The Case Against the Phoenix Suns Running It Back Next Season

The Case Against the Phoenix Suns Running It Back Next Season

today on locked on Phoenix Suns I told you earlier in the week why I thought it made sense for the Suns to stand Pat to run it back to bring the same group together again and try to win a championship in year two as a core today why it might not make so much sense for the Suns and some Olympic observations 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 your team every day I’m Brendan clean your host credential media member covering the Suns for the past seven seasons and the host of the just basketball show Welcome to lock on suns thank you for making us your first listen to kick off your Thursday one day closer to Summer League I’ll be going to Vegas Friday morning hopefully you’re excited for that but we got some time before then so thank you for spending it with us hit follow subscribe if you have not already we’re free and available everywhere including YouTube hit that button get a new episode in your feed every single Monday through Friday get locked on to the Phoenix Suns all offseason long news games the Olympics summer league all of it right here becoming every dayer with me every day today’s episode brought you by the game time app app download the game time app today create an account and use the code locked on NBA for $20 off when you do make your first purchase $20 off your first purchase code locked on NBA more from game time later in the show terms apply all right let’s start here part two of a show I did earlier in the week where I made the case a whole bunch of different angles of the case of why it in fact did make sense for the Suns to stand Pat to quickly recap that line of thinking which is right now where the suns are sitting with very much the same roster and some marginal improvements to improve the depth and the athleticism and everything else the types of Trades they might want might have wanted to do with nurkic weren’t there they were able to maximize everything else The Big Three worked decently well they added optionality around that big three that should be able to make better the deadline in February might have some different and more more intriguing enticing trade options than what the suns are looking at right now and the Player Development situation top to bottom is just a little more coherent so that’s the case for but let’s make the case against it all right and it’s uh not not as there’s not as many reasons against it if I’m being honest which maybe tells you something right there but I see two main things that make standing Pat and running it back with this group a risk now the obvious one is they got swept in the first round but the difference between getting swept in the first round and being competitive in the postseason that wasn’t going to get flipped over in in one move anyway Health has to go your way matchups have to go your way and a lot of other things have to look a lot better they just played like crap they fired their coach and they made some changes so let’s not hold them to the sweep but let’s also be realistic about where they are and so again two main things let’s start with the first one which is more on the court the problem with this team in large part over the course of the whole season was their defense that is that was obvious as a as a as a weak point when they assembled the roster even before deand dreon got traded frankly but especially after he left it was part of why they hired Frank vogle it was a focus all season long in the regular season the Suns finished the year as the 12th best defense in the NBA in terms of points allowed per 100 possessions when you exclude garbage time 12th is not bad 12th on defense can win you a championship as long as the offense is Elite now the offense wasn’t Elite but you would hope that just gets closer to the top of the NBA versus ninth sort of by itself and the the moves they’ve made will help them get there but the defense was the bigger issue not only were they 12th in the regular season which is good but not great 14.3 points allowed per 100 possessions they plummeted down to in the playoffs they allowed 125.81614610 were better than the Suns only Golden State and Atlanta were worse and those were just one playing game a piece and so good but not great in the regular season and atrocious in the playoffs on a weakness we already knew existed based on how the roster was assembled before they even played out the year that’s a worry that’s a concern so they’ve addressed some aspects of their defense I think with Royce O’Neal for a full season their overall team defense and size should be a little bit better if Monte Morris can get back to normal he is another point of attack option at the very least somebody that you can put on small guards and have a chance you know remember Terry roier went off against the Suns in that game against Charlotte you know in a loss and maybe even a to throw at let’s say Jaylen Brunson for instance or whatever guy you kind of want to point to there D igodo those are athletic upside picks that could potentially contribute we’ll see what happens but in an ideal world you would have been able to get a defensive Wing stopper maybe a more athletic center option besides Mason plumbley to be your backup or even potentially swap in is place as the starter none of that has happened so you’re rolling into another season where defense is going to be a big question mark and your personnel is going to be at a disadvantage on a night toight basis the other reason the other case for not standing Pat for trying to shake it up make a big move make a big Improvement is not only did the rest of the Western Conference continue to get better or solidify itself but it doubled down on the aspects of the the best teams doubled down on the aspects of their identity and their style that were already most difficult for the Suns to match up with right