Jamal Crawford says every team wishes they had a Devin Booker

Jamal Crawford says every team wishes they had a Devin Booker

Former Phoenix Sun current NBA on TNT analyst Jamal Crawford joining us right now on the Arizona Sports Line Jamal thanks for the time man what’s going on no problem thanks for having me how you guys doing we’re doing great man thank you for uh joining us we really

Appreciate of course of course no thank you uh Jamal what’s uh let’s just kind of start with your perception of this Suns team some people you know look at them and see a lot of talent some people look at them and and think that they there may be issues ahead for them or

Even currently what do you do you think they things they need to fix or do you think they’re still on the right path I see both uh I think they’re absolutely on the right path I think to be honest with you they’re built for the playoffs I I think they’ll have more success

There than they do I think this right now is getting a rhythm getting habits but I would love to see them get uh another guard in the rotation another big guy in the rotation and whether that’s through trade or through free agency I’m not free agency yeah when

Guys are you know up I think if they’re possible guys may get waved or whatever ever I think that can help I I think a guard like a tus Jones let’s say would be a great guy may not be a starter for the team but he could be somebody that

Can conduct and organize and just keep things afloat uh during times where it gets a little bit Ste Jamal when you look at the big three for the sons of course Devon Booker KD and Bradley Beal when you look at them what do you see as their biggest strength and what do you

See as their biggest weakness just of the big three I think because just those three the biggest strength is they’re all mismatches right and they’ve all bought in I think that’s probably the most difficult thing to do when you got when you have three guys at that level of

Knowing you know we’ve all bought in but this game may be your game a little bit more this quarter it may change quarter to quarter at times uh that’s their biggest strength their biggest weakness is just having time with those three together I think you know they they hit

A nice uh spot where they were rolling and then injuries come up again now you have to re re acclimate to to the team and get that chemistry back but I think just having time on their hands with them together has been their biggest weakness because it hasn’t been a lot of

It but in in Spurs they look just absolutely Dynamic and I’m holding on to that hope that that’s who they’ll be in the playoff we’re talking to Jamal Crawford uh Jamal you obviously played with the the Suns and you played with Devin Booker uh and he was a couple

Years into his career at that point just from what you know about book how does he handle adversity behind the scenes oh he’s great at that I I think honestly book’s one of the few stars that I played with that Embrace adversity and it’s not that you want adversity to come

But when it does come you want a guy like book behind the scenes because you know he’ll continue to push even harder in the right direction he’ll continue to lead even more behind the scenes he’ll continue to you know step up his leadership and challenge himself he’s

Not the guy that points fingers he’s the guy that looks in the mirror first uh makes an honest assessment and then he he builds out from there so book I knew would be a superstar I just knew it I knew the qualities a funny story about

Book is when I was there we played one-on-one almost every day and he won most of the days but the sometimes when he’ll win and I would say yeah you know you you won today but we have 15 wins it bothered him it really really bothered him and he would ask questions

Afterwards what’s the playoffs like what’s this situation like I’m like oh he’s going to be a great one because he wants it he wants to know the details and the hidden secrets of the game he was working towards it even then so I knew this guy would be here Jamal do you

Think book is an alpha type leader in a locker room do you think he’s a guy that will walk up and challenge his teammates absolutely I absolutely see that obviously he’s still he’s far in his career per se but he’s still a young guy overall so he absolutely uh is that

Kind of leader he’s not scared but you can only be that kind of leader if you’re doing the right things right you can’t challenge somebody or call somebody out on their stuff yep if you’re not doing the right things for the team and he absolutely does that

I’ve seen it firsthand even when we weren’t as good and weren’t fighting for something now he’s been to the finals you know he’s done all these wonderful things since but that Foundation is it’s like having a house you could have a mansion you could have an apartment if

The foundation’s not right it doesn’t matter what you have his foundation’s been right we’re talking to Jamal Crawford Jamal the the matchup tonight in Denver against the Nuggets you know Denver’s got a good they don’t have the best record in the NBA but in your mind are they still the team to

Beat yeah they are I I mean if you look at where they’re at right they’re not even playing record-wise like they were last year at this time but they’re still right there in the thick of things and when you have Joker who’s just incredible he’s an all-time great

Already and I know sometimes in today’s culture we throw that around you know very easily but he genuinely is an alltime great he you always have a chance and their connectivity and how they play and they’ve taken random to another level I thought the warriors were kind of the

