Mat Ishbia Leading KD Talks, Izzo Defends Jordan Ott & What Happens If Suns Keep Beal?

Mat Ishbia Leading KD Talks, Izzo Defends Jordan Ott & What Happens If Suns Keep Beal?

today on Locked on Phoenix Suns more detail on Matt Ishbia’s memo we know he’s going to be more involved apparently that means leading the way on the impending Kevin Durant trade let’s go you are Locked On Suns your daily Phoenix Suns podcast part of the Locked On podcast network your team every day welcome back into Locked on Phoenix Suns i’m Brendan Clean a staff writer at a announcing and a credentialed Suns media member thank you for making locked on suns your first listen here on this Monday welcome to a new week don’t forget locked on Suns free and available on all platforms including YouTube so click that follow or subscribe button do what thousands of other Suns fans have already done become an everydayer get locked on to the Phoenix Suns right here each and every day today’s episode is brought to you by Monarch Money take control of your finances with Monarch Money use the code lockdown NBA at Monarch Money for 50% off your first year joining me to break down Iso defending Jordan what might happen if the Suns have to keep Bradley Beal and Matt Hishbiel leading the way on Kevin Durant trade talks as always from the wonderful West Valley my fellow Suns Credential media member how are we feeling Ben Garcia what’s up man i’m doing good we are we have a head coach and now we can finally get into the nitty-gritty of the off season what that means be book Ishbia leading charges so I’m excited man we can finally get into it we know who’s going to at least be be the head honcho on the bench i don’t know maybe Matt Ishbia does show up and starts coaching the team but for now it’s a get him a quarter zip some uh what some some Nike Dunk Lows those are kind of like coach shoes i feel like Yeah maybe we can get that he might just sub himself in true true he has all summer to work on the jumper but let’s get to it um I think this came from a a few different places Ben where it it’s it’s more putting the pieces together right it’s not as if we have some recording of Matt Ishpia on a call with another GM or anything but if he’s telling us well he’s telling the internal staff and then that leaked I’m going to be playing a leading role here and we know their next order of business is to trade Kevin Durant then visav he’s going to be the one talking Kevin Durant trades and I want to play a clip from Brian Winhorse regarding the recent pass when it comes to Ishbia and Durant and this is from his hoop collective podcast on I believe Thursday afternoon or Friday this past week you know they were going to trade Kevin Durant they were very close to or they were very much trying to trade Kevin Durant at the All-Star or at the uh trade deadline and Durant said “No I don’t want to get traded i don’t want to do this.” And that was Ishka with that too you know I don’t I don’t think James Jones would have traded for Kevin Durant in that particular deal maybe he traded for Durant but not for that deal i don’t think James Jones would have done the Bradley Beal deal the way he did and I don’t think James Jones would have would have tried to trade Kevin Durant without involving him in the process and and look I’ll go a step okay so as it starts to replay on me that is the beginning of what he was saying there is looking backward he said I don’t think James Jones would have done the trade to get Durant the way that it went down to get Beal the way that it went down and that was just to illustrate the point that we were all making on Friday including you and I on this show Ben where we were like what is he talking about that he’s going to now take a step forward and be more involved given that we already thought he was doing that right then he went on to say more about the deadline where it sounds like he was basically reporting that Ishbia was t had taken the lead on on dumping Durant obviously that’s not what I mean that would have gotten a lot back for him but in February as well when we know that KD basically found out about all of that from his Warriors pals and put the kibash on it as soon as he figured it out i think that’s that’s worth thinking through again here because it tells us a little bit about Ishbia’s mindset regarding the trade which we have another clip on in a minute but also like I came away from hearing Winhorse walk through that again Ben thinking I still haven’t gotten a good explanation for what happened at the deadline and if Matt Ishbia was the guy so dead set on getting rid of Katie why didn’t he just do it regardless of what Durant wanted well I think it shows right away that he like if there’s any reason for us to believe Matt HP has no idea what he’s doing as a general manager as a businessman sure that’s different but for him trying to go out and trade Kevin Durant it shows me he knows nothing about player relations which was a lot of the problem when it came to uh Devin Booker Mike Benholtzer Frank Vogle and