Why Phoenix Suns DOMINANT Preseason Was MASSIVELY Important
All right, third times the charm. Stephen, we couldn’t hear from you yesterday, but now with the most crystalclear audio imaginable, how you feeling about the Sun’s win last night? [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Psychos [Music] and sickos unite for a regular season ready edition of PHNX Suns. I’m Eric. That’s Steven. We got Espo and the Freckle Mama behind the Mac making all of the magic happen. Of course, we’re presented by Bet365. Download the Bet365 app. Use code PHNX365 when you sign up. Deposit 10, place a bet for five and get $200 in bonus bets. We appreciate everybody joining us here live on a Wednesday as the Suns preseason is officially in the books. We are one week away from the regular season starting with Suns Kings Russell Westbrook Jared Butler. Be there or be square. Also, hit that like button or be square. Hit that subscribe button. Become a member today and get access to all the fun new emojis that we have in chat. Get a green name and a badge next to your name plus a prepaid super chat every single month. Got a packed show today. But how are we feeling now about, you know, 16 hoursish? I don’t even know how long it’s been removed from the Suns first preseason game. Stephen, you there? You with us? Is this thing on? The last preseason game? Yeah. Is it on? Can you hear me? We good? I’m excited to just I can hear you now. And that’s all I need. If the people can’t, at least I can hear your great insight. I’m glad we we got this part figured out. Maybe I’ll just carry it with me to the arena going forward. We’ll see. Uh but yeah, yesterday’s game was fun. Um always fun to win, first of all, even if it is no starters or none of your top nine guys or 10 guys playing on the roster. Just to win is just is a refreshing feeling for this franchise. Um I think the way that they did it though, it wasn’t just guys making shots. Jared Butler had 35, but it wasn’t just a guy got on the heater and that’s why he won. They won off of their terms and that’s forcing turnovers, winning a possession battle, moving the ball on offense. They had multiple guys scoring double digits yesterday without any of their top end pieces. And I think that’s the most indicative sign. If you have players that play to a brand that are not in the main rotation and they get opportunity and they align directly with it, that’s what Bayern looks like right there. How much did you like Jordan Kn’s message after the game that there’s no excuses with this group? Because that that stood out most to me from postgame. Yeah, that I think that’s it. Like that’s very much everything that it feels like he’s been preaching in particular since day one of training camp. And it feels like all his guys have that in terms of their individual identities in some capacity. And you bring it all together and you got one very stubborn team. And I think that’s a one of the most complimentary um descriptions you can give a team in just one word and that’s just stubborn because we just saw work on the women’s side of things. you got a team that’s like that, they’re not going to care about the outside noise because they know they can control things with with their approach. Obviously, that’s what coach had to say. Did you hear anything else from anybody else in postgame that you feel like really stood out from you after that win? Yeah. Um, come on. Pride and preparation. And it’s not just the part about seeing what you did wrong, but applying the lessons learned in real time. Honestly, uh, Jordan Knot pretty much loud him for taking what was not the best showing from him in that last preseason game in China and then immediately coming back state side, getting a start in an extended run and showing that he was intentional about writing the wrongs and atoning in certain ways and showing not just that he can atone but have impact after reversing course of what he showed in the game prior. Yeah. and his you probably saw it after the fact, but his comment to uh Amanda Flugrd, who by the way played the best defense on Kam Wildatch of anybody when she pulled him away from Bryce, the PR guy, and and stopped him from talking to Bryce. But he was talking about how tired’s just a in the mind, right? And that to me encapsulated in one sentence what this team’s about. Yeah, we don’t care. you can put us on a 14-hour flight, we don’t have to sleep. We’re going to come out here and we’re going to play well and and he’s going to do that because as we’ve heard him talk about his story uh over the time, this is nothing compared to to what he’s faced over the years. Yeah. I think especially for younger guys, there’s a certain type of value that they have for being challenged because when you when you come up from an adverse situation in life, there’s never an adversity on the basketball court that can get even remotely close to that. And I think his life experiences, he’s only 19, but his life experiences, even in this kind of young man’s life, it’s enough to provide a certain type of perspective to where there’s no challenge that’s too great or that can’t be met even if you’re only like 50% of yourself on some days. And I think that was something that I think it might have been um Jordan, maybe it was Jordan Goodwin. Um maybe it was Jordan not, but someone said it seems like he never has a bad day. I think it was Jordan not. He’s like even if he is 50% of himself, it just doesn’t seem like he ever has a bad day because his approach and his energy is consistent. Very much like you, Stephen. I like that. Thank you. Uh speaking of perspective, has your perspective on him and maybe his ability to contribute in the regular season changed after game four of the preseason? Nah, it’s I mean this is definitely credence to your side of it, but for me it’s the highs and the lows. That was just more so about can you streamline. That’s why I made it specific to maybe one or two different buckets from the just be consistent with whether it’s setting screens and running the floor hard or rim protection and vertical spacing on the other end. Just picking two things, streamlining those and then allowing for the growth of the others to come in alignment with it. Uh but I think this is what we saw these last two games. Not the prettiest showing and then showing that he can play with some starters in some capacity. Dan, I think Jordan not said it best yesterday in postgame when he was talking about it’s not going to be a straight line for Kaman Malawatch. There will be moments like that. There will be lows, but to your point, it’s how do you find that happy medium at some point this season so you can have productive minutes for sure. I’m curious for y’all what what stood out most for y’all from Milo last night? I like the aggressiveness just where he was attacking the rim, even attacking it off of the dribble from the top of the three-point line. Uh it just felt like because he knew that he was starting and he knew that he was needed once he settled in he was just playing extraordinarily aggressive which I loved. I I think he returned back to the defensive guy that we had heard. I felt in the two China games that he made some mistakes getting off his feet kind of not being that that guy that solidifies the backside of the defense. And last night it felt like he was completely locked in going against the guy that’s going to be the starting center uh for the Los Angeles Lakers and and really showed how heady he is on the defensive end which then we know defensive energy leads to offensive opportunities and I think that was proof of it last night. Yeah, sure. Eric, what about you? What stood out about man to you last night? I think his defensive instinct was super clear yesterday. One play that sticks out to me is I forgot who was bringing it up, but Metaban Reeves. He was coming on the right elbow and he was going to throw the lob to Aton and instead of Malawatch going to block the lob, he waited until the ball was coming down on the lob and was able to poke it out and get the turnover. I think that’s just like we keep saying it. He’s 18 years old, been playing basketball for four years. You can’t teach that stuff. Well, and that play came after he had a lob thrown on him successfully. And so to to learn that quickly, I I think is great. Uh, I want to applaud you, Stephen, for waiting this long to gush over Rashier Fleming and and his multiple efforts and his defensive flashings, the other rookie that that we saw great things from last night. Yeah, that was my my villain junior guest, which apparently is wrong per Dylan Brooks. Yeah, he shot it down um a shoot around yesterday. Uh, but that dude just gets after it. And I think Jordan mentioned it in postgame yesterday just saying you can you can work with someone that might make mistakes when their energy level and you understand what their intent is with their energy is at a certain standard. So that’s going to come with mistakes. But because he plays with such a consistent level of urgency, he can also make up for things in situations where other people can’t. and he said that’s something you want more often than you don’t because you can you can harness that. You can learn to apply it appropriately, but it’s harder to teach somebody to have that. And he cares a lot about defense in particular. And I think Malash having an Aiden match up yesterday, but also having to defend against um Austin Reeves and Luca Donuch. That’s like those are two of the probably top 25 picking romans in the entire league this season and he did that well. And the other part of it is who’s guarding those guys. And that’s a lot of Rashir Fleming doing a solid job, too. Do you think the gap between him and Nigel