling and whatnot?” I thought he was talking basketball. What are you doing? Said, “What is this?” Actually, BLE is a new stat the nerds put out there to measure who’s good instead of actually watching the game. Um, I’m kidding. I like stats. Uh, EJ’s couch potato asks, “Is there any factual reporting on the Suns actually being interested in exploring an option for Trey Young? And if so, why should they commit the same mistake and sell the farm like they did with KD? Love y’all at Eric Ruby. Cut the bleep.” Uh, no. There’s no factual reporting the Suns are interested. I’m sure they would be interested, but um they don’t have the assets to pull that off. So, to be honest with you, it’s kind of a non-starter for me. I think Trey Young has been called overrated for so long that he’s actually become underrated in a way. He’s one of the best playmakers in the league. And if you’re one of those people that wants a point guard for Deon Booker, he’s one of the best ones you could get on the offensive end. Defensively, he is one of the worst players in the NBA. Like that is fair to say. And I think it’s fair to question Atlanta’s direction. I think this is a big year for Trey Young’s kind of reputation because they put as good a pieces around him as I think he’s had ever. Um, and that that includes the team that went to the conference finals a few years back. So, I I like Trey Young. I understand the trepidation there, but to be honest with you, the Suns don’t even have the farm to sell for Trey Young at this point. Very relevant. Yeah. Well, Stephen and I dove into that at the end of last week. There is factual reporting as far as like flex from Jersey saying it’s a situation to monitor and he doesn’t factual reporting. That’s speculation. Okay. Speculation. I guess I don’t know if you meant factual reporting or actual reporting. It’s like is somebody reporting that the Suns are Trey Young? No, but that Trey Young is a situation to monitor. And as we do here in August, we got to talk about it. All right. Will with a twopart question. Thank you. Will says, “What should the Sunsman rotation be? And what do you think will the Suns eight-man rotation be? Stephen, why don’t you start? What should the rotation be? I I will say I want to preface this question though before you start. I don’t think the Suns with this team should have an eightman rotation. That’s a playoff rotation. Like they should have a 9, 10, maybe 11man rotation. And that’s considering they got to cycle through all these different options. But who who if you had to narrow it down to eight, who should be in that eight? So starting five is Booker Green. um Dun Brooks and Williams. Mhm. Then the next three off of that five would be Grayson Allen. Mhm. Um Nick Richards. Mhm. And I’m going to throw Rasher Fleming in there. Okay. Then that’s who you think it will be or who it should be? That’s who I think it should be. Okay. Now, who do you think it will be? And is it the same? Who will it be? It would be um the old guys off the bench. So, Nick Richards is not old, but Nick Richards with Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neal. And then the same starting five. Okay. So, I have the same starting five. As far as who it should be, I have Grayson Rashir and Oso are the guys that I would like to see. Um who it will be. I have Grayson Royce and Nick Richards with the same starting five as well. Level outlook. That’s what happens when you cut it to eight. Yeah, cutting a date is tough. Everybody can go. There’s no way the Suns should be even remotely close to an eight-man rotation. No, not with all the young players that they have and especially not at the beginning of the season because they need to figure out what they have in a lot of these like come on. Mwatch needs playing time like at least to figure it out and then maybe you rain it back after that. Rasher Fleming needs playing time. Oso needs playing time, right? Colin Gillespie. Colin Gillespie is like the only point guard you have on the roster, right? Like besides Jordan Goodwin, he needs playing time. We’re going to see a lot. I think as far as who it should be, I’m going to make Oso definitely in there. I think Grayson Allen should be in there because he’s the type of guard or forward that nobody else that we’ve talked about has the overlap which is just a three-point sniper