the and the whole team uh in the 2024 season so I mean man for me it it just it boils down to Ishbia can’t understand like he has no idea what he’s doing the other thing to me is like he doesn’t trust his general managers and that was the first thing that I thought of when I saw that he was spearheading this and that’s the first thing we thought of as well was well when Brian Gregory got this job we’re like how are other general managers feeling about this hire and I go circle right back to that Brendan which is how do other general managers feel that Matt Ishpia is running the show for the Phoenix Suns or at least spearheading the trade i don’t know i That’s what I I guess that’s like the That’s the whole thing of this that’s so strange is how different is it actually going to be that’s what’s so headscratching about this announcement this proclamation and like set aside if you’re a fan or even you and I as media the rolling of our eyes of it you got to remember he’s saying this to his staff that’s so odd to do because if it’s true that he was the guy in February pushing the buttons and working the phones a little bit to maybe get rid of KD and and make that move at that time and maybe that leads to getting Butler or maybe that leads to getting some extra Young assets or whatever it might be they would have known that right like cuz it wasn’t them on the phone of course they would know so then to go around and then say “All right guys listen up things are going to be changing i’m coming in it’s like what what is going on here?” So I don’t know how Booker feels i don’t know how KD feels i don’t know how James Jones would have felt or how Brian Gregory is going to feel now but I I just I don’t I don’t know what to think will change because it feels like such a bizarre comment to make period right so it’s like I I don’t know what to take of it cuz on face value it just seems like more of the same but I want to play this other clip that it’s much shorter from windhor about what’s coming next is this they’re going to try to make a Durant trade probably between now and the draft what it sounds to me like is that Matt Ishbia will be executing that trade now maybe he was going to do it anyway but that’s what it sounds like to me lesson number three to Okay that’s it that’s it oh I I was just going to say like is Brian Gregory just okay with that is he just okay with getting hired for a job to be a yes man i He kind of told us that’s what he got the job for right well I mean I I mean I guess so man and I but I guess I would have to lean towards he’s okay with it but then why even hire a general manager if you’re Matt Ishbia why don’t you just make yourself the GM why hide behind it at all i don’t know that’s a great question i think you could make easily make a case that he should do that that he should do that exact thing but yeah I mean I think it it definitely begs a lot of questions that you were getting at right where it’s like does how do Kimman and and Durant feel how does Booker feel how do uh Mark Bartlescene and Bradley Beal feel about the owner being being basically I mean this memo is basically telling us he’s giving himself that title informally right like that that’s kind of what’s happening now i don’t know how those guys feel i don’t know how other GMs feel like we already like you me I think you mentioned last week when we were first talking about this on Friday you were like we already heard reports around the deadline last year from Bill Simmons and others that Ishbia is not exactly everybody’s favorite owner to deal with and the Suns have been kind of on the outs around the league because people are just exhausted by them and the idea that that the Suns seem to expect people are going to do them favors to get out from the mess that they’ve made themselves i feel like this is that’s going to be put to the test in the ultimate way this summer i I don’t I don’t expect it to go well when Ishbia calls up Pat Riley or or that Heat front office trying to get Kel Wear back for Kevin Durant or something i feel like people are going to be like “Hey kid you know wait your turn here why why don’t you slow so your slow your horses a little bit hold your horses like why don’t you learn the business a little bit before thinking that everybody’s just going to bend down to you?” Well you know we talk about Brian Gregory not having the experience to be the general manager of this team you want to know who has less experience than Brian Gregory because at least Brian Gregory’s like been around basketball for a really long time Matt Ishpia and other like I couldn’t name you half of the owners in the NBA and I think like that’s like the first step of being a good owner potentially is being out of the way paying the checks and just being a fan of the team ishpppia like the Stein report you know re reacting to Gerald Borgay’s article was like like he wasn’t already maneuvering everything that the Suns were doing behind the scenes like if it just sucks man because we had I think if you’re me or