Phoenix Suns 2nd Round REACTION: More Moves, Rasheer Fleming, Koby Brea, Did Suns Win Draft?!

Phoenix Suns 2nd Round REACTION: More Moves, Rasheer Fleming, Koby Brea, Did Suns Win Draft?!

tonight on Locked on Phoenix Suns another live edition reacting to the second round of the NBA draft something we thought would be very boring and in fact was not for the Phoenix Suns a bunch of moves two new players to get hyped about 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 Lockdown Phoenix Suns i’m Brendan Clean a staff writer at Awful Announcing and a credentialed Suns media member thank you for making Lockdown Suns your first listen immediately after number 41 a pick we didn’t even think the Suns were going to have heading into the day don’t forget locked on suns free and available on all platforms including YouTube just 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 brought to you by the Game Time app download it now create an account and use the code locked on NBA when you do to get $20 off your first purchase joining me right now for an immediate recap of the two new Suns we just saw get selected from the wonderful West Valley my fellow Suns credential media member how are we feeling Ben Garcia so good man like keep the good times rolling into day two started off with 5259 you and I both predicted they would move up i You know what listen I don’t I don’t think we went crazy out of the box with our predictions but we’ve been fairly spot-on with a lot of our stuff that we kind of thought would happen so pat ourselves in the back a little bit suns move all the way up from 52 to 59 to 31 and then 41 obviously they have those picks too so you know credit the Suns man whether it works or not they are not taking this line down and that’s what I wanted to see an aggressive front office whether it’s Ishvia whether it’s Gregory a lot of other teams called the Minnesota Timberwolves you know they did and the Suns won the bidding there there’s something to be said of that especially if Fleming works out so Sham Shania basically called it you know like an auction on the draft broadcast and let’s just lay it out first here all right because you you recapped it very quickly but it was a crazy series of moves and I’m honestly just going to look at Sham Shania’s timeline to figure this out because we know that on Sunday when the Suns traded Kevin Durant one of the main things that they were able to acquire and we weren’t exactly sure what their plan with it was was a bundle of of second round picks five of them to be exact a couple in 2026 59 this year I think one in 2032 and on down the line so then you kind of fast forward and five hours ago we see that the Brooklyn Nets are giving up number 36 to the Suns for two future seconds all right interesting the Suns have two picks we’ll see then the Suns trade 52 and 59 for 41 and you’re like “All right we’ll see what that’s all about are they just two players maybe they like how the board’s falling they like a group of guys whatever.” And then the big one comes they get all the way to 31 and you you think “Okay they clearly liked somebody there’s somebody on this board.” It’s what we always see in the NFL that that 33rd pick is always this this huge story and maybe that’s what the NBA was hoping for because that’s what exactly happened this year now that this draft is two days as well and they trade 36 and two future seconds so they end up getting rid of all of the second round capital Ben that they had coming off of the KD trade and they get 31 and 41 i’m not even sure if they wanted 41 if I’m being honest i don’t even know if they necessarily thought they were going to do that but they just wanted 31 so bad they were doing it from two different directions and hoping they just could get there eventually and they did and then and then Minnesota traded out a 362 which was funny but they get Rasheir Fleming that’s the guy they wanted somebody you and I had kept thinking we were gonna talk about for 29 and we just never did a segment on him but obviously we’re gonna do plenty of segments now because he is the newest member of the Phoenix Suns um I thought Malawatch was a was the steel of was the steel of the draft because I was being a little biased and he fell he didn’t fall like crazy like it’s probably not fair to say that Rasheed Fleming might actually be the steel of the draft he was when you and I kept talking about drafting a a wing right we talked about Carter Bryant we talked about a bunch of different guys we never got the chance to talk about Rishier Fleming because again not so sure how many people know him from St joseph’s a junior 6 foot n with a 7 and a half foot wingspan that is insane i wouldn’t say he’s a insane athlete like if you look at his his vertical jump it wasn’t like it was anything to write home about it was fine um but 39% from three and like 230 plus pounds