Bickley Blast: Why the NBA playoffs is giving Phoenix Suns fans the blues

Bickley Blast: Why the NBA playoffs is giving Phoenix Suns fans the blues

Bigley and Marada Mornings. Arizona sports, the local sports leader. Bigly blast. The NBA postseason is a marathon grind for everyone involved and it’s 10 times worse when you miss the playoffs entirely. Diehard Suns fans are feeling that pain all over again. There are awful reminders everywhere you look. Tyrese Hallebertton is a clutch time killer and he should be in Phoenix. A guy that fell into the Sun’s lap at the 2020 NBA draft only to have James Jones select Jaylen Smith instead. Mind you, this is not hindsight. We all knew it was really stupid in real time. Ryan Mcdana had a trade lined up to draft the current MVP, Sheay Gilis Alexander, only to be overruled. Meanwhile, in New York City, 7th Avenue and West 25th Street has been renamed McCale Bridges Block. And when Hallebertton forced overtime on Wednesday, it reminded me of Don Nelson, who made the exact same high bouncing shot off the back of the rim in the 1969 NBA Finals. And that reminded me of how Nelson once swooped in at the last minute and vetoed a trade that would have sent Steph Curry to the Suns. Bottom line, being a Suns fan is once again a dark tunnel of torment filled with regret and whatifs and what the bleep just happened. It’s exhausting and soul crushing. And I cannot wait for the Suns to announce their new head coach just for the newness and for the hope of renewal as long as it’s not the candidate from Michigan State. All right, today’s Vickly Blast brought to you by my great friends at Chapman BMW. Make luxury attainable. Find them online at chapmanbmw.com. What do you got against Sparty? There was a very very funny thing on social media by somebody who had kind of taken the the center court uh design at PHX Arena and kind of put the Sparty helmet on it. It was actually very well executed and kind of a cool logo. Yeah, it was kind of cool. Not saying I’m, you know, I want it to be used, but it was well done. So, um, yeah. So, all these things were kind of going through my mind last night. I I told you this morning you had never seen that Don Nelson shot. I just remember seeing highlights of it. It was eerily similar to what we watched last night in Madison Square Garden. So John Havich in the 19 game seven of the 69 NBA Finals was trying to dribble out the clock and he got the ball poked from him. It ended up in Don Nelson’s hands and he shot the ball. Not a good shooter, hit off the heel of the rim, went straight up in the air, fell right in, and it happened again last night. Full circle. I I was not familiar with that shot, but I went and looked at it. Uh he shot it from the free throw line. Well, that’s so it was a little little closer in. It didn’t bounce as high. Uh I’m not even sure the shot clock was mounted at top the the backboard back in 1969. But uh it was one of those bounces that you just you I mean first of all to get the bounce on a shot of that distance when it goes that high in the air does I mean the percentage chances of that have to be very low. the fact that Tyrese Hallebertton his I mean tippy toe was on the line to the point where he’s there’s some miked up uh footage now of Tyrese Hallebertton reacting miked up to the point where you you can hear him block the microphone when he did the choke signal but then he realized I didn’t get back I didn’t get back far enough you imagine I imagine if the Pacers don’t win that game in overtime Oh, people, he would be getting destroyed. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That and again that is what that’s what the Knicks that’s what worries me about the Knicks that they didn’t seize that opportunity in that moment and go, “Oh, oh, really? You’re that guy?” And then just stuck it to him in overtime, but they might have been gassed this. They might be in trouble. Yeah. What’s interesting and I mentioned this in the blast. This is so unbecoming of a city like New York. They have renamed temporarily all these streets after every Nick player. Precious Aua the Precious Aua Place 6th Avenue in West Washington. OG Anobi Alley 6th Avenue in West 8th Street. Told you about Mckel Bridges Bluff. Everybody on that team has got a street named after him right now in New York City. That is so rinky dink and below New York City. Shouldn’t they have named I think it’s pretty cool. I don’t I think it’s rid Not for New York City. This isn’t De Mo, Iowa. Shouldn’t they have named a bridge after Muel? That would have been Yeah. Landry Landry Shamut Circle. Okay, now that’s ridiculous. PJ Tucker Terrace. Unbelievable. Some dude named Ariel Huckporty has a street. Oh, of course he deserves one. Incredible. Again, this is this is what I’m know. New York act campaign lane. Oh, campaign place. I love campaign lane. New York acted like they won the NBA championship when they beat the Celtics. And of all sports towns, you expect New York to act like they’ve been there