you a couple of days of like maybe they made the right hire with Jordan not maybe they they’re going to start stepping in the right direction and then immediately something like this comes out legitimately like two hours later and you’re like oh no is Jordan not also a yes man and Matt Ishbia will just do he’ll just do everything Matt Ishbia says and that’s a problem man because again if there’s anyone that has less experience than Brian Gregory it’s Matt Ishbia and I am all if your son’s fan you have no reason to feel other thing but despair or negative feelings about what the Suns could get back my last thing on this to be a little bit more constructive because I know it just it can feel very doom and gloom for people is the past trades even in that first clip I played from Winhorst all of those were buying right if you think of buyers and sellers on the trade market getting Kevin Durant getting Bradley Beal um even with the DeAndre Aton trade that was really about getting uh Grayson Allen and Yousef Nerkach they weren’t just dumping Eightton you could look at it that way in hindsight of course but that wasn’t the intention of that trade i guess the closest you could say to a trade where the Suns have had to sell was having to get rid of Nerk this past season i bring all that up to say I’m not positive what it will look like for Matt Ishbia to do a sale trade which is kind of what I think a lot of Suns fans are probably hoping the KD deal will look like where you’re restocking your cabinet a little bit of picks and and players and if we look at February for any sort of prediction of where this might go at that time Ishb was very clearly trying to stay afloat with the Kevin Durant trade he wanted to get Butler back for KD which I think was completely ridiculous but that that’s what he was trying to do to me Ben this says if Ishbia is indeed the the leading voice in the talks around Durant this summer we should not necessarily be so sold on something like we’ve been talking about with a lot of these packages on our show where it’s two picks an interesting young player and some salary it might be guys who can help us keep winning much more than maybe the fans want it to be or you and I want it to be i would agree with you on that man and it leads me it leads me to believe that like again the Spurs trade or something like that would make more sense of like maybe they don’t get any picks back maybe they’re just trying to steal Vel and Kell Johnson and then whatever the salary is after that Barnes and make the trade work that way and maybe I and maybe that’s what makes Deon Booker okay with it is there going to be a team that’s not blowing it up next year they’re going to be a team that stays afloat maybe makes the playoffs but gets ran out after the first round and then praise a big fish wants to come to Phoenix again this stinks of Jerry Jones where his hand is in everything but really doesn’t have the qualifications to do anything and so with that being said man like I I as soon as I heard it it’s all you can think of is like what are they going to get back in the KD trade and now it leads you to believe the comment section’s going to be right where it’s like they’re getting back one pick jabari Smith yeah but it didn’t have to be this way that’s the thing that I want to point out is I think a more savvy group and that brings me back to again like a little bit of a you know take ownership of your position if you’re going to be the lead guy stick with your stick with your beliefs if he wanted if I wanted to trade KD in February who cares what KD wanted do it well there is there is a little bit to that right you do have to kind of care what a star player wants you want to have a good reputation but why didn’t you go to trying to trade him in the first place already disrespected him so go through with your master plan if you have a big if you’re smarter than everybody in the room right all right let’s get to Tom Mizo defending Jordan what did the Michigan Sto State coach himself have to say about all the Michigan State Suns jokes we’ve all been making next first today’s show brought to you by Monarch Money do you ever check your bank account and wonder where did all my money go well we all do from time to time because between dining out online shopping entertainment all the stuff we all do these days it’s easy to lose track that’s where Monarch Money comes in though it’s your personal CFO giving you full visibility and control over your finances monarch Money isn’t just a budgeting app it’s a complete financial command center you can track all your accounts investments and spending in one place so you stop just managing your money and start building wealth we all have some way of tracking this stuff even if it’s not the best or the smartest we got a spreadsheet we made once upon a time maybe this app for that and that other app for this thing and a notepad we’ve jotted stuff down on or 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coaches learn GMs learn i will say this he didn’t buy