Phoenix Suns Address Point Guard Spot In Free Agency, Is Kyle Lowry Next?

Phoenix Suns Address Point Guard Spot In Free Agency, Is Kyle Lowry Next?

today on locked on Phoenix Suns the Suns have filled two of their three two-way slots but more importantly appear to be nearing a deal to bring in their point guard that’s right finally I’ll tell you my thoughts on the possible acquisition let’s go you are locked on suns your daily Fe Suns podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team everyday 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 a credential media member covering the Suns for the past seven seasons and the host of the just basketball show Welcome in thank you for making locked on Sons your first listen to kick off your Tuesday as the holiday week continues hope you have Thursday off either way it is a holiday in the NBA this time of year as well the moves are rolling in let’s talk about it today we are free and available everywhere including YouTube guys so if you haven’t already hit follow hit subscribe get a new episode in your feed every single Monday through Friday get locked on to the Phoenix Suns right here all you got to do is hit that button become an every dayer right here all right the sons have made one signing on Monday July 1st first I’ll save it though because it’s just a two-way deal and you know there’s more important uh fish to fry here and that is that fish that we need to fry is Kyle Lowry who uh Gerald boray in addition to some others have reported is a target of the Suns in addition kind of in conjunction with that reporting we know that two other targets went off the board so let’s hit that all first today’s episode brought to you by FanDuel 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 Boost or a bonus daily that’s right there’s something for everybody every day all summer long visit fanduel.com lockon to check it all out okay so suns are pursuing Lowry Chris Dunn um off the board to the LA Clippers Delon Wright off the board to the Milwaukee Bucks now we know the Bucks got right for the minimum so for all intents and purposes that’s a player the Suns could have gotten right the Bucks are over the second apron as well meaning that they are in the same boat as Phoenix and they only are able to offer that so we know that’s what they did dun not so sure okay the Clippers I’m not exactly sure of their whole cap situation I believe that they have a little bit left of the midlevel but probably not not enough to I’m not sure I’m not sure what the final mination might be for them um maybe it’s the by anual exception I believe they have they could have given him that for a year point is we’ll hold out hope on that one that maybe the Suns just couldn’t quite bid up to get done because I do think he was even after everything fell out and that and Ryan Dunn is in here and you know we know they might bring a kogi back I still just thought done he he should have been the number one priority because he is exactly what aogi has not been able to do meaning he has the point of attack defense and the energy and the you know athletic in kind of intensity that you want but he can do a little more with the ball not available though going to the Clippers the other player we knew that the suns were intrigued by was Monte Morris so he’s still out there and again the Kyle Lowry thing is not official it’s not done we have not seen the report so I don’t like Morris because he doesn’t have quite enough defense I would have liked Wright because he has defense and shooting I would have liked done because he has defense and a little bit of a driving kick at at least more of a playmaking game given that he’s played point guard his whole life so if it is Lowry let’s get there now Lowry is the oldest option by far 38 years old next season he is one of the smaller options in terms of height at 6 feet tall but we know that for most of his career including last season he is somebody who guards bigger than he is and so you know he’s probably a little bit closer to dlon Wright when it’s all said and done and and and what’s kind of funny about that right is that the heat bought Lowry out and end up going and getting Delon right so clearly they kind of agree now they’re not identical players but there’s actually a few things about Lowry that might make the most might make even more sense from a sun standpoint than than on another situation which is that one of his signature skills has always been initiating transition opportunities and fast break opportunities for his teams those hit aead passes those Outlet passes he’s not you know at age 38 going to be sprinting up the floor to go get a layup but he has his head up he is you know he can get the rebound and make that happen he can get that pass and and look ahead ahead and and and make that next pass quickly he might go take a pull up three you know maybe less so now but those types of things are desperately needed for this Sun’s team just to get that juice so the guard Market maybe didn’t break down exactly like we all thought but a lot of these players were Fringe minimum players in the first place like I said Wright is a minimum player it would appear Dunn we’re not so sure heck I’m not we’re not positive Monte Morris is that there’s guys