Eric Gordon and Drew Eubanks Out, Yves Missi In For the Phoenix Suns?

Eric Gordon and Drew Eubanks Out, Yves Missi In For the Phoenix Suns?

today on locked on Phoenix Suns news Galore about the Suns roster two players who might opt out one player who might become a son in the draft one who certainly won’t and somehow they’re all the right decisions let’s go you are locked on suns your daily Phoenix Suns podcast part of the locked on podcast Network work your team every day and we’re back this is lockon Phoenix Suns part of the lockon podcast Network your team every day I’m Brendan clean your host a credential media member covering the Suns for the past seven seasons and the host of the just basketball show wherever you get your podcasts welcome thank you for making us your first listen to kickoff your Friday I was going to say we’re close to Fourth of July that’s just lying we’re not quite there yet but we’re nearing the holidays it’s hot I appreciate you spending your Friday with me regardless on your way to work on your way to practice for a kid on your way to the gym at the gym wherever you are whenever you are thank you for being here hit follow or subscribe if you haven’t already be coming every dayer we got episodes for you Monday through Friday all offseason and Beyond hit that button get an episode in your feed Monday through Friday get locked on to the Phoenix Suns all offseason long and we got news as promised as planned for as hoped the suns are keeping themselves in the headlines today’s episode brought to you by prize picks the easiest most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports go to priz picks.com loock on NBA use the code locked on NBA when you do to get a first deposit match up to $100 we’ll hear more from them later on in the show but let’s get to a few different reports from John gambadoro here locally that uh provide some clarity about where the suns are going to be this off season both with what’s going on with their Rock and next Thursday’s NBA draft so all right let’s start with the biggest news in my opinion because it’s the most concrete so it started on Thursday morning when Kelly Aiko from the athletic who covered the Houston Rockets when Eric Gordon was there still covers the Rockets reported that it was kind of on the fence 50/50 as to whether Gordon would be opting in or out for this upcoming season here in Phoenix of course the ball is in his court because last off season in order to get him and some of these other players one of whom we’ll talk about next in the next segment the Suns had to go out and do those options basically right it became a way for them to guarantee more money for some of these players than just the $23 million that they were going to be eligible to earn in year one if it was just a one-year contract if you remember part of the the uh good aspect of that from a sun standpoint was Matt isb’s willingness to spend those contracts that go beyond one year on the minimum are not subsidized by the NBA meaning ishbia and the Suns had to pay for those rather than for most teams they’re just kind of empty cap spots they’re just placeholders the league pays that money the Suns went out of their way to not do that again to have a little bit of a better offer seemingly that is not enough to keep Gordon Eric Gordon last season was probably the top free agent the Suns got in all of their minimum recruits but he uh averaged 11 points two rebounds two assists per game shot 38% from three got to the line less than one time per game now you know per game stats take or leave 44% from the field because most of his shots were threes gives you an efficiency of a 58 true shooting a little bit over League average but you look at the advanced stats something like box plus minus he was a negative on both ends of the Court according to that metric I wouldn’t say Gordon’s season was some kind of monumental failure for the Suns but that brings us to the other news right where John gambadoro goes on to say that he expects Gordon not to be back and kind of squashes the uncertainty all together and and just puts some certainty to it there so for all intents and purposes Gordon will not be his son next year again not a failure of a season but I think a few things worked against him and and a few things make me totally fine with the idea that he will not be part of this team going forward one of them is that they went out and ended up getting Grayson Allen in the DeAndre Damien Lillard trade now now it’s a little interesting there right because that created this Log Jam Even beyond what the Suns already were dealing with where Booker and Beal already have some overlap that the suns are still figuring out how to work around Gordon kind of added to that although you would have hoped you know defensively his ability to guard bigger players maybe he could be that other Wing alongside Kevin Durant in some of their closing lineups that never really came to pass his defense especially on the ball especially against more athletic younger players he just wasn’t able to to defend kind of those guys in space and and stay in front of them he wasn’t really you know forcing turnover he just sort of you know a vet who didn’t make a bunch of huge rotation mistakes which were a problem for the Suns so that’s probably why his defensive numbers look a little even better than you than his offensive ones frankly Advan stat wise all of that did not work out then you add the graceon Allen component that creates even more overlap another option to just slot right into that opening and it became Allen who just because his offense was so good his defense was frankly you know probably better than Gordon’s All Things Considered on the in total and I would say that you know there was this discussion throughout the season especially after they started to get healthy of you know I think it was Chris Haynes who reported that Gordon wasn’t pleased with his role he went