and I think he could play with everybody that we’ve talked about. And it’s like I feel like it should be modelash just at least at the start of the season even like he needs to you need to see what you have in him and how much work he has to do. But I don’t think he will be in the top eight in the rotation. I think it’s going to be Royce Grayson and Oso over Nick Richards. I love y’all. I I agree 1,000%. It’s my my spade in the back pocket. Hayes Davis cracking the rotation. Yeah, you need to see him. You need to see Kaman. You need to see Rashir. You need Colin as a backup point guard. Like is there anybody on the roster that like you don’t need to see like I Jordan Goodwin, but even then it’s like he brings something that nobody else on this team brings. Yeah. Honestly, you should be like and they’re going to cycle through things. I don’t think it’s going to be the only They’re not going to play all every game. No, but they should cycle through different stretches of like, okay, now it’s your turn to see what you can do in this spot, etc. And I think a lot of this we’ll get a clearer sense of as training camp approaches and some of those battles play out in real time. Yeah, I think it’ll be fun. And I I mean, look, like I said with NBA teams, like rotations never shake out the exact way that you expect them to, injuries, trades, whatever it might be, who fits where. I think it’s interesting. Yeah. Also interesting, this question from Mario. Thank you, Mario, who’s also in chat. says, “Mark Williams has played 43, 19, and 44 games in each of the past three seasons. What’s the minimum game threshold that he needs to play in order for the Suns to give him an extension? What would the extension look like in terms of money and years if offered?” Well, it depends on the quality of those games to be honest with you, cuz I I want to say like 50 games so that you can sort of properly evaluate him. Ideally, you want 60 70 plus, but I don’t know if that’s realistic. Um, I think his next contract, like if he can’t stay healthy, but he plays really well for his, you know, half season or 50 games or whatever it is, maybe you could work out something that’s a shorter deal in terms of the number of years, that’s like 10 $15 million range. And this is just me spitballing. If he plays well and he plays more than 50 games, maybe you’re looking at 15 million to 20 million dollars a year. Um, but I I don’t know, man. In terms of feeling good about that extension, I’d say it has to be like 55 60 to feel good about what you’re giving effective games. Yes. Like similar level of play if not better with more games played. What do you think, Stephen? What are the the benchmarks you’re looking at? Yeah, the the games played is first and foremost because I don’t care if he averages 20 and 10 with four blocks a game shooting 75% at the rim. That’s cool, but what if it only happens for 20 games, right? What’s the impact of that? Mhm. So I think and more importantly, he still has development that he has to get going as well because everything’s been been fragmented because of injury more often than not. Like we talked about last week, his first full off season playing without injury. So hopefully that bolds well for him going into this season, but I would say hopefully 60 to 65 games. I would go 60 just because he hasn’t shown to play 50 yet. So I would go to the lower end of that. But that’s where they need him to be. Yeah. And especially not just for his own continuity, but how do you play with Devin Booker? Are you the ideal center prospect to go next? How do you play with Jaylen Green? Right? How are you fitting with a Kaman Malawatch? Are you able to play two big lineups? Like that’s going to be pretty key and important going forward because by the time that you get extended, let’s say you are getting a couple of year extension by the end of that like that’s Kaman Malawatch time, right? So are you able to play with them? like are you and Ryan Dunn, you and Osuo and Gdaro, like if you don’t play games and you can’t test out lineups and we don’t see how you hold up, not even from your own game, from how we are building a team, we don’t know where you’re going to fill in and and slide in here, right? So, I think 50 games, if you’re going to offer him like a decent looking extension where it’s like, okay, but if the reason why