Are the Phoenix Suns a ‘dangerous’ team like JJ Redick said?

Are the Phoenix Suns a ‘dangerous’ team like JJ Redick said?

A lot of people are jumping ship already and I don’t blame you I had one foot off the boat already but JJ reick is trying to calm us all down Okay let’s listen to what he had to say I think the disappointing part to me is that we

Haven’t seen enough of them all healthy and together Durant’s missed seven games Booker’s missed 11 games Beal has missed 29 games Shannon your point about expectations is a fair point I I I would say this coming into this season we talked a lot about how there were 10

Really good basketball teams in the Western Conference so given the amount of injuries they they’ve had the fact that they’re sitting in sixth place to me that’s not a disappointing thing if you look at this data and again I hate I hate Sometimes using stats but sometimes

You have to uh if you look at the data there have been a bunch of teams that have had fiveman lineups play 250 minutes or more together only five of those lineups have outscored opponents by 10 or more points per 100 possessions Phoenix is one of those lineups their

Starting five is one of those lineups when they go small with Durant and Eric Gordon and Grayson Allen and Bradley Beal and Devon Booker they outscore opponents by 19 points per 100% when they’ve been on the court together they’ve been a damn good basketball team so the disappointing part is the

Injuries it’s not necessarily in the performance of The Big Three when they’ve been together and I still think I’ll say this we knew this coming into the season this is the problem with building super teams you are not going to have the depth to withstand one of your main guys getting hurt especially

In this conference so again relative to expectations I’m not disappointed given the injuries first and foremost uh the comments in the chat talking about that person in that graphic chef’s kiss it was so you guys are hilarious if you were wondering hilarious not lie to the

People uh back to what JJ reic was saying um you know at the end of the day he’s more concerned about the injuries than he is the product on the court and the performance U during the regular season I think Gerald i’ maybe I’ve maybe touched on

That a few times before man I I I don’t think I believe you still breaking news I feel like a crazy person though because there’s such negativity after losses and especially coming out of the All-Star break you go two and four book goes down and it’s I’ll be honest like

If you asked me do I think the suns are going to win a title this year no I would put the Celtics ahead of them I put the Nuggets I might even put the Clippers ahead of them in terms of likeliness to win the title but I’m not

Counting them out yet either because we’ve seen what they look like when they have their full compliment of guys we’ve seen Royce O’Neal come in and be a seamless fit and you know between their starting five reyce O’Neal and Eric Gordon when he’s on like that’s a solid

Core seven and JJ reck went on first take again this morning and said I would put their top seven guys against any top seven in the NBA and it’s true and when the playoffs start and your rotations get cut and it’s a half court game you

Need to be able to run your stuff in the half court the suns are a very good half court offense they’re even more Dynamic when they’re in transition obviously but like their defense has been trending in the right direction and I feel like all of these different looks that they’ve

Struggled with having to play games without book having to play games without Beal is good for them in these situations where one of these guys is going to be out for three to four minutes at a time what are you g to do in those minutes there are still very

Real concerns the turnovers are a real concern the fourth quarter just lack of whatever the hell happens to them in the fourth quarter is a concern but I do think that like they’ve shown us since late December what they’re capable of when they’re fully healthy and so that’s

My biggest thing are you going to get enough reps before the playoffs start to make up for that continuity disadvantage and that’s what I’ve been saying since probably December at this it’s not that I don’t believe you uhhuh but you don’t believe or JJ Reddit for that matter M

It’s that I don’t have as much Faith that’s fair does that make sense like I get exactly what you guys are saying like if we could throw Health out the door I’d be fully bought in on this team right but we can’t do that and I think

That’s where the doubt the concern the Panic if you will at times Creeps in but I don’t think anyone here I don’t think he or I have ever said like throw the health out the I think more it’s more like I I like I said I don’t think that

They’re going to win this year because I don’t think that for even if they have 40 games with these guys if book comes back in two games everybody stays healthy they’ll barely get to 40 with the big three I don’t think that’s enough in a playoff series against the

Nuggets it might not even be enough against the Clippers in the big three because they played like nearly 800 900 minutes together the suns are barely their starting five is at like 270 something but when they have been there they’ve been really good so I can’t

Write it off entirely a lot of stars have to align but it’s not impossible either yeah I mean in the teams you named are built on continuity they’ve been around together I think what’s tough for me is JJ says it implies it and Dan Bickley a guy I really enjoy but

He was talking about well JJ is saying shouldn’t be a disappointment bickley’s talking about lower your expectations da I I struggle with that right I get one healthy this team can compete with anybody if they had been healthy all year and they got those minutes we’re having a different conversation right

Now but to Lindsay’s point the reality is they they didn’t have that Health has not been part of this and we knew that that could be the pitfall with this team but that to me I’m sold on early on Championship we’re putting this team together to win it all this is a team

Built for the playoffs this is all these things so I think you can both understand that the minutes thing but also still be disappointed and or frustrated with where it is and and I feel like some people not you Gerald but some people in this discussion act as if

You shouldn’t feel disappointed in what’s going on and I think I think it is possible to to realize both and that’s where I’m at I get that if they were healthy different conversation but I’m still disappointed that they’re not legit in that conversation to be cont it’s disappointment in the lack of

Health it’s not necessarily disappointment in what this team could be exactly I think and there’s a difference in that right like saying you’re disappointed in this team in the sense of like they just went out there and shot the bed that’s completely different than being disappointed that

We just couldn’t stay healthy we didn’t get to see enough of it they didn’t get enough time together we disappointed in like there’s two totally different things right and I agree with that but my thing is the disappointment with the health bleeds over into all of the other

Stuff way more often than it should like there’s a reason why like the turnovers are super frustrating there are a lot of turnovers that they make that it’s like what the hell were they doing on that play but some of them are a product of not having the time on the floor

Together to work through some of those Kinks like that um you need that that’s that’s like we saw the Clippers when they brought James Harden they started what like 0 and six or something like that they were not a good team at that point but they worked through a lot of

Those feeling out processes and they got a lot better so I want the Suns to be in that same position I think they’ve shown that they can get there um but for me like when you let disappointment about things that are out of the players control like Health bleed over into

Bradley beel sucks why did we trade for him too that’s the type of that I just like the the trying to have this retrospective view of like we never should have traded for KD we never should have traded for Bradley Beal that shit’s wild to me because it’s like you

See when they’re out there what they’re capable of being it’s stuff that’s beyond their control that has limited this team ceiling

On the latest PHNX Suns Podcast, Gerald, Lindsey and Espo discuss whether the Phoenix Suns are a legitimate threat to still win a championship this year after JJ Redick called them a “dangerous” team.

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