is the other part to highlight there like he measured I think at 232 at the combine like this guy’s a monster sorry i was going to say I was trying to find the game this is what happens when you do it live you got to bring all this stuff up right now so bear with us but I believe there was a game they mentioned it on ESPN that he played against Texas and he had 20 rebounds so the power forward position I don’t think is as big of a hole anymore for the Phoenix Suns now you got him here who yes 69 but he has a 7 and 1/2t wingspan that is going to allow him with the big body to guard guys one through four now obviously probably not five but maybe he could play a little small ball too he is if he turns out to be what we think he could be which is like what uh male Bridges like that kind of guy an OG Anobi I would say like that’s on the high end of what he is then it’s such a steal because all you gave up were second round picks the the comp is really interesting i I kind of I think male is so small yeah way way too thin i but that well not even thin but shorter than that too like it that’s it’s just he’s such a physical outlier height wingspan everything that I I’m just I I don’t even know who to compare him to like I looked around when when the you know we knew for a little while before even the pick came up that that’s where they were going to go because Gambo had it and and Shams had it and a bunch of people had it um Jake get out of here get out of here locked on Pelicans um but yeah like we knew and and so I was like “Okay what’s what’s this guy right like who do I say that he could be and you know the the ringer has Taj Gibson if he shot threes but he’s more athletic than Taj Gibson ever was in my opinion he’s taller too if I’m not mistaken yeah I don’t know i think Taj was pretty tall but like definitely not a the kind of smooth you know horizontal athlete you know Jamaich Green Paul Reed those are more role players we’ll see that could be that could be a comp over time but you probably want to shoot a little higher than those guys who are kind of like barely in the league uh the Ringer had Brandon Bass from a while ago or Yahoo sorry had Brandon Bass and Larry Nance Jr those guys aren’t quite as Larry Nance is like more of a playmaking kind of option and and like a switch defender like I just slasher it’s hard it’s hard so I But he is 100% to me Ben like I don’t know if he’ll be the steel you know he’ll have to really overperform 31 to be that as a second round guy but he feels a lot like Ryan Dunn to me last year from the standpoint of you do look at him and you’re sort of like what’s the problem here yeah yeah you know what I mean where Ryan Dunn it was obvious cuz it was the jumper but there were even things to look at his jumper and feel decent about it and everybody was saying if he can play if he can survive on the court he could be the best defensive player in the whole draft potentially right i don’t think that’s what Fleming is going to be but you’re like hold on so he can shoot he can move pretty well he can guard multiple positions he’s an outlier physically he put up numbers he he’s older but he’s also still has potential to get better what’s the problem and like the reason I compare him to Dunn is too that I think if he just like I know I know Dunn went to Virginia but it was a weird bad season for Virginia and that team plays a strange style it feels like if Fleming had gone to a major program he just would have been a firstrounder like I I just think he just slipped through the cracks is really what happened here and the Suns benefited which is an understandable like critique of him yep st joseph I couldn’t tell you where they played we didn’t do extensive I guess I should say like I did a little bit but we didn’t talk about it on the show i think that’s the reason why I felt and that was the exact question I was going to ask you like why do you think it is and I think part of it not just with St joseph the fact that we didn’t see him a ton he played against Satan Hall played against Texas didn’t play against a ton of powerhouse teams but also make the tournament yeah but also the fact that he’s a bit of a tweener those guys are at times could be roll the dice guys it’s like why would you and I talked about eh I don’t really know if I like Derek Queen colin Murray Boils we like but we’re like what is he he this is again one of those calculated risks where you’re like well at 31 I’ll take one of these guys and that’s what the Suns did so if it doesn’t work out at the end of the day I appreciate the swing so yeah I I wish we would have done more on this guy but when the when Well it just where we are now no exactly i I what I would say is the Brian Gregory aspect of it too or Matt Ishb or whatever right we talked about it a second ago of like a lot of other teams could have went after and got this guy the