the team as a toy like some of these owners do he’s just got to figure out what it takes to win and I think he’s figured out some of the things he’s done both positively and negatively he’s got to get some stability he’s got to figure out his roster and I think you’re going to see Matt more and more visible ben I feel like Tom Mizo and I have a different idea of what the phrase buy the team as a toy means um it’s just so funny because it looks like Tom Mizo’s dancing around the fact that Ishbia hasn’t learned anything and still has to learn legitimately everything when he said he’s got to get some stability he’s got to figure out his roster and I think you’re going to see more and more of Matt that last part is the worst part that I’m going to see more and more in Matt the roster is almost the main thing for this team and then stability I think you would lean towards is the front office getting rid of James Jones and getting rid of uh uh uh going to be more stable that’s probably true yeah so this sounds like ISO dancing around the fact of trying to be like give friendly advice but in the nicest way possible of like Matt’s going to figure out no one like what drives me insane is like Matt says this all the time too up in his press conference like no one will spend more money than me no one cares more dude we know you care that is not the issue that’s like a quarter of the battle the other part is putting people in charge that can actually do the job because you clearly have no idea what you’re doing and when it comes to the money aspect that’s awesome man i just got done watching an interview where it was like every owner in the NBA is too scared to go past the second apron but Matt Ishbia and what does that say about Matt Ishbia that he’s zigging when everyone else is zagging and you probably shouldn’t be doing that so Is saying this man I just he’s got a relationship with him he’s not trying to frustrate him he wants to keep that relationship what more is there to say than like they’re buddies and he’s trying to give him some friendly advice that’s all I could take for it what about you i agree the way that you framed it of like a a mentor trying to kind of take it easy on a protege type thing you know what I mean like I’m not going to come out here and hammer the guy i wouldn’t have agreed to the interview with the local newspaper if I was just going to you know take the knife to him but I that it’s not fully positive no so that tells me you know you’re talking about a dude in Mike in Tom I keep saying Mike and Matt for Mr oo his name’s Tom he’s not exactly patting him on the back he he’s been around the block a few times and he’s he sounds like “Oh Matt’ll figure it out.” But here’s here’s the next one quote he doesn’t want to be an absentee owner he’s done a lot of things he can take some crap because he got rid of a couple coaches i guess that could be true could be false i’m not there on a day-to-day basis to know but I know this everybody got a chance and what you do with that chance determines who you are that’s sort of talking about Gregory and Aught and the perception that they just got the jobs because of their connections again like it it feels like this is more of the same he he’s not going fully positive saying I trust Matt with my whole heart and I think it’s going to be and you got to remember the background of this too not talking to you necessarily Ben but just yeah for the every day listening it’s like this guy Matt Hbia has been a prominent fixture in Michigan State everything basically since he graduated he employs at his mortgage company either directly employs or has on the board several alumni he publicly has talked about this connection iso has come to games we know about the Isaiah Thomas stuff like this is somebody really close you would you would almost expect it because of that to be more positive right like I love Matt matt is Matt is built to do this he I I trust him to be a champion in this league and he may not be everybody’s cup of tea but trust that it will work and I promise I believe he will get the job done that’s not what this is well Brendan what if what if Tom Mizo said “Yeah he’s done a few things that I don’t really agree with he’s done uh you know he’s messed up this and I don’t know if I would have just employed that i don’t know you know I can see why other people think it’s it’s him hiring his friends.” He doesn’t do that and of course like with you I would expect him to just be like glowing A+ review throughout the entire process of Matt Ishbia being the the uh son’s owner because he has such a close relationship with Michigan State tomzo does have to teeter a line here and be friendly advice mentor because they just played a game in East Lancing last year you don’t think that they don’t want that business you don’t think they don’t want more people from Michigan State to get looks from the future as a booster a booster a massive booster to their program and uh uh gets people over at United Wholesale Mortgage like he’s not he actually has