Kings of random and you had to have high IQ players to play in that system same thing with Denver the way they cut the way they move how he’s the Hub uh it just really gives him a whole different Dynamic than just about everybody in the

League Jamal what do you think you have to have to counter I’m you’re never going to eliminate the Joker of course but what do you think what kind of player do you have to have that helps to counter some of the stuff that joker does on the court to be honest with you

I said this last year when I covered the finals I said Joker is so good he’s not really playing against Miami right now he’s playing against foler because he always has a counter and and it’s like he you do this I do this you do this I

Do that and that and so from what I’ve seen as good as he is if I was coaching against Joker I would make him a score because he’s naturally unselfish he naturally wants to get everybody the ball he averages you know almost the last couple years and think about it he

Doesn’t even want to score he’s like no brother I’ll get you one like he he feels like he’s being selfish no matter what he’s shooting so not saying he can’t score he scores with the best of him and he can score inside and out but naturally who he is as the person I

Would probably play off the emotion of making him a score and say okay Joker you’re going to score 50 tonight and you know nobody else really get in Rhythm and I don’t think he’s as comfortable doing that well and we we saw that we

Saw him go off for about 50 and and in one of the losses to the Suns last year in the playoffs um Jamal in your mind are is there a team that’s that is built to beat Denver in a seven game series right now I think the Celtics have a great

Shot uh I think if the Lakers can get in I’m not sure they can beat them but I think they’ll be a tougher team to deal with in the west and then Phoenix I’m I I picked Phoenix to go to the finals before the season and I’m not going to

Change now I just would love to see them make a couple small moves that could pay big div big dividends even the Roy move that was like a sneaky good pickup that wasn’t the one that took all the headlines but he’s a player who can fill

In so many different areas he can handle the ball he can playmake he can defend he can play off of people he does so many different things if they can do another one or two sneaky little pickups like that it’ll really show up a lot and

I think it can really cover a lot of mistakes and problems they have right now so Jamal when I look at the Suns um I say it all the time it it feels like there’s something in the way there there’s something that is not is not not coming together something that is

Allowing teams to go out there teams that are inferior to actually go out and maybe some Knights be competitive and just other nights beat them flat out beat them I mean and you know what to your point yeah when you have a big three like they have I really believe like

It’s going to just take time it’ll look nasty it’ll look ugly at times remember the Celtics when they had their big three Ray Allen was the clear guy that was going to sacrifice and Kevin Garnett was the guy who was focused on scoring so it put Paul Pierce naturally in his

Scoring position even he had to pass a little bit more with these three guys you got three guys who are me two guys are really young and KD is still at such a high level we can say he’s young as well in that way right who can still get

It done at the highest level so that’s just G to take time to work out the Kings because now you really have to step outside yourself Jamal you would say it it still you would say it’s going to take time right now that’s the something that’s in the way for these

Guys is that right that’s part of it but I think having that point guard could you imagine somebody like a tias Jones in the fourth quarter start the fourth quarter like hey fellas no hey Kev we’re playing through you right here we’re going to go this way and guys kind of

Fall in line or book you got it go on tonight we’re going to you first and guys play off of that just that conductor on the court and that organization on the court I think can help sh up those those those losses because they’ve had a lot of leads in

The fourth quarter that have slipped away and I think that with that that point guard that heady guy can really organize things and not even that he has to be a great score be a great organizer yeah the fourth quarter that’s the sore subject around here you definitely hit

It right there I know I know but let’s get out the way now we suffer now and and Live Like A Champion later if you can figure part of that out yeah no I like that I like that Jamal thank you so much for the time we appreciate it

Anytime thank you guys for having me I appreciate you absolutely that’s Jamal Crawford of course NBA on TNT analyst and former Phoenix Sun joining us there on the Arizona Sports Line yeah some of those one-on-one games between Jamal Crawford and Devon Booker in was that the 20189 season are are legendary

Depending who you talk to including Jamal Crawford I mean you hear some of those and Booker talked about him as well thanks for watching wolf and Luke tap to see more and click the button in the middle to subscribe to Arizona Sports

Jamal Crawford joins Wolf & Luke to discuss the Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets.

Video: Felisa Cárdenas and Jeremy Schnell/Arizona Sports

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