LeBron to the Suns? Here’s how it could happen
[Music] this is the extra point and Arizona’s family Originals podcast sponsored by your Phoenix Suns all right let’s talk some Phoenix Suns with an old friend of the show uh by our last check this is his 437th appearance on the extra point podcast the great espo from phnx talking everything Suns we had some news we can use today and had to discuss espo first of all how are you second of all is bronny James going to be a phoenix son uh first of all uh I forgot what basketball’s like because it’s been so long uh I I’m stuck in my home now that’s uh that’s how bad it’s been uh but uh no look uh will bronny James be a son I don’t know do you feel like taking a lottery ticket on LeBron James might be a son I I feel like at 22 if there’s not some talent that you think will change your fortunes for the better or a trade that won’t dramatically make this team better why not take a flyer on bronny James on the off chance that LeBron wants to make it a big four here in Phoenix and that’s not to slight bronny James I think there’s definitely Talent there he didn’t live up to uh to all the hype at USC but I definitely think there’s a guy that’ll be a rotational player in the NBA but I think really what you’re doing uh is taking that lottery ticket if you select him as high as 22 Yeah sham shiron the original report and it’s definitely a talker would LeBron James come to Phoenix so you’re saying big four I was thinking in my head uh that it would still be a big three and one of the current members of The Big Three would have to go and in my mind and some other people I’ve talked to were thinking maybe a Durant for LeBron James straightup Swap this is all uh speculation of course uh could you see that happening and then LeBron coming here and playing with his son oh I think I think it might be more simple than that Mark vet minimum how does that sound wow LeBron names uh you know for a fraction of the cost you ever imagined that you get him for look I when you look at what LeBron’s made in his career he’s got the life lifelong deal with Nike 50 million in one year is one great business deal for LeBron James that the guy is a billionaire if he really wants to try to win another title well also getting to play with his son I think you’re looking at him attempting to do something uh that is going to piss off a lot of people in terms of you know looking and highly considering opting out of his contract in LA and signing for a vet minimum now will it happen I don’t know but I think there’s one of two places that LeBron James will be next year in LA or here in Phoenix and I think I don’t think it’s that insane to say it might happen on a vet minim so is brony James in your opinion an NBA player at the moment no in the near future yes and I think he has to go to the right situation uh with the right kind of players around him to help guide him to become a a good player with a system that’s willing to give him some time if the Suns didn’t have the newly announced Valley suns in the G League I might question a little bit more but even if he’s a first round pick he can spend time down there learning a system ingratiating him himself to it and playing minutes where he wouldn’t at you know as a end of the rotation end of the bench guy with the NBA team so I think he will be there I think eventually he will be a very good uh you know piece a role player that can play great defense for you he’s not there right now and I think that’s a lot of the hesitation about taking him for teams so what could could you see a scenario so LeBron signs in the BET vet minimum let’s just back this up and and put the whole thing together here the Suns draft bronny James because there’s reports that there will be a workout they will hold a workout don’t like anybody else at 22 you draft bronny James bronny plays for the valley Suns and could there be a scenario where bronny gets called up every once in a while to play with his old man yeah I think for sure I don’t think he’d spend the entire season down there and I know there’s stipulations on how long a guy can play there but like uh like Josh barstein talked about the CEO the Sun at at the introductory press conference for the g-league team proximity was a huge deal being only you know 15 minutes from uh from the practice facility for the Suns and and footprint Center is a big deal so you can send a guy down to get some run and have him back up with the big club uh at the same time and the Intrigue of playing a father son you know on the same roster is something that so few athletes have had the opportunity to do and you know LeBron would appreciate how rare that is if he did it you know it’s it’s like Ken griffy Junior and Ken griffy Senor getting that opportunity to play together in Seattle those are things that that not many guys get experiened and they’d have a unique opportunity to do it that’s why I think he will legitimately consider it so if you had to you know say you were downstairs doing the weather forecast we need to get you in Studio by the way and and have you do some weather I feel like that’s hidden talent that maybe we haven’t uncovered yet uh what sort of chances the forecast here the espo forecast that this could happen the scenario we’re talking about where LeBron James signs with Phoenix and they draft bronnie you know I think that uh it’s easier to do the actual forecast for Phoenix right now hot and uh and dry than it is to give you an actual number right now I don’t have any green screen to point to uh but I’ll say I I’ll say there’s a a 25% chance that the LeBron Stormfront rolls into Phoenix sometime uh in late June early July uh and that those clouds are kind of gathering right now where would this rank as far as okay when Barkley got here Nash got here Shaq got here Durant got here I mean we’ve got a top five right we I guess we’re looking for the I I don’t know what order they would go