on JJ reck’s podcast and kind of talked he talked much more about the the opportunity getting to play alongside great players and everything else but you could say that he wasn’t featured enough or didn’t get enough shots I mean frankly I just don’t think his offensive output and performance was good enough to to really earn that you know um also how do you feature somebody who’s not really an a a guy who runs off screens and creates open three-pointers that way like you know JJ reic or Cam Johnson would but 64% of his shots were threes so what how do you even feature a player like that and to make matters worse especially come playoff time he was hesitating he he wasn’t taking shots even those open Catch and shoot threes that were there so it just didn’t work out the Suns have better options there’s a lot of overlap with the skill set that Gordon provides and if the ability to kind of get downhill and finish at the basket the ability to defend bigger players if that stuff’s not there either there really does not seem to be much value now look uh Gordon has been a guy who has fluctuated a lot based on the circumstances around him I would say and how physically healthy he is he’s going to be 36 next season so you know that’s another reason to maybe not bet on a bounceback but he could go somewhere else and have a better season it wouldn’t shock me but for the Suns even the best version of what Gordon provides at this point is probably just not worth the minutes you’re going to have to give a veteran like that and somebody who does a lot of the same things as your best player so if gambo’s on to something here and and and that is where this goes He Ops out he goes to another team it made sense it was worth the pursuit it was worth signing him I think there’s maybe a world in which it goes better but the Suns have a lot of opportunities to improve the roster this upcoming off seon even if it’s just bringing somebody younger into that slot who does some of the things that the Suns roster is really desperate for it’s probably best for both sides one move that was not so certain was Drew Eubanks what was he going to do with his option how did he feel about testing the market after one season with Phoenix it appears he will not be back either I will tell you why that flip from what he had been saying earlier in the off season really sets up the Suns to take a step forward with the rotation coming up next first Today’s Show brought to you by prize picks America’s number one daily fantasy sports app with over five million active users you can now win up to 100 times your money on prize picks with as few as four correct picks turning $10 into a 000 like that if you’re looking for promotions prize picks has lowered stat projections on Tuesdays to help your lineup hit or returned entry fees if you lose every Friday prize picks is available in more than 30 States across the country and all summer long with a variety of sports baseball of course but women’s basketball is still heating up with Caitlyn Clark and Angel ree joining the frey to take on the likes of Brianna Stewart and Asia Wilson The Perennial MVPs here in the league what I love about prize picks is that it is not just one uh head-to-head matchup or a pool or a league you’re in you just go against the prize picks player projections you say more Caitlyn Clark 3s you say more Asia Wilson rebounds that can be your whole lineup turning $10 of course into 1,000 download the priz pick app today use the code locked on NBA for a first deposit match up to $100 that’s code locked on NBA at prize picks for a first deposit match up to $1100 prize picks pick more pick less it’s that easy all right so the other news of the day from John gambadoro all the news on this episode is from gambo but Drew Eubanks reportedly likely to opt out as well that was uh the Gordon thing was from gambo on Twitter this was from gambo um on burns and gambo the radio show that he does here of course locally and that’s a change of tune from Eubanks right who earlier in the off season right away basically I think the interview might have come like in April uh or within a couple weeks of the Suns being eliminated by the Minnesota Timberwolves and Eubanks told Dwayne Rank and of the Arizona Republic back then that he wanted to be back he expected and believed that the sons wanted him back and that was sort of where we left things I thought that was a little bit interesting back then and I didn’t really talk about it as a whole thing here on the show kind of for that reason because one it didn’t really pass the smell test that Eubank I guess that the Suns would want Eubanks I mean he had not played well in the playoffs he had been very up and down throughout the regular season mostly down making mental lapses on defense constantly earning the ey in particular of Kevin Durant on that end how many times did we see Durant kind of exasperated after Eubanks made a mistake either you know allowing a rebound not making that kind of second help effort as a rim protector botching a switch or a pick and roll coverage it didn’t go well on top of that his offensive game proved to be incredibly limited where he was if the ball was in his hands outside of two seconds to give a dribble handoff to somebody he panicked he would turn it over he could not dribble at all he wasn’t a post-up threat he did not have a jumper of course and so unless he was catching the ball right at the basket and finishing it wasn’t really workable and then there’s the fact that of course from the very beginning I was never a big big believer in Eubanks because of his size it’s not that I don’t think any smaller players as far as centers go can ever succeed I mean there’s countless examples I’m not comparing him to Draymond Green but of course Draymond Green being an easy one there but at 69 and the sun’s already being undersized it just felt like a big ask to expect that the Suns could build enough one