Did the Phoenix Suns Make NBA Draft Promises To Tyler Kolek Or DaRon Holmes?
today unlocked on suns three late first round players in this month’s NBA draft have reportedly received promises that happens this time of year no different than any other year but they all look like players the Phoenix Suns might well be interested in so the question is did the Suns make those promises let’s go you are locked on suns your daily Phoenix Suns podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day and we’re back this is locked on Phoenix Suns part of the locked on podcast Network welcome to the show I’m Brendan clean credential Phoenix Suns media member for the past seven seasons and the host of the just basketball show Welcome to locked on suns appre appreciate each and every one of you making locked on suns your first listen to kickoff your Wednesday we’re here for you each and every day we’re free and available everywhere including YouTube so just hit that follow or subscribe button get a new episode in your feed every Monday through Friday become an every dayer get locked on to the Phoenix Suns all off seon long and Beyond right here with the show today’s episode all about news free agency the draft even the coaching staff for the Phoenix Suns we’re starting with the draft though the Phoenix Suns have the 22nd overall pick last week the week before was all things bronny James we know that I’ve covered it plenty here on the podcast and maybe that still comes to pass I I I can’t uh I can’t say the Suns won’t do something crazy like that I can’t say LeBron James won’t do something crazy like that but as we get closer to it I think it’s more realistic to look at Players the Suns may actually who may actually help the Suns who would be a more logical sensible thing to pursue than that and there’s three players that I already had in the back of my head who have received apparently uh potentially received promises in the draft okay and all three could be Sons candidates let’s start with the one that I think is the least likely the least realistic to happen here and that’s uh Devin Carter Devin Carter is 22 went to Providence combo guard had a big breakout shooting season this past year but other than that even if the shooting isn’t quite as Elite as it looked here as a I believe a junior or a senior he seems to have the size the scoring ability the motor to be a good two-way guard he apparently has a lot of interest he’s moving up but I think he’s going to be out of the sun’s reach I don’t know if he’s received a promise per se but there’s interest apparently from the Thunder there’s interest apparently from the Bulls those teams are picking 11th and 12th you know Kevin oconor has been big on him over at the ringer all year he’d be perfect for the Suns I don’t think he falls sticking with guards Tyler klech is the other guy that’s kind of in the news from a draft perspective with apparently some interest here as well and this comes from Kristen Peak over at Yahoo sports who wrote today in her mock draft that there are rumors of a promise for kch in the first round and the Suns make sense for the established guard who found point guard who found way to score at every level this season he can come in right away and be the lead guard for the second unit with how well he reads the game and facilitates for others now coak also got a co-sign from both Rick patino and from Shawn Miller on X this week who were talking up the senior guard and here’s the deal with him okay um in a lot of ways a very James Jones pick in that he is older coming out of Marquette but also had a pit stop on his freshman season at George Mason he’s a four-year player got better every season but you know for two years at Marquette now was a 39 plus perc three-point shooter with close to a 3 to1 assist to turnover ratio and yes he’s a point guard you know yes he has a a smaller wing span so to speak but he’s 6’3 so it’s not like he’s some kind of tiny guy here here and I wouldn’t hate it you know I’ve talked all all offseason about how I’m not opposed to the idea of a point guard but it’s really about who and what resources are you spending to go get that player I’m not really big on trading the 2031 pick or something you know or using nurkic’s contract even to go get a point guard who makes 15 million do I I don’t think it’s worth doing that I also wouldn’t trade this year’s pick to go get a point guard partially because there’s players like klech available who could just come in and be that for you longer uh length of Team control and ideally a little more upside so this is exactly the type of player that I think makes a lot of sense there’s also been this Johnny Fury guy he didn’t you know he’s not really rising or any sort of newsy but he’s a freshman he seems to be a little bit more maybe of a sure thing let’s say similar you know somebody who might be able to kind of surprisingly step in and contribute he is um let’s see how old is he Jonathan gavone referenced him as a player that he could see teams yeah he he has Fury 18th Fury will be basically 20 by the time the season starts so a little older for a freshman whereas other uh mock drafts like Yahoo have him you know closer to the end of the first round I’m not including him in any of this news or the promised stuff but there are players who have the kind of shooting and knoow on the court who might be options in this range just like um klech is Yahoo has Jaylen Tyson that um he’s kind of withholding some workouts and and might be