like tus Jones and I believe Trey Jones might be a free agent as well I’m not having that come to my uh mind immediately now but it’s really about another example Aaron holiday was the one that I had written down here and he you know there was some I I believe I believe John gambadoro had it that they were interested in Holiday somebody did it might been a more National reporter either way the suns were linked to him as well credibly you know not these insane tweets that you see when you open the For You tab on Twitter now and it’s just some account you’ve never heard of saying that they have sources telling them X Y and Z no they were connected there in holiday in a real way just like the rest of these guys but holiday goes back to Houston on a 10ish million dollar deal way more than the Suns could have offered you know throw in a center now we knew that they weren’t really going to be pursuing this player anymore but I said after they signed Mason plumbley right that I would wait to see how the market shaped up to see if some of the guys I liked more than plumbley actually ended up being minimum players that the suns were able to go get being in the second apron Goa bad he get he gets 8 million annually from Orlando and it actually looks like Mo Vagner is going to be the one on The Cutting Room Flor over there with the magic so the same thing could very well happen with the guard Market it already happened with holiday Wright just may not have been exactly what they were looking for he’s not quite the playmaker he’s been more of a combo guard throughout his career and so Lowry provides kind of a you know if he can hold on physically and and agewise and not you know look too washed any time soon then he does kind of feel like the best of a lot of different worlds where he has the spot up shooting he he he was 39% last year he’s maintained decent volume and decent three-point efficiency even later into his career he has the playmaking kind of IQ to him and he can defend multiple positions now if he’s out there is he going to be the guy chasing Jamal Murray through a bunch of screens and you know keeping up with Shay guildas Alexander for instance in the west or Kyrie Irving or whatever guy you want to point to probably not that that that problem has not been solved but maybe it wasn’t going to be solved by this move and so if it is Lowry given how the rest of everything has looked and the skills that he would bring to the table not to mention a vet that hopefully can be a presence in this locker room and kind of behind the scenes to just Galvanize these dudes which they also need plumbley another vet I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they’re fully going the older Direction after looking a lot younger so I know those are very much in the middle of free agency types of thoughts that I am giving you the point is the market has shaped up in a way that plumbley and that Lowry that may be the best that the Suns can do those guys bring things to the table I like Lowry more than Morris I like Lowry more than a lot of other options if that is somebody who will take a minimum and wants to come to Phoenix and has a role here I think you have to be pretty pleased let’s talk about the end of the roster two two-way contracts have been signed by the Suns reportedly I’ll tell you who those players are and my thoughts on why this frankly is the best use of two-way contracts that the Suns have had since the whole thing was created seven years ago we’ll talk about that next first Today’s Show brought to you by the FanDuel sports book we all love sports here so much that we never want them to stop but unfortunately as a lot of the playoffs wind down and heck even the soccer tournaments are nearing their end we get fewer games and the sports aren’t quite what we want them to be but FanDuel lets you keep the sports going all summer whenever you want all you have to do is open the app and dream up bets anytime you’re in the mood and this summer FanDuel is hooking up every custom with a boost or a bonus every day that’s right there’s something for everybody every day all summer long so head over to fanduel.com SL lockon and start making the most out of your summer I have my eye on Tuesday night’s game a rematch of the Commissioners cup in the WNBA again in New York the Liberty host the links they are five-point favorites the links did win that game though so keep that in mind the money line you can get almost plus 200 odds on Minnesota that’s pretty nice over rers 165 that feels right it’s going to be a high-scoring game maybe there’s some props you can check out there but that’s just one example of the sports that are still going on in addition to those boosts that fanduel’s giving you FanDuel official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball all right let’s keep it rolling jayen Bridges a player that I haven’t talked about yet uh much because hey it was a two-way out of the second round of the draft and other stuff happened but 67 older player five-year college player and exactly what the Suns need if he works out I mean I’ll just kind of get right to it right 37% career in college from Deep on how many total three-point attempts here 4 68 also shot 80% from the free throw line all indicators that