Suns went after him so hard that Gambo tweeted it out that they had him ranked as a top 20 player so again it goes to the fact of why did this guy fall i don’t really know why but now you have clear wing depth in terms of like this team has turned from a god they can’t play any defense to hell they’re going to start suffocating some teams and he is a plug-and-play player man like we’re not waiting on him for a couple years he’s going to play this year and Gamble reported that as well today too he’s definitely going to play this year i I will just say that this is not I my you know I’m not even being negative i’m literally just pointing out the facts here 30% as a freshman 32 as a sophomore and then it really jumped to 39 on four and a half attempts this year that’s going to be the thing to watch but he made 74% of his free throws and if you watch it he looks like a guy where he probably couldn’t shoot like three years ago four years ago at all and the way his jumper looks is like he just repped it in the gym with a trainer a million times and basically turned himself into a guy who can shoot it so does that mean he’s going to be Cam Johnson no but if you leave him open he can make you pay and that’s plenty good enough when you’re talking about a guy who is going to be a very good defender yes I think he is a four five tweener potentially but I don’t really think you’re going to play him at the five in the NBA i just don’t think that’s going to make because he can shoot the three and stretch it maybe yeah he has to get a lot bigger uh I would say and stronger even than he is now for that to really make sense um he wasn’t playing the center much and you kind of you kind of glossed past this a second ago but you talked about his stats the first couple years and they kind of went up and then you said the glaring obvious thing of like oh this guy must have got in the gym and said I’m just going to sit here until I can hit 39% of my jumpers that again goes towards culture a guy that goes in works really really hard still overlooked in terms of he’s wasn’t a first round pick got in the gym and he now he’s one of the players where we’re kind of raving about in this draft where it’s kind of like Malawatch who so um that’s the type of guy I want here man someone that’s going to go in the gym figure it out and crime all their way up to the first pick in the second round of the draft man I think it is a a great just I mean great job by everyone in the front office we haven’t said that a lot recently i was watching the uh Sam Vini’s live stream that he was doing during the draft i listened to his analysis of the 10th pick yesterday it was really good and then I wanted to check out what he said about this one and he said Fleming the the intel on him as a dude is amazing like he is known to be a really humble nice kid and they both mentioned something that just from evaluating him through this season he is a a player who really plays like somebody who understands his role and I do think that that’s very very important for a guy who probably is a role player you want him to come in and know that about himself rather than having to get humbled and fighting against it and all that kind of stuff like he’s going to come in here and be like “Yeah I’m a 693 indie forward let’s go.” You know what I mean let’s roll the ball out and I’m going to go wreck havoc so I like it a lot let’s get to Kobe Brea the other selection from today a big shooter something the Suns desperately need size size size they check that box at number 41 after all of the trades we’ll talk through that selection next first today’s show is brought to you by Skiims when we found out Ski was making underwear for dudes here on the Lockdown Podcast Network we were intrigued we’re a bunch of dudes as you probably know we’ve heard a bunch about their quality from people online and she gel Alexander Donovan Mitchell everybody uh the W ladies doing it as well with this sponsorship deal and it was like hold on do they got something for me is it going to be overly fancy or is it going to be just the you know shiny crazy colors no it’s normal it’s fit it’s comfort and it’s the right style for you no matter what you love you can do an athletic active selection you can do something classic brief you can do a boxer brief whatever you like they have different materials different lengths it’s customizable but they’re all elite quality so shop skims at skims.com right now let them know we sent you by selecting podcast and the survey after your purchase and then select locked on suns in the dropown menu that follows we’re keeping it rolling we’re live here after the Suns second round selections let’s talk about Kobe Brea ben the Kentucky 66 shooter 67 if you really want to probably go with what he’s going to be in shoes in the NBA fifth year player so on the older end for sure but is just a monster