Top 10 NBA Contenders: Will Kevin Durant, Devin Booker & Suns ever reach their peak? | Hoops Tonight

Top 10 NBA Contenders: Will Kevin Durant, Devin Booker & Suns ever reach their peak? | Hoops Tonight

What’s up everybody thanks as always for supporting the show it would mean a lot to me if you would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel and then follow me on social media on Tik Tok Instagram and Twitter

So you guys don’t miss any of our content over the course of this season all right let’s talk some basketball moving on to number eight the Phoenix Suns Logan you’re up first are you higher or lower on the Phoenix Suns and you were to start the season I’m a

Little lower on the Suns just because I did have pretty high expectations for them coming into this year I thought that they would dominate the regular season honestly Jason I thought you summed it up really well with the Clippers talk like that’s that was what I expected out of Phoenix for them to

Just dominate skill-wise now obviously takes a while for everybody to get healthy Brad Beal KD what we’ve seen with the big three I think is encouraging like they are going to be able to do that and in a hypothetical series that is terrifying to get matched up against where they could just drop

120 to 130 on your head and steal a couple of games it obviously comes down to the role players right and I’m not really moved enough yet to really say that uh I’m more confident in Phoenix I was confident coming into this year with the role players I thought they did the best

Job that they could in filling out the roster and they’re still just concerns like who is going to take they don’t feel that far away to me I guess is what I’m saying but all of their role players are so one-dimensional if it’s Grayson Allen if

It’s Josh aogi whoever you point to they are really good on one side of the ball but their lackluster they just need more two-way guys I’m not out on the Suns but I had really really high expectations for them in the regular season uh that haven’t been met and so now I’m just

Left with injury in depth concerns which is kind of what I were my red flags at the start of the year so I’m not out on Phoenix by any means they are much too talented to count out but uh I just haven’t seen enough of it for me to be

Really deeply moved by Phoenix I’m a little bit lower on Phoenix even though at full strength I would say they’ve looked pretty similar to what I expected because other teams have shown me more because I have been really impressed by Minnesota and OKC and certainly the Clippers I do think that their offense

Is really good and when the big three has been out there together it’s a small sample size only 175 minutes but they have an offensive rating of 124 that’s pretty damn good and you just don’t see teams who have three shot makers of this level three ball handlers who are this

Devastating and when you pair that with the spot up shooting that we’ve seen from Grayson Allen who has barely missed all year and Eric Gordon like that’s a scary offensive combination the problem for me is the same thing that has been obvious since they put together this

Core they are a low volume three-point shooting team they are very accurate there but they’re 23rd and threes made which means they’re not as inclined to go on those spre like you might see from Boston and at the same time their 28th in field goals made inside of 5T so when

You are lacking in both high-end Rim pressure and you are lacking in consistent Dynamic volume three point shooting you can have three of the most skilled mid-range shot makers in the league but the at the end of the day you’re trading tough twos when other teams are getting easier twos or they’re

Getting good looks from three so for a team that is so offensively slanted that just scares me that scares me when you’re comparing it to the formula Denver has where it’s a Elite shooting and Elite paint Force even the formula that the Clippers have because they have more Elite three-point shooting because

Defensively this team can only be so good like they’ve rebounded well this year they just have fundamental limitations there they’re 16th in defensive rating and when you have core lineups that involve Beal and Allen and nerk out there I just think you can only climb so high I think we did see an

Interesting look with KD at the five I think that’ll be fun for specific matchups it kind of gave fits to the Kings I thought that was a bit embarrassing for sabonis like they looked quicker defensively they doubled they rotated well and offensively it was awesome it was super spread out they had

Skill everywhere against some of like the really big teams who will punish them for going small like that I don’t know how viable it is for extended stretches I think it can be a weapon I don’t think it’s a fix to some of the limitations they have so this team looks

A lot like I expected but I’m a little bit lower on them yeah I’m as well just because again I thought they’d look like I put it in my notes I thought they’d look like the 2022 Nets like that’s just what I expected I expect them just to

Rack up the wins I do want to give him some slack in the sense that the Bradley Beal Deon Booker Kevin Durant combo hasn’t had that much time to work together the KD at the five stuff is interesting because I I agree with you Carson I think it’s very matchup

Specific and I think it’s a short doses thing because it it depended on two things one Kevin Durant playing some of the best defense that you’ve seen from him in the last five years like just he was so incredible defensively down the stretch of that game and then two there

Were multiple examples where sabonis had smaller Defenders on him and just didn’t even look at the basket but that’s kind of that’s kind of like one of the advantages of that type of lineup is it’s a curveball it’s an off speed pitch it’s one it’s one you throw to disrupt

The rhythm of the game and then you bail out of it quickly or if there is a matchup where you have some Advantage you could stick with it but like I I use the death lineup as an example not because I think it’s as good as the death lineup that’s the greatest lineup

That’s ever touched a basketball especially when you add Kevin Durant into that mix but it was never used to start games it was never used as like their I mean they used it I think they occasionally started Andre Gala in the playoffs before KD got there but like

For the most part it was a counter that Golden State used in short doses to screw up a basketball game and then to close basketball games so that’s kind of the way I see it but again like you said it perfectly Carson NBA history tells us teams that rely on pullup jump shooting

And don’t get easy shots around the basket that are that also aren’t great on defense typically don’t win and so that doesn’t mean the Suns can’t win but through 40 games or 41 games through half the season I certainly am lower on them than I was before the season

Because I was expecting more all right we have three more before we get out of here today starting with you Carson the Oklahoma City Thunder are you higher or lower on the Oklahom City Thunder than you were to start the season I am definitely higher and I would be higher

On them than a team like the Suns because I think yeah there is obviously the playoff experience factor and the fact that the Suns have KD book and Beal but I think that SGA could easily be the best player in that series I think that

He is a dominant force and I think that the Supporting Cast in OKC is excellent I have been a big Jaylen Williams guy oh my goodness though he is so good the tear that he is on this month I think they’ve played 10 games he’s shot like

65% from the field 60% from Deep while he’s giving you 21 points six assists a game just a problem athletically a good playmaker a really good shooter and I think that Chad added another dimension here in terms of dynamic play finisher really good three-point shooter stretch

Big another guy who you trust to handle a bit to playmake and then defensively is an awesome rim protector the limitation they have is a experience does matter I think that they’re good enough to where they could win a first round series just based off of talent

But making a run of the finals is like another conversation and B they are so slight in the front Court they’re one of the weakest rebounding teams in the league Chad is an elite rim protector he is not a very good rebounding five and the other dudes around him like they

Have athletic Wings they just don’t have big physical wings and so I think that as well as they may defend all around that’s going to put a bit of a ceiling on them but I love the Thunder I thought they would take a leap this year to be

Like a 48- win team really tough first round out maybe they sneak a first round series and I think that they are clearly ahead of schedule and the future is insanely bright because I mentioned the big three but like I love Kon Wallace I think that they can move Josh Giddy and

I think that he has started to recuperate his value a bit because he’s been playing better he didn’t look like an NBA player for like a month and a half this year uh so the future is crazy bright but they’re just not quite there really is a matter of Youth largely he

Jason Timpf is joined by the @Nerd_Sesh guys to discuss his No. 8 contender at the NBA’s midseason point, the Phoenix Suns. The guys debate whether they are higher or lower on Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, and company than they were at the start of the season.

Timeline:
00:00 – Do you have faith in Suns?
06:18 – Higher or lower on Thunder?

Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/Q1a6JR5QVuk

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