Bickley Blast: 3 things that could fix the Phoenix Suns

Bickley Blast: 3 things that could fix the Phoenix Suns

and Mar boardings Arizona Sports the local sports leader bigly blast today I am going to fix the Phoenix Suns in three easy steps number one James Jones must recruit at an elite level because his nickname is Champ he’s won NBA titles and he must use all of that to get a better brand of free agents who are willing to accept minimum contracts he needs to sell next year’s Sons as the team that can win a championship the team you want to play for number two that starts with Kyle Lowry who feels exactly like the point guard the Suns need a Savvy veteran with a real presence and finally number three Mike buen holer must do what Frank vogle could not he must convince Devin Booker and Kevin Durant to take way more three-point shots and this isn’t going to be easy because KD and book have reached the elite level of basketball by doing what they do which is break down opponents off the dribble and kill them in the mid-range they know exactly how to get their scoring averages and asking a star player to change a winning formula is act asking to expose themselves to failure subjecting themselves to lower shooting percentages and scoring averages it’s a risky proposition and the only way to get Superstars to expose themselves to failure is if they really truly believe in their team and the cause and this is where buen hoer must make a huge difference because Booker and Durant are great Shooters who can give the Suns more of what they need and because it doesn’t matter how much we believe in the Suns unless the strongest belief starts in that locker room all right today’s Bickley blast brought to you by my great friends at Chapman BMW who make luxury attainable find them online at Chapman bmw.com the one reason to maybe think differently is that Mike wener is a terrific coach perhaps he could coax more out of the roster but on the other hand you know Kevin Durant was also very healthy last year yeah that’s probably not going to replicate itself just based off the odds of how last years of so you know the studs will still be in the mix to some degree as long as they have Booker and Durant on the team but it’s just hard for me to see them being in the same caliber of a team like Oklahoma City when you just go up and down the Rost temps from ESPN he joined us yesterday talking about uh you asked the question Bick about Mike buen holer uh change at the top there was obviously a need for a change at the top the sun’s brass identified it they make the change they move from Frank vogle to Mike buen holer how much of a difference can he make um I think that’s one of the the heaviest questions going into this season is you know we’ve seen Mike buen holer have success he’s a very accomplished head coach uh two-time coach of the year he’s coached 60 win team teams you won a championship uh something that we hit on earlier um on this and and you talked about stylistic changes and yes the Suns need to shoot more threes they talked about shooting more threes a lot last year but they wouldn’t do it they wouldn’t do it uh that has to change it’s just part of the modern NBA but um how much of a difference in culture and belief can Mike buen holer engender from day one that’s going to be a big question it was very clear early on last year something was missing in that whole connection namely belief and and so so let’s focus on dein Booker and Kevin Durant because these are guys because Frank vogle did ask them to take more Threes And it resulted in that one really weird game at the end of the year when it just seemed like they were doing it despite their coach was it 23-point attempts in the first quarter right you remember that so again you’re talking about players who are established who look to get 27 to 30 points per game Who expect to shoot at a certain level now if you’re asking them expand your game take more three-point shots you’re asking them to get away from their individual formulas yeah they’re they’re the two players also probably most famous for having a mid-range game without a doubt their game is not about shooting three-pointers those two guys so you need to get them off with the out of their comfort zone and try to be part of this three-point solution but one thing you can’t do is what Durant also complained about is have him just stand in the corner waiting to shoot you know a corner three but it’s also not an either or proposition there’s I mean there’s a lot of in between there I mean you don’t have to stand in the corner Kevin Durant can shoot from anywhere on the floor we we’ve seen that um that’s where I I think in part of this roster construction where the suns are just hampered and I know Kellen was talking about this yesterday is that from the center position in terms of spacing they’re not getting a lot of three-point shooting from their bigs and people say oh big deal well it is a big deal when you talk about spacing for elite scorers by adding Mason plumbley you’re not getting that at all although law Murray who covers the Clippers was on with Burns and gambo yesterday and was raving about what the sons have done at the big position in terms of passing with plumbley and nurkic and and igodo all good pass passers the at the at the big position they don’t shoot threes um and Yousef nurkic is a guy who in the first