shooter like saying shooter it’s almost like okay hold on like we gota% we got to be clear but it Yeah 44% on six attempts per game at Kentucky but the year his last year at Dayton it was six attempts a game 50% from three like this guy is is really really elite he can run off off of movement from what I was reading i didn’t have time to watch him at all i did not think he was going to be in the mix here at all so I’m just going off of what other people say but that guy is going to play like somebody that has that skill set we see it every year they at least can get on the court and make an impact in the NBA and I can give examples of who it could be like but I’m I feel great about this they need they do still need shooting if they’re going to have so many of these defensive first big dudes out there and this is another guy like Fleming who’s older and I could imagine getting on the court pretty soon if not just killing it in the G-League if he can’t 6 foot6 man so not only did you mention like he’s not a small guard what is kind of what is what is kind of funny is as long as Devin Booker is here he will always be the second best 66 shooting guard out of Kentucky or combo guard however you want to do it which is kind of funny and it’ll be even funnier if Devin Booker ever misses a game and this guy starts a game and they don’t say a 66 guard from Kentucky like they usually do with Booker so just some kind of funny things to look at it but as well a flamethrower man 43% you mentioned it i mean it feels like the Suns because I mean again again we’re going to reference the the the reports on this show but Gambo mentioned uh the kid from Tennessee and Tyresese Proctor looked to be the two guys that the Suns were looking at with that 41st overall pick that tells me that the Suns were not expecting Kobe Bare to be on the board and if that’s the case they saw this guy and said “Listen man just like like last night with Kamal Malawatch was uh we we have to take this guy like throw reasoning out the window this guy shot 44% from three and I I would I’m not sure if I’m disagreeing with you or how you feel about this but I don’t think this is a guy that’s going to go to the GLeague i think with his height and because he’s a fifthear senior if I’m not mistaken four-year senior either way yeah seasoned player he’s going to play for this team i don’t know in what capacity but the Suns need guys that can shoot the basketball right now jaylen Green we talked about it a little spotty ryan Dunn little spotty dylan Brooks 40% from three last year but you and I are still like are we sure that it’s that guy mark Williams Malawatch not going to be that guy at least right now so it was good to check the box off on get the shooter in get someone in that could potentially be I don’t know maybe he’s a a six seven man off the bench that comes in and reigns in a couple of three-pointers does his jobs goes and sits on the bench those guys are very valuable in this league too man so um I had my eyes on Tyrese Proctor so I’m not disappointed i just need to educate myself a little bit more on Kobe Baha because again I the reporting said that this wasn’t probably going to be the guy so I I mean overall man 43% three cannot go wrong there cannot go wrong in a league that’s shooting threes the Athletic had him 49th they were the lowest on him sam was the lowest but uh the Ringer had him 36th and the uh Yahoo had him 34th I want to say um and so like this is right in his range this is this is right there or 41 uh Yahoo had him 41 but the the comp that I think makes the most sense that I think everybody had is Sam Hower and I’ll take that just you know what I mean like it that’s the thing that makes a big shooter so valuable whether you’re talking about Cory Kissird or Liam McNeely who went in the first round or a guy like Hower or you know if you want to go Duncan Robinson that’s that’s there too like these guys they can play because one it’s harder to contest their shot and they just they don’t have to be in such a perfect scenario to get an open what qualifies as an open look as somebody like you know maybe Jace Richardson who’s a really elite shooter or Walter Clayton who’s a really elite shooter but those guys it has it’s going to look different it’s going to feel different if you get Kobe Bray the ball even a good contest it’s going to be hard to to really get in his way and that’s what what makes those guys so dangerous but the other part of it is you’re less worried about them than most shooters that we think of even like a Grayson Allen for instance right grayson Allen it’s like he has to give every ounce of effort and coaches as we just saw tell him to go get freaking ripped in the offseason to be able to hold up on defense but a guy like this you would be hopeful that he doesn’t have an elite wingspan i actually think he has a negative wingspan so