The Phoenix Suns Have An Identity For The First Time In Years And They Used It PERFECTLY In China!

The Phoenix Suns Have An Identity For The First Time In Years And They Used It PERFECTLY In China!

On today’s show, the Phoenix Suns split over in China. Who is standing out for all the right reasons and who’s standing out for all the wrong reasons? Also, let’s do a little bit of a rookie check-in, if you will. Let’s do it all in this edition of Locked On Phoenix Suns. You are Locked On Suns, your daily Phoenix Suns podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. your team every day. What is up? Welcome back into locked on Phoenix Suns. My name is Benjamin Garcia, host the Ven Garcia Show mornings on YouTube Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 700 a.m. and as well as an Arizona sports, but more specifically a Phoenix Suns media member covering your team 365 days of the year. Your Phoenix Suns team 365 days of the year. Thank you for joining me on this beautiful Sunday night, Monday morning, however you are listening, wherever you may be listening. Thank you so much for making Locked on Suns a part of your day. Don’t forget that this show is free and available on all platforms including YouTube. So click that follow or subscribe button to do it. Thousands, dare I say millions, trillions, billions of Suns fans have already done. Become every day and get locked on the Phoenix Suns right here each and every day. Today’s episode is also brought is also brought to you by our friends over at FanDuel right now. New customers can bet $5 and if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Head to fanduel.com to get started. Holy crap, was that an early start time. Listen, I I am so thankful that this is something that I get to do with you guys each and every day, five days a week covering your Phoenix Suns, but I still have a day job. Like, I still do other things in this world. So, it was a it was a challenge getting up at 4:50 a.m. on uh uh on Friday and then today at 3:55 a.m. I might as well just have not slept all weekend, but it was worth it. It was so worth it because watching those two Phoenix Suns games have been a treat. Watching the Phoenix Suns through this far of the preeason has been a treat. The Phoenix Suns lost today and they’re going to lose games in the regular season, but it has been a treat. We have been starved for something in Phoenix over the last three seasons. And if we cursed on this show, I’d say give a bleep. But the Suns give a crap. They finally give a crap. And that’s my initial reaction is they’re not going to win a lot of games. They’re not going to win 42 games and go 42 and 40. Like, I think that that is a little extreme, but the Suns are building a foundation of what all good basketball teams are built on, and that’s an identity. That’s knowing who you are. That’s coming out and winning ways that are tangible for you. And, you know, let’s talk about that first game really quickly. I was kind of disappointed in that second preseason game, the first one of this China split series with Brooklyn because as I was watching this team, I was like, “Ah man, this is what I was kind of worried that they would be.” And I wasn’t I wasn’t I guess I shouldn’t say I was disappointed. I was just not surprised if that makes sense. Like I wasn’t disappointed, but I also wasn’t surprised. The Phoenix Suns started off this game on Friday against the Brooklyn Nets, you know, kind of behind the eightball. The Nets shot 60% in the first half of games. And I tweeted out games that the opposing team is going to shoot 60% from the field. The Suns have like no chance to win those games. I think my exact wording was next to zero because the Suns, as mentioned before numerous times on this show, are going to have issues scoring the basketball. consistently, I guess I should say. Imagine on nights where Devin Booker has his patented four for 15 night like all great superstars and star players do. Steph Curry doesn’t shoot 50% from the from three, shoots 38 40%. He he misses a lot. He also makes a lot. You’re going to have those nights. And when Devin Booker isn’t playing well, this team is going to have a hard time really getting points. just going to have a really tough time. And in this game, you know, Devin Booker was four for nine. I don’t think he had his first field goal, his first actual field goal until the second half. And that was like a little running jumping uh uh mid-range jumper. And it didn’t matter. And I thought to myself, and I tweeted this out after the Suns beat the Nets, and again, I I don’t care that they won this game. It’s about winning the minutes that matter. when you’re going up against the Nets bets players, what does it look like? And the Suns, it felt like, went into the locker room, and they’re going to do this a lot this year. They were down to the Nets at the half. The Nets shot 60% from the field. It’s very easy for a team like the Suns to throw their hands up and just say, “Well, I mean, they’re shooting 60%.” Like, if six time, you know, 10 times they shoot the ball, they make it six times. Like, that