through five size in lineups where Eubanks was on the court to compete with the best of the best in the NBA so from the beginning on through all the way down to the end it did not go well it was not a good match considering they tampered for this guy and they’re losing their second round pick this year and signed him on day one like it was just a whiff I mean they clearly thought he was primed to take a leap forward in his career as one of the mid Prime veterans that they targeted and it just did not work his block rate went down his um assist rate went down his turnover rate went way up ugly season all right so I’m assuming maybe Eubanks just spoke a little too soon maybe took some of the positiv positivity and good natured conversations that happened at Exit interviews or whatever to mean that he was coming back the ball is in his court he has a player option but I would imagine that somewhere along the line it was communicated to him hey you’re not guaranteed to be our backup center we’re going to be exploring other bigs you know if you opt in you’ll be competing for a job and minutes and you might not be part of of our plans at that point considering he’s only 26 going on 27 this is a minimum contract at the end of the day I’m sure he realized hey it’s probably not best for me to go back and my value even if I’m getting guaranteed money my value is going to take a hit if I’m not even playing I would imagine he can hop on a roster as a second or third big somewhere maybe a worse team that’s not counting on him so much to be you know a championship opponent but that’s kind of what I think happened not to mention that uh Mike buen Holzer has historically you kind of either need to be a switch defender or a big body drop Defender and you got to have some level of skill or shooting ability on the offensive end to cut it with Mike buholzer he’s never really played a big like Eubanks consistently in his career so I’m sure that had something to do with it regardless here we are now the suns are not going to have Eubanks on their roster most likely according to gambo my last thoughts on this outside of just you know it’s for the best the suns are going to be better off I think with a different backup big almost you know I don’t want to speak too soon we’ll get to a couple things in the draft here to close the show there are bigs in the NBA World worse than Eubanks I’m not trying to say he’s just the worst of the worst but um definitely somebody who fits better and definitely uh they they should be able to find a better a better player even if it means frankly this was the other thing about Eubanks is they put themselves in a Hole by not having another option you know and so maybe if Eubanks kind of started the season out of the rotation and learned the system defensively especially a little bit better maybe it goes so I even think like having metu basically be the only other big man and then bull of course really really screwed the Suns too so I would hope that this year part of the solution Beyond Eubanks if they even if they keep nurkic is get a bunch of guys in there get three or four traditional real centers maybe bow is one of them as an option but you know don’t pigeon hole yourself given that you’re paying these guys minimums they’re uncertain by Nature you have Gordon who was older and clearly you know kind of breaking down as far as not being at his Peak and then you have view Banks who was a kind of a a wild card being smaller and coming over from a a not winning environment so mix it up you know but the other thing is it just tells us that I think you know the Suns understand Center is a spot I know again it’s a player option the suns are not making this decision but I’m assuming they expressed their intentions and kind of forced their hand here and that’s good news because again they need size desperately I don’t see a lot of Pathways this off seon where their main players one through four get you know maybe they can add one more Winger forward who’s playable obviously having O’Neal for the full season would help but they’re one through four if they’re keeping Grayson at least through October which is hard to make trades at that point anyway and you know their stars are their Stars if you’re not going to be big one through four or at least not huge one through four you got to be huge at at the five and Eubanks is not that so that that’s a good signal that we’re seeing some progress I’m not saying it has to be an athlete a rim Runner there’s all sorts of ways you can skin the cat there and Bud has had more you know spacing drop big men not just you know the 7 foot three wingspan leaping guys so there’s all sorts of ways I don’t think Eubanks was the way that’s where I’ll leave it all right what could be the way Eve Missy from Baylor and apparently not a much different kind of big from duke we’ll break down what gambo had to say about who the suns are and are not targeting in next week’s NBA draft coming up next first Today Show brought to you by LinkedIn jobs when you’re hiring for your small business you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role 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conditions apply all right let’s close it out so last but not least as gambo is on working overtime here this time of year from a sun standpoint he every year tends to rule out players who are being linked to the Suns and he will establish as he does for the NFL draft his top five kind of players in the mix for the pick so today on the radio show he uh said Kyle filipowski from duke who is more of a you know um toolsy skill kind of Center sophomore so you know you could have thought you know the Suns tend to Target older players we know they want somebody who has a good chance to contribute uh earlier on in their career maybe he would have made sense he shot 35% from three this past season on three attempts per game some of the components that make some sense