he only played 50 games is not some like devastating injury, right, or the back flare up, if it’s like, hey, he rolled an ankle, right? It’s like, okay, then he rolled an ankle and maybe they held him out to be precautious because this team is kind of nowhere. Right. Right. It It’s a very interesting kind of game to play because you also look at like would it be better long-term for the Suns if like, you know, he does play well, you see him, but he doesn’t play as much games. So, you can lowball him, keep him, and then maybe bet on him, and again, it’s a terrible bet, but bet on him being healthy going forward or keeping an effective center at like a low price. for this season. Let’s say he plays 50 or 60 games, balls out, demands a massive contract, and who’s to say next season he doesn’t play 15, 20, 30, right? So, it’s like this is such a tricky line for the Suns to walk to where it’s like even if he has a good season cuz he’s got one season where he played 19 games, 43 and 44 the other, like that’s a big difference. But if you go back down to 19, like it it’s a really interesting dilemma that I think the Suns are probably already having to think and work through right now. And and the other variables are, like you mentioned, Eric, why he’s missing games, if he is missing games, like if it’s a fluke and he lands on somebody’s ankle, that’s one thing. Um, it also depends on Malawatch and what he shows in year one. Because if Malaw watch surprises all of us and looks way more NBA ready, maybe you’re not willing to throw a big contract at a guy who is, you know, injuryprone and maybe not the long-term fit for that position. And then on top of that, I think Sky Falcon mentioned it in the chat as well. He will be a restricted free agent. And we’ve seen what happens to restricted free agents. The Suns don’t have to go like I know Matt Ishpia has been more than willing to pay players what he feels they’re worth if he feels they can help the team win. But you can kind of squeeze value out of that and get guys for a lower price because there’s just not cap space like there was back in the day when teams would throw offer sheets at restricted free agents and try and steal them away. I I think especially if he doesn’t play like 70 60 games, you could kind of get him at a lower contract just because he’s going to be restricted free agent. Yep. All right, let’s keep it moving. We’ll be talking more about all this stuff as the off season goes on. Next question from Easy Money Chubs in our Diehard Discord says, “Outside of book, who has the silkiest jumper?” I’m assuming we’re talking on the Suns right now. There’s only two acceptable answers. Nick Richards in his poll at MIDI. Sure. And come on, Mwatch. Yeah, come on. Yeah, Oso Gdaro. Mwatch lowkey does have a nice heing good. Um, it’s Oso. Come on. Uh, high school Oso. Sorry. High school. It’s either Kobe or Grayson, right? Yeah. Yeah, I think like is there another answer that’s out there? It’s not Dylan Brooks. I would say Kobe, but Jaylen Green has a nice looking jump shot, but it’s not like Silky. I think yeah, Grayson and Kobe. Which way we leaning? Where are you feeling? I mean, Kobe for optics. Yeah, in terms of Silky, we usually think like the way that it looks. So, I would probably go Kobe. Mhm. Yeah. I I mean, I’ve got no disagreement with that. There’s not like a ton of of options. There’s not, which is kind of why we keep talking about the shooting thing and hoping it holds up. But Sean Sean is mad at me because I asked him if we could bank his question for a later day. Sorry, Sean. Uh, again, you know, it’s it’s a high honor as well. It is. We’re fleshing it out fully to give it the true attention that it deserves. Sean, stop complaining, you babies. Sean and I, it’s okay. We’re like that. We got that’s the relationship. He’s a He’s a UFA guy, so Oh, okay. So, you got you got a little back and forth. Yeah, it’s fine. Okay. I’m surprised that he even understands this podcast. Anyway, uh Brett, I just heard him say something derogatory about you from wherever you are. I can’t hear him. I can’t hear you, Sean. I just heard him say it again. This is why you need to become a diehard so that you can have beef with me. Uh, okay. Brent, uh, with another I think he asked the the Shack charge question before, but it says, “Would you all take a 13 m per hour specifics? 