in but this that would be your top five wouldn’t it I would go Barkley LeBron Durant Nash really LeBron when Nash came back when Nash came back people didn’t think that it was that that huge of a moment it was after the fact that you looked back at it but this would be a moment where people would would understand the magnitude of it but it would also be the the point where Phoenix became the most hated NBA City ever and I don’t think you’ll ever forget that moment well it seems very on brand for Valley Sports I mean you go JJ Watt you go Zack grinkie you go uh Jeremy ronic coming back with the coyotes remember they brought in George Lorac to fight for a while and then they chipped him out of town pretty quick but the fights were wildly entertaining I me we could we could keep going here uh with just the amount of big splashes that have been made here over the years it seems like that’s sort of our brand um so you think you think big four rather than big three you think that and I know James Jones said at that press conference uh where they introduced Mike buenard that he didn’t he didn’t see the big three going anywhere but you think that that that the big three run it back yeah I think they’re here and and if LeBron’s gonna come here it won’t be via trade so yeah I don’t I don’t think there’s any reason you would move Kevin Durant at this point he did everything that you’ve asked he was an all-nba second team guy he was one of the top 10 scorers in the League this year sure it didn’t go the way that you wanted but you at least need to see how it pans out with a new head coach because we don’t know what percentage of all that had to do with Frank vogle and his message falling on deaf ears in a lot of cases I I don’t think that be Booker or Durant are going anywhere uh at least this offseason so if you had the big four is that a team that can make some noise in the West in your opinion Mark I am out of the prediction business because I have predicted this team to win every year that I’ve been a fan of it uh every year that I’ve covered it outside of the 10 years of Darkness that we don’t refer to anymore so uh I’m out on the prediction business Mark but uh if you twisted my arm yes I would say they that they could it it seems it seems like Grayson Allen might set like the NBA three-point record right I mean I and are there enough guy that that definitely would move the needle for guys that want to play here I would think well yeah I mean they’d be running the social distancing offense there wouldn’t be a Defender within six feet of a guy like Grayson Allen because they’d have to focus on the other four guys so Grayson might hit 75% of his threes this season because he’d be wide open on almost every attempt so do do you feel like this franchise needs to do something drastic like that to become a title Contender no uh I don’t think so uh the DraStic moves were made the last two years and getting Kevin Durant getting Bradley Beal uh being willing to fire a head coach for the second year in a row because you didn’t trust the guy after one year I think those are the kind of bold moves if you don’t trade or if you don’t get LeBron if you don’t draft bronny I think there’s other ways that you can still improve the bench enough where you are in uh you know competition for the Western conference title and an NBA Finals title look your your window’s small we said it was probably a two-year window guess what year in year two Bradley Beal needs to be more of the guy that we saw in Washington Booker and and Durant have to continue to be the guys uh that we saw this year you have to get some luck when it comes to the injury front and you got to hope that Mike buen holer can give this team an identity and a culture which it completely lacked last year those are those are the the kind of things that need to shift it’s not adding another big piece it’s adding smaller additions and getting the environment correct to win this year well and and with with the 22nd pick it seems like is is that is that draft pick really going to impact a roster like that if it’s not bronny it just seems like and I have not done my deep dive into the draft I’ll be calling you about that probably in about three weeks um but it just it just seems like that that that that’s not a a play that’s going to come in here and help them compete for a championship am I wrong you’re not getting a star at 22 at best you’re getting a bench role player that can do a little bit more than some of the vet minimum minimums you had last year that’s why the bronny thing is intriguing to me right because he could turn into a valuable piece in the future as a as a young affordable contract but it does also open a door to probably the biggest chance you have to to have some kind of sh Earth shattering kind of improvement to the roster but then you also got to wonder how much does does that fix things or not but you’re not getting a guy that’s changing your fortunes at 22 at least not in your one the best you can hope for is a guy that can contribute on a regular basis uh with that 22nd pick a and I think if you’re even entertaining trading it you got to wait until you’re on the clock to see what guy on your big board are there and then make the best decision that you can at that moment to win now uh because that pick I don’t think is the one that’s going to change the course of anything would would picture this for me um I guess there there probably have to be a point guard next year you think there’s a point guard next year a backup yeah I don’t think you’re gonna have one in the starting lineup I I think they’re going to run the same way they did so Bradley Beal brings the ball up the floor he’s got Durant he’s got Ron and he’s got Booker sitting there and Grayson Allen in the corner or I guess you’d have nerk down low who’s he throw the ball to any of them I I I mean it and the offense is going to look completely different than