his volume and his efficiency as a shooter should be real now I haven’t watched this guy you always like to check with college players is there is their range in terms of their shooting range is that actually you know NBA level we’ll see but you got to feel pretty good about that he had a 610 wingspan so again you know not quite the other Bridges who Once Upon a Time passed through Phoenix uh as a three and D Wing but still very solid in the uh draft guide that Kevin oconor does every year and people have you know pointed this out and already kind of started to laugh about it but the comp that Kevin put in here is Royce O’Neal cross with male Bridges two players the sons have acquired in the past five years so I mean this is somebody where if it works you know if the three-point shot translates from NBA range and against NBA level contests from NBA level athletes and all that stuff and his defense is real I mean it’s just it’s kind of odd that a guy I this is the part that I guess I have a question with on him okay because I’m saying all these good things right and I even look at the minuses uh as as far as Kevin o’conor’s draft guide is concerned and he has for Jaylen Bridges inconsistent three-point shooter until his senior year and a low usage player who hasn’t proven he can be a lead Creator okay totally fair totally fine um the sun I mean you’re not expecting that of him you know but I understand that’s part of why he’s maybe not a top 10 player whereas let’s say for instance male Bridges somebody who um has shown that he can create a shot for himself but but I just look at a an a write up of somebody like this and it it just strikes me like well why is that guy why is that guy not higher on everybody’s board and so if the weaknesses are just like okay he’s in was an inconsistent shooter and he’s not going to create offense okay well nobody thinks he will so I go to S Vini of the athletic who I’ve told you a lot of a lot of times is one of my favorite analysts and so he talks about the athleticism okay not a great vertical at the combine not a lot of pop on tape and um not a very um you know just forceful player per se and some of the same stuff not a a lot of game on the offensive end besides just being a spot up shooter didn’t make a lot of shots at The Rim in the half court and all these other types of things he points out that you know players at 23 who still have these limitations because that’s the other thing right some of the guys who might have a profile like this well if they’re doing that as a freshman you’re going to feel pretty optimistic that they have room to grow even male red shirted and he was only a regular senior not a super senior so he was old ER but still you know was like 22 um whereas this guy Jaylen Bridges will be uh he just turned 23 he’ll turn 24 next postseason in the NBA so you’re losing about a year there year and a half whatever it is he points out Justin holiday Danny Green kind of similar archetypes of players who were older when they really broke out and had a good NBA career I mean look if the sun’s got ju even Justin holiday who had a few Prime Seasons never was on a great great championship team or anything but still had you know some positives for good teams the Suns would be exatic to get that on a two-way contract likewise Colin Gillespie the other guy here that they got and I’ll just say it again what I said to head into this segment which is that the combination of these two players and remember the new CBA allows for three twoa players this combination of guys even with just two of them so far is the best use of the two-way option that the Suns have ever had they have consistently wasted this means of developing their roster just flat out wasted it and this year it feels like they are actually taking advantage of it you would have thought that with m ispia in and exhausting all these options and how expensive they already were that they would have tried something and you know they to their credit they brought in Tao madone and everything else but uh just it didn’t end up mattering in this case they get an undrafted free agent right away at the end of the draft and then Gillespie who is one year out of college played for um well I believe two years out of college um didn’t actually play any minutes for the nuggets the championship season but technically as a ring was a fiveyear uh player at Villanova because of the you know the extra year from Co but at the end of the day he’s only 25 just turned 25 still and in the g- League last year lit it up uh another hat tip to Sam Vini I guess he’s coming up double in this segment uh he tweeted something that led me to go look it up and it was about how much he killed it in the G league and the box score stats that he put up averaged almost a triple double I believe he was at like 20 points 10 assists and then like eight .8 rebounds or something like that but he also had a 3 uh 36 point triple double I believe it is as well as three separate games with 15 plus assists he just was in a league of his own frankly out playing g- League competition fully proving that he was worthy of an NBA roster spot and you know we’ve all been making these jokes about you know the the Nova Knicks and everything he was on the 18 championship