right Brook Lopez obviously the most recent big man that bud coached you can go Al Horford you can go Sandro Mamu Kash V you can go Paul Milsap perro AED on down the line um but no instead Eve Missy who like I said with EU Banks would be a different type of big man for Bud now I want to say Eve Missy freshman from Baylor just uh you know measurables stuff is off the charts 610 uh blocked a shot and a half per game had a block percentage of 7.3 which is very very good um I just want to say you know 7 foot6 Wings spin which is just in absurd made how many what percentage of his twos 61 and is a decent enough free throw shooter a lot of good stuff and he’s just a freshman so room to get better highly touted player you know dating back even to high school moved to California and went to prolific prep which is a a big breeding ground for players so a lot of good stuff a lot of things to like I’ll just go back to the bud side of things because I don’t want to overhype or over harp on that one uh the league has changed a lot right Bud started coaching the Hawks in a very different era of NBA basketball where that kind of five out stuff was if you could do it if you could pull it off if you could have an Al Horford well the Celtics just won a championship with Al Horford doing much of the same thing but you know back then it was like a cheat code you you could have a huge Advantage just by playing the game and playing the math correctly so in Milwaukee you know Bobby poris is it doesn’t super fit into the mold necessarily you know maybe he’s kind of like Milsap I guess you could say but um Giannis of course was the center for a lot of lineups that bud played and they would go to him at as a five in with poris a lot and Giannis is basically an eve Missy who can dribble and shoot and score so like you know let’s just let’s not box coach bud in too too much that said one thing that is interesting to me about um gambo kind of saying this that that Missy might be in play um I don’t believe he said that Missy worked out for the Suns I listen back to the um segment and he did say that filipowski did not work out for the Suns which is part of why he felt comfortable ruling him out he also said that the skill set overlap was a little bit too much with nurkic and that they want some of that diversity of style so Missy makes sense from all that standpoint it’s just surprising that they would uh consider a raw freshman that just really hasn’t tracked with the way that they’ve gone ever um since basically I mean honestly Aon I wouldn’t have called raw so you know when’s the last time the Suns took a raw freshman probably 2017 with Josh Jackson right so and that was a James Jones did not work for the team I or maybe had just just just gotten hired either way different regime different ownership different everything the Suns have not targeted players like this much even last year you know I keep saying that phrase mid Prime veteran the Suns did not go after the undrafted free agent who got cut loose by his team who’s trying to catch on somewhere or the you know second draft guys that are you know have their options turned down by their team and are on the outs um the Suns went four guys who had been in the league three four five seasons but had never been on good teams before the kab bat stops and the Drew Eubanks and the chimzi metus out there UDA watab of course so even then the Suns did not go young raw High upside so I think Missy with the fact that he can make his free throws the fact that he you know has the shop blocking and everything else like I wouldn’t say he’s some kind of low floor player but the learning curve is steep and it’s no sure thing that Missy hits at all but even more so would be able to contribute in year one so just fascinating kind of to consider who might be in play and what that kind of tells us not only about the sun’s draft approach heading into Thursday of next week but just generally their roster building approach you know this is a front office that’s starting to look quite different they have never invested a lot in scouting as we know but between President Josh Bin’s very clear involvement in things nowadays multiple new front office people hired including uh one from college who just coached at the University of South Florida in addition to some cap people and everything else who is kind of influencing the player um evaluations and Personnel scouting and all that and and this draft process at this point in time I don’t think we know for sure and so we know what the draft has been and how the Suns have looked at it but I’m not saying that Missy uh being considered at all is some sort of uh new approach altogether but I think that I’m keeping my eye on it at the very least and if the suns were to pick pick him or anybody like this a a young raw athletic Prospect at any position frankly it would be a big change so we’ll see only a week to go but something to think about that’ll wrap us up for the week Brandon DZ back Monday I’ll have Zack Cohen of real GM who breaks down the draft for them also happens to be a phoenix resident who is a son’s fan so who better to talk through the draft with than him Stephen pjon will drop by to talk through the latest in Suns land maybe on Wednesday’s recording for Thursday show draft day or maybe Stephen can just help me break down who the Suns pick on Thursday we’ll see but it follow hit subscribe get all those episodes in your feed next week as the draft arrives enjoy your weekend and I’ll catch you guys then

Eric Gordon and Drew Eubanks will reportedly decline their player options with the Phoenix Suns, while a local insider gives clues for the Suns’ pick in next week’s NBA Draft.

Brendon Kleen of @justbasketballfans explains why Gordon and Eubanks leaving could be a net positive for the Suns before looking at what the Suns’ interest in Missi tells us about the offseason.

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