Hayes Davis has shrunk in terms of uh potential for minutes for him? I don’t know if I would say it shrunk. Um I still feel like there’s question marks about the pecking order outside of the starting group on the wing side in particular. It definitely didn’t hurt these last two games that he’s had, though. I would I will definitely say that he’s been getting after and knocking down some shots in tandem with that. A couple of threes that he made off of popping after setting screen. Um I thought it was interesting that Jordan had those two in the lineup together in the nine mileage minutes yesterday and who they were going up against in that and they both they both did well in my opinion defensively, but Rashier was a lot louder because of the blocks and the steals and who he was guarding more often than not as well. I mean, I think you couldn’t have asked for anything more from Rashier, especially I think the three-pointers as well. I mean, you could have you could have asked for a body. It could have. All right, but we’re getting greedy. I I loved how quick his release was. And that’s something that I know that he’s been working on. It was so compact for somebody with arms as long as as his. And, you know, it felt like for the first time that he felt fully comfortable. And I think it took Nigel a little bit of time to feel fully comfortable as well. But if those two can both be viable options for the Suns coming off of the bench, plus Dunn, plus Brooks, plus Royce, well, now you’re talking about a team that is pretty flush with wing help as well, and also a team that’s flush at center depth, and they have guards. Okay. Well, now you’re breaking it down position by position, and it feels like they have options pretty much everywhere. It does. And I think to that point, I know we talked about the schedule and it being it could have been better situated for them considering the travel. The positive side of it is now you have over an entire week before your first regular season game. You’ll probably be grinding out considering they had practice today for seven of those eight days leading up. There’s a lot of figuring things out. It’s not walking into things now. You’re kind of hitting the ground running a little bit. It’s less learning. It’s more just kind of sweat equity being built. Now you can kind of hammer out these position battles, make a decision on Jordan Goodwin versus Jared Butler, figure out who’s starting or who’s in the rotation after Ryan Dunn and Dylan Brooks and that starting group um regarding how many minutes are dispersed out and things like that. So I think and I think Jordan not mentioning it at practice today, it’s going to be a very competitive next handful of days going up to the start of the regular season. They essentially get a second training camp going into the regular season which which I like. We didn’t ask you the most important thing from last night though. A new nickname emerged uh for a guy come on Malawatch, not Man. Uh Kev in the chat said we should call him the Watchtower. The Watchtower is interesting. So TWWT is what you watch tower. Can we sell Can we sell you on it? You don’t seem too convinced. It doesn’t stick for me now. Let me let me let me let it sit for a little bit. See if it hits. I think his name is fun enough. He has one of those Eric would know better than I do the kind of playby-play names that just they have like a certain type of it about him. He has his name has that kind of roll off the tongue if you will. I Ericton, can we put a poll in the chat if people like the Watchtower or Man more? I want to I want to hear uh the most important news like you mentioned uh Jared Butler vers Jordan Goodwin. Did you did you see my apology? I did not. Wow. You missed him. It’s a great time to repeat it. No, I mean I I I retweeted it. I retweeted the highlights of Jared Butler’s uh uh No, I mean, no, that was just today. That was that was the followup. Uh you’re going to have to go back and and watch the apology. I It was very very heartfelt and very thorough. Did you write it out? No, it’s I I don’t need to write it out. I It’s from the heart. It’s how I feel. So when you write it’s not from the heart. If there’s anything that I don’t You heard that? If there’s anything that I don’t need help doing, it’s coming up with words to talk about. Um, what are the odds that they said that and then he followed up with the word of What are the odds that the Suns keep both Jared Butler and Jordan Goodwin? I don’t know if it’s too high just because they have so many wings on this roster right now. So many wings and so many centers. It’s like, all right, at at some position, there’s going to have to be a cut off point. And it feels like there’s more guaranteed roster spots and contracts that are guaranteed to the front court in the wing part than it is the guard spot. So, it’s unfortunate, especially considering Jared Bull’s coming off of a 35 piece and Jordan Goodman just had a very impressive two-way showing. It’s a tough decision to be coming, though. Who are you deciding? I air on good win just because you have enough scoring in a guard room. I don’t know if you need more scorers. I think you might need to counterbalance that scoring with a blueco collar boy. And you know me, I’m I’m greedy with blueco collar guys. You can’t have enough of them. And good one’s also a guy that spent time just recently his last season playing with Luca Dodgers and LeBron. So he understands what to do when he’s on the court with those guys to be complimentary but also add value outside of playing off of those two. Yeah, I I I agree wholeheartedly. That’s where I landed, too. I think that Goodwins gives you that more balance. If you have to choose between the two, that’s where I land as well. Me personally, I think Jared Butler should be the starting point guard of this team. I’m a big Jared Butler fan, and I always have been, and I’ve never said anything negative about him. That’s on character development. Uh any any final thoughts from either of you on on last night’s game before we take a break, get into some practice updates, then look at the positive trends, negative trends, and flat trends from the preseason as we are a week away from game one of 82. I’m just excited. Like preeason has put me in in a mood where I look at opening night and I don’t think I’ve been this excited in in a handful of years. Uh, and I know the weight of expectations, all that, but this team fights hard. They go out there and you know that you’re gonna enjoy what you’re watching. They’re going to play defense that’s going to lead to offense. We’re going to see some lobs. I’m actually jealous, Stephen, that you get to go out to the arena and I’m going to be watching it on television because that atmosphere and seeing it in person, I think, is going to be something that is spectacular. And I hope people pack the morg out there. uh next Wednesday and and get a front row seat uh for dethroning whatever that is that the Sacramento Kings have put together on that roster. Yeah. Um Kings ain’t moving like Kings. I’ll say that politely. Russell Westbrook, come on down. I think you make a good point with the the energy and the activity they play with. Um, I think the other part for me, we’ll get into more detail with the conversation we have today, but I think Rashier spent time guarding Christian Koko yesterday. So, the backup five for the Lakers, that was something we talked about after he got drafted. I was curious what position he guards most often. He’s obviously someone that can do a lot, but if he’s guarding centers and you’re just switching and playing with activity off of that to the activity point and points off turnovers, that’s a lot more fun. you could have and kind of dictating the terms of play from there. Yeah, when you just switch all the all the time and you got these athletes just flying around. Yeah, for sure. Don’t mind me. I’m looking at Rich in the chat who’s a Houston fan talking about Katie said, “Yeah, he had one bad he had a bad one last night and Katie looks like he lost a step to me, but I’m seeing the effects of losing Dylan. I still don’t think he’s a good defender. It’s just his physicality and grit.” Rich, you got you can come over here. The purple and orange looks good on everybody, especially after they’ve worn red for a while before everything derails over there. We wish you the best best of luck with everything going on over there, Rich. Don’t worry, you got plenty of box scores to look at and be happy about. Uh the poll in the chat, 58% voting man, 42% say the Watchtower for best nickname for Kaman Malawatch. I like I like Isaiah’s too. Blockwatch. Blockwatch. I like it. I mean, you did the playbyplay. Watch out below. Watch where you’re going. It’s It’s going to It’s going to be fun all year coming up with bad nicknames that we will throw out there. Uh and then inevitably we’ll all just call him man anyways. Oh yeah. I mean man is still still a great one. I mean just his name in general. Come on Malawatch is a great name. Uh we also have some great clips from Jordan. some updates from practice today and then some good, some bad, and some in between from preseason as far as trends go that we’re going to be keeping our eyes on as we get closer to the regular season. Hit that like button, hit that subscribe button. Shout out to all of our members in chat. And we’re going to keep it rolling right after our first break. If you want to get as high as Kaman Malawatch blocking DeAndre Aton’s jumper or dunk or whatever he could even block out there, let me highly recommend to you, pun intended, Pure Edibles, not covered in sugar like all their other competitors. Pure is a full-fledged candy company offering