13 mph charge from Shaq if it would completely clear Bradley be off the salary cap. This one is a no hesitation.” Yes. Definition of hero ball. You a hero in Phoenix. I would do without a doubt. That’s how much I care. Start a GoFundMe for my hospital bill. You’re not going to the hospital. 13 miles an hour from Shaq. You’re gonna you’re gonna you’re gonna get hurt, but you’re not going to the hospital. I don’t know, man. You wouldn’t survive is crazy. Like I said, no. Level Alex saying you wouldn’t survive. Dude, come on, bro. Oh, Mario asked the chat question last week. Listen, if I get put in the hospital to take Bradley Beal’s contract off the books, Matt is probably going to pay for my stay. So, I’m not doing it for free, though. I mean, just just for reference. So, Usain Bolt’s top speed was 27.8 miles per hour. So, this is about half of what Usain Bolt speed is that you’re getting hit by Shaq. I’ll ask him. I’m going to the I’m going to to Shaq’s live podcast at Hilo on Saturday. I’ll ask him. Ask him if that if that’s in the CBA. Do you think he would kill me if I took a Shaq? Are we talking Prime Shack, too? I guess he’s get up to 13 miles per hour. I don’t think Shaq right now is getting up to 13 miles per hour. I don’t know if Shaq’s ever getting up to 30. You wouldn’t You wouldn’t do it for the cause. No, I’m not doing it for free. Ah, so that’s the difference between me and you. You would never have to buy a drink in this town again. Yeah, that’s cool. I’m As long as As long as our son’s I don’t think you heard Gerald. His vice is basketball. It doesn’t matter to buy a drink anymore. I’m not doing that for free. Cover my hospital bills and my drinks and we’re good. I as long as we are allowed to live stream it on PHNX, I’m doing it. This man cares about his numbers. I guess that’s your vice. No, dude. That is true. That is true. Uh numbers the quality. He says he doesn’t like analytics, but he’s a numbers guy. Don’t let him fool you. Yeah. The the quality way, okay? No cheap numbers here. Ethical hoops. Um I’m doing I’m doing it for the cause. And here’s the thing. I would do it if I didn’t have a Suns podcast. Like I I would do it to like that is how much I care about this team. Like every other piece of clothing I have is Phoenix Suns related. Like I’m I’m a literal psychotic sicko. I would take a 13 mile per hour charge from Shaq to man’s trying to be sons Jesus over to free my people from the shackles of Bradley Beal’s buyout. Oh, you love that. You’re telling me that I wouldn’t do that? You’re insane. You love that meme. I do. I I That’s how I feel. That’s how I felt when the Suns weren’t playing Christmas Day. I finally get to spend Christmas Day with my family. Nice lowkey. I have not spent Christmas Day with my family in like five years. I don’t know many Suns fans that were upset about that, but there were a whole bunch of KD fans that were taking victory laps over again. It’s like, why do you care? Why do you care? Yeah, not BDE. Um, big discount energy, right? Uh, Easy Money Chubs back with another question here. Says, “If you found yourself in a hangover movie scenario and you had to pick two players from the Suns, who would they be and why? Are we opening this up to Suns history or are we talking on the current roster?” Um, let’s do current. Let’s do current. Maybe we can Dylan Brooks. Trying to get in a fight while I’m trying to survive. I’m trying to survive cuz we’re already We’re being put in the hangover like situation. I need somebody who’s resourceful. Dylan Brooks is going to get you in more trouble. That’s what the And you’re already in trouble. Like between his mouth and your mouth, someone’s getting in a fight. And while it would be good to have a 6’6 guy on your side, don’t get me wrong. Yeah. I I mean, listen, if I honestly in a fight, I’m taking Dylan Brooks and me over most. Well, the other is true. I’m fine getting in a fight. That’s fair. That’s fair. But here’s if you found yourself in a hangover movie scenario. So, let’s flush this out here. This is really what’s important. Because I’m assuming that no matter what shenanigans and hy jinks are going on. Sure. Right. Like you’re going to be put in like weird situations like there’s going to be a tiger in your bathroom, right? Like you are in the hangover situation. So, like picking Ryan