they’ve matched up decently with the nuggets for years and that’s one of the funny weird things about the Suns and why it’s a little bit hard to predict where they’ll end up right but set that aside the teams they struggled with the most I mean Dallas for multiple years running now Oklahoma City of course Minnesota who just beat them and a lot of these teams went all in on that that identity that athletic physical swarming identity that the Suns really struggled with you know Minnesota kept all their guys they didn’t blow it up they didn’t trade towns they just they’re going to be the same team but a year better with all their youth Oklahoma City when and got Alex Caruso drafted more more Wing players and and more perimeter guys cassan Wallace Jaylen Williams Chad holgren those guys will all be a year better and now they have another big man to throw in there and Isaiah hartenstein Dallas with the Naji Marshall Edition the Quinton Grimes flyer obviously Lively getting a year better Klay Thompson maybe a little bit of a of a change up as far as the identity goes but of course keeping PJ Washington and whatnot they’re going to be that type of team as well and in the East I know you know the suns are a long way from thinking about that but Orlando adds kcp they’re another Wing heavy small ball versatile type of Team the Knicks get male Bridges they’re trending in that direction the Sixers get Paul George the Boston Celtics title win has forced has has prompted teams to go going in that direction the Suns struggle with teams like that and there’s more of them than ever before and the best teams are all built that way so they might match up great with the Nuggets who now will be two years old in a weakened version of what their Championship group even was they might match up with some other teams well but by standing Pat they run the risk of kind of falling behind where the league is going and that’s a concern so in terms of the assets they had at their disposal maintaining those assets maintaining that flexibility betting on your big three to have a better season and a more cohesive chemistry together in the second go round that all makes tons of sense but there’s big picture reasons why the Suns still are kind of facing uphill battle to be in the mix for a championship based on how this offseason has gone one thing that could swing their favor to make that big three look even better is Devin Booker’s performance with Team USA he got the start in exhibition game number one on Wednesday night I’ll give you my observations on what that could mean for him going forward coming up next first Today’s Show brought to you by the game time app game time is an au ticket Marketplace of Major League Baseball which makes getting tickets faster and easier for America’s pastime prices on the game time M even go down the closer it gets to first pitch what I love about game time though in addition to loving baseball in addition to 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lowest price guaranteed all right let’s keep it rolling so look uh the exhibition game against Canada it was both teams first matchups in the kind of training camp leading up to the Paris Olympics it was you know Team Canada is almost entirely made of made up of NBA guys teams are you know holding players out for rest with Kevin Durant of course who I talked about yesterday and I’ll close out the show with a little bit more on KD sitting with the calf injury Kawhi Leonard already got sent home like you know it’s game number one of a of a long a Long play here so I’m not going to go overboard with the analysis of the intricacies of the game it felt like an All-Star game at points it felt like an experiment you know throwing darts at the board and seeing what sticks at other points but Devon Booker got the start so KD out and uh the fifth starter spot that we kind of always knew was up for grabs that leaves two so the three locks of course did end up starting as expected which is curry LeBron and embiid but the two other starters were Booker and Drew holiday so there’s still a question as to when Durant comes back one of those guys will have to go to the bench the other one might keep that fifth starter spot but frankly I’m not even that worried if if Booker starts or not I I don’t really care about the starting and and everything else one because it’s still early and that could change by the final game two because we’ve seen team Team USA start and close with very different players each way so whatever I do want of course I mean I’m not you know a robot I want to see book play I want to see him get meaningful opportunities I want to see him contribute I just want to see him out there I mean I’ve watched almost every game this dude has played of course I want to see that but I don’t care if it’s starting because the point is what him even starting in this game Prov proves considering a lot of people had him on the could he even play might he be getting dnps type of conversation as everything started up this month him even starting it all shows his value his adaptability his malleability his versatility Olympic book is back he didn’t take a shot until I believe close to the end of the half if I have that right that that sounds crazy I don’t think there was a box score for this thing out side of the ones that like the media who’s there can take a quick picture of when they print out the physical copies but this was like you know an exhibition that Fox Sports One just decided to throw on TV so it was pretty informal I don’t have every stat that book accumulated but he affected the game without looking to score and that’s just so crazy I mean it really is right I know it’s the Olympics I understand but I mean there’s countless players you wouldn’t say that about right I mean last World Cup it was a big talking point that Brandon Ingram was incapable of adjusting in that way he wasn’t giving effort on defense he was refusing to