How the Phoenix Suns OUTSMARTED the NBA…

The Phoenix Suns have had a fantastic off seasonason all things considered. Getting Bradley Beal off the team even though he was a little bit of a douchebag about it. Trading away Kevin Durant and retooling around Devin Booker. They’ve had a sneaky good off season and I think they may have won the draft, especially after the summer league with how one of their second round picks played. He looks like Klay Thompson 2.0. Maybe not quite as good defensively, but hats off to the Suns front office and hats off to the Suns as well for realizing that the Kevin Durant Bradley Bill Devin Booker experiment was never going to work out. Devin Booker is an alpha scorer in this league. People don’t want to admit it and he’s not to the level of Kevin Durant who is probably the most gifted scoreer in NBA history. But you can’t pair two alphas together in the modern NBA and expect it to work. It’s an era of depth. Depth win two championships in the modern NBA. And instead of being topheavy with score first guys, like they had three score first guys with Booker, KD, and Bradley Beal. Now you’re going to trade off the old Kevin Durant. He’s 37. Bradley Beal’s on a ridiculous contract. And now you have Devin Booker remaining. Booker, who has stated that he wants to stay in Phoenix, which is not usual in the modern NBA for a player to stay with a franchise through all the ups and downs, but he’ll be heading into his age 29 season, which is right smack in the middle of his prime. And he’s proved already as a 24 year old. He can be the alpha scorer and get you to the finals. Remember, that was a team with Chris Paul, a point guard. They had great three indie wings like Bridges, like Cam Johnson and Jay Crowder, and then DeAndre Aton controlled the paint. But Devin Booker was the primary scorer. He was the alpha scorer for a team that was two games away from winning an NBA championship. And then Monty Williams made zero adjustments. He also led them to 64 wins the season after before Luca Donuch became their father. And then that kind of happened when the fall off of the Sun started. But I don’t blame the front office for going all in and going out and getting Kevin Durant because it was a team that had won 64 games and they had to take a shot. But now they’re retooling and I think they’ve retoled beautifully around DBook. And Booker himself will be looking to have a bounceback year next year because he’ll be the first to tell you it wasn’t his best work. And there were a lot of excuses you could use for him. We’ll get into those in a second. But he averaged 25.6 six points, 7.1 assists, four rebounds, one steel in 37 minutes a game while shooting 46% from the field and 33% from three on seven attempts. And yes, it was a down year. It could be because he was sharing touches with Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal. It could be because he wasn’t playing his natural position at the two guard. He had to play point guard. That was not great and hopefully he won’t have to play that much this season. It was also could have been due to the fact that he played with Team USA over the summer and we saw a lot of those Team USA guys have a down year as well as guys like Tatum and Hallebertton going down with injuries from the long summer. But looking back to 2021 2022, he put up a monster stat line on 47% shooting from the field and 38% from three on about seven attempts a game. He finished fourth in MVP voting that season, which is insane to think about. I mean, it was all NBA first team, fourth in MVP voting, and now this is the roster they have around him. The big question mark is going to be that point guard spot with Jaylen Green. But elsewhere, they are really solid. Devin Booker, Dylan Brooks, and Ryan Dunn, a disgusting wing defensive duo, and if Mark Williams can play more than 20 games, that’ll be fantastic. They do have a good backup center. We’ll talk about him later, their rookie. But yeah, Devin Booker should be in for a much better season. Now, as for Jaylen Green, that’s the big question mark. There have been question marks with Jaylen Green for years. He’s never been a consistent player. He was drafted to be the franchise guy in Houston. Never panned out. But in game two vers, he kind of showed the flashes that he had of being that franchise player. However, he never even came close to putting up double digits again the rest of that series. He’ll be 23 years old next year and coming off a year where he averaged 21 a game with 4.6 rebounds, 3.4 four assists, one steal, in 34 minutes while shooting 42% from the field and 35% from three on eight attempts. This is not a make it or break it season anymore for Jaylen Green because he already had his make it or break it season in Houston and he broke. He got shipped off. They’ve come out and said he’s going to be the primary point guard in h in Phoenix, the primary ball handler. They said Debbook was going to be the primary ball handler, then they switched it. Now it’s Jaylen Green who will be playing