Dunn and Osu Gadaro because you think they’re like sweet baby boys who aren’t going to get in any trouble. It’s like that doesn’t matter. Like you need somebody with some edge on. I’m picking them cuz they’re funny. That’s true. A good pick, but he’s like 12. He’s 18, so he couldn’t even get drinks with us. Like that’s a problem. Unless Unless Unless it was hangover too and we’re in like Bangkok or something. Oh, wait. Malawash would be the baby in the thing and you carry him around. Not at the table. Come on. That’s crazy. Who are you who are you taking, Stephen? We’re talking basketball here, you know. Um, you need somebody with the bag, first of all. Okay, that’s your ultimate get out of jail for free card. So, Mr. Devin Armani Booker. Oh, man. Come kick it. Um, and I think I’m much more akin to how Devin Booker would want to kick it presumably than others, but very much out the way. It’s a lot more highriced than chill and laid back. But that’s the thing is that’s not what the hangover is. That’s true. Like if you’re in the middle of the of it, like I’m taking Ryan Donosaro because you can’t avoid the chaos. There’s no like, hey, we’re chilling with the multi-millionaires at the top floor of the casino playing private hands of blackjack for $2 million. Talk about being resourceful, though. I I think Book’s a good pick, but it’s like when you say, “Oh, well, Book would be the type of guy that I want to spend time with in addition to addition.” Yeah, that’s a completely different question. I thought I mentioned the bag for Okay, good. Yeah, the bag. Okay. So then who who’s with Booker and and Steven Bjang Garner? Um Royce O’Neal. I was thinking in the back of my head you were going to say Royce. Got to have a blue collar boy. I think I think Grayson Allen sneaky pick because you need somebody who has like that dad energy who just like has a psychotic break. Um Grayson Allen is Doug. Yes. Exactly. Exactly. He’s the like levelheaded one. Yeah. Except he probably wouldn’t go missing. You never know, man. You never know. Is there is there any wild any other wild cards here? I mean, like, you know, Jayen Green would be wild. Just no card. Just wild with be wild. Uh Mark Williams, you don’t know enough about him. Nick Richards probably wouldn’t even speak to you. Nick is too cool. Yeah, Nick is way too like calm, cool, and collected for that. Uh Kobe Bra would be interesting. Kobe. Yeah. I’d like to see Eric, Grayson Allen, and Colin Gillespie as the as the trio. I think that’d be an awesome hangover trio. One of you is getting sunburnt like Doug on that roof. Oh man. And it ain’t Grayson cuz I’ve seen Grayson tan. So I think we would uh Yeah. No, Grayson showed up tan this last year. You did? Uh yeah. No, I can’t imagine a wider group of people than that. Uh anyway, we have some we have some more questions. We’re going to be answering more of them like this one. Uh we’re going to do it in overtime. So, if you’re watching on TV, the party always continues over at go phnx.com. Uh Leo says, “What about uh all time?” Charles Barkley. Charles Barkley. Charles Barkley. Yeah, he kind of has to be in there by default. Yeah. Give me Charles Barkley and Tom Chambers. No, I’m good. Uh, take Male Bridges. Yeah, Male would be fun. Cam Johnson, I feel like would be too levelheaded. Cam Johnson would be the type that would be in my crowd. I You know what? I think Yeah, but again, you’re in a hangover situation. Give me DeAndre Aton because I’m sure he would love to spend all of his money. Uh, so give me give me Charles Barkley or Shaq. Charles Barkley and Shaq. Oh god. DeAndre Aiden’s the one that would bring the tiger into the room. Yeah, for sure. I don’t know if I want DA in my If it’s If it’s Shaq, if it’s Shaq, then that’s how we get the 13 mile per hour charge. Okay. That’s how we set that up. That’s a hangover. So, you’re trying to you’re trying to knock down multiple pins at once here. Okay. Who Who’s on your alltime hangover list for for Sun’s basketball? All time is crazy because there’s so many so many different names to to cycle through. There are um Trevor Reza. I feel like Jay Crowder would be an underrated. I didn’t think about Trevor. I was thinking about I was thinking about Jay Crowder though, boss man. Um could wear your FJ Crowder shirts. He would He would get stuff done. Give me Javal