kind of play off the ball and shoot threes and just sort of be a role player and he started to fade he wasn’t getting minutes his regular season this past year was a little bit of a step back I think you would have to say from where his best years were and now he’s staring down a situation in New Orleans where you can draw a straight line from that World Cup experience to them not wanting to extend him and him being on the trade market just as one example of what it can look like when players get to this stage and get to this environment and they might know mentally they’re going to have to adjust and adapt and change but they just can’t actually bring themselves to do it book it has never been a problem and that speaks volumes for a dude who in the NBA I mean his main responsibility for most of the time he’s been in the league is Get Buckets on awful teams on great teams on mediocre teams and everything in between book has been a score three level ISO off ball spot up transition whatever Booker puts the ball in the basket we get to the Team USA environment he’s defending on the ball he’s getting rebounds and hit aad passes he’s making the you know one skip pass more to swing it around the arc and go from good to Great from a shot selection stand point it’s it’s really cool to behold and that is a great thing to see for him earning more opportunities this summer as we watch him with Team USA but it is also a good sign of I think just getting reps doing some of the Dirty Work that he’s going to have to do with the Suns this season that brings me to something I guess I just am going to be wondering about keeping an eye out for trying to maybe measure a little bit here as all this rolls along which is that it’s counter to I guess all of our assumptions it’s counter to expectation that book’s best stretch ever happened where they get back from the bubble he has two months off then goes right into a very condensed regular season into a finals run into the Olympics which creates another condensed off season and another condensed season after that and he’s an MVP candidate the following year after the finals in the Olympics plays a bunch healthy gets hurt in the beginning of the playoffs but comes back looks good still and obviously gets eliminated in the second round that year but from you know training camp in November of 2020 through you know the elimination by the Mavs in May of 2022 he did not get much of a break and that contributed to one of his more healthy stretches and one of his more most I mean the most impactful stretch of his entire NBA career so all of this stuff is impossible I mean we are not at the point where we can accurately measure and predict what players bodies are going to do in any sport I do think we are pushing the boundaries of it in terms of the style of plays the evolution of how basketball is played and the fact that we’re still playing so much of it in the NBA and international schedules I mean socer is very similar these guys are being pushed to the brink so I’m not here to say play as much basketball as possible and that’s some sort of secret sauce to avoiding injuries but with book we have evidence that that happened and especially considering that the Suns got eliminated a lot earlier than they probably of course than they wanted to and earlier than they were expecting to this year I I’m just going to be kind of on the lookout for how it affects him physically maybe he’s just the type of player that of course needs some time off but that these summer experiences where he’s able to train and really be competitive maybe that helps him we’ll see last but not least it’s the Kevin Durant media tour this month and we have another set of interviews with Kell Olsson of Arizona Sports and Tim bontemps of ESPN let’s talk through the offensive end and why Durant is optimistic that the big three can find their groove in year two together based on some com ments this week we’ll get to that after a break all right let’s close it out so couple quotes to read to you from Durant this week shout out to Kell Olsson covering things locally Gerald boray appears to be out there now as well starting on Wednesday so the sun side of Team USA is in good hands of course National coverage as well we talked about the Vince Goodwill interview on Monday now we have this ESPN interview from Tim bontemp as well but let’s start with what Kellen asked KD about which is related to the offense right if you remember in the aftermath of the season when vogle got fired there was was a lot of finger pointing about the offense and Durant’s frustration with it was referenced specifically in the athletic article that kind of aired the dirty laundry of the team so Durant responded to those reports today or on Tuesday to Kellen he said quote if we’re struggling on offense and the ball is not moving and your best players aren’t being put in a position or in space to Showcase their skill that’s with anybody I ain’t like when book was in the corner a lot or if Brad was sitting around a lot we just stood around I think you could make more options or we could have had more movement in our offense to say I was frustrated about that that’s just a basketball thing that we always feel we’re trying to figure it out style of play is not something that I’m pissed off at the team about it’s like yo we need to figure it out to get better he said he thinks butd has been watching film of last year to get some ideas of how to improve keep things that worked throw things away that he that didn’t work and KD said he’s excited to get on the court with book or uh with the big three again under bud is what I should say the other aspect of this to go to the bontemps interview was that KD pointed out that they won 49 games which is important to remember in all of this and the record of course with the big three all healthy was even better than that the record after Beal got back in late December was 50 plus win Pace on