Bickley Blast: Happiness needs to be key offseason get for Phoenix Suns

Bickley Blast: Happiness needs to be key offseason get for Phoenix Suns

Mars Arizona Sports the local sports leader bigley blast the Suns have a laundry list of issues from size to depth to point guard but there is one essential element they must import before next season something that will not cost them a dime or require any dramatic trades it’s called Happiness human emotion Joy that can be seen on the basketball court and I say this because I have noticed the hiring of Mike buen hoser has intrigued the optimism meter the way I thought it might in the valley and I think the fun factor is a big reason why because last year suns were harder on the eyes than they looked in the standings they were a 49 win team that displayed moments of Brilliance but they rarely showed the chemistry and connectivity that not only makes you d dous as a basketball team it made the Suns unlikable to an uncomfortably large percentage of their viewing audience and that is the truth because nobody can rally around a chilling group of athletes who are too cool for school and while the lack of passion and personality made it nearly impossible for Planet Orange to embrace last year’s Suns it also made many suns fans yearn for a different team a different era a different set of leaders which is why happiness needs to be a key offseason addition for the Suns because really being a sports fan isn’t a job it’s a choice from the heart it’s an expression of what brings us joy and it would be nice if our next basketball team could do the same maybe even match or exceed our excitement if that isn’t too much to ask my apologize [Music] you’re asking for happiness yeah listen you’re running the soundboard you uh you choose what you [Laughter] choose can the sun’s moving forward stop worrying not they’re not worrying I don’t think the worrying is the issue is the song yeah no I gotta I gotcha I think that uh but I do think that this is something that that is is bigger than just the connectivity of the basketball team it’s the connectivity of them to us and that was clearly lacking last year we talked about this during the course of the Season certainly it it lingered in the playoffs and that was the number of people you either talked to ran into you know interacted with on social media that said I’ve been watching this team my entire life and this was the most joyless frustrating version of the Phoenix FS I ever saw yeah and you can get past the frustrating part some people can a lot of people couldn’t get past the the fact that and I’m I’m not going to go fully into Retro mode and say oh I wish you know we’re nostalgic about this a lot of people are but they went from a group that really took a lot of joy and it was visible joy in playing with each other competing with each other winning with each other and even when the Suns won there wasn’t a lot of it and there was an increase in that area late in the regular season but it kind of felt manufactured like they were bit Yeah like you know the last couple weeks of the season and a lot of this coincided with Isaiah Thomas getting signed to a couple 10day contracts and they kept him on for the rest of the season and there was a reason they did that they wanted a veteran leadership who had an appreciation of the game to kind of help rub off so what happened in that last month of the season when Isaiah Thomas was there we saw him kind of leading the bench unit in supporting the guys on the floor we saw a lot of the guys from the bench spring up from their chairs to help players who had you know you know gone down underneath the basket which you see good teams do all the time it’s it’s simple stuff right but you didn’t see that all year yeah no but I but I also want it from the front I don’t want it from the back I I I don’t want the joy being manufactured from the back of the bench I want it on the court up front with the team leaders that’s what I want to see from this basketball team that should not be too much to ask and and if it’s tweaking personalities whatever this is something that again this is the way you appeal to a fan base and and I I I’m very very very serious when I say this that rarely would my optimism about a story involving the Suns maybe exceed the local optimism but I feel that way about Mike buen holer I feel like the more you learn the more you listen to him the more you realize okay this guy might be able to kind of put pieces of this puzzle together in a way that actually makes sense on a basketball court but I think so many people are just down on this team and its Dow Personality yeah and and some of the reports that have come out and again the idea that the report that that Kevin Durant went three months without talking to Frank vogle which was whittel down to one month as I said before nobody takes that literally nobody makes I don’t think anybody believes you know Kevin Durant just refused to say a word to the head coach but it but is the essence of it true was there that kind of breakdown was there that kind of skepticism and and jaded behavior from the group not only joyless but jaded yes you’re rolling your eyes at your own head coach because you don’t think he knows what he’s talking about don’t focus on the amount of time that was reported focus on the reported obstacle between player and Coach that’s it that’s well said Vinnie yeah well said um but and if you’re still of those F and I agree with you um I walked away and you know me I mean gambo thinks I’m the most negative person in the world heard that somewhere talks about it every day on his show just get it goe um but I walked away from the Mike buen hoser press conference more optimistic you walked away from it more optimistic very much so and we’re two jaded jerks let’s be honest about well for yeah for a lot of reasons I mean he’s local he understands us this is a this you can tell this moment and this job means the world to him you can tell it means the world to him because it means the world to his dad and his family it there is there’s something intensely personal about this that I’m very excited yeah and and if you’re of that mindset hey I’m giving up on this team this is done they completely ruined it that’s your prerogative but it it doesn’t necessarily what we saw last year does not have to carry over into the future and that’s your tendency to believe what we just saw is is going to be the norm moving forward I brought this up before tonight we’re getting game one we’re going to get into the series in just a second too Minnesota Dallas for the Western Conference Finals two teams who a year ago were being pointed at and laughed at from NBA Circle or what look what they did they destroyed their team with trades how do you trade for Kyrie Irving and not even make the playoffs you already had Carl Anthony towns and you trade for Rudy goar you ruined that team they’re both four games away from playing for a title and Will Will Dawkins is the general manager of the Washington Wizards and he was on the run it back podcast with Rachel Nichols and the subject was uh you put this big three together are you shocked they didn’t go further here’s how that exchange went down are you shocked they didn’t go further you don’t have to answer that uh we are we shocked by that what happened again instant gratification doesn’t work year one all the time it really doesn’t you stick with it I think you saw it in the teams that are playing in the playoffs right now in the Western Conference like things take time instant gratification doesn’t work first year all the time stick with it that’s why I like this idea of bringing the the big three back okay and again next year if we’re seeing something similar or another you fall short of your goals next year we’re having much different conversations may my isue with the big three right now um conceptually is that if you bring this back it’s the fundamental issue of a point guard it and Colin Olsson has said this okay fine bring in a point guard but then you got to move Bradley Beal to the bench to make it work or you bring a point guard in as a as a much lesser sort of role as a as a change up with the second unit I that this is where conceptually I I’m not sure that this is the best way to go about it against it because I do think that they underachieve let me frame it differently that is do you need a point guard in your top four guard rotation I think absolutely doesn’t have to be a starter but somebody who’s getting substantial minutes on a day in day out basis that’s how I view it thanks for watching Bley and marada click to see the latest Bley blast and hit the button in the middle to subscribe to Arizona Sports

Dan Bickley didn’t see much joy or happiness out of this year’s Phoenix Suns, so he’d like to see the team do a better job of engaging with their fanbase and each other come next season.

Video: Felisa Cárdenas and Jeremy Schnell/Arizona Sports
Photo Credit: Christian Petersen/Getty Images, David Berding/Getty Images, 106.7 the Fan, Washington, DC

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