Will Ryan Dunn & Oso Ighodaro Show More For Phoenix Suns At NBA Summer League?

Will Ryan Dunn & Oso Ighodaro Show More For Phoenix Suns At NBA Summer League?

today on lockon Phoenix Suns in their summer league debut the summer Suns looked lifeless against the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night so is there hope for rookies Ryan Dunn and Oso wear to show a little more or is this just what it’s going to look like in Las Vegas let’s break it down you are locked on sun your daily Phoenix Suns podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team everyday 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 welcome in to locked on suns I am a credential media member covering the Suns for the past seven seasons and the host of the just basketball show thank you for making lockon Suns your first listen to kick off your week happy Monday WNBA All-Star week in the valley so hopefully you are excited there and and Team USA stuff Galore on both the men’s and women side so thank you for kicking things off right here on lockon sun say follow or subscribe if you haven’t before get a new episode in your feed every single Monday through Friday be in every day or get locked on to the Phoenix Suns all off seon long I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a couple more trades in the league before the start of the Season we got the schedule coming soon as I mentioned Team USA so the best place to get a daily dose of all of it from a sun standpoint is right here unlocked on suns let’s get started with all of that said today’s episode brought you by the FanDuel sports book make every moment more as the playoffs wind down the sports aren’t quite what we want them to be but this summer FanDuel is hooking up all customers with the booster a bonus daily that’s right there’s something for everybody every day all summer long visit fel.com to get started all right 90 to 73 we got Suns basketball on Saturday night I was there at Thomas and ma Center to take it all in got to speak with Ryan Dunn and David Rody and of course um Vince larza the summer league head coach as well as uh Mike Boller the regular old Suns head coach so I’ll talk about his comments to close things out but let’s start with the summer league side of things and the rookies in particular okay because the Suns got shellacked by The Warriors in the first game all the guys that are in year 2 participated in the select team for whatever reason basically were all transferred over to summer league and just dominated from haime hakz to brandan Miller to both Brenan psky and Trace Jackson Davis in Golden State so the suns were just on the wrong end of that in a lot of ways okay the amount of offense that psky was able to create the Warriors starting lineup in particular got hot from three Jackson Davis was a handful on the glass it was just a little bit of a of an unfair fight frankly um however I think it’s pretty clear even even given that that the sun’s offensive situation might be a little tough in summer league okay because you know I’m not going to say everybody’s going to play exactly the same but quiner weather spoon struggle to really you know Flex what he can do as a vet in this environment five turnovers from him zero assists devvo scored a team High 19 points but you know um kind of felt like he was more of a of a second side guy not not consistently breaking the defense down buo buy did not have a great game I know people are excited about him so just some of the Guard play and the ability to create offense wasn’t really there um post game The Warriors U the coach Vince larza and some of the players said that the Warriors switched was a problem but you know it might be one of those situations where the Suns defensively might have some good moments maybe individual guys make some plays on offense but maybe this this summer league offense is just not going to be uh might not be enough against the rest of these teams that’s fine though it winning is not really the the main goal the question to me is what do Ryan Don and oo Garo look like and and is this how can they get the most most out of this situation right because you could talk about David Rody running a little bit of point guard um defending the best player at times in in this game Jaylen Bridges Nic looking stroke had a a three go down had a couple of offensive rebounds looked physically you know kind of comfortable just with his length and his size but this is all going to come down to dadara right and I think the best thing you could say about both of those guys is they they filled up the stat sheet from a def offive standpoint even in a weird game even in a loss and even with you know those offensive question marks five combined stocks for dun three for Oso and they only each played about 25 minutes so that’s good and you know Oso was he missed two or three of his kind of patented floater I don’t expect that to continue dun was taking the threes when they were there fourth quarter one of the three at Point attempts was a pullup you know that’s not really his game necessarily but they’re still showing flashes and at the end of the day both guys are players in my opinion that are best set best um best suited with other great players you know in a way like let’s not forget that that’s a pretty impressive feat to pull off in the draft where guys you know these aren’t seniors these aren’t maxed out players in terms of their development but there’s still dudes who should be able to play off