and on and on the metrics tell you this team was better than it actually performed and KD sort of reminded us of that in this interview what he also said is how many he the other reminder he gave I should say is that they threw a lot of games away they were so bad in clutch situations so bad in fourth quarters that you know it was maybe even another level work than it should have been last season right so he said to Kellen he’ll know more once they all get out on the floor it was a discombobulated season they didn’t have a rhythm on the offensive end defensively they were still trying to figure things out and they just want to build off of that he said I love what we have I feel confident in our group and I feel like a lot of people are underestimating us he said it’s not the first time that he’s been in a situation where a team underperformed one playoffs and then had to come into the next regular season without doubt and a chip on their shoulder and some you know being underestimated he said a similar thing to bontemps where you know he basically said they have the big three they have the the three players that they like and nothing’s changed there he still believes in it he felt like you know despite some of the discombobulation that he’s talking about that they were able to show what it can look like when all three of them are operating at full force together you know person personally I think about the Cavs game uh in early April I thought was an amazing display of what they can look like I thought the Lakers game coming off the All-Star break was pretty good uh in terms of just kind of getting up and down sharing the ball everybody getting in on the action I’m sure there’s plenty of other games I’m forgetting so that’s the case right it’s funny you look at the you look look at the NBA and I mentioned in that first segment when I was talking about the case against you know standing pad and running it back that a lot of the league has has gotten better has amped up you know the perimeter Wing Focus kind of what what’s winning in the NBA right now the best duo in the NBA right you’re probably still going to say Denver maybe you say Dallas just based on their recent track record of course the Lakers have a claim at that even if the rest of the roster is not where you’d like it to be the Jays in Boston Milwaukee has a claim of course Philly now heck even Indiana Miami Booker and KD alone would be in contention for that maybe you’d put them near the top but but Trio wise top three players of course everybody can can take issue with whether that can win in the modern n NBA in depth and all those things and of course those are major question marks for the Suns I’m not denying that but if you’re just going to go who has the best top three in the league who has the best third best player in the league and you hold up Bradley Beal versus you know the Celtics probably have them beat whether you like white or holiday two-way ability wise reliability wise maybe those guys but the Knicks third best player an anobi Randall well bucks I mean come on Chris Middleton we don’t know what he is anymore Cleveland I don’t even know who their second best player is Some Nights the Sixers probably can can can compete Oklahoma City h no Denver Aaron Gordon probably not Minnesota I mean they’re a unique team it’s probably goar maybe he’s even their second best player so that’s interesting Dallas no Lakers no Pelicans I mean we’ll see with Ingram but I don’t really love Ingram Mar Rosen it’s interesting the Suns still have that Advantage the idea of why they built the roster the way they built it still stands The Big Three played well together the offense was pretty damn good when all three were out there and especially when they were able to put playmaking and shooting around it whether that was Allen or nurkic or Gordon frankly at times and so I kind of think KD’s right to be optimistic I think it’s I think it’s reasonable to to try and at least roll into October and the beginning of the season and take advantage of training camp and everything else and say let’s be a real team for a little while let’s make this Trio even better let’s have a higher floor and let’s at least see what that looks like because once we did see what it looked like at the end of last season the results were pretty decent now the beginning of the Season not so much when injuries did hit and the depth was not good enough and of course by the end end end of the season whether you’re talking about the final stretch of the regular season which got ugly or of course the playoff sweep not so much so you can’t get content you just got swept but I I I think the case of seeing how this can look and unleashing an offense that you believe can be even better than it was because of the advantages you’re going to have every night when teams are just trying to match up with you and and contain you is reasonable KD seems to think it they have a new coach whose job it is to make it true and they have better Ro Ro players to help it become true now they just got to make it happen that’ll wrap us up one more episode to close out the week with Steven pjon Garner looking ahead to Summer League tomorrow so hit follow or subscribe get that episode in your feed and more including a recap of the first Summer League game from Vegas featuring yours truly and more right here all summer become an everyday I’ll talk to you guys tomorrow for

The Phoenix Suns appear to be running it back around Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal next season, here’s how it could backfire.

Brendon Kleen of @justbasketballfans breaks down how defensive questions and a lack of athleticism and versatility could doom the Suns again if they run it back. Then, a look at Devin Booker getting the start for Team USA in its first scrimmage and whether Kevin Durant is right to be optimistic about the Suns’ offense.

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