McGee. Oh, okay. That’s a good one. J. Um excellent hype, man. Definitely. Everything is going to be fun. More fun than it probably should be. Yes. Um, dang. Javel and Shaq would be insane. They’re just now I’m thinking about it. Jal shooting the whole time over the Shack to the Full stuff. Oh my gosh. How did I not say Joe Green amuse? I don’t know. Those are my guys. I was thinking about GG G Squ. J Green would be fun. He would lose another finger. Um, feel like Goran Dragage would be fun to corrupt him a little bit. Give me Give me Isaiah Thomas. Okay, so Jal McGee the the complete opposite spectrums of hype. Although Isaiah Thompson’s whole like storyline is just him tweeting, “Anybody have an open roster spot?” Yeah. Um man, all right. I’m taking Cam Johnson and Male Bridges. Yeah, that’s fair. I think that’s fair. Give me Give me Charles Barkley and Jaylen. Not Jaylen Green. Gerald Green. There you go. His father. Wow. Tory Craig. Okay. Tory Craig. The last question here and the most important question here is from Leo. Says, “You can only take three Pokemon on your Pokemon journey. Who are you guys taking?” Also, Ghost Sons. Stephen, you first. Um, you said three. Charmander, Mewtwo, and um, who is the other the other I had them on top of my head. Not Pika. Squirtle. I might end up just going with Pikachu for I mean for for for logistical reasons. logistically. Okay. Yeah. Oh, okay. Well, it’s funny. If we’re including legendaries, that changes a lot. Okay. I mean, it changes everything. See, I’m I’m going to stay away from the legendary just because I got too many fan favorites here. Um, it’s funny when we go through all these questions at the start of the week and I look at what people ask us in the mailbag, I always prepare for each one. This one took the longest to, of course. As it should. As it should. Um, basketball stuff. Totally fine. Ask me about three Pokemon. Only three. That’s really difficult. I just thought of a great question. What? Pokemon starting five draft. Oh, yeah. That would be a lot of fun. That would be fun. Okay. Um, I I hate to leave out my guy Poliwirl and Raliboom because on Pokemon Sword, that was my starter and he just kicked so much ass. But I’m going to go Gyarados. Yeah. Marowak and Charizard. It’s a good pick. Uh, Gyarados definitely was was in mine as well, but he’s just so dope. I think for, you know, I don’t want to copy you, right? But I do do your top three cuz we only get three. So, I got to like my big debate is between uh Blazakin or Infernape. Blazin’s dope. Oh, Infernape’s dope. Well, that’s and those are like those are like those are my guys. Boom is kind of like Infernape but grass instead of fire. Yeah. I think this chest like you’re a game winner. I think I got easy. I gotta go with I think I gotta go with Infernape. Give me Infernape. Um and then yeah, give me Gyarados. Okay. And I need somebody who can like fly. So you got fire, water. I mean Gyarados can’t technically fly. Does he can he learn fly though? I he learns fly. And then then give me Gyarados. I’m right on the back of Gyarados. And then uh cuz you got to think about like traveling, you know, stuff like that, too. People are getting out of the way if they see. Dude, Lucario definitely rips. Uh he’s up there. Dragonite rifts. I already got a dragon. Um, give me Gengar. Gengar is cool. Gengar is my guy, but not like my not my guy my guy, but he’s my guy. You know who was your It’s Infernape. Okay. Infernape is is this one. And then uh Blazakin’s the other one. Okay. So, we got a left and a right. Yeah, those are my guys. All right. Length uh left length and left hand. Any any other final thoughts, Stephen? On uh on what Pokemon? And we have one question in the chat about the highest level of basketball we all played. Oh yeah, we do have we do have one about the highest level of basketball we all played from the phoenix suns.com who likes to troll me. Says highest level of organized basketball each host has played. Gerald just wants to say that he played in the G-League. So go ahead, Gerald. I did not play in the G- League. Uh I played for my high school team. We won a state title as a junior and then I played You want a state title? Mhm. I didn’t know that. Yeah, I used to be good. Don’t Don’t let our time in the W League fool you. I’m I’m wash now, but I was good back then. Hey, you you had