one of these guys so I’m just going to combine them all into one but the point is that klech apparently has this kind of Promise nobody ever knows who these come from and sometimes the player doesn’t actually fall far enough for that promise to come to fruition we’ll see the last one is Dron Holmes who is a player I’ve mentioned on the show already and both Yahoo and ESPN have rumors that he is has received a promise Christen P Yahoo wrote there have been Rumblings around the league regarding a promise for Holmes late in the first round and sources say he’s shut down all future workouts ESPN also uh they both have him going to uh in that late first round region 28 to Denver actually for both ESPN’s writeup says sources told ESPN recently cancelled several workouts raising strong suspicions that he is secure to guarantee in the back part of the first round the Nuggets part of this seems to be somewhat of a guess but they do need a backup big I think he makes a lot of sense for the Suns he is like um klech an older player he will turn 22 by the time that the NBA season starts and he grew up he was born in year went to AZ Compass prep he’s 610 so maybe not you know the size of some of the other Center prospects in this draft but has proven to have a little bit of floor spacing ability which is nice to see now it was really just this most recent season only 83 attempts he shot 39% but he also improved from the free throw line maybe he’s no knockdown shooter as a rookie or anything but that’s appealing I have met mentioned kle wear he is the guy that I I like the most just because he is 7 feet tall really really athletic also has flashed a little bit of that skill level but might be out of the sun’s reach the ringer um the ringer has him pretty high although that’s might be more of a mock draft thing and then Yahoo has him I believe in the lottery yeah 14 to the Blazers Christen Peak called him the biggest Riser during the pre-draft process and has been working out well for multiple teams Yahoo has ESPN has him 23rd and the ringer has him ninth here’s where I come down on all of this the Suns being linked to any of these guys is a good thing what I do not want to see in a mock draft is the Suns have all but telegraphed that they will be moving this pick before or on draft night well they can’t legally move it before draft night but they could agree to something I don’t want to see that if a trade happens it happens but I want them to put them I want them to give themselves to love I want them to open themselves up to their emotions and fall for a prospect okay I’ve said it before I will say it again we think of trading draft picks as being all in I think sometimes taking a player who you believe in can also be a version of going all in who’s to say that trading a pick is always what’s going to put the most win now Talent on your roster plenty of teams this year had rookie contributors on their team the Pacers the Thunder the Mavs it happens and the sun should not be thinking of trading as the only way to upgrade their roster for 2025 that’s the bottom line any of these players sound great if the Suns ended up with any of the guys I listed off today I’d be pretty pleased next the Suns all but confirmed to be signing reyce O’Neal according to ESPN’s Brian WI H why that is the two reasons why that is a no-brainer coming up next first Today’s Show brought to you by better help making therapy easier and more accessible for anyone and everyone we all carry 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your chest with betterhelp visit betterhelp.com lockon NBA today to get 10% off your first month and try it out for yourself that’s betterhelp hp.com locked on NBA let’s get keep the show rolling ESPN’s Brian wior on let’s see let me uh get myself unblurred out here as we are dealing with me uh there we go Royce O’Neal All But back and Brian wior I trust this is a no-brainer for two reasons one I think that the sun should be doing as as long as it makes sense financially and keeps the team on a winning path I am going to Value continuity pretty highly in every single move that I make if I’m James Jones Matt ishia and everybody else this off season I guess it’s like the tiebreaker if I’m leaning toward one thing from a draft perspective from a trade perspective I want to keep going with what works stylistically chemistry-wise and everything else so Royce O’Neal coming back he’s not going to be probably maybe not even a starter on this team might not play a ton of minutes every single night he’s by no means a perfect basketball player he has weaknesses like everyone else but I just like the idea of hey they got him in February or March no February the deadline so he has a four-month advantage on anyone else the Suns could get this off seon plus he’s a lot better that’s the other reason they should keep him is he’s just a good basketball player and you got to keep those on your roster the chemistry we all talked up between him and Durant okay great well what happens when he gets a little more chemistry moving the ball spacing just playing in a flow with Booker be all these guys after another summer and another training camp and another season together that’s just it sounds basic it is basic but the Suns don’t have enough of that right now the other reason maybe the bigger reason that I’m in support of bringing O’Neal back that that it’s just a no-brainer I mean I said it in my best case scenario off season but it Bears repeating the best teams they don’t lose