team male’s uh final season there the second time that they won it when dant chenzo went off and everything else and and obviously himself Brunson and bridges all get drafted that year that was Gillespie’s freshman season but he actually played he played 14 minutes a game and appeared in 32 games so he was a real role player for that group as a freshman you know gets drafted to a good organization in Denver is able to produce for their g-league team and then you know get some minutes last year year played you know only a handful 225 total minutes last year but the three-point shooting has translated at every level from college to the G League to uh you know limited NBA run he is going to be under sized and limited as an athlete there’s no way around that it is what it is but if you’re talking about can he make it as an NBA backup point guard there’s a lot of evidence that players like that especially you know maybe as late bloomers so to speak can absolutely develop it especially if they’re starting from the standpoint of having a reliable three-point shot especially if they can make that three-point shot off the bounce that’s going to be something I’m I’m definitely watching I don’t know if he’ll play Summer League because he’s now you know he’s in year three as a pro but if it’s in summer league if it’s in preseason if it’s in the G League I live like five minutes from uh mullet Arena so I’ll be catching up hopefully with some of those games I want to see if the pull-up three-point shoot shot is real if it is that opens up a lot you know he’s not maybe the best of the best in terms of racking up like tons of assists at least in college he wasn’t that guy you know Villanova tends to play in egalitarian style so maybe that’s part of it Brunson wasn’t a big assist guy he’s still not we’ll see but in the g- league he was and maybe that’s just the system that Grand Rapids was playing that put him in position to do that but I’ll be you know if he can if he can manipulate defenses with the pull-up three-point shot or even a pull-up jumper of any kind honestly like a pull-up two or a floater game I know he’s small but even that and be a real threat to to kind of make a defense react to his threat as a scorer in some kind of way and make passes out of that I mean you’re talking about a guy who can who can run an offense in the second unit and you know the defense might always be a question mark will see how he looks when he gets more run against NBA athletes but again we’re talking about a two-way contract and that is about as good of a player as you can get on a two-way contract that I could think of with that much College pedigree a proven track record now with a good organization in the Nuggets drafting him and and and trying to develop him and a you know a solid stint in the g-league last year to me it’s like great that you know you’re maximizing the chances of getting something from that spot and that’s all you can ask for with two ways so I love it if the Suns even get one out of these three guys assuming that they do fill the spot maybe it’s somebody from their summer league roster that they see Pop and they they they give that guy their last two-way if you get even one contributor from a two-way contract in the NBA especially when you’re capped out and you really need those cheaper contributors that you can draft and develop and you know bring along that is so big so it might seem insignificant what are the odds what are the chances the best teams do it the Thunder have done it the Clippers have done it the Raptors have done it these teams that invest in their g-league teams they get Talent from it and their players get better in that funnel the Suns need to become one of those teams all right uh the heat as well all right let’s talk through the Ripple effects the dominoes we are still waiting for in NBA free agent before we fully rule out the Suns making any more big splashes we’ll do that next and we’re back closing out the show I see Suns fans getting nervous nir little is still on this roster Yousef nurkic is still on this roster and while the suns were creative in terms of draft night with the moves that they made to basically create the pick that they went uh went for Oso eodo with at 40 in the second round by moving back in the first round and then moving up again in the second round that’s all smart great the 2031 pick is also still in the sun’s hands so between little nurkic and that 2031 pick that’s three of the four assets we thought the Suns had at their disposal this off season aside from you know this year’s first round pi pick which they used on Ryan Dunn and they’re all still untouched and the roster still looks a heck of a lot like the one that just got swept outside of some rookies and a new backup center in Mason plumbley so I see Suns fans panicking that they’re about to try to run this whole thing back right after they just underwhelmed with this group and I get it I don’t think they should run it back I have said all along that the goal at minimum should be to add one more trustworthy reliable postseason role player a a a Surefire guy who you know can play minutes for you in a playoff rotation they have not done that yet I do not consider Mason plumbley to be that I’m not going to say