is otherworldly. uh efficiency. Sometimes you just throw your hands up and you’re like, “Okay, we’ll get them on Sunday.” It feels like the Suns went into the locker room on Friday night, I guess, in China. Friday morning in Phoenix was they kind of just looked at each other and said, “Okay, shots aren’t falling. We got to go back to what we are.” And that is what is going to happen for the Phoenix Suns all regular season long. I’ve been telling you this for a couple of months now. There’s also a couple of things I’ve been telling you that we’ll get into in the second part of this show, but one of the things that I kind of told you about is the Suns are going to play teams. And I mentioned this on the NBA squad show preview of the Western Conference edition that’ll come out later this week was the Suns aren’t going to necessarily be a great team, but they’re going to be a team that when Oklahoma City comes in on a Tuesday night in December, they’re going to think they’ve got that game wrapped up by 20 points. And they still might beat the Suns, but they’re going to beat the Suns to 96 and leave that game saying, “Golly, this was supposed to be an easy game. That team’s freaking tough. Next time we play them, we’re actually gonna have to try a ton. And we don’t want to do that. We’re trying to rest our guys for the playoffs. Like, this should be a game that Kase Wallace played 35 minutes, not Shay Gilis Alexander playing 38. And the Suns went to the locker room on this Friday game and kind of said, “Hey, you know that thing we didn’t have last year that we have this year, an identity. Remember, talent isn’t an identity. an actual tangible asset that you can go back to consistently over and over and over again. You got to tell the opposing team, “Stop this.” The Suns have an identity on the defensive side of the ball that is going to be very difficult for opposing teams to, you know, especially teams without stars and superstars. It’s going to be hard for teams to score on the Suns team. You know, here’s another, you know, tidbit from the NBA squad show, Western Conference preview edition. Um, apparently I got clipped and on the locked on NBA game nights that you guys should go check out on Locked on NBA. Um, someone took my sound bite of me saying, “I think this team could be a top 10 defensive team in the NBA.” And I kind of squirmed like this when I was saying it because I believed it, but I knew I was going to get ridiculed for it. And there was a couple of people in the locked on NBA group chat. They were all making fun of me. You don’t know what you’re talking about. You know, you’re a fanboy, you know, all all that stuff, right? It’s all in good fun. And it wasn’t until we did that squad show again yesterday, which will air sometime this week that I believe it was Matt Moore of Locked on Nuggets said, you know, after Ben said that, it got me thinking maybe this team can be a playin team. Maybe they can be a really good defensive team. And Friday was a perfect example of that. 60% at the half. 60%. And it wasn’t the Suns third and fourth stringers coming into this game and, you know, rallying the troops. Both teams played with their starters to start the second half. Suns were down 59 to 71. Listen to some of these uh uh Brooklyn Nets plays. Michael Porter Jr. misses 13 point, you know, misses 13 foot two-point shot. Uh, Osogaro, defensive rebound. Dylan Brooks makes driving layup. Getting out in transition. Uh, Dylan Brooks blocks Nolan, whatever his last name is, three-point driving layup. Grace Non, defensive rebound. Osoar two-point dunk. Getting out in transition. Uh, after blocking players and scoring. That is a 5second difference between blocking someone and dunking it. Nolan again throws the ball out of bounds. Shooting. Uh, Suns get the ball. Devin Booker gets to the line, two free throws. And now we’re at 6571. Nick Claxton makes his first free throw, misses the second one. Ryan Dunn gets the rebound, misses. The Brooklyn Nets, they lose the ball again. Devin Booker steals. They go down the court right away and score. The Nets scored one point in the first Let’s see where it’s at. I I should have had this. this the Nets scored one point in the first five minutes of the second half. That is the Suns going back to their identity and saying, “Listen, we understand you might more have more offensive firepower, but if our shot if our shots aren’t falling, we as a team can buckle down defensively and make everything very difficult on you, force turnovers, get out in transition, and get back in these games. The Suns are not going to be the team this year that is going to get back in games by shooting themselves back into it. They’re going to be getting back in games by making other opposing teams shoot themselves out of it. And I thought that was very impressive. In a league where identity matters so much, the Suns are down to the Brooklyn Nets double digits, shooting 60% in the first half. And the Suns go back into their identity in defense force the Brooklyn Nets to score only one point in the first five minutes of the second half. And immediately the