what we saw too and coach buen holer likes emotion in that offense a lot of guys moving uh trying to get the ball moving around so I think there’s a chance all five of those guys touch the ball before they get the best shot possible and I think that’s probably the world you want to live in when you’ve got all those guys get the touches around until you find the the best looking shot or the best looking opportunity it sounds s super simple but it was something that they didn’t do effectively this past year and and I want to see that but if I’m Brad Beal I don’t think you got a wrong answer that you’re passing the ball to them what is the record for I guess downloads or viewers for your one of your shows at phnx and if LeBron and bronny were to come to town do you think do you think you could beat it well Mark uh I don’t usually divulge this kind of information but I’ll be honest with you it’s 12 million just kidding uh you know we’ve had over 2,000 people watching live at one point or another for for some of those breaking news things if there’s a LeBron one I think we’re pushing 10K live uh there are more because the the internet is going to break in a very unique way if that happens I don’t think I’d want to be reading the chat on our show that particular day because the hatred from every other fan base that’s going to come in will be pretty toxic but I think we will have a a fairly large audience nothing like you get on TV Mark uh when all the eyes of the valley are on you but we we do our humble best well I appreciate you staying up till 10:35 every night to watch we need to get you a ratings Box and thank you for building up my go here um do we do we have um a I guess with this this would be right around the draft probably when do you think the Tweet comes out that I I I need to plan my summer accordingly here espo that’s why I call you so um we’re looking at uh week of the draft draft night but you know draft night there’s no news either it’s like somebody gets drafted by one team and then a week later it’s official how do you think this is going to go uh Mark I would take your vacation in the next week week and a half and then lock in for the end of June beginning of July to be one of the crazier uh things around the NBA I don’t know that it’ll all focus on Phoenix but I think we’re in from for some fireworks from those first few days before the draft all the way through the legal tampering period in the beginning of July and then oh we got to pack up and go to Vegas for summer league right after that too oh well you think summer league could this extend into summer league or do you think this will be over by then oh well no we’ll be seeing bronny play for the first time in a Suns uniform in Vegas wow okay so that’s what we’ll be doing all right I’m going to go work on budgets to make sure that’s uh that’s a go um we can share we can share a room in Vegas don’t you worry okay do you have it like what’s your favorite piece of suns memoral that you that you had all like in all time because I don’t see much behind you right now but I’m wondering if you’re in Studio B because of the 12 million people you’ve built a new studio yeah Mark I’m in a walk-in closet I can’t fig fit too much of the uh of the memor avilia uh I have a jersey that was given to me when I left the organization uh that Jay Gaspar the equipment manager had made it was a game War one of the black throwback Sunburst uniforms that he put my name and my and the number of years I worked for the organization that one I hold uh near and dear to my heart I have a ticket stub from the game that Charles Barkley grabbed his 10,000th rebound I was there I was 13 I was three rows off off the court the best seats I ever had and then uh you know a decade and a half later when I was working for the team Chuck was there I asked him to sign it he said no problem man he signed it for me and it’s in a frame in my office at work uh you know and then the the last one I have a book that they used to rec recruit Kobe Bryant to the Suns this leatherbound book back back from uh 2004 the year that they wound up signing Nash they had a book that they put together Kobe was photoshopped into the Ring of Honor he was photoshopped with the with Amari and uh and Maran like that one is a a very rare piece of memorabilia that uh that I have as well you don’t have the LaMarcus Aldridge Banner that was on the building downtown no I I almost got my hands on the uh Karan Butler uh fashion show War in Jersey the only Karan Butler I interviewed him I have like the only interview with Karan Butler as a son because he never played a game right he was here with blood so for a minute he got traded like a a month after that fashion show I was so so damn close to get my hands on that uh on that Jersey and it fell through last minute and I am so very frustrated that I don’t own that piece of son’s Memoria last question worst Sun’s Jersey from the dark years what’s your least favorite the sleeved orange I hate any orange Jersey to be quite Frank because it looks like somebody’s working at Home Depot like and that’s not a slight on Home Depot I just don’t want my a professional basketball team to look like uh they’re trying to help me pick out lumber on a Saturday morning so right yeah like they it’s hunting season and it’s Tennessee orange burn orange that looks beautiful so I think we accomplished a lot I appreciate the perspective and uh I’m going to go get in those vacation request yeah do it now and do it quick awesome this is the extra point and Arizona’s family Originals podcast sponsored by your Phoenix Suns
A star’s son to the Suns? Perhaps it’s a path to land LeBron James. With LeBron’s son Bronny set to participate in a pre-draft workout with the Suns, speculation has picked up that it could lead to LeBron coming to Phoenix. Mark McClune discusses the possibility with Espo from PHNX.
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