a moment the day that you announced that you were having a kid. You went you went off. You scored like 10 straight points and we lost by 40. Yeah, I did. It was a good first quarter. Um you hit a three and said, “That’s for my kid.” I did. The first shot of the game. That’s for my child. I yelled to no one in the stands. You to me to me. Uh yeah. So, I played high school, won a state championship, and then I played like inter murals in college, and that was that was the extent of it. I could have gone to like a D2 or D3 school probably and played, but I just didn’t want that to be my life, honestly. So, I came here and decided to write about basketball instead. What a fall from grace. I know. Stephen, what about you? Uh, it was definitely high school for me. Um, I had the option to go the D3 route. I was like, my mom and I was like, what’s after that? And I was like, probably whatever it is I go to school for. She was like, okay, well, not getting scholarship money. Yeah. for basketball, but you can for school. I’m the one that’s going to be facilitating these things. Like, let’s make a make this make sense. And we did. And I did not go to school to play basketball in college. Yeah. But did not have to pay as much money as I would have. So, there’s a trade-off. Um but highest level though I did play um it was a tournament at Whitney Young which if you’re not from the Midwest, Whitney Young is where like um I forgot who went to Whitney Young but Jal Okafor specifically was who I went against. Um okay I was next to him for a free throw. This is like my junior junior. I think it was my senior year in high school. Box him out. I did not. But yeah, that’s a big that’s a big dude. I will say I got I got a steal against one of their guards at the top of the key. I’m by no means slow. Two dribbles get to my G steps and one of their recruits that they got from like I think they said he was from like Virginia or something. One of his first plays, he comes in, I rip him and he hawks me down and LeBron’s my layup off the Oh no. But the thing is I didn’t know he was there like cuz it was loud and I couldn’t like the senses are suppressed. I couldn’t hear his footsteps. So I’m thinking it’s a layup and then all I hear is don’t I was like oh oh no that’s what happened. Yeah. So that was that was that was a fun moment. But yeah being on the court with a ton of NBA type of athletes before they actually became that is always a fun kind of moment to bookmark and come back. Yeah. We’ve all been there. Yeah. Uh I mean when you pass though it’s kind of hard. That’s fair. That’s fair. It’s not the same out here in Arizona. Uh basketball was not my sport growing up. Uh, I did karate like religiously, like four to five days a week. Uh, competed in tournaments and circuits around the state. So, I did not have time to play organized basketball, but I played an ungodly amount of basketball starting like early high school, like late middle school. I was playing like any day that I wasn’t doing karate, I was playing pickup and then didn’t play organized basketball as far as like with refs and stuff until I got to college and played intram murals. Won the uh a league intram mural championship at ASU on Desert Financial Arena’s court or whatever it was. Um and then men’s league now. But no, I was I was dedicated to the grind. I was teaching, training, coaching, and competing on circuits from like the age of like How old were you in like sixth grade? I don’t know. I don’t know. Since like in like early. So there was no time for me to do basketball. Uh I was too busy. I don’t know. Winning state championships fighting, you know. That’s fair. You watch Kobe Kai? Yeah. Not like the last season, but the first couple. Yeah, Kobai is dope. Yeah, Cobra Kobai is a good show. But I’m just picturing that being your life growing up. No, no, no. It’s not like that. But you weren’t winning these worldwide tournaments that they don’t travel like to to different like states like internationally and stuff. That cost a lot of money. So you just kick kids ass in the neighborhood in the region. No, I mean it was across like the state, but it was a circuit called a Mars and there was like a lot of people that would show up and then I’d always kind of like feel bad because you you were allowed to compete outside of your age division non-state