Suns are up 7472. That’s how they’re going to get back into games. The Suns have showed over this preseason what their identity is. We know offensively they’re not going to have the best team shooting the ball lights out 50% from the field. They’re going to hope, cross their fingers, that Jaylen Green, Dylan Brooks hits their three-point jumpers. Devin Booker is playing well from the mid-range. But if all things go ary, they can play defense. They can get out in transition. And that’s how they get themselves back in these games. At one point, the Suns were being outrebounded 21 to1. In a game where the Suns are being outrebounded 21 to1 11 and the opposing team is shooting 60% from the field, the Suns um the Suns should lose every single one of those games. But because they have an identity on the defensive side of the ball that is going to be physical push teams around, they are going to win a lot more games than they they’re going to win games this year that they other that they otherwise would have lost last year. And that’s the difference between this year and last year’s team. All right. Who’s standing out for the right reasons? Who’s standing out for the wrong reasons? There’s a couple of them I’ve been pretty right on. So, we’ll talk about that next. First, today’s show is brought to you by our friends over at Pelaton. Let me go ahead and just get their uh uh you know, a little little doohickey right there down the lower third. Pelaton is shaping the future of fitness with a brand new Pelaton crossraining tread plus powered by Pelaton IQ. It’s their most advanced equipment yet. Designed to give you real time guidance and endless ways to move whether you’re running, lifting, or crossraining with your favorite instructors. This is training reimagined. Pelaton is built for breakthroughs with tools that help you plan, stay motivated, and reach peak performance. Listen, just the other day, I I like weightlifting. I will never stop weightlifting. I enjoy working out. I enjoy playing basketball. But sometimes like my workouts get a little repetitive. And the other day, you know, I was squatting. I hurt my knee. And now I haven’t, you know, done legs in two weeks because it probably would have been better off for me not squatting anymore and acting like I’m still playing football and basketball like the high school days. And, you know, maybe do something that’s a little bit easier on the joints. Pelaton would have been great for me. And not only that, I just got to flick it on potentially even you do one of their uh programs that they have. I don’t even need to think about what I need to do in my workout. Sometimes it’s often like, am I going to lift? Am I going to do free weights? Am I going to do, you know, more cardio? Get on the Pelaton. They’ve got a bunch of workouts on there that’ll help me and make me a better uh uh, you know, get me in better shape. And so, let yourself run, lift, fit, and flex and push forward. Explore the new Pelaton Cross Training Tread Plus today at 1pelaton.com. So, I want to take a second now that we’re three games into the preeason to talk about some of the players that are standing out for all the right reasons. Some of the players are standing, you know, out for all the wrong reasons. So, number one, just right off the bat, I really like what I’ve seen from Grayson Allen over these past couple of games. I’m not going to sit here and toot the Grayson Allen horde a ton. I think what he has done is shown that he can be cons continuously be a serviceful player off this team. And since Jaylen Green is definitely going to start and he should to start the season, um I I I I just like what I’ve seen from Grace N. And this team is going to continuously need three-point shooting and someone off the bench that can complement whoever is on the uh floor with them at the same time. Jaylen Green and or Deon Booker. So, that’s the first one that I just want to throw out there really quickly and soften the blow for this next one. I continuously don’t see it with Nigel Hayes Davis. I don’t see it. I know some people have been gassing this guy up. He went over, you know, overseas and he was really good. I think he was the MVP and where he played and he had this patented three-point jumper and I liked having him on the team. Like this isn’t a anti- Nigel Hayes uh uh I’m not even going to say Nigel Hayes Davis anymore because it just says Nigel Hayes here. Um but this isn’t an anti Nigel Hayes like rant or if you will. I think Nigel Hayes fits the identity of this team kind of similarly to Jordan Goodwin who we’ll get to in just a second. Like he’s a big player defensively going to fit the mold of this team. 68 240 big wingspan. He’s going to be able to spot, start, and fill in at times, but I can if everyone is healthy, I don’t see where Nigel Hayes Davis is going to play on this team. I just don’t see it. He is redundant to what they already have, which is a good thing. They need having more wings is a good thing, but that’s only a good thing when dudes get injured. I feel better about Rashir Fleming than I do about Nigel Hayes Davis thus far into