before. At least I do. But Knicks fans haven’t been there before. Well, there there is that. There is that the feeling was we conquered the you know we slayed the dragon we conquered the giant what would what could possibly happen Indiana come on uh back to the gist of your blast you want to turn back the clock 5 years I apologize for this with the 10th pick in the 2020 NBA draft the Phoenix Suns select Jaylen Smith from the University of Maryland Like I said earlier, Johnson, no. Jaylen Smith. Um, obviously it did not it was it wasn’t a popular pick in real time. It it didn’t work out. No. Again, I I’ve said this often and as as somebody who was beating the drum rather loudly for Tyrese Hallebertton five years ago on draft night, you will absolutely drive yourself more nuts than you already are if you keep going back and saying I know what could have been. I know. I know that because in 2021 when the Suns were playing for a championship with Jaylen Smith on the roster, nobody was saying that. It’s just a it it’s just another reminder of how far south this thing has turned and how quickly it’s turned. Well, that’s it. That’s exactly it. And and for for the people who endured the decade without playoffs under the previous owner, we thought those days were long gone, right? Didn’t we? After the 2021 run to the NBA finals and the bubble, the way everything was going next year. But you have to live where now like you can’t. It was the same thing like, well, DeAndre Aton, you know, helped lead the team to the final, so it’s good they picked him over Luca. Well, you have to look at the now and and what’s going on. And it wasn’t just that Hallebertton is a superstar now. It’s that Jaylen Smith is not on the Suns and is not right anything special. Vinnie is absolutely right. The Suns need uh they need to get super lucky in this NBA draft. do need to get a contributing player that that just blows everybody away and you didn’t expect it to happen because it happens all over the NBA. Suns have got to they’ve got to get lucky there. And according to Can I amend that just real quick? Sure. I don’t I I think you have to be lucky when you’re drafting at 29 and 52. But it’s more about the luck of what other teams aren’t drafting. You know, throwing a dart and having a guy develop. That’s nice. But how about relying on your acumen as a scouting department and realizing, okay, this guy’s not highly touted. He’s got all these attribute attributes that actually apply themselves to NBA play. Let’s identify this guy and bring him in and use him. Luck luck is nice, but being better at scouting and drafting is way better. Yes. Find some dogged basketball players who have real tenacity to them. Uh Gamble reporting that there are what four favorites in the coaching uh search right now. Uh Chris Quinn like them. Micah Nory like him. Sean Sweeney a lot of other people like him. A defensive-minded head coach. And then of course the winner the dude from Michigan State Jordan. The man out if you will. Oh well done. Again, I I can’t caution the sun strongly enough about how perceptually awful it would be to complete this sparty circle. Um, and and again, nothing against Jordan not as a candidate. I’m just talking about perception. What if they truly in the evaluation process and it’s a wide net and they go through all these qualifiers and interviews and at the end of that regardless of that background they truly believe Jordan not is the best answer. Oh boy. But it’s the same idea of Brian Gregory. Does anyone would anyone believe that? I mean that I think that’s a valid question. Yeah, I I know because I don’t they didn’t go through the same wide net search for a general manager as they did as they’re doing for a coach about it. It seemed like it was Bob Meyers or Brian Gregory. Doesn’t it seem like that? It does seem like that to me. It most definitely seems like that to me. And and again, you talk perceptually the national media if if you hire Chris Quinn, we’ve already talked to Bobby Marks about this. I’ve heard other people talk about these other um kind of upand cominging kind of candidates. you can get behind um the newness of of an upand cominging kind of candidate, but if if he’s coming from Michigan State, people are just going to lose their minds. Yeah, I I the perception I can’t argue with the perception part of it. It would not be a positive. Thanks for watching Bickley and Marada. Click to see the latest Bickley Blast and hit the button in the middle to subscribe to Arizona Sports.

Dan Bickley reminds Phoenix Suns fans of the three most painful reminders while watching this year’s NBA playoffs: Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton, MVP and Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and New York Knicks forward Mikal Bridges.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander voted as NBA MVP, continuing run of international winners: https://arizonasports.com/nba/sga-mvp/3584712/

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