gummies, Kicks, which is their version of Starburst, chew, and hard candies alike. The best part and the thing that I really like about Pure Edibles is that they have so many different effects. Whether it’s sleepy, uplifting, balancing, energetic, relaxed, it’s clearly listed on the tin. And they use unique blend of cannabonoids such as CBN, CBG, CBD, and of course, marijuana derived THC. Plus, they’re easy to be designed to rip or bit bite in half, making them sharable and easy to dial in your exact dose. So, start low, go slow, work your way up, have a good time. Pure edibles. And check out their new collab with Mother Road and Noble Road’s new Tower Station IPA all- in one. It’s Arizona’s favorite IPA, my favorite IPA with a smooth THC twist. Go find yourself some pure edibles products from one of the over 130 dispensaries across Arizona. Apparently Eric didn’t say hi to his father. So hi Mr. Ruby. Uh he can make it up to you though by going to the Game Time app and getting you two tickets to that son’s opening night against the Kings. I use Game Time for all my ticket needs. Whether I’m going to a concert, I’m going to a sporting event or anything else that I I need a ticket for. I hit that Game Time app and I can do it with confidence because the Game Time guarantee means you’re going to get 100% authentic tickets every time. No fake duckets here. You’re going to get those tickets on time and at the best price possible. That’s what I love about it. Even if you have to wait till last minute to get your tickets, Game Time is going to take care of you. It is just that easy. Uh, so take the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets, college football tickets, whatever you’re looking for. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use that promo code PHNX. It’s that simple. For $20 off your first order, terms apply, create again, create an account, and redeem that code, PHNX for $20 off. Tap ticket, go download the Game Time app today. What time is it, Stephen? Game time. It’s time also on Friday to come hang out with the PHNX Sunundevils crew over at Rally House at Tempp Marketplace. me to tree Shane and the whole crew including Espo is going to be out there as well giving away $550 gift cards at Rally House in Tempe Marketplace Friday, October 17th at 5:30 p.m. preparing for Texas Tech ASU on Saturday. So come hang out before 5:30 before we do a live show as well. Uh again, Tori will be shaking babies and kissing hands. That is just what he does. So yeah, I’m going to be like Oprah. I’m going to be like you get a gift card and you get a gift card and then I’m going to hit five and I’m going to have to stop. don’t get a gift card. Uh, we do get super chats though. A99 super chat for Michael Ramirez. Thank you. Michael says, “I was very encouraged watching last night’s game. Malawatch looked like a different player than what we saw over the summer.” By the way, why does Espo hate Kobe Bray’s game? Okay, this has become is going to become a running joke on this program. It’s not a joke. It’s the truth. because I simply said he’s got a two-way contract and he’s gonna have time to work on finding his rhythm as part of the Valley Suns, you know, and that we’ll see him take shots at some point at the NBA level this season, but that there’s a reason he’s a two-way guy right now. That was it. That was all I said. No, it was real nasty. It was kind of It was It was borderline me talking about Jared Butler. No, this man This man is just trying to cover the stench of what whatever he said about Jared Butler by news that Kobe Brea, you haven’t apologized to Kobe. Kobe Brea has the potential to be a all-time great shooter if he figures out and taps into it. Wow. Real hater hours. Yeah. How How dare I say that people need to work on their craft. We all need to work on our craft. I mean, look, man. I I’m just I The Kobe Brea apology better be as loud as the disrespect. here. Can where do we have a one shot for me or is it just a two shot? Hit me. You’re stuck with me, pal. Which one am I? Okay. Whatever one I’m looking at, Kobe, I’m going to simply say this to you. You’re an unbelievable shooter. You were one of the best shooters in the country, if not the best last year, and I think you will wind up being a fan favorite that plays fantastic minutes off the bench to start for this team at some point this season or early next season. And I think you will go down and play in the G- League at times because of that two-way contract and show off why you are going to be fantastic in the NBA as well. I see a young Eddie Johnson in that shot. You just sound so disingenuous right now. Uh Mike from Mesa with a 199 super chat says, “Dylan should be called the Marshall.” I still think he should be Judge Dread. Do you know what Judge Dread is? I’m nuts. Yeah, of course you don’t cuz nobody does. No, plenty of people did in the chat. Just because you’re a young that isn’t cultured doesn’t mean that I don’t have you’re a young that’s not cultured. Stephen, I’m the middle child on our show in case you didn’t know. Uh I feel dated by this though. It ca it came out in 2012. It was a it was a remake like so it was very clear. A movie TV show is a movie. Okay. Yeah. So yeah, you you believe what you want. It’s fine. Uh, I believe we have some updates, Stephen, from practice today. Yeah, we do. Um, the Jaylen Green situation we talked, well, I’m y’all talked about yesterday on the pregame show when we got news uh news of him being out. Um, any guesses at who’s starting in his spot for the foreseeable future? I’d imagine it’s Grayson based off of what we saw in the preseason. Yep. It’s got to be Grayson. Yeah. Um, Jordan gave clarity to that in particular today at practice. Um, we also heard from Jordan Goodwin. Um, I had some fun conversations with him today just about the rough and rugged nature of his defense and then also some of the things he did with the Lakers last season that should translate to the Suns. Um, I was just asking him about him screening for LeBron and Luca last year on the ball and how that translate to the Suns and he was like, “Yeah, biggest thing I learned is that you get open when you screen for those guys.” And it was very much a like it’s just as simple as that. All you have to do is be around them. They get extra attention and you get to benefit from it if you execute. Um then one of the other big things for me u was hearing from Jordan not about just the approach to gaining possessions. So offensive rebounds and u forcing turnovers and how he kind of assessed that. Um, so Arrington, we can kind of go ahead and get that get that clip rolling with Jordan not speaking to the defensive side of things and them just kind of gaining possessions from that both. Like if you’re gonna put two on him, we have four on three on the backside and we we’ll get high quality shots, but we still know we want him shooting. Forcing turnovers has been good for us. Um, probably even better than what we expected. It’s so hard to tell exactly where it lands in the season because we played two teams basically twice. So, um you know, they haven’t had full rosters. We haven’t had full rosters. So, it’s hard to know exactly where that lands. Um we’re going to keep preaching our defensive rebounding. We know at times we’re probably a little bit on the smaller side. Um Western Conference is big. So, um, we’ll keep stressing the defensive rebounding, trying to take care of that glass. I mean, they they showed in the preseason just how important that the both the defense and that rebounding can be to leading to easy offense. And that’s that’s why we saw more lobs. That’s why we saw them play at a faster pace was because they could get those stops. they could force the issue where last year we saw a lot of you had to take it out under the basket and you’re not going to get fast breaks that way. That’s just not the way it works. So, uh we saw it in preseason, now they have to do it uh come regular season, but the mentality is the right one that they have to have. Yeah. Uh Eric, I’m curious what you said that. I I think it’s interesting because sometimes turnovers come in bunches and you can’t always control turnovers because it’s maybe what the opposing team does as far as making mistakes, but you can control your energy and your effort and that’s what’s felt like consistent. So there might be games where teams don’t turn it over as much against the Suns, but the Suns are going to play the same as they do every single night. And that’s why he also emphasized the defensive rebounding side of things as well because if you can control your effort and control possessions, the turnovers might not be essential in, you know, winning games. They could just kind of be what powers you to go on runs or or to blow out a team potentially. So, the turnovers come and go, but the effort always stays the same, and that’s the most important thing with this team. It is. Um, just some numerical context to the conversation. So obviously the Suns have played four preseason games. Some teams have played five. Some teams have played four. Some teams have played three. That taken into it all 125 points off turnovers through four preseason games. The Suns I don’t even need to look at the numbers from last season. There was not one four game stretch where they had 125 points off turnovers at all last season. That’s a clear and direct message that’s being received buy and into it and it being applied through these first four games and foundational days of their season to come. The other one for me kind of in tandem with it but a little bit dissimilar to it 80 fast break points for them. So not just always off of turnovers but pushing it off the off of misses and things like that and