assets they keep churning through I think that’s my big takeaway from the team a team building perspective from the finals this season call it Nimble aggressiveness right the Suns unfortunately already went to the furthest reaches of being Allin but fortunately every offseason gives you the opportunity to kind of reset things with O’Neal the Suns have this chance where they can add another salary that’s tradable obviously the pics that they’re getting access to is another part of that but as it relates to O’Neal I don’t have to look much further than Dallas last summer they know that they have this Reggie Bullock contract that is expiring he is not really a valuable player anymore injuries and everything else just sort of added up for him and okay but we don’t want to lose that contract they had some picks to use and they made made something happen they get Grant Williams they trade a first round pick they get off the Bullock contract couple seconds as well Grant Williams doesn’t work out you know him and nurkic get into it that time when the Suns went into Dallas and won was one of Grant’s last harz with the Mavs getting the teeken ejection and everything else but what do they do they turn around they turn Grant Williams plus another first round pick into PJ Washington the Suns have the opportunity obviously this summer they could um they could sign and trade Royce O’Neal but obviously if Wind Horse is right that’s not going to happen more likely is just like when they got nir little and now he is a contract they can use in a trade with this year’s pick or the 2031 pick to go get something else that will be what Royce O’Neal is at next year’s deadline and next year’s off season so you know I ballparked it at somewhere in the realm of 3 years 40 41 million I’ve kind of seen that number being bounced around in a lot of different places pretty much what’s happening with that is it’s just a touch more than the mid-level exception it’s a raise from the nine or so million he made this past season obviously he has some leverage here given that he and his agency will know hey you kind of got to bring me back here you just traded for me and I’m your only path toward a salary here to get back on your books keep me I’m going to get a little bit of money for that but it all adds up to being a logical thing to do and then you go from there I’m not sitting here telling you I think that reyce O’Neal should be some sort of core stalwork part of the Phoenix Suns for the next three seasons no matter what but I think smart teams like that Grant Williams Ser uh you know sequence of events going from Bullock to Grant to PJ who’s now going to be starting in game one of the NBA Finals here on Thursday that’s exactly the type of thing the sun should be in the business of doing and keeping Royce O’Neal is step one toward getting back to that kind of flexibility let’s close out the show with maybe some bad news if you want to call it that which is that the Phoenix Suns apparently made a call or Mike buen holer did to Darin ham his former right-hand man in Milwaukee who just got fired by the Lakers and ham apparently said no which is where we got to David fizdale staying with the Suns I’ll tell you why the most important thing just like frankly buen holer or any of the Suns players is wanting to be here we’ll get into that next first Today’s Show brought you by the FanDuel sports book the official sports book of the lock on podcast Network it’s winner take all time in the NBA and NHL and FanDuel is giving you a shot to bring home a big win of your own right now new customers get $150 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet that’s $150 bucks to bet on spreads money lines player props and more Tuesday night as I’m recording this the Phoenix Mercury are playing that’ll be over by the time you are listening but we do have the Arizona Diamond Backs who are at home against the Giants right now there is hitting a home run there is uh hitting getting a hit at all Dbacks total runs I like the first five inning stuff on baseball because you can just bet more based on the starting lineups and then of course in the NBA Finals I’ve been telling you uh Jaylen Brown Finals MVP there’s uh you know Luca Kyrie Tatum points there’s exact uh series total game stuff all with plus odds that’s what you want to be looking for especially before game one before you know anything check it out all at fanduel.com lockon make every playoff shot count Vandal America’s number one sports book all right let’s close out the show um Darvin ham I tweeted all the way back in I tweeted that if h came to the Suns as part of a package deal with bud I would like it even more now two things have changed since then one is that I’ve really sold I’m really sold on bud I’ve really come to be even more hyped up on that move than I originally was and so I’m less inclined to need some kind of you know second in command guy or a defensive coordinator or whatever him would have been I just liked the idea of more experience in that coaching staff and more familiarity for bud but the other thing that has happened since then the other thing that has happened since then is that he’s gotten a couple of his other guys so Chad forcier and Vince larza and then I believe his name is shaon Randall are all guys that he has familiarity with who he’s been able to bring in those guys seem to largely be Player Development skill development tactic T kind of personnel tactician guys right whereas ham still would have been able