a lot of point guard because they don’t have much point guard depth on this roster. So, we’ll see what JG does with the ball in his hands more often. Now, when it comes to Mark Williams, it makes me sick how my Hornets did him because I thought he’s our center of the future. And I think he can be the center of the future for the Phoenix Suns. He’s 72 with a 76 wingspan coming off of his age 22 season. He’ll be just 23 next year going into his fourth year in the league. And the Hornets have already given up on him. And he averaged 15.3 points, 10.2 2 rebounds, 2.7 assists in 26 minutes a night while shooting 60% from the field and played 44 games. Now, that’s the big kicker here with Mark Williams. He has never played more than 45 games in his entire career. Now, yes, it’s only a three-year sample size, but that’s a pretty solid sample size. Now, per 36 minutes, he averages almost 21 a game with 13 and a half rebounds and 1.6 blocks. And as a Hornets fan, that makes me sick to see. So, I’m honestly pulling for Big Mark in Phoenix. and I think he can have a really really big impact on this team alongside D book. Now the contingency plan if you will for Mark Williams happens to be another Duke center with a ridiculously long reached. He although has a little bit of three-point potential that is of course Kaman Malawatch at 7 foot2 with a 7 foot7 in wingspan. A ridiculous freak of nature that is magnificent in the pick and roll being able to catch lobs being able to seal people off. Averaged 8.6 points a game, 6.6 six rebounds, 1.3 blocks on 71% shooting from the field. Did shoot 25% from three on about point4 attempts per game. So, not even getting a shot up every two games, but still showed some potential to be able to knock down the three ball. Here he is catching on the roll. He’s got good hands, which is not common for big men, and then just going up and getting rebounds. Now, what I’m really excited about in Phoenix is this one-two punch defensively. It starts with Dylan Brooks, and you need to have playmakers on the defensive side of the ball just as much as you need to have some on offense. And Dylan Brooks is that he is a stone cold defender. 14 points a game, 3.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and eight steals in 32 minutes a night. Shot 43% from the field and 40% from three on 6.7 attempts a game. Now, yes, every game he’s due for one horrifically contested mid-range, but other than that, I mean, 40% from three, even though it looks a little funky, is really solid. And then Ryan Dunn. I’m hoping for a big second year out of Ryan Dunn. Was huge on him when the Suns were able to trade back and still get him in the draft. 69 with a 7’2 in wingspan and is a phenomenal defender. I really thought he could be one of the better players coming out of last year’s draft class. Averaged about seven a game with 3.6 rebounds, 6 assists, and.5 steals. Shot 43% from the field and 31% from three on 3.6 attempts per game. And if he can continue to do this, knocking down that corner three as well as playing elite defense, he’s definitely going to have a role in Phoenix. Still pretty young as well. And then you’ve got Rashir Fleming who might have been the steel of the draft. They got him at 31st overall and I had him as the last player in my lottery at 14th as did a lot of other people. A lot of people thought this was guy was going to be a lottery pick at at the very least a top 25 pick. He’s 6’9 with a 75 wingspan, has great bounce, and last year averaged 15 points per game, eight and a half rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.4 steals, 1.5 blocks, and shot 53% from the field and 39% from three on four and a half attempts. Quite literally the dream NBA prospect for NBA scouts. And he slips to the second round. And the Phoenix Suns were able to get him. They absolutely nailed the second round this year because on top of Fleming, they also got Kobe Brea. And I don’t care what you had to trade up to get Fleming, it was a win at the end of the day. Brea, on the other hand, the best shooter in this class, is immediately a top 10 shooter in the league because he is such a specialist from beyond the arc. But he can do a little bit more than just catch and shoot. Here he is driving inside, using that left hand over two defenders. That’s Alex Sar, the number two pick in the draft a couple of years ago and then getting Bub Carrington off of him and getting back to knocking down that three ball, going back door for the big times. I mean, he’s got some ups to him as well, but this is what he’s known for is shooting that three ball. With that being said, that’s going to be it for today’s video. Moral of the story, the Suns did a phenomenal job this offseason. With that being said, hit that like button, hit that subscribe button, and thank you so much for watching today’s video.

This video looks at the Phoenix suns and how they look elite for this upcoming season after their retool around their superstar Devin Booker
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