being able to go and have athletes playing in space. And then the last one for me points are uh points in the paint. They’re number three in the preseason right now, 212. So, it’s a nice blend of not being too reliant on one or two specific things, but being consistent at multiple and baking it into one process on his part having heady bigs, right? You didn’t you didn’t have that last last season. You didn’t have a guys that could be in that dunker spot and take those lobs and and and a real good role partner uh for any of your guards. That you saw that and that’s a huge part of it, too. Like I I’ve been thoroughly impressed with what they’ve been able to do. And the fact that they had I think it was about 20 more shot attempts yesterday than the Lakers and shot a better percent. That that speaks to those offensive rebounds, those that additional defensive rebound. All those things that the turnovers, all those things turn to positives uh for a team. And that’s how you beat a team that played their starters when you’re playing your third stringers. Well, and all those things were negative for this team last year. that’s why they lost to teams that they shouldn’t have lost to. It’s literally the the polar opposite. Uh couple more things that we have from a today that we should get into before we get into our trending up and down. Stephen, he talked about having multiple initiators uh on offense. Yeah, I think it we learned some stuff. Um you always want multiple ball handlers on the floor the way the game is played right now, which we do. I think OSO is the piece that adds another dimension to some of that. Um and then how the defense guards us. Um Brooklyn again plays a unique style. Yeah. Um how much they pressured and we were able to survive, you know, that after that first quarter, that first time we played them. So yeah, we’re going to try to find solutions on a game by-game basis. Some nights we may need an additional ball handler, but for right now it I think it’s it’s been pretty good. So, as I’m sure y’all probably heard me get into before we got to I that’s something we talked about in great detail after the first preseason game. You look at the starting five and my first takeaway was that we saw five guys initiating the offense at multiple different moments across multiple different lineups. When you have a lineup that can go that route, that that allows for you to play fast. You want to play fast so defenses can’t be set. That’s what you have to get to to get to that point in it. Yeah, it’s having multiple ball handlers is no laughing matter. No, but the super [Music] but I think I think part of of why we’ve seen Oso play those minutes and everything and why I think he’ll be in that center rotation even though you are so deep there is because he can be an offensive initiator uh and do that. And that’s why this whole idea of oh, they don’t have a point guard is is a very archaic thing because you talk to people around the organization and people around the NBA and it’s today’s NBA is about having people that can initiate offense, not about having a point guard necessarily because technically in Denver, you’d call Nicola Joic their point guard and he’s not a traditional guy. There’s multiple guys around the league that initiate offense that aren’t in the one slot, you know. Yeah, that’s the that’s the separator, honestly. You look at look at the Indiana Pacers, the best example of that last season. They get to the finals and after the first round, how often do you see who was the best point guard last season, Tyresese Hallebertton, actually initiating the offense, he’s starting in the corner and then either screening for someone or getting into a touch after that. That allows you to play faster and put pressure on the defense more frequently. Hey, the Suns found their point guard and I’ll leave it at that. Uh, last thing from from Jordan. Uh, no, obvious obviously you don’t think Kobe Brea could be their point guard. Uh, Jordan also talked about the Sun’s process against doubles. Both like if you’re going to put two on him, we have four on three on the backside and we we’ll get high quality shots, but we still know we want him shooting as well. So, it’s a little bit of both. Um, you know, that’s why you want to play fast. We want to play fast. So, so they can’t load load up against him. They can’t put two in the basketball. Got to move him off the ball at times to get a catch. Um, get him to his spots. But yeah, he’s going to have the ball in his hands. Yeah, that part is important. Um, we had more conversation about double teams at at practice today with Jordan Knaut, but that clip in particular um is important because that was not a strength of the team in terms of not having one default button that they press to combat double teams. And naturally, you have Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, you’re going to see a lot. So, that’s a fault in process from the pre-existing regime that we don’t need to dive into. I feel like we did enough of that last season. But with A, it’s clear that there’s intention behind where guys are, what it is they’re looking for as far as cues and the pace out of that. And they’ve been doing a good job with that, especially not as much last night, but in those two games against Brooklyn, because they were double teaming every point guard that got into a pick and roll. Yeah, it’s amazing what an offensive system can do, right? Just a just a wee bit of coaching. Just a little bit. We got a 499 super chat. Let’s do it. from Michael Ramirez says, “Things Espo likes more than Kobe Brea’s game. Record heat, crime, and humidity.” Yeah, I mean, that that doesn’t even scratch the surface. I I think there is far more that makes it on that list based on the slander that the chat has uh has put out there. Doesn’t seem like slander. It seems like truthtelling and reporting. You know, I sure Michael Ramirez has all the insight. I’m sure there’s six or seven other things we can add to the list before the end of the show. Uh, you know me knowing Kobe hater clip it. Well, yeah, I imagine I imagine that’s a double antandra in some capacity cuz PTSD probably creeping into the mind. I just hear the name a little bit of that. Yeah, before we go down that road, that part’s understandable for sure. That part I hear you. I’m excited to to get to some positives that we’ve seen trending up in preeason. address some of the negatives we’ve seen trending down and then what was exactly how we expected. We’re going to get into all three of those things right after our final break. Tell you about trending up. Circle K always, always, always. The amount of money you can save trending up. The amount of deals that you get trending up. The amount of times that I visit Circle K every single month it’s trending up. Here are just some of their current inner circle member promotions. 79 cent Polar Pop, 99 cent froster, three for $5 Gatorades, 28 ounces. I know the juice man behind the Mac is a big fan of that. And if you visit once, you can save 10 cents off per gallon. After that, you can get a bunch of discounts on gas. You can get meal deals, three, four, $5 meal deals including hot dogs, tornadoes, breakfast sandwiches, hash browns. You can get two slices of pizza. You really get anything. All you have to do is download that Circle K app, put in your phone number, put in your email, and automatically you start saving money today. So once again, join the inner circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit circlek.com for full details. Tomorrow when I stop at Circle K and get my coffee, I got to go look at what a tornado is. It’s a chicken tornado. I got to go look at what a chicken tornado is. Uh, Stephen, did you know that for uh 460 years my family has banked with Mountain America Credit Union? I mean, I just learned that now. I didn’t I didn’t know. It was back when they traded trinkets, not actual cash uh back then. And we’ve always banked with uh with Mountain America Credit Union because, you know, over a million people know that they’re the best place to bank. And you can have the My Style uh checking account, which is all about your lifestyle. You’re going to get discounts on restaurants. You eat out. You You discounts would be great, right? Mobile phone protection. You ever break your phone? I have not, but if I ever do, I’m thinking about that part. I have. It sucks. Uh tellahalth access discount on travels and so much more. Make my style your lifestyle at Mountain America Credit Union. Visit macu.com/mystyle. Insured by NCUA. Membership required based on eligibility. Some benefits require. No cost registration activation. Terms, conditions, and exclusions apply like everything in life. Uh, thank you all for being here for PHX presented by Bet365. Uh, Buddha the Skitzo says, “Back when we used to barter, but we can barter right here. How about in exchange for this live show, you guys hit that like button, hit that subscribe button, and even become a member today and be like Buddha, like my dad, like Deborah, like the other Jeff in chat as well. all of our members who get access to exclusive emojis, a free super chat every single month, and if you’re a Hall of Fame member, you get access to exclusive videos like the Cardinals first ever 2026 mockdraft because how depressing is that? That’s just for members. That’s how depressing it is. I need I need to ask you, do you know who Robert Dairo is? Yes, I know who Robert Okay. Because your dad thinks Jordan could be played by Robert. No. Well, because they were they were talking about how Jordan looks like he could possibly be a part of the mafia. I I know, but I just You think because I don’t know who Judge Dread is. I don’t know who Robert