things to lose in this interview so when people like me wish that they could get the actual authentic answer from ISO I’m not going to get that because what he would say would hold a lot of weight if it was the other direction so the fact that it’s like 5050 that worries me that ISO is also like behind closed doors I’m trying to talk to him but this isn’t the way to run an organization so the last one was quote he’s been this is about a m he’s been in different places that are really going to help him i hope and pray that he keeps some of what we did because we had great success when he was here but it’s not a Michigan State Southwest from the standpoint of he didn’t get the job because of me he earned the job he went through the process that feels like fairly boilerplate if we’re being honest i don’t think it’s the most ringing endorsement he didn’t get into the weeds of what makes Jordan not special for instance um but look he they made the championship game in ’09 A’s first season as a graduate graduate video assistant and I believe his last season they were in the final four i don’t remember exactly what his last season was i Yeah I believe I believe it was his last season they were in the final four so they did have success you know it’s not as if he picked we you know the Suns hired a coach from like the down point of of Spartan basketball that those were like the Gary Harris teams for anybody who’s kind of trying to place it on the on the the calendar or whatever draymond was there at that point in time wat was there too right before so it’s it was a fairly good point along the thing but again it’s like wouldn’t you have expected to hear I’ve kept in touch with Jordan i think his this and that he talked about this year with Kenny Atinson how he liked that and and the experience that it probably got but I don’t know man this this was not very specific any of what I said it tells me he doesn’t really know a ton about Jordan Odd and honestly do you expect the head coach to know a ton about the video coordinator so I don’t think it was necessarily a damning ringing i I you know I bet you Jordan Knaut wasn’t even hired by Tom Mizo i’m sure that that was someone else on the staff that had Doesn’t that make it that much stranger that he would benefit from the connection if it’s almost just like freaking happen stance i don’t care about everybody who ever went to ASU if I ever needed to hire somebody that wouldn’t matter to me at all i understand I didn’t win a national championship at my alma mater the same way that ISO or that that Ishpppia did but that’s crazy to me if if I doesn’t care about that much that makes it almost worse i think he knows him he’s met him once or twice he remembers how nice the guy was in his young age of being a head coach and he’s being a nice guy because you’re right it wasn’t a ringing endorsement it was really straight down the line of like and I thought it was kind of strange that he was like I hope and pray that he keeps some of the stuff that he did because we had great success when he was here almost saying like it’s stuff that I implemented while A was here and I hope he takes the stuff that I implemented over to the Suns not necessarily giving him the endorsement so again I can’t repeat because like in addition to them not him not knowing maybe potentially or having hired him there’s also just the idea of like well he didn’t really have any responsibility or say so no cuz he he’s the dude who who cut the film for the players to watch and like oh you when you turn it over you that was an idiotic possession don’t do that again i would I would just be curious to see the quotes that didn’t get published um and hearing Tom Mizo maybe say to Dwayne Rankin you know I’m going to be honest with you i I didn’t do a lot see a lot of him and I I would almost rather that quote because then I’m like oh he just doesn’t know about him and that’s okay because that’s how it can be sometimes but I’m I’m with you man i don’t think ISO knew anything about him i I think it was more like he’s just a video coordinator guy and he was always respectful showed up on time to meetings and he knew his name and that’s as far as he could go with it if anything I guess from ISO standpoint he’s probably kind of sitting there scratching his head like why is everybody connecting this kid to me you know what I mean i don’t this just has nothing to do with with our stuff you know i don’t know man it’s uh I feel like I’m coming up with more questions than answers the more we hear about all of this outside of a being I still think a good candidate like that I haven’t changed my mind on everything else more and more confused let’s get to a big question looming over the Suns this summer what if they can’t get off of Bradley Beal as easily easily as they would 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money it’s legal for us that way mhm we get you off our books kind of at least like we cut your salary in like into a third of what it should be over five years instead of 50 plus the