of what the Suns already have and be even better when they’re doing that than in an environment like this where you know you see osoi Garo dribble the ball up set up a you know side pick and roll action and looking for Cutters and things and it’s like yeah it it looked fine you know but if the guards aren’t able to get separation downhill and the spacing is all cluttered what’s that really going to do you know it’s like a nice it’s like a party trick almost more than more than anything and with Dunn he’s an off ball guy right now and and probably always will be so by Nature he’s dependent on other players to set him up there needs to be space for him to cut through there needs to be you know real structured offense where he might be able to crash the offensive glass for instance or you know ideally you’re not going up against you know guy like psky cons consistently and you know relative to the competition let’s say Obviously pjy at the NBA level is not not even the best you’re looking at but maybe in a better world you know create some turnovers get the pace going dun can get some finishes out in transition things like that so we always kind of knew this environment wouldn’t be ideal for them this sort of just backed it up the issue for me is you know looking down the rest of the week like they they have a several more games to go here and it’s tough because dvo looked good enough that I I would imagine he will continue to start but there’s not an obvious like oh this guy played well give him more reps you know that that’s that’s tough to find maybe they just say start Bridges and and go even bigger and you know you’re putting the ball in Rody’s hands a lot anyway and Oso is going to initiate some and everything else maybe that’s part of it and you get at least another decent shooting option out there that would be my goal right but is to just try to see if you can get these guys some more productive reps uh maybe that’s just not possible um last thing on the defensive end mentioned the box score stuffing but I am intrigued that dun they put him on at the point of attack quite a bit you know and I’m not sure if that will be his ultimate Destiny in the NBA this year as a rookie just given that you know um he’s a really solid Team Defender weak side Defender turnover Creator when he’s not guarding on the ball I think there’s going to be guards at the NBA level where you know until he gets kind of used to the physicality of getting through screens and just how to be a Difference Maker and if that’s going to be his role like you know is he going to guard John Moran is he going to guard Jamal Murray maybe not you know those are those are difficult types of things maybe more likely is you know he matches up with Memphis maybe it’s you know Bane a little bit off ball or or something like that or you know but I like that they’re trying it that’s what summer league is for it might sound stupid for me to say using dun as an on ball Defender is some sort of Reinventing the wheel but I’m talking about defending smaller players defending guards somebody like psky for inance I I don’t imagine that you know let’s say a Warriors bench unit where psky is kind of the primary playmaker even if dun’s on the court like not positive that’ll be his role right so this is going to be a valuable opportunity to see if there’s if he’s ready for that maybe he will be and I’ll be wrong and it’ll just be there from the start but if not then it’s nice for him to at least have these opportunities to develop that get used to it get comfortable I mean I asked him postgame he said the predictable thing of just what was the biggest difference he said the speed of everything and so you know I guess in closing like I want the offense to flu flow and and look a little bit better so those guys can get some reps on that end defensively they might be trying some different things than they’re used to but at the end of the day this is valuable no matter what they have the thunder on Tuesday Usman Jang will be in there AJ Mitchell will be in there I believe Dylan Jones will be in there the Thunder always have some interesting players um on their summer league roster Keon Johnson who they’ve kept around here as well as um buddy beheim as a floor spacer didn’t realize he was on that team so another test and we’ll see what they do all right the other thing that happened since I last recorded while I was in Las Vegas Nevada for the Las Vegas summer league was Josh aogi getting a bag I will tell you why that contract is going to be such a fascinating thing to watch this season and next summer coming up next first Today’s Show brought to you by the FanDuel sports book The Summertime means not the level of sports we’re used to as the playoffs end around all of the major sports and even the soccer tournaments are over now there’s just not enough sports but FanDuel is letting you keep the sports rolling whenever you want this summer all you got to do is open the app and dream up bets anytime you’re in the mood and this summer FanDuel is taking it even further they’re hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus daily that’s right there’s something for everybody every day all summer long so head over to fanduel.com and start making the most out of your summer FanDuel official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball alrighty let’s keep it rolling here Josh aogi making 7.6 $ million guaranteed this season 8.3 non-guaranteed next season so he gets a 2-year