Dairo is. I didn’t You weren’t cultured in movies, so I thought maybe Judge Dread is the barometer of who’s cultured and who’s not cultured. I don’t know. I thought maybe you know who uh Robert Dairo was. All right, I’m watching Judge Dread here. Uh anyway, I’ll say real quick. We have a U It’s not not the Viper half. Lord, take the wheel and steer it somewhere else. I ran into one of our one of our passionate uh supporters, Jared Whitfield, at the game yesterday um in the concourse. So, shout out to Jared. Uh I was on the phone with my mom and I had to message him and tell him that’s what a good son does. You have to make time to talk to your mom. Yeah. Um so, we we had a nice little quick messaging uh conversation um after we saw in person yesterday and it was cool. So, shout out to shout out to you. Nice. Big shout out to all the positive trends we saw in preeason. Here are just five that the four of us collectively have noticed. Uh, number one, the Suns have an identity. Number two, culture isn’t just a buzzword. Number three, this roster is deeper than we thought. Number four, the rookies are NBA ready. And number five, a defensive personnel that fits that identity. Let’s start with number one, folks. uh our collective biggest trending takeaway from the Suns that they have in identity. How refreshing is that? It’s so beautiful. It’s amazing to know that what your team is and not that they’re this giant enigma where you don’t understand what they’re going to do every night. Much like you all know now that I’m a Kobe Brea hater. We know now that the Suns are going to work hard. They’re going to play play tough and they’re going to go out there every night with effort. And yeah, the results will vary. That’s obvious. But that that is the identity and you what you know from this team every night. They’re they are all business this year. A team that has an identity, you don’t have to question it because in adverse times they’re going to that’s going to be their default button. Everybody doesn’t have to guess how they’re going to go about solving this issue because they know that when they do it off the term of their of their identity, they’ll find their way. And I think again yesterday is a direct example. None of the top eight or nine guys play and the other rest of the guys on the roster, some of them not without guaranteed contracts do exactly that. How much do number one and two kind of play into each other here? Because number two is culture isn’t just a buzzword. How how similar and different are those two things, Aspo? Well, I mean, you can’t have an identity without establishing the culture. And, you know, it’s cliche, but the standard is the standard. They made it very clear, this is what we expect from players. This is what we want out of guys. Everybody they brought in this off season followed that mold. And it’s you will either live up to this or you’re not going to be a part of this. And that is that’s important. You set the culture which then gives you the identity and the way you play. And we laughed, you know, some of us more than others at alignment. Uh people got on uh the hire of Brian Gregory, the hiring of of Jordan Aut, but it’s pretty clear what they’re trying to establish. Now, it it’s going to take time for us to know if it actually works and if it actually sticks. But early on, the results are positive and there’s no questioning the culture that they wanted and the result that you’re going to get in the terms of how you play. I think I look at both a little differently, but they have to be aligned for it to work. So, yeah, they have to be aligned. I can’t believe it took us 41 minutes and 15 seconds to hear aligned. We were we were unaligned and trying to get that. So, well, I said align earlier. Oh, have you? Yeah. Hey, wake up. Wake up. Um, anyway. Yeah, exactly. I’m just I’m just dreaming. Dreaming of Come on, Mwatch. Yeah, we know. I thought you meant Jared Butler. Jared Butler. Oh, what a pass. My point with it, I feel like I always look at identity as your approach to style of play, but what about the culture part? I think that’s your daily habits. And if your daily habits are everybody has some semblance of a blueco collar and then your identity is to play an attacking aggressive dictative style of defense. Those two mesh together. Those are very much aligned with one another. And there’s hard work that goes into both of those. And that’s what kind of gives me that’s what kind of gives me a little bit more clarity as far as the vision that they’re hoping to establish because they’ve done so so early and we’ve seen multiple moments of it through just four preseason games. And I think they have a lot of individual players that bring that themselves as well. I think it just gives a clear-cut route to success for them if they’re going to get it to a certain extent. Buddha in the chat asked, “Where’s the aligned emoji?” Dude, it’s there. It’s the very last emoji that you have right next to the bow face palm. It’s just the A. It’s the A emoji with the lines. It’s like our alignment shirt. So that rep represents alignment. So spam the A’s. So get in a line with it. I think uh most of And I agree with you, Stephen. Those are two separate things. I feel like with this team specifically, there is like a middle portion of the ven diagram where there is some overlap there because their identity and their culture is like, hey, we’re going to have this grit and this grind. And how they act off the court is also how they act on the court. And I think where some teams it’s a little bit different. With this team there certainly is an overlap. Yeah. No, I I definitely think so. I think we need to start a tradition. Anytime one of us says aligned, people have to throw that that emoji up there essentially as a counter uh there because we’re inadvertently going to do it uh without even thinking about it now that it’s so much in our vernacular. It’s becoming part of our identity. It absolutely is. I mean, I not to try to out Brian Gregory. Brian Gregory. Hey, I’m Brian Gregory. I was using the alignment button before he came before he came to He stole your whole position of GM ship. I’m not saying he stole No, Soulja Boy. He didn’t steal my whole flow, but he definitely amplified it. He sampled it. He sampled it. But we got uh we got we got some copyrighting and whatnot. We got to get hammered out, BG. So, you know, I really like how we performed in the context of the situation. I love that we’ve turned him into a New Yorker and the dude’s straight a Chicago, right? Like, it’s just how Brian Gregory talks. I’m Brian Gregory here. Uh, I like Kam Malawatch in the context of our system. Uh, we’ve turned him into lawn with what he sounds like. It’s just fun. Hey, I’m Brian Gregory. Uh, number three on trending upwards for the Phoenix Suns is this roster is deeper than we thought. My question to you two is how much deeper significantly. I mean, that’s part of why you move away from a topheavy roster so you can have uh more options. Sure, your talent isn’t uh at the highest of levels like you were the previous two years, but now it’s spread out through throughout kind of that lineup, throughout that bench. And that makes for a better team, right? How did that 21 team get to the finals? It wasn’t because everything was topheavy. It was because you had 10 guys that on any night were going to go out there and do something that was helpful for you. That’s why you make this kind of move. It’s the sum of the parts. And that’s what kind of stands out for me when when I mention depth cuz it’s not necessarily about how many playable guys they have, but how good are some of those middle to back end of the top eight or nine guys in terms of playing the style of play that Jordan is desiring. And I feel like that part is standing out to me. I feel like I was already high on Colin Gillespie. I feel like he’s better than even I thought he was just off of what he showed through the first three preseason games. And I can say the same about Nick Richards. Um, I can say the same about Oso Igodaro. I can say the same about Dylan Brooks to certain extents as well. It feels like certain guys are just better than what I initially thought they would be coming into this season. It’s deeper than a philosopher right now. They are they are deep. I think three and four also tie into each other kind of like one and two. Number four is the rookies are NBA ready. And I think this this statement might be our most hyperbolic that we have, but I think maybe more NBA ready than we imagined. Obviously, Kaman off the last game and then I think Rashier with the defensive flashes that he has really shown uh will translate well into the regular season and and part of the reason why I feel more comfortable about our depth is because we do have some young pieces that should figure in there pretty nicely. Yeah, I I think NBA ready in terms of I don’t think you’re sitting here going, will these guys actually make it in the NBA? Will they stick around where in the past because you were dealing with, you know, younger guys that weren’t, you know, top 31 picks necessarily or guys that you were hoping would turn into something. These guys are NBA players. Are they Are they ready to have a major impact day one? I I don’t think so. You know, it could be proven wrong, but but we know, yes, including Kobe Brea, these guys are NBA talent. They have it and that they should be around for a while. Yeah, I think they both have very clear dynamics of Well, at least Malawatch and Fleming have very clear parts of their game that you can see translating already. to your point, I don’t know if they’re ready to shoulder a 20 minute per game roll off the rip like that, but I think they