next two and you get to go play a real role you won’t have all the expectations of a max contract and we can just rid ourselves of this era and whatever and we were like “Okay that’s cool that’s an easy story to tell is that really possible?” And I think you and I were both like “Yeah maybe not cuz that’s a lot of things that have to go right.” I I just don’t get it man i’m sorry i don’t mean to cut you off but I just want to Gambo’s Gambo’s been the one spearheading a lot of this reporting of like he’s not going to be here next year he’s not going to be here next year he’s not going to be here next year i’m just trying to find the understanding if you’re not going to be a finals team next year or a team that keeps KD and I don’t know man tries to go back into the Jordan the Jimmy Butler bucket which is not really possible either i I just don’t get cutting the guy like why don’t you in a season where you’re probably not going to be super competitive or at least a finals or even Western Conference semi-finals team why not just let him run it back on the team right now this season try to see if he can become to any semblance of Washington Wizards Bradley Beal and see if you can get off this contract next year and if he’s awful just cut him at the deadline like everyone else does come to an agreement then and cut him probably next off season would be more likely but I think I don’t I just don’t get it unless Booker just hates him maybe yeah so there’s like two things going on right is one of them is what you just said where everybody is in agreement that they’re going to try to get rid of him buy him out for around $80 million which is the thing I just laid out but then almost every single other report is like “Yeah but that’s easier said than done.” Like so Gambo had you know and and Mark Stein both had this where coaches who were interviewing for the job that obviously just went to Jordan were asked “What would you do if Beal was still around how would you fit him in what what would your approach be?” I’m sure a lot of the questions were also just personalitywise like not not Beal’s personality but just person to person how how do you manage if if he does have to maybe be a bench player like we saw last season or if he kind of knows he’s playing out a season and then he’s going to be bought out anyway how do you get him motivated all these sorts of things just as much as how do you actually unlock him quote unquote on the court and so that would indicate that maybe they even the Suns know it’s not that likely and we’re already all beyond the idea that he’s going to get traded like that that feels just stupid to even talk about at this point so what do you how would you approach it if you were Jordan A and let’s just say they obviously don’t trade him they can’t make it all happen with all that stuff in order to buy him out for a level that’s legal and he gets another contract big enough to make that happen and he’s here what What would you do to make sure it doesn’t go the way it has with now two coaches in a row he was the probably the guy who had the worst relationship with Vogle and with Bud I guess outside of Nerk i mean if I was Jordan Kn like of course I’d have a real heartto-he heart to Bradley Beal like right away and find out if he wants to be here because if Beal doesn’t want to be here which I don’t think is necessarily true then get him out of here like if he doesn’t want to be here then maybe it’s just like “Okay man like let’s just send you home like we did with Jay Crowder and we’ll figure it out when it comes a different day.” But I just don’t get the idea of like immediately just trying to get rid of him like speak with him figure it out if he wants to be here awesome and then what I would do is man I don’t I won’t sway off this opinion that I think Bradley Beal is still a good basketball player i think the fit was just so bad last year where there was too many mouths to feed and it just could never get figured out i think there’s a world where Bradley Beal is this Suns team’s point guard next year he’s athletic he still is a playmaker in my opinion i still think he’s got that quick first step ability to get to the basket again we’re not talking about being an actual finals contender we’ll see how it works with just him and Booker but it also has to be where done i’m just throwing out names jabari Smith and whatever a someone different at center because if your backourt’s gonna be Beal and Booker defensively you’re going to be abysmal you got to do your best to surround both those guys with a lot of defensive players and then let those dudes focus on getting buckets because I think that there’s a world where Beal could restock his his you know help his stock just a little bit more where maybe you move off of him and you just get salaries in return or you cut him off i just I don’t get the world where you just piss him off right away and just try to get rid of him i I think that’s a bad route no I don’t think it’s tenable to just send him home for a year you you piss off