the regular or this far into the preseason. Yes, Nigel or Rashi uh Fleming Rashier Fleming today, you know, on Sunday wasn’t great. He was 0 for one, only shot one shot and like only played 10 minutes in this game. But the defensive prowess for Rasheed Fleming, I think, is already better than Nigel Hayes. And and I know both guys can shoot the three ball effectively. Rashir Fleming’s actually done it better than Nigel Hayes uh has done since the preseason has started. And so I’m going to give the tie to the younger player. So I don’t want Nigel Hayes playing over Rashier Fleming. I just don’t want that. If Rashir Fleming shows up, you know, he doesn’t fit the prowess of this Suns team right away or he shows real rookie signs of slow, you know, developmental stages that are maybe worse than we thought, then sure, I’ll I’ll re I’ll rethink this accordingly. But I I I I’m just not there right now with Nigel Hayes Davis. And we’ll get further into Sheer Fleming in just a second with Kaman Malawatch and uh uh Jordan Goodwin, but I just don’t see it with Nigel Hayes. I’d rather play Royce O’Neal, who also hasn’t looked amazing this preseason. I’d rather play um Dylan Brooks and Ryan Dunn. It’s not a, you know, poop on Nigel Hayes thing. It’s just it’s kind of hard to go overseas, become this really great player, and then have that translate immediately to the NBA. Like, the talent discrepancy from where he played to the NBA is just a massive leap. And so, I know he’s got a chip on his shoulder. I know he plays tough. I know he’s someone that uses everything as motivation. But the but at the end of the day, you can’t substitute talent. and I’m not sure if he’s talented enough offensively to stick with this team and give me a reason to play over the other rookies like Rasher Fleming, who I’ll dive deeper into in just a second. As well as um I’ve been wrong on this. I’ve been wrong on this. The best center that has played this this um preseason, it’s pretty unequivocally Nick Richards. I still wonder why Oso Agodaro is starting over him. I get that. Maybe maybe the idea is, and I’m doing this on the fly as I’m thinking about it, maybe Agodaro just fits better with what the Phoenix Suns want to do right now with this lineup. He’s a superb passer. And so finding guys like Grace N, Dylan Brooks, or even Devin Booker in the twoman game maybe fits a little bit better than what Nick Richards would be doing. Nick Richards is not someone who is a prolific scorer or passer, but he has been a heads up almost veteran type presence for this team. All the things that I wonder about Oso Gadaro, I have been infatuated with Nick Richards. He has been someone who has been Johnny on the spot, grabbing multiple different rebounds. He had three offensive rebounds in this game, five rebounds total. Oso Gadaro also had five rebounds in this game, but he also played 20 minutes compared to Nick Richards 16 minutes. So more efficient from the floor and also just head heads up heady plays. Someone missed it. He’s grabbing it below the rim, putting it back in. Those are cheap buckets at the rim that the Phoenix Suns are going to need. But still in the same breath, I wonder if Nick Richards just suits better as a backup center than maybe Oso Agodaro. Nick Richards might just fit the mold better of someone who can come off the bench and kind of play a little bit more freer basketball. I one of the things that I was concerned about with Nick Richards that I said to Suns fans when they draft or when they traded for him was I like Nick Richards. I understand it, but I’m not going to act like he’s going to come here and revolutionize the Sun center the Suns center position. He is the backup center on a horrible Charlotte’s team. So, has he ever had to play winning basketball? I don’t know. But it feels like he’s been in the gym this summer revolutionizing his game a little bit. And I think it is undoubtedly unequivocally true. He has been the best undoubtedly the best center on this team. And that leads me to some of my thoughts on Oso Gadaro, Kamal Malawatch, and Jordan Goodwin that we need to get into and we’re going to do so next. Today’s show is brought to you by my friends over at FanDuel. The NFL season is here and FanDuel has an offer you don’t want to miss. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and you’ll get $300 in bonus bets if your bets wins. That’s right. Pick a bet, put $5 down, and if it hits, you unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. I love using FanDuel. I love using FanDuel. It is so much fun to be able to test my sports knowledge accordingly. I think the Arizona Cardinals there are like a, you know, plus eight and a half. And for me, I look at that line and I say plus seven and a half, plus eight and a half. If I’m a team like the Arizona Cardinals who is in a must-win game, this is a throw everything in the kitchen sink at them game. So why would I pick the Arizona Cardinals not to cover eight and a half? I think the Colts are probably still going to win. If you want to feel better about your bet, maybe just put $5 down the money line. When the Colts