roughly $16 million contract the suns were able to use his early bird rights to give him a pretty significant raise off of the deal that he signed with them last summer oogi is tied for the second longest 10e Sons player which is just a fun fact that is insane to say out loud and I always just you know let’s put it in perspective him and Damen Lee having been going into year three and Phoenix are tied for the second longest tenured Sons player behind Devin Booker number uh number four after those two in book is Kevin Durant who has been here for a grand total of one and a half Seasons so that’s where we are it’s nice to see kogi just stick around from that standpoint you know energy guy fan favorite interesting player I think we you know I wasn’t really committed my my opinion on bringing him back I I wasn’t dead set that it was a necess or a need just given that you know we know what he is I hate to put a cap on a player but Josh aogi is not exactly a blue chip Prospect at this point in his in his career he is 25 years old he will turn um 26 this year he has been in the NBA since 2018 and he’s played a lot of minutes you know so I think we can say with pretty pretty good certainty at this point sorry he’s been in the league since 20 uh yeah 2018 um he has played a grand total of how many minutes in the league 7,300 so it’s not as if there’s some you know untapped elements to what he’s going to be able to do on a basketball court that we have not seen before right I mean I’ve said it numerous times I will say it again it’s not even just the jump shot for me with Josh it is the fact that you know he is barely in the positive well I guess barely is a little bit disrespectful he is a fine playmaker in terms of just delivering the ball where it needs to go but obviously not some sort of Advantage creating passer he is a very very below average finisher given the vertical explosive leaping ability and athleticism that we know he has and you add the jumper in there and the fact that he’s only 6’4 so he’s not going to be somebody who you can consistently you know trust to like even get a ton of offensive rebounds necessarily and and all that kind of stuff he’s a good offensive rebounder for how big he is but again it’s different than being 611 so it just makes it very very difficult to ask him to be a positive contributor on the offensive end and and not even just him being a positive contributor it’s very difficult to ask that the offense that the team produces can be positive even if he’s just on the court and that sounds harsh but the stats bear it out all right the team is going to load the opposing team is going to load up off of him clog the paint dare him to shoot then you get into the situation of all these possessions coming down to him taking those shots or not taking them and then what’s the backup plan you’re running time off the clock it’s just you know the book is out and he has not been able to develop his game to kind of respond to the call so I’m not sure what his role will be I mean we talked about Dunn as a point of attack defending option obviously if he looks ready you’re talking about a very low bar on the offensive end for dun to clear so even if he’s not any sort of positive on on on offense either at the end of the day like you got two negatives you might just play the younger one you know the bigger one it’s a little reductive but that that might just be the calculus I I look at the rotation right now right it is the starting five that we say saw all last season we don’t know if Grayson will return to the starting lineup but he will be back for sure Royce O’Neal that’s six you obviously are going to see Monte Morris and Mason plumbley play that is eight with a guard wing and big All Off the Bench already I would expect that BB will get a better a shot ahead of anyone else left that I have not said given his production down the stretch run of last season and his versatility and value on the court so that gets you to nine you know I don’t think Oso starts the season in the rotation I don’t think Rody is looking like that’ll be the case n little is an option um Damen Lee of course it’s probably one of those two guys or aogi for that final 10th rotation spot assuming Bud even plays 10 guys so that brings us to the real value of the deal right and and you know I’m a few days late to this if you pay attention to the NBA we all kind of know what contracts like this tend to mean jock landale for instance got one from Houston last year where they probably know hey our team’s getting a little young the only big contracts we’re going to have are these Brooks and Van vet deals where we don’t really want to trade those guys they’re also really big contracts we need something in the middle we saw the Suns do this with Royce O’Neal with Grayson Allen those guys you know had a market so it wasn’t quite the same but I I think we can say that the biggest reason the Suns did this deal given that it is way way more than any other team would have likely given Josh a kog I mean you think two years ago Josh was two years younger and couldn’t get more than a minimum gets another minimum last year where he became you know in a vacuum an $8 million player of course it didn’t happen he he is getting this money because the bird rights say so and because the Suns have the ability to use this as a trade piece the same way that the Rockets will look at that with landale so that they don’t have to trade Jabari Smith in in in their deals and and