the players union with that stuff that’s not Yeah i don’t really like when teams do that so I wouldn’t try to say that they should do that to him either i couldn’t agree less on the idea that he fits as a point guard i I don’t see that whatsoever i mean we’ve it fool me what would this be the third time we’ve been fooled that just is like put a gun to my head i don’t even know what the fool being fool me three time is the the ending of that 2023 season i think it’s 2023 where where they were playing the Timberwolves in the first round he was their point guard he came out and said he was their point guard was their point guard i don’t care what Bradley Beiel said deon Booker was the primary playmaker of that team i think there’s a world where Beal could be not the primary playmaker but the primary distributor of the basketball and bring the ball up the floor and help out with the offense in that regard i I I think we need to give a if you can’t find an actual trade partner for Beal like just give it a chance is all I’m saying i know it’s not of course you have to give it a chance but you don’t have to start him at the one i think you bring him off the bench you play him 20 25 minutes a game basically as Booker’s backup obviously if he’s playing 25 minutes a game they’re going to share the court sometimes and he just had a terrible attitude let him try to score well he has a terrible attitude no matter what if we’re being 100% honest because you talk about getting to the basket he doesn’t want to get to the basket anymore Ben he bails on drives every time he gets a chance he doesn’t want to put the requisite effort in probably because he gets hurt when he does that i’m not I’m not insensitive to the fact that I would be skittish too if every time I land wrong I’m I’m suddenly out for two weeks like that has to be frustrating even if you know people have their opinions of him exaggerating some of that i don’t even want to get into it but I understand that that that would be in my head too but he’s you talk about Wizards Beal i don’t think he’s been that guy since maybe that season when he won the scoring title i don’t you know I wasn’t clo charting Washington stuff often enough back then to know what injury might have been the one that made the dominoes fall down i just don’t think physically he is a player that can play any type of role consistently at a high level i I I do think that that ship has sailed i think at this point he is a scorer who’s pretty efficient doesn’t turn it over a ton and he’s not like a killer defender which is why I think not just because it would benefit the Suns whenever he eventually goes on the open market again his destiny is to be a mid-level player on a bad team i’m sorry i don’t think he has to be that but I have two years of watching this guy now to tell you that that’s what he seems to be headed toward whether that’s the best thing or not now listen I think there’s two avenues you can go down with this one I don’t think it’s impossible for Beal to be traded because Ben Simmons once got traded for James Harden you just got to there might not be a lot of suitors but you just got to find one sucker there’s an idea out there i don’t like to believe insane Twitter accounts but it’s just a good name if you told me the Charlotte Hornets wanted Bradley Beal I’d be like “Yeah it makes sense they’re a bad organization.” Who thinks that the thing the difference we always have to say Ben Simmons didn’t have a no trade clause that it is fair the uh the other avenue is a guy with a big contract who didn’t work out for years there went to a different team that team made the playoffs this year and looked pretty good i’m talking about Tobias Harris so there is the avenue that you could go down that maybe he’s Ben Simmons and it never gets figured out or he’s Tobias Harris and he’s just a he’s a volume microwave Malik Monk scorer on a team trying to win a title as the seventh man maybe that’s what it is but I don’t I still I still see the explosive athleticism from Beal sometimes i think oftent times it’s a want to not a can he and that’s an issue too man so if you want to Why did he not want to for two years in the best situation he’s ever been in in his basketball life i don’t have a good answer well I don’t have a good answer i don’t know if any coach or GM around the NBA has a good answer to that and why they would want to bring that into their building either that’ll wrap us up hit follow or subscribe we’ll be here all week for you jordan not press conference Tuesday more KD rumors I’m sure enjoy your Monday we’ll talk to you tomorrow [Music]

Mat Ishbia is expected to lead Kevin Durant trade talks for the Phoenix Suns after sending an internal memo telling staff he will be “extremely involved” last week.

Brendon Kleen and Ben Garcia discuss what that means for the Suns before talking through Tom Izzo defending Ishbia and Jordan Ott and how Ott should handle it if the Suns have to keep Bradley Beal next season.

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