can in incrementally work themselves up towards that. Maybe not at the by the end of this season, but within the next two seasons, you could see at least two of those three that they drafted this past draft being in the main rotation in some capacity. And then that’s where depth comes back in being extremely important because they get quality reps in practice going against other quality players that can help them get ready and have that next man up mentality that this team obviously is trying to predicate itself on in case there are injuries. It’s one thing to have an identity. It’s another one to have the personnel that matches it. That’s where number five comes into play, which is a defensive personnel that fits that defensive identity. wings, athleticism, guys who are going to really pressure 94 feet and just try hard. Feels like up and down the roster, you can see a lot of defensive raw potential, current potential, and everything in between. Yeah. And part of why you brought in Dylan Brooks was to set that standard defensively. You know what you’re going to get from that guy. And we talked about it before. I think that lifts everybody else’s effort level up simply because you want to perform up to that standard because he’s not going to be quiet about it if you’re not. He’s going to let you know uh get your ass in gear. And so I I think that set that defensive standard and then uh you look at some of the other pieces including uh the rookies, including Mark Williams that you add in and you go, “Okay, this team is very serious about defense this year.” Yeah, and I think the other part is the Jordan I dynamic within it all. So you have personnel and then you have a coach that has a specific approach to what he desires to see from them on that end of the floor. And I think he’s preached and they’ve understood enough that if they’re going to hit whatever their number in terms of target for wins this season is going to be, there is no route to success in getting to that number without having the defense be to a certain standard. And I think that’s why we see what we what we’ve seen in terms of points off turnovers, total turnovers forced, and the impact past just the numbers. You can see teams being less in rhythm with one another because of the ways that they’re defending. Yeah. Yep. Uh you want to answer Junior’s question in the chat. Junior, everything I’ve heard is the plan is he will play in that season opener. That they were just working with him to get him ready to go and that the preseason wasn’t really of a concern that they wanted to get him on the right kind of plan in terms of the way he trains and everything, the way he prepares and it sounds like he will be good to go next Wednesday. Well, we’re fair here on PHNX Suns. We talked about five good. Let’s talk about five bad. some stocks that we saw fall in the preseason. Number one, our guy Nigel Ace Davis might need a little bit more time, but I think that’s also relative to what you are necessarily expecting him to do this year. Number two is it’s a wingoff production will be a barometer. Number three is not enough free throws and low free throw percentage. Number four is production of the two-way guys or lack thereof. And number five is isolated from the team is also OSO’s free throws. So, let’s start with number one. Nigel Ace Davis. Stephen, I think out of the whole crew, you’ve been the highest on him and and I think he settled in a little bit in that end of the the last preseason game, but overall, not the best showing from Nigel A Davis. No, but I think the other part of it, you can take the first quarter from last night’s game and he took what, four, five, six shots in the first quarter. How many of those shots were his shots? Not a lot. And that’s the thing for me is, okay, you saw he’s not necessarily playing the way he was earlier. Look at the lineups he was being used in earlier versus what it looked like a little bit later. You always want to look at preseason through a fine tooth comb. You don’t want to necessarily be leaning unless it’s like a starter guy. You don’t want to look too much into it with ro guys cuz some of the lineups during the preseason you might not ever see again when once the games truly matter to the regular season record. And I feel like he’s going to be better when he’s playing with the likes of Dylan Brooks and and Devin Booker versus some of the guys he played with yesterday. Yeah, I I agree. I think I’m not selling his stock. I’m holding it right now. I I I I we talked about it last night. I think he’s very much in his head. He’s pressing the there’s there’s some internal pressure that he’s putting on himself that I think will dissipate as as he figures out what his role is, what minutes he’s getting, and and to your point, who he’s going to be playing with. And we know shooters are all about you see one fall and then it can come in waves. And and I think that’s where it’s going to be for him. And I just want the coaching staff to go to him, you have a role, just go play that. Don’t worry about any of the other peripherals. Go out there and play that. Be comfortable within your game. And again, one and two kind of play into each other. I read this wrong off the bat, which is kind of ironic, but it says wing off. It’s wing offense production will be a barometer. Stephen, what did you mean by this one? Yeah, their their wings have to produce and they have to specifically on offense and knock down shots and go get paint touches, but also grab uh offensive rebounds. I think you look at each of the guys that are true wings on the roster right now that are in the main rotation. One guy checks off two or three of those, one guy checks off one of those for sure, another guy checks off all three. Are they doing it consistently is my question. And I feel like that’s going to be a big barometer for their level of play on a game by-game basis because it’s unfortunate, but there’s a little bit of pressure on that group to knock down shots because of the ways they’re going to be defended in respect to Devin Booker and eventually when Jaylen Green comes around. So, if they’re knocking down their shots, they’re chipping in with the offensive rebounds and they’re doing what they need to with the activity defensively, they can kind of streamline some success. But any slippage from any one of those top three or four wings might make for some tough sledding for them. Yeah. And you look at it and and Ryan’s one of those guys who we’ve had those questions about his shoeing. We know how streaky Royce can be. Like you’re you’re going to hope that at any given time a few of them have it going and you can kind of mix and match. But I I think you’re 100% right in terms of that is if they perform well, your ceiling becomes much higher. And then the centers uh and and how can they stay healthy, whether it’s Nick Richards or or Mark Williams. I think those are the two things that determine a lot this season there. Number three, as a team, they’re not taking enough free throws and overall the free throw percentage is poor. One of the few margin points, Stephen, that they have not been winning this preseason. Yeah. Um, they want to find ways to get more paint touches. Um, I think naturally one of the biggest literally and figuratively, well, I guess two of the biggest solves within that is one Jaylen Green because he’s going to be getting downhill and then two is Mark Williams. He’s going to get a paint touch whether he has the ball or he’s rolling or he’s cutting or manipulating a dunker spot. Having those two pieces significantly helps with that. And I think them not being involved and some of the shortcomings we saw within their preseason showing kind of aligns with that and them those two just not being available. But they do want to do a much better job of getting to the paint. That’s going to naturally lend itself to more free throw opportunities. But to the opposite to the latter half of that free throw percentage, you have to make those. How many games did we see last year where not missing free throws, not necessarily on volume, but in timely moments and you come up just short? Yeah. And I think that’s a mental thing. I think they get back to shooting a higher percentage, but you’re 100% right. Mark Williams, Jaylen Green, and I think when Devin Booker is, he wasn’t the focal point of this offense in preseason because they were trying to get guys involved. When he’s the focal point, I think he’s going to draw more trips to the line as well. That one I’m not worried about, but making them, that’s a big concern for me. Mhm. Yep. All right, moving on. Number four, not a lot of production from the two-way guys, which which is unfortunate. Obviously, they didn’t get a ton of run. You saw maybe some brief flashes of activity from Isaiah Livers, some defense with CJ Huntley Steels and Kobe Brea with the playmaking and a couple shots made, but nothing that made you go whoa like you may have saw with uh Kong Gillespie last year, which is okay, but just something that we noticed. Uh, I I think there’s there’s a little bit there, but it’s not as much of a concern for me, if you will, just because like who’s who do you feel like of the two-way guys most apt to get minutes on the the actual big big league Suns? Probably now it’s livers. And that’s naturally the position that we talked about as far as wing production, especially offensively. even that feels a little farfetched just because of the pecking order that seems to be established in some capacity now. So, yeah, it’s not as much of a concern, but it is something to keep an eye on for sure. Yeah, and I I think if we get down to the two-way guys are are going to have to play a big role to help this year, we’ve