win, you get with your $5 bet, you’ll win $300 in bonus bets. But you want to go a little bit, you know, get a little frisky, maybe take the Cardinals to plus eight and a half. So, what are you waiting for? Visit fanuel.com to download and download the FanDuel app to get started today. Also, today’s show brought to you by the lovely folks over at Monarch Money. Most people can’t name all their financial accounts or even what they’re worth, whether it’s 401ks, properties, or investments. And when you don’t have the full picture, you can end up leaving money on the table. That’s why there is Monarch Money. It’s an all-in-one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean, easy to use interface on your phone or on your laptop. Monarch is built for people with busy lives. If you’re put off organizing your finances, Monarch is here for you. Monarch does the heavy lifting for you. You can link all your accounts in minutes, see clear data visuals, get smart categorization of your spending, and finally feel in control of your money without ever touching a spreadsheet. We’re moving right now. Money is a little bit tighter because our payment’s going to go up a little bit now. We’re going to get a lot more space going from a 500 foot apartment to a 2,000 foot house. Little bit of a difference, but it’s going to cost a little bit more. We are going through our finances currently. We found out we’re paying for things that like what what are we doing? We had a Discovery Plus account. I’ve never used Discovery Plus. I’ve got two Spotify accounts. Never used two Spotify accounts. I feel like a dummy had I used Monarch Money. Those things would not have been an issue. I could have canceled those things a long time ago and saved myself and my wife a whole heck of a lot of financial heartache. So, don’t let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use code locked on NBA. Monarchmoney.com in your browser half off your first year. That’s 50% off your first year at monikmoney.com. Use code locked on. So, let’s talk about Oso Igadaro really briefly. Um, I think this is interesting with Oso Igadaro because at times he looks lost. Legitimately, this is just my this is just my observations. Watch the game with your eyes. Don’t listen to what anyone else says. Your eyes oftent times won’t lie to you. And early in both of these games, I thought Osoe Gadaro looked a little lost. And I will continue to say it till I’m blue in the face. Oso Gadaro could be a very good player in this league. I wonder if he’s more of a four than a five. I probably lean more of a four, but he kind of has but he kind of has the skill set of a five. if Oso never develops any sort of offensive prowess that isn’t, you know, some sort of jumper or three-point shot, which I don’t think is ever going to happen with Oso. Um, I I wonder I I wonder with Oso Agaro what his role looks like on this team. He’s a prolific passer and I want him out on the court, but he he’s not a true five and he’s as he gets matched up with other fives, he kind of gets bullied on the court. So that brings me back to my last point with Nick Richards. Like I think OSO still starts because maybe Nick is just more suited to be a backup five than a one than a than a starting five. Oso looked lost in multiple points and not just this game um but the game on Friday as well. I thought even more so on Friday. He looked pretty good today. Um you know five for seven, two for three from free throw. One of the things with with Oso Gadaro is it feels like he’s so timid to try to score around the rim because he can’t make a free throw to save his life. That’s a part of having a bit of a jumper. And one of the things with Oso Igadaro is teams are going to go into just hacking Oso whenever he goes up around the rim because they don’t feel confident that he can hit a free throw jumper at all. And so that brings me to my other point with Kaman Malawatch. I thought Kam Malawatch started to take right strides into this game. But like at this point he does like he was four for six from free four for six from free throw. Kamal Malaw uh on Friday. Kam Malawatch in this game was three for six from the field, one for two from free throws. Um Kamal Malawatch is already showing signs of progression. I was a little concerned about Kaman Malawatch um after the preseason game against the Lakers, but I let it go because first, you know, actual NBA action where you’re playing against real NBA players, not, you know, future plumbers and State Farm salesman over during the summer league. But I thought Kamal Malawatch started to look the part. And again, that leads me to believe who’s going to play. I understand Kamal Malawatch is a rookie. He was also the 10th overall pick. You maneuvered around to get Kamal Malawatch. I just wonder if there’s a chance he could supplant Oso Agdaro at some point this year. He’s a much better suited at the five than Oso is. He’s not as good of a passer as Oso is. He’s not good as a ball hander as Oso is, but he’s younger, better defensively, and I think is more athletic to where if you throw the ball around the rim to come on