to kind of be more of a game plan guy a associate head coach type of person but fizdale seems like he’s going to be that and so to get those three to get fizdale back and then to find out that ham that they swung and missed on ham kind of makes it go down a little easier but I’ll say the same thing that I said about bud and that I just said about Royce O’Neal to make the case for fizdale okay fizdale and Bud have never worked together before I know I talked a little bit about the fizdale hiring uh when it happen but I would imagine they have some level of familiarity they were assistants in the Miami Heat years when the Spurs in the Heat played in the finals so of course they had head-to-head battles and you coach in the league long enough they’ve both been in the league since the early 2000s if not before that you’re going to know your colleagues so I’m not super worried there but okay maybe you could make a case ham could have obviously been a little more comfortable for bud but I would look I mean I hate to bring this example up but it’s like I did it when I was talking about the bud press conference Monty who of course Suns fans know well Monty Williams got this job in Detroit and I frankly don’t feel like he wanted it the reporting out there is that they had to ask him and beg and plead multiple times and then finally just blow him away with a Financial offer he couldn’t refuse to get him to take the job I’m not saying that’s the only reason that things went so sideways with the Pistons this past year they were really hurt they were inexperienced their roster sucked but I have to imagine that Monty begrudgingly going there didn’t allow allow him to put his best foot forward so the fact that bud chose the Suns after a year off when there were other openings makes me feel good the same is true here I wouldn’t have wanted Matt ishia to make some kind of Godfather offer to ham just to get him to come be an assistant here that sounds like a recipe for disaster just not disaster that’s extreme but a recipe for failure it’s not too different frankly from kind of The Odd Couple of Kevin Young and and Frank vogle last year right so that’s the thing I I like that basically they got ham I like the fact that they got fizdale to come back on his own terms to choose to be here he was in the front office he was away from coaching he’s done all sorts of things in the league he didn’t have to be here he chose to be here I think that’ll go a long way I think if bud you know gave the okay on that then that’s going to go well that’s what I want to see okay so fizdale can continue to be one of the guys spearheading the defense by all um accounts that was part of what his kind of role was this past year that’s what he’s always made his bones doing in the league and he again in addition to the wanting to be here aspect of it the thing I said about the Royce O’Neal pre uh return just in that last segment that I think applies here is the chemistry side of it right ham might have brought more experience higher level experience more recently and the relationship pre-existing with bud but what fizdale brings is a relationship with these players and even though Kevin young was this head head honcho in in the assistant staff and this you know offensive orchestrator and was paid very highly to be kept here in Phoenix it didn’t feel like was this guy waiting in the wings to be a head coach here last season not saying he’s going to be bad at BYU I was the one advocating for him to get the head coaching job here so it’s not about Kevin young but fizdale was the guy time and again whether it was in quotes from The Players or it was in um on the court in huddles in in-game situations where we would see fizdale taking that leading role that’s going to be immens valuable this whole thing was an experiment last year I know it sounds like me giving excuses when I say that but with the level of injuries the fact that the whole roster had been turned over basically and how many things went wrong along the way 49 wins was decent they fell apart in the playoffs they fell apart part numerous times during that 49 win season but just think about what can be achieved simply from familiarity and so it’s part of what I said with the extension for Grayson Allen it’s part of why I don’t want to trade the big three if I can help it it’s part of why you keep Royce O’Neal and even if fizdale is probably low down on the list of things that’s going to make or break this Sun Season add him to that list as well that’ll wrap us up for the day enjoy your Wednesday guys thank you for being here hit follow or subscribe if you haven’t already get a new episode in your feet every single Monday through Friday all offseason long we got draft news coming down of course like we hit on in that first segment we’ll have Stephen pjon to round out the week later on free agency not too far coaching staff still to be filled where else can you get all of it right here I will will talk to you guys tomorrow again enjoy your Wednesday
The Phoenix Suns may trade their pick in the NBA Draft, or they could go after a pro-ready rotation player like Tyler Kolek or DaRon Holmes, who reportedly already have promises from 1st round teams.
Brendon Kleen of @justbasketballfans reacts to the draft news and Kolek and Holmes’ fit in Phoenix before discussing news that the Suns plan to bring Royce O’Neale back and that the Suns pursued Darvin Ham before bringing back David Fizdale.
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