probably seen a lot of things go wrong. But in Liver’s case, I think I mean the guy was away from basketball for what, 18 months? like I he looked a little eager last night. Of course, he’s going to he’s probably just excited to be out there playing ball again. I I think that’s a guy that definitely will will find a little bit more of his rhythm as he’s playing with the Valley Suns and getting minutes and and that overexuberance may kind of just dissipate at that point. Last one, very simply put, Oso’s free throws. if he wants to stay on the court, he needs to hit them. And if you want to stay with us and you’re watching TV, well, you need to head over to gophnx.com because the party always continues there as we head into overtime. Uh, any extra thoughts on OSO’s free throws before we get into what stayed the same or it’s a pretty self-explanatory point. I I think it could wind up being a big issue for this team. If Jordan really has him slated for a significant role and being one of those offensive initiators, this can totally destroy that plan if he can’t hit them on a semi-regular basis because it becomes very simple to to take him out of any efficient way of helping this team by simply fouling and putting him on the line and letting him miss. I think there’s a little context I’m thinking about because is he being like hackshacked if you will or is he getting fouled but the reason why he’s getting fouled is because he’s putting pressure on the rim and I think that’s where I’m like okay there’s give and take there obviously you want to make them but what if he misses four of six free throw attempts but now the Suns are in the bonus and now Deon Booker is benefiting and Jaylen Green’s getting benefited from the pressure. Their defenses are extending because OSO is taking advantage of his matchups. I I feel like there’s push and pull there. I agree. I mean, I think that is Yeah, there’s push and pull, but also if he’s attacking and driving and getting to the free throw line and he’s missing his free throws, it’s still a negative, right? And if guys know that he can’t hit his free throws, they’re going to defend him really hard when he goes to the paint, not letting him get off an easy shot and he’s going to miss. Yeah, getting in the bonus is good. That isn’t that positive, but getting in the bonus and hitting your free throws is what should be expected. And then at the it’s just going to take him away as an end ofame option. Like if we’ve seen him be such a good release valve, especially off of double teams and passing and if at the end of the game you can’t have him out there when he specifically is the best switch defender and the best passer at that position, but you can’t afford to put him out there because he can’t hit free throws and the opposing coach is just going to foul him, then that that could end up being a detriment to this team. He he doesn’t need to shoot 80% from the line, but he needs to be better than what he’s done. Yeah. And to your point, if he’s driving and he gets him in the bonus, then I think it leads to him getting hacked at that point rather than trying to give up fouls to other guys. So then you’re going to have to take him off the court if he can’t hit it. It’s it’s just this vicious circle, right? Mhm. Uh Isaiah in the chat says the team would demolish the 2021 Suns. I Isaiah, you tripping. Kaman’s tripping. Kaman’s dominated Aiden twice. That’s true. Jared Butler, Chris Paul, come on down. All right, what about what stayed the same for this season? Make sure you hit that like button while you’re here with us in overtime. If you’re listening on audio, five star reviews also go a really long way. And tell a friend to tell a friend to tell a friend about your friends. The PHX Suns podcast. Uh, preseason stocks with no change. What stayed the same? Number one, as impact will be rebounding. Number two, winning on the margins. Resounding. Sorry. Will be resounding. I’ll be like, his impact is gonna be focusing on rebounding. I can’t read today, apparently. Let’s read. I know. I think I might need to get my I might need to get my eyes checked. Number two, uh, winning on the margins is a must. Number three, point guard less. Number four, can’t fall behind due to cold stretches. And number five, Ryan Dunn’s shot. Uh, you guys can start with number one since I can’t read. Well, you know, he’ll be rebounding and resounding. Yeah, look, uh, it’s it we all expected that Jordan not bringing a system and bringing his approach to the game would have an impact. We saw it. That didn’t change at all to me. It’s that simple, right? Resounding rebounding, as Don says, sounds good to me. Yeah. For me, the the resounding effect is the share it mentality. Um, but I think the top end guys understanding that if they do share it, there’s a good chance it’s probably gonna come back to them in some capacity to take a much easier, less self-created shot. There’s like at least two or three of the threes that Deon Booker got in a two game slate against the Nets where he gets off it quick because he’s getting double teamed and they just kind of move it around. They get the blender popping like we spoke to yesterday or the day before yesterday and he ends up getting a wideopen catch and shoot three. You want the catch and shoot threes. We talk about the pullover three being important. What if he doesn’t have to take as many of them because they can get the catch and shoot? He’s been one of the best catch and shoot three-point shooters for the last decade at this point. Like that’s a shot that’s the highest quality shot that you can get outside of a layup or free throw in the half court. So that part of it is important. And then the other part for me is the tempo, finding that pace in the half court. And it feels like they’ve been building that process out. We saw it yesterday even with a majority of reserves going up against Lakers starters. Well, speaking of rebounding, number two is winning on the margins is a must. This is a team that is not going to be topheavy. Is not going to usually have more talent than their opposing team like they didn’t last night, but if they do win on the margins, rebounding turnovers, fast break break points, they will win more games than they should. Yeah. And we we looked at those stats last night. But I think the other margin you got to win on is three-point attempts and three-point percentage. The math maths like we’ve we’ve talked about for years now. And and they showed in the preseason that this is a team that shooting 40 three-pointers in a game isn’t going to be anything that they’re not accustomed to. Yeah, that that free throw attempts or the three-point attempts number rather is something to to keep an eye on. I feel like when they condense the rotation and they get more of the pieces that they’re going to be having play more often, they’ll be able to easily more easily manipulate that that um that margin and maybe be instead of minus 10 minus like four or three and that’s where your turnovers come into more effect because that margin is closer. Um but the other one for me with the margins and we saw a little bit of this last night after timeouts. So after a timeout is called or at the beginning of a quarter, you want to be the team that either scores first and gets a stop right after that or gets a stop from a scripted play that an opponent has set and then going to score for yourself. Whether that’s in transition or if it’s just in the half court. When you shrink it, you shrink those margins and you honestly start to win them. That’s where runs take place. And now all of a sudden JJ Ready just drew up this exotic play and they force a turnover. they go down score and now their defense is set and then you get another stop. Now it’s like, okay, if you’re at a deficit or a lead, you’re either coming back in the game or you’re just increasing your room for error and that’s what you want to do as far as execution goes. Number three, point guard less. This doesn’t change after witnessing 55 points of offense with no turnovers created from Jared Butler. No, because that’s scoring guards is not typical point guard. So that does not change in any What about Kobe Brea’s five assists? He I honestly I was very impressed with his handle and he he stuck it to Bronny James a couple times which we all can uh enjoy for sure. But like we talked about this is an offense that’s going to be predicated on multiple uh you know initiators and I’m fine with it. I didn’t have a problem with this from the beginning but it certainly didn’t change in any way this off this uh preseason. I think they have a good blend of guys that can initiate an offense and guys that can go and get a paint touch, but get a paint touch off of the principles that they’re playing too. So, the move it mentality creating closeouts for a guy like Grayson who might not be the most natural ball handle. He’s a player that can do it, but he’s much more inclined to be successful doing it if someone’s trying to close out to him because of his three-point shooting prowess, but as a puzzle piece off of the attention that Booker and Green and even Mark Williams as a roller and cutter will get. So, I think there’s like kind of hand and glove fit process-wise for them with that to keep guys in a position of playing to their strengths. And if you’re going the point guardless route, you have to have a a process established where people are playing to it. Number four, can’t fall behind due to cold stretches. Now, I think this one’s interesting because the Suns did come back in multiple games, either make it close or win, most of them in the preseason, but I think over an 82 game regular season, this team does not have the overwhelming offensive