Malawatch, he’s going to have a better chance of putting it down. And if he gets fouled, you feel better about him making free throws, not Oso Igodaro. So that’s my quick recap on the Oso Come on Malawatch dynamic there. I wonder if the Suns in February if they want to make a deal, swing a deal. I don’t know what that looks like. if Oso if Nick Richards could be one of the guys gone. Like that’s a kind of a hard thing to hear because we like Oso. I just I’m curious about his fit with this team. And what I saw from Kaman Malawatch is kind of coming into his own a little bit faster than I thought he would and I just trust him to put the ball down around the around the rim and if he gets fouled go to the go to the free throw line and actually hit that and uh and hit those and make opposing teams pay. Um, here’s my last thoughts. Jared Butler was good down the stretch. He had that, you know, game-tying bucket against the Nets on Friday, but it is not close. And I said this when Jordan Goodwin became available to the Phoenix Suns, uh, like in June when he got let go by the Lakers. I was like, Jordan Goodwin fits perfectly with the Suns team. I tweeted that out there. I put it out there and it was absolutely true. He is not going to play very often. But when the Suns play a random Tuesday night in November against the Charlotte Hornets and Booker sits out because I don’t know, hamstrings a little tight, feel like the Suns feel good about this game even without him. You throw someone out there like Jordan Goodwin to help fit the mold of this Suns team and that is scrappy. And I actually thought Jordan Goodwin from the field looked a like pleasantly surprising from three. Three for six from three in the first game. In the second game, uh Jordan Goodwin only hit one three-point jumper, but was one for three from those. So, still shooting a fine percentage for someone that’s going to come off the bench and not play a ton. But everyone told me, not everyone, I hate using absolutes. That’s not fair. A lot of people said though, oh, Jared Butler, like that’s a that’s a nice little third string guard for the Suns. I was like, nah, Jordan Jordan Goodwin fits the bill better than Jared Butler does. He’s a more defensive prowess bulldog. He is someone that’s going to be able on a night innight basis to cover the teams there, you know, uh, uh, backup point guard like a TJ McConnell type and just be annoying. The Jose Alvarado type of point guard that comes off the bench and gives you really good energy minutes. And I I think that that case is all but solidified. Jared Butler’s not making this team. Jordan Goodwin will be the third string point guard for this team because he fits the mold of what the Suns are doing. And um I also just kind of like Jordan Goodwin. Plays hard, young player, still scrappy. I think is a pretty actually good defensive player when he’s in the right system. Like the Suns a couple years ago when he was coming off the bench as their second string point guard kind of got exposed a little bit. But on this team where they’ve got some depth, he kind of fits better than I think Jared Butler will do. So, with that being said, guys, um I will be at the preseason game on Tuesday. Sun’s got a game on at Tuesday at home against Los Angeles Lakers. That’s going to be a heck of a lot of fun. Hey, you know, if you see me, stop me. Say what’s up. Let’s talk. Let’s let’s chat. Let’s be friends. But until then, oh, I guess we got another obviously we got another show tomorrow, but we also got a show we also got a game on Tuesday. Hopefully we can do that show from the uh whatever these it’s not PHX Arena anymore. I already forgot what it’s called, but hopefully we can do the show from there. But with that being said, guys, follow me on all social media platforms. Bengarcia show, Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok. Hit me up, message me at me. Like, let’s talk, let’s chat. Hit the like, share, subscribe button for everyone tuning in. My name is Benjamin Garcia and it has been locked on Phoenix Suns.

The Phoenix Suns are building a defensive fortress. But can it withstand the NBA’s offensive onslaught?

Benjamin Garcia breaks down the Suns’ preseason games in China, revealing a team reborn through gritty defense. From Grayson Allen’s sharpshooting to Nick Richards’ rebounding prowess, Garcia analyzes standout performances and potential lineup shakeups. He explores the Suns’ evolving identity, questioning Oso Igbodaro’s fit and praising Kamal Malawatch’s rapid development.

Tune in for an insider’s look at how the Suns’ newfound defensive focus could reshape their season and challenge the NBA’s offensive powerhouses.

0:00 Intro: Suns split games in China
5:10 Suns’ defensive identity shines through
10:47 Players standing out for right and wrong reasons
15:52 Evaluating Nigel Hayes-Davis and rookies
25:05 Ighodaro fit and Khaman Maluach’s progress
29:11 Jordan Goodwin likely to make roster

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FanDuel
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FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)