whatnot so the the part of this that I guess intrigues me aside from like does Josh play this season but from that contract and trade standpoint is this sort of slots in right where you know a little bit a touch below where Royce O’Neal’s deal is and a Touch Above nir little do they have somebody in particular in mind did they just want to give a kind of the most that he could and then go from there and and see if it can get you something it’s just considering they already have little on the books for even longer maybe that’s it right maybe the ability to use a salary that yeah maybe it’s not that much different than Little’s deal which you already had as an asset but now the receiving team is going to see it as a more appealing option because he can go out and then they can just decline his contract right I’m not sure of the rules on that I know that sometimes there are some some intricacies as far as the league trying to weed out what is kind of a loophole with all of that where you give a player that bloated contract you know cap door people in the league you know like to not like sources I’m not trying to tell you I talked to a bunch of cap guys content People Media folks like to call that you know a walking trade exception somebody on a really big contract that is you know D’Angelo Russell as another example right so in in in Los Angeles that’s kind of what aogi is sitting with you know is he is a shorter term deal but he gives the Suns an opportunity to upgrade with some picks or whatever if they choose to and we’ll see if he plays it was a shocker to see that contract go through KJ Martin in Philadelphia something very similar but at the end of the day with the limitations that are put on these teams that are you know in whether it’s utilizing some of the mid-levels that hard caps you or now obviously the losing of the exceptions in the first place if you’re over these aprons teams are kind of boxed in where if you happen to be on a team for a couple years and you’re a player in the NBA and they can pay you more then they could pay anybody else right place right time that might just happen so it’s hard to blame Josh or the Suns here frankly and they kind of made the most of a situation that wasn’t ideal and now they might have another asset at their disposal with his contract going forward maybe he’s a 10th man maybe he gives us some fun highlight plays to enjoy here in Phoenix but until then um this is going to be a player that gets talked about in trades more than anything else all right before we get out of here Mike buen holzer’s comments deep in a back uh room during halftime of suns warriors on Saturday night I’ll tell you the two things that stuck out the most from coach buds comments coming up next first Today’s Show brought to you by eBay Motors passion drive and patience the formula for winning championships is also what keeps your ride or die alive eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to Peak Performance whether that’s a supercharger roof rack exhaust kit LED headlights and Beyond whether you’re into speed power or style eBay Motors has you covered with over 122 million parts for your number one ride or die you’ll always find exactly what you’re looking for and with eBay’s guaranteed fit your part is guaranteed to fit your ride every time or your money back because with eBay Motors you’re burning rubber not cash with with all the parts you need at the prices you want it’s easy to make your car the MVP and bring home huge wins keep your ride or die alive at ebaymotors.com eligible items only exclusions apply eBay guaranteed fit only available to us customers alrighty let’s close out the show Mike buholzer spoke with us in the local Phoenix media during halftime of suns Warriors it was quick not a ton has changed since his introductory press conference outside of you know the Acquisitions from a player standpoint but what was kind of interesting um this isn’t one of the two main things I was going to say but Bud’s reference to you know he made a comment that was basically like we told you what we were going to do this offseason and we kind of just went out and did it you know he said basically that there’s not a lot that has changed since his press conference and that’s not just because he’s underselling the Acquisitions of plumbley or Morris or Dunner or igodo or anything it’s more just we spoke multiple times to kick off the summer and then we went out and executed exactly what we said so I don’t got a lot more to say and it’s like all right you know touche Bud like I I talked about this a couple times last week with the cases for and against standing Pat and everything you know in May ISBN Jones came out and said exactly what they were going to do do which was basically to run this thing back and that’s what they did so bud bud expressed a similar sentiment as introductory press conference he said the players on the roster the opportunity to go compete for a championship is why he took this job and he kind of is sticking to that you know like if he didn’t think the starting lineup with Beyond The Big Three was good enough or you know didn’t felt like the second apron was going to be too prohibitive in order to to ever get better he probably doesn’t take this job so I thought that was interesting but he did say from the standpoint of the acquisition of Morris that he the steadiness and the the kind of reliability is going to be really big you know everybody likes to joke in basketball right that