firepower to to kind of ignite some of these comebacks they might have been able to pull off last year. Even if they didn’t, they were at least able to on paper. for this team. Not falling behind by 15, 20 points early on in a game uh is going to be very important because if you can keep it within five to 10 if you are down, a quick flip of the switch, a couple of turnovers and fast break points could be all that you need to get back in the game. Yeah, I mean I I agree. It can’t balloon, but in that 5 to 10 point range or I think we can see large swings with the way this team’s going to be. But it’s got to be in that maybe 10 where you turn that to two really quick. But yeah, if you wind up down 20 and you’re playing a team with a large amount of top end talent, you’re going to have a tough time battling back in that. Yeah, they they want to avoid those as much as possible. And I think that’s where free throw attempts comes into the mix with it because if you’re a team that’s not knocking down your threes for whatever reason on any given night, that’s something that’s always up for variance. If you’re at least getting to the free throw line, you’re giving yourselves opportunity to score without the clocks going, but also keep your defense set. I think that’s where they want to be. And I think that’s where again the two biggest pieces missing from preseason, Jaylen Green and Mark Williams can significantly help them from what we saw in the preseason to once the regular season comes around. Last but not least, Ryan Dunn shot stock has stayed the same. Not too high, not too low, but definitely not the quoteunquote offensive leap that I know a lot of people were looking forward to seeing from the second year forward. Yeah, it it’s flat. It’s what it very much the same exact what we thought we were getting, what we’ve seen. He’ll hit some of those threes, some of those corner threes, but right now there was nothing that screamed to me, vastly improved offensive player right now. Yeah. The the thing for me with Ryan, and I mentioned this even last season when he was on the the hot streak to start it and then that middle of the season stretch where he wasn’t hitting too many, it’s just the trust in the work. You have to keep putting up these attempts because you talk about them being at a deficit on average in terms of three-point attempts. It’s non-negotiable for guys to pass up shots within that, especially off of the attention that Jaylen Green and Deon Booker and Mark Williams will inevitably kind of get as far as gravity goes. So, he has to just make sure he continues to take him. I don’t want to see him get to the point where, man, I haven’t I made two of 10 the last three games and now I’m hesitating. You can’t get in the hesitation range. You got to stay in the I’m going to keep putting these up because I put the work in. And I think with him, you have to accept, yeah, there’s going to be some misses, but in situations, does he hit them? Yep. Does he convert them when it’s most important? And that will be key. I can live with a 34% uh from three, you know, 33%. But is that one-third of of them that you’re making happening at important moments where they need you to make those because of the gravity of other guys? And you can’t get to the makes without the misses if you’re a player that’s not shooter a shooter naturally. So that’s part important. Yeah. And at the same time, there are people who are calling for Rasheed Fleming to start over Ryan Dunn already. And I think what you got to understand is you need to give Ryan Dunn the opportunity to be comfortable, right? And if you start changing his role and say you’re starting and now you’re coming off the bench and blah it, you kind of get back to what you did last year, which was just like, “Hey man, we don’t have faith in you. Now we do have faith in you. Now we need you to do this. Now we need you to do this. Let him make some mistakes. Give him a little bit of a leash. Give him an extended run and then make decisions based off of that going forward.” Uh any final thoughts from the trending up, trending down, and trending the same that we saw through preseason as we are a week away from game one. I think Eritton’s trending up. The freckle mamba putting in all the effort, coming up with great graphics. I I want to just say trending up. Big preeason for a guy Freckle Mamba. Uh he’s neutral. He’s been doing this. I’m not I’m not I’m not moved because this has become the standard. But yes, per usual, the standard is very high and he’s met that. Um, for me, it’s us talking about all of these things. Some things we’ve liked that we’ve seen, some things we haven’t liked, some things are neutral. All of those things still haven’t come without two fifths of the most important five players on the roster. That says a lot. I think the the things we desire to see more of are more easily navigable once those guys are back in rotation. the strengths get stronger and the weaknesses start to diminish and not be as impactful just off of their presence as alone and then you put the system they’re playing in with Devin Booker, a player that neither one of those two have played with the likes of yet. I think they’re working with something and I think they can get to a point where they’re one of those competitive pesky playin realm type of teams. An overwhelmingly positive preseason. Will it translate to the regular season? But I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts. Eridan, do you want to grade our uh preseason? Do do you want to give grades here or for the PH andX? Yeah. For the three of us, you wanna you want to grade us? Um who’s up? Who’s down? Who’s uh the same? I think we’re I think we’re staying the same. All All of us. We’re all align. Yeah, we’re all aligned. We got We got We got work to do. Uh just some news on the way out of here. Uh a couple of roster moves for the Suns. They’ve officially waved guard Damen Bao and forward Tyrie Samuel. Uh nothing too surprising there, but definitely want to keep people up tod date with that. Of course, we will be back tomorrow at three o’clock as we always do to uh get into some overunders and award talk for the Suns and for the rest of the NBA. You always know that that means the season is right around the corner. So, make sure you are subscribed to PHNX Sports for that. Yes, we are all aligned. So, hit that like button, hit that subscribe button, become a member today. Become a diehard today. Go phnx.com/join. Buddhisk says a no game today. I don’t think we have a game prepared. We’ll do a game sometime this week. Don’t Don’t you worry though. I want to play auto. I haven’t played it yet. We’ll play auto. We’ll play auto. I guess we’re just have to restart all the scores, huh? The score has been an issue. This is going to throw in the score has not been an issue. I think we just got to re I think we just got to start from zero. Let me say this. I don’t I don’t need you guys to level out the score. I’ll still beat you. I say when you st So that just gives us more credence to keep it what it is. Yeah. I mean, decision has been made. Sounds good to me. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. Um we won’t we know what’s going to happen tomorrow as far as And of course, we’re back on Friday. We’ll have the weekend off. Then Monday, it is the regular season week building up to Wednesday pregame watch along postgame show for the Phoenix Suns. Opening night against the Sacramento Kings led by Russell Westbrook. Woo. Uh hopefully they can get a win for that. Hopefully Mark Williams is ready to play. But we’ll keep you up to date with everything right here on the show and over on socials. PHNX SunS. That’s on Twitter. That’s on Instagram. The best place to experience game days specifically uh is PHNX Suns. Plus, we keep you up to date with all the latest breaking news, updates from practice, so on and so forth. We appreciate the freckled Mamba trending up as always. You can follow him at freckledmamba. You can follow Espo at Espo. Follow Steven who’s out at all the practices and at all the games. So, an absolute must follow at StephenPG3. And you can follow me at E R I K Ruby. And I know I stumbled on some words today and I messed up reading stuff, but don’t worry, I will have a nice resounding sorry rebounding performance tomorrow. Did you say hi to your dad? No. [Music] [Applause] We all silly like the mayor.
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The Phoenix Suns ended the preseason with a fun win over the Lakers to move to 3-1. How important was what we saw from a revamped squad? How much weight can we put in the positives to carry over to the regular season? Are there any negatives that could weigh the team down when the games start to count?
Erik, Stephen and Espo dove into it as PHNX Suns officially turns their attention to the highly-anticipated game 1 as it is only a week away! Follow the show @PHNX_Suns, @ErikRuby, @StephenPG3, @Espo & @FreckledMamba!
0:00 – Intro
2:00 – Now That We can Hear SPG, Lets Get His Thoughts on Last Nights Win Over The Lakers
8:30 – The Potential of Rasheer Fleming is CLEAR
24:09 – Practice Updates for Jordan Ott
39:15 – The Top Things We Learned About The Suns From Preseason
50:30 – Some of The Stocks That Fell The Most During Preseason
1:01:00 – What Stayed The Same Throughout 4 Preseason Games
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5 comments
Nice shirt Steven !
What are you watching get real
Watch tower and block watch is better then man man
All 4 pre season games they the suns forced more turnovers then the suns had turnovers themselves. All good!
I can see butler Starting at Point, but he would need to be a better passer I haven’t seen enough proof of that yet