rookies will be that and those are the only moves they’ve made frankly I would feel I would feel solid about Kyle Lowry being that but even then he’s 38 and at some Point father time comes for everybody so I wouldn’t even feel like he’s a lock to be that for sure playoff player so I’m on board I’m in the same boat I get it I understand the worry and the panic and the concern so here’s what I’m looking at when it comes to NBA trades because this is what we’ve seen the past few years we see free agency for the teams that have cap space for the teams that you know want to use their exceptions and add players and some of the minimum guys that go off the board and everything else and then we see the trades now two years ago we thought it might be KD but it ended up being Donovan Mitchell later in the summer last year obviously it’s it’s Damen Lillard and a few others along the way through all that now holiday obviously as a spin-off of the Lillard trade now it feels like we might be getting even more so right now it would appear that the Warriors are pushing pretty hard for Larry marinan it sounds like the Lakers are trying to get Jeremy Grant and the Kings among other teams are looking at marinin also but Brandon Ingram I would say those are the big ones but we you know we still could see movement for Kyle kozma it doesn’t seem like Jimmy Butler is getting traded but that’s always on the table Brook Lopez’s name has has been out there is Trey is the door closed fully on Trey young um probably so that’s a lot uh not to mention the Nets guys cam Johnson who we all know here in the valley and Dorian finny Smith Smith now that they’re kind of in tank mode so that’s a lot of moves which ones of which which of them applies to the Suns well I would say Brooklyn I I don’t know if is Dorian finy Smith exactly what they need Maybe not maybe there’s not a move there um I do you know I know the the Lowry thing happens maybe this doesn’t make sense but like Dennis shuder kind of intrigues me so I would at least keep half an eye open toward the Nets in terms of nage trades I think you know good teams who are trying to acquire these players are probably not where you want to necessarily look but could you see maybe some teams pivot and be more willing to take not a step back but maybe a a step sideways like I look at Miami frankly would they take nurkic I don’t know what they have I guess I honestly have even wondered about Sacramento but it’s like it’s Kevin herder as the trade I mean that doesn’t really help the Suns the point is it’s not going to be anybody’s first priority to get Yousef nurkic in the door even if they’re getting a first round pick for it it would be kind of hilarious by the way you know I know Walker Kessler is still on Utah and nobody’s gotten him maybe he was never available and I was just kind of scuttle but I do think the Jazz are somewhat of an interesting place for nerk just because the there’s a few different salaries that could work for it and it would just be and they just signed you Banks it would be hilarious to have another third straight season where a third different team has both nurkic and Eubanks in its Center rotation from Portland two seasons ago the Suns last year and then if it were the Jazz again that’d be hilarious but with that many big players still available and that many teams who are kind of in win now mode having some homework to do there’s going to be a lot of of collateral damage on these rosters as those moves are made to the point where something could very easily Shake loose that the suns are able to take advantage of and and don’t forget 2031 and nkit is kind of the default package we’ve all talked about but little again is still here the Suns have multiple second round picks including a couple uh one from Denver that they acquired on draft night that could be pretty interesting and those could make those could be used in a move you know little in a couple seconds is a type of trade we see all the time I you know who is that player I don’t know but I’m not going to say that the whole off season is signed sealed and delivered right now it’s a little unsettling that the Suns have not been more aggressive to go and get an upgrade that is definitive yes there are limitations we all know that I still have to admit that I expected something I expected some kind of trade already and we haven’t seen it but I’m not going to say it won’t happen until all the rest of that stuff gets cleared away and the suns are still left in the dust so incomplete that’ll wrap us up for the day back throughout the week analyzing the moves that the Suns make as well as all across the NBA offseason world so hit follow or subscribe if you haven’t already be coming every day or get locked onto the Suns during this crazy season and all year long I’ll talk to you guys tomorrow

The Phoenix Suns may finally get their point guard in Kyle Lowry after signing two-way player Collin Gillespie on Monday.

Brendon Kleen of @justbasketballfans breaks down the point guard market in NBA free agency and why Lowry could be a win-win. Then, a look at the Suns’ great value signings in their two-way slots and what the next offseason dominoes could be around the league.

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