saying is always like the coach’s best the coach’s favorite player or maybe the guy he’s hardest on at the same time is always that backup point guard that’s going to be what Morris is although at times he will also be you know a closing point guard not just a guy who comes in and plays 12 minutes a night but you know there might be games where he plays 30 and and is in the in the closing lineup orchestrating and just kind of settling this Suns team into place so Bud was just basically raving about that you know somebody who can get everybody organized and just you know run run stuff be be the floor General be smart out there and that’ll go a long way in making sure this team half court offense their late game offense their turnover problems are a lot better than they were last year the other final point from Bud that you know he of course did not it was it was question and answer it’s not like he brought these things up on his own but he was asked by Dwayne Rankin of the Arizona Republic about Kevin Durant’s Health um you know probably don’t need me to remind you but of course KD is out with this calf injury at Team USA camp he is he was I believe on Saturday the rumors or reports were already that he was expected to miss Monday’s game in Abu Dhabi I believe it’s against team Australia so you know Kell Olsson from Arizona Sports was at Team USA Camp he spoke with Durant one-on-one he said that he expects KD is going to be just fine everything Steve Kerr has said would indicate the same thing but this is we’re basically at a week now and it it appears that he’s not really that Duran is not really practicing he will miss now his second straight exhibition game five days after the last exhibition so this was not some sort of backto back where they’re just you know uh putting them on ice for the week and and you know get back to it whenever the next one comes along these are five days apart in different cities for something that is supposed to be nothing so so to bring it back to Bud one comment he made that was interest interesting to me that I would kind of want to know more about is he referenced that the son’s medical staff has been involved now I I genuinely just caught my ear I don’t know if that’s what that means I don’t know if that matters but it did you know I guess my line of thinking is just is that normal obviously we just saw Kawhi Leonard go back home because the Clippers were working with Team USA and and his reps to kind of you know back off of what would have been a pretty grueling summer for a player who’s very injury or Pro prone and ended last season sidelined with an injury yet again so teams do get involved but you know is it because it’s a more significant thing that he’s being looked at by the Suns or would that always happen is it just because they you know the whole team’s kind of here for summer league or in Vegas for summer league so why not just meet up with Duran and and you know catch him after practice if it’s all happening at the same time as everybody’s in town anyway I don’t know but you know if Steph turns an ankle and ices it for 15 minutes and comes back into practice I don’t think the Warriors medical staff’s getting a call for that you know and obviously ttim USA has its own medical staff that goes without saying so just interesting that bud kind of slid that in there and that this continues to linger I don’t you know none of this is to say any sort of speculation about what the injury is or if it’s a pull or a tear or this or that I no idea but they’re just saying soreness which can sometimes just be a placeholder you know while they fig figure out what’s going on or you know they try to come up with a full diagnosis and a prognosis for the return of the player before they want to say specifics I don’t know we’re just kind of in this gray area right now this this uncertain moment where you know Durant’s health is significant for his ability to go out and win another gold medal pretty unprecedented run with Team USA that he’s had it obviously affects you know you you don’t want your best players to get hurt during the summer so the Suns would clearly have a role to play there and we’ll see you know but it hasn’t gone away as quickly as those initial reports would have indicated and butd saying the comment about the Suns getting involved is just another data point nobody wants Kevin Durant to be hurt hopefully he’s rested and plays the next exhibition goes to Paris and this was all just a blip but until we know that for sure we always have to keep an eye on it that’ll wrap us up for the day hit follow hit subscribe subscribe if you have not already I will be back with more observations from the extended off season the summer league situation and more Brandon dwas will be here on Tuesday night to recap the second summer Suns matchup against Oklahoma City and more news as it comes so hit follow subscribe get that get those episodes more throughout the offseason enjoy your Monday I will catch you guys tomorrow

Phoenix Suns rookies Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro couldn’t show much in their first NBA Summer League action against a superior Warriors squad.

Can the Suns find ways to get the rookies more valuable reps in Las Vegas or will this be the norm? Brendon Kleen of @justbasketballfans breaks down what Suns fans can expect before breaking down Josh Okogie’s new contract and questions around Kevin Durant’s calf soreness.

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