half of last year it wasn’t a big number of Threes but he showed that threat as the season went on he stopped shooting threes um I wonder if that’s part of the strategy for Mike butin holer too is hey we’re not asking you to shoot a lot but you got to show the threat yeah nerk or or we’re we’re going to be bogged down offensively again I again I would much rather have Devin Booker and Kevin Durant shooting threes than use of N I would and and so you got you they need to create an offensive system that is going to result in in in in a little of both allowing Devin Booker and Kevin Durant to be who they’ve been but getting them to shoot more three-point shots because they can do it I there there have been times when Devin Booker and that pull-up three has been a devastating weapon for this basketball team a and so they wouldn’t do it for Frank vogle that’s pretty clear there were many times when this subject came up and FR vogle would say yes we we need to shoot more threes we need to shoot more threes and it it gets back down to the basic premise that when you have Kevin Kevin Durant and Devin Booker while not exactly similar players they’re both players who excel at the mid-range and in today’s modern NBA you can’t have too many of those guys yeah but here’s where the the disconnect lied statistically for the Suns from three-point range last year they averaged 32.6 three-point attempts per game that was 25th in the league their percentage on three-pointers 38.2% that was fifth in the league those numbers have to be closer yeah if if you shoot at a high percentage it just makes it just makes sense to shoot more yeah right again and if you’re shooting at that high percentage you’re not failing enough and so Devin Booker and Kevin Durant are going to have to be willing to fail from the three-point line to make this a much more dangerous basketball team it can’t just be Grayson Allen no it can’t be said well that’s our three-point shooter so we’re fine no and these guys can do it and this would help expand everything about this basketball team because this team even on good nights against good teams they get caught up in that math problem where they’re do taking threes we’re making twos they’re making threes we’re making twos pretty soon you look up you’re down by 12 yeah that’s they ran into you’re exactly right they ran into that a lot uh another point in the blast you made Kyle Lowry is he going to be the guy uh the market is thinning on free agent point guards that are available for what the Suns have to spend Kyle Lowry is a trusted veteran made a ton of money in his career he has w a ring is are they zeroing in on on Kyle Lowry uh Chris Dunn he’s going to the Clippers he’s the guy that I I wanted the Suns to get Cameron Payne’s name has come up apparently they’re not interested in him his name is Terry Johns Wonder his name is Terry Johnson Terry Johnson for those who don’t know what we’re talking about campaign when he was arrested in the middle of the night in Scottsdale um for not giving police accurate information he kept insisting his name was Terry Terry John Johnson Terry Johnson put that one put that one at the table with Ron Mexico right Mason Saunders Mason Saunders put them all together Ron Mexico and Mason Saunders have a little bit of you know cash to them Terry Johnson is just such a generic maybe generic name right that’s weird could wouldn’t that be great to for the Suns to announce Prescot we’ve signed Terry Johnson you like no that’s campaign what are you talking about no it’s Terry it’s Terry Johnson that’s what he told us his name that’s how he signed it I don’t know would you say during that arrest he was campaigning to be Terry Johnson you would say though with the Suns not signing anyone yet they it’s obvious that they’re just have to wait that every they’re gonna because these candidates are going to see what else they can get elsewhere if they can get more money or a better situation or else they wouldn’t they have signed someone by now we know that’s their top priority well I think it wasn’t their top priority they proved that by signing a center first point guard point guard point guard point guard point guard Toy Boy to toy toy toy the possibility remains too they don’t address it and they go into a season with the same and you want to talk about a fan face that’s going to be pulling its hair out uhuh point guard point guard point guard point guard point guard point guard well I listen I think I think they wanted Chris done like Vinnie and I both did and I think that didn’t happen he went to the Clippers the Clippers were the team that was projected for uh Kyle Lowry and they ended up with Chris they end up with something better like we sign we drafted your brother come on so again so this is where James Jones has to step up and flash his pedigree and go look I I’m not just I’m not an analytics dork GM I’m a guy that won a title with LeBron right I’m a guy that’s been there trust me we’ve got something here and you’re the missing piece we’ll see how it shakes out thanks for watching Bickley and marada click to see the latest Bley blast and hit the button in the middle to subscribe to Arizona Sports

Bickley Blast: 3 things that could fix the Phoenix Suns. Dan Bickley breaks it down.

Video: Felisa Cárdenas and Jeremy Schnell/Arizona Sports

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