championships. So I was like I was 12 or 13 fighting 14 to 17. But then when you fought in the state championships, you had to fight your age division and so it was unfair. And so I ended up fighting my age division for a state championship and I didn’t get scored. Like nobody because we did like points sparing. You got hit, there’s a score, there’s a break. And like nobody scored on me. It’s like I didn’t even like count it. I was like mad. I was like I want to and then like when I was 14 to 17 I would compete in 18 plus until state championship time and then it was like hey I gota do 14 to 17. So Okay. Yeah. So, don’t mess with Eric Ruby is what he I’m saying me and Dylan Brooks in a fight in Vegas. I’m taking Dylan Brooks and and myself. Yeah, I think that’s somebody in the chat replied late to the Hangover 2 scenario with the Morris twins. The Morris twins. I would not want No. Josh Jackson. Josh Jackson and the Morris Twins is a little fourman crew. I want to have fun while I’m out there. Uh somebody said, “Oh, this was last year when I said in high school.” I heard one of them goddamn paying off their paying off their Vegas debt. That’s true. Yeah. one of the more sidious payoff they’re Vegas. I’m not going to Vegas with the Morai. Uh but yeah, but um Freckled Mamba and I are going to be playing in a men’s league starting next Wednesday. Nice. Freckled Mamba can hoop. Freckle Mamba. What about you? What’s the the highest level of ball you’ve played? Similar to Steven and Gerald. Uh just high school. We got to our Elite 8 at Northern Illinois, then lost in the Elite 8 my sophomore year. Um, and then COVID was my junior and senior year. So, I didn’t So, you’re a baby, bro. So, I didn’t have that. Um, had opportunities for division three roster spots and a couple D2 offers, but decided that sports needed media needed me more and we’re glad that you did. We are glad. Uh, just a bunch of washed up athletes here on PH. Speak for yourself. You can speak. You can speak for me. I’m washed over here, my Oh, dude. Uh, it depends on the day. Some days I’m not washed up and some days I am. Eritton will learn when we play pickup. One day it’s going to be like, “Holy crap, this guy’s really good.” The next day it’s going to be like, “Has this guy ever touched a basketball before?” Uh, it should be fun. Okay, that’s going to wrap things up here on PHNX Suns. Uh, appreciate everybody joining us for a Mailbag Monday. Good turnout. Need a couple more likes, but it’s okay. I know that some of y’all are late to the party. Hit that like button. Hit that subscribe button or I will punch you and it’ll hurt hard. Let’s just let that sit for a second. Man, I’m looking right in the camera. Go ahead. Get us out of here, bro. Hit the like button. Get us out of here, bro. You know, by the way, follow us or I’m going to punch you. Uh, follow us on Twitter and and Instagram at PHX Sons. Of course, you can follow the freckled mamba at freckledmamba on socials. Making the magic happen, per usual. You can follow Gerald at Gerald Borgay. You can call him washed all you want on socials. He’s heard much worse. You can follow Stephen at steenp3washed. Make follow me at E R I K R U B Y. Thank you all for being here. We’ll be back tomorrow with a trade machine Tuesday. Realistic stars, the Suns could pair with Deon Booker, if there are even any of those. We’ll get into it tomorrow and we’ll see you then. [Music] [Applause] [Music]

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It’s time for another edition of Mailbag Monday on the PHNX Suns Podcast! On today’s episode, Gerald Bourguet, Erik Ruby and Stephen Pridgeon-Garner answer questions from Phoenix Suns fans about the team, including what Jalen Green has to show this season to cement himself as a cornerstone alongside Devin Booker, where the Suns currently stack up in the Western Conference playoff (or play-in) picture, Trae Young trade speculation, what a contract extension for Mark Williams might look like, what the Suns’ eight-man rotation should be and plenty more!

0:00 – Intro
3:00 – What does the Coaching Staff Look Like Right Now?
25:00 – What does Jalen Green have to show this season?
35:10 – The Suns’ Current Top-5 Assets.
42:40 – Coming up With a Suns 8-man Rotation.
1:02:00 – Top 3 Pokémon? (It’s the Offseason…)

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