he’s kind of in the JJ Reic you know dinosaur arm world there but like even just having a 66 wingspan you can just take up space you can be a team defender as long as you don’t play like an idiot and you’re in a good system and you’re with good teammates you should be able to survive on the defensive end of the floor nobody’s saying Sam Hower is a stopper but if that’s the comp Samer can survive because he’s out there with Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown and these other guys and if he can just make shots he can play 20 minutes a game and I just like that’s why this type of guy is so valuable so I need to watch him more to know exactly what makes his game good and bad but or you know strengths and weaknesses I guess is a better way to put it but I I love the idea of it and I like that the Suns at least in this spot went and basically said “We need everybody that we take to be big but we can’t have the 29th defense or offense in the NBA we can’t just say book save us on every possession.” Like there has to be some balance to the roster and I think that this is going to give it to them so um here’s the question now that kind of begs for the Suns where I don’t want to get too far to the roster structure we could do that in just a second here but I don’t from what I’ve seen I don’t necessarily see him as that true point guard that Steve Nash guy that everyone really wants suns sound like they have a like they they passed on that guy right cuz Tyrese Proctor would have been that guy which I think shows you what the Suns value more we’ve been through this once before we could talk about in more depth the roster construction but they value playmakers guys who can shoot the ball maybe off the dribble offscreens more than they do the old Steve Nash Chris Paul type of guards and maybe they’re going to go get someone in free agency but I think it showed the priority of what the Suns are going to go after on this team for like the foreseeable future they want length they want athleticism they want guys that can create their own shot playmake the even back to the Bradley Beal Kevin Durant earlier days they never really really they were never really interested in bringing that guy in they kind of were suckered into bringing Tus Jones in that didn’t work out it would lead me to believe that maybe they’re a little scorned from those guys and then lastly man you you have we you and I have both seen the history of guards that come out of Kentucky if you are in the second round with the 41st pick and you see a guy that shoots this well at some point you might as well just take the Kentucky guy right it’s like in football just take the Ohio State player they’re probably going to work out just take the LSU or Coastal Carolina player in baseball vanderbilt it’s just going to work out so I mean you look at Malik Monkman Devin Booker Sheldus Alexander i can go on and on down the list of guards that that came from Kentucky i mean I would think of this guy as he he’s a wing you know he’s he’s an offball player he he’s he’s a guard though yeah but big guard i don’t want to be I don’t want to give people a crazy idea when we say Shay Gildas Alexander and this guy’s going to go stand by no no no no my point is because of the history of Kentucky and their guards why not pull the lottery ticket why not it he will i’m 99% sure he won’t be SGA malik Monk i mean I’m not saying that’s out of that can never happen i’m talking about stylistically he’s nothing like Malik Monk sure that’s my point i’m saying if we’re gonna compare him let’s just make sure we’re like giving people the right idea of what this guy is he’s nothing like Malik Monk i’m going crazy with the Kentucky guard comparison that’s all he had he had 1.3 assists per game so like he’s going to go stand in the corner he’s going to run off some screens he’s going to chuck threes and you hope on defense that’s what this guy is that’s what this guy is all right let’s get to what it does mean for the roster because we’re already basically getting to that and I think it’s a great time to take stock the draft is now over we look ahead to the free agency more trades what do you want the Suns to get we’d love to hear from you guys what do we think comes next all of it after the break first today’s show brought to you by the Game Time app have you ever decided at the last minute to head to a ball game with friends or family i mean duh we all have it’s the summer the Dbacks finally are showing a little bit of life cuz they’re taking advantage of their schedule maybe it’s game day you realize hey I got a friend in town or we don’t have much going on today maybe my I’m off work whatever it might be it’s where game time comes in it’s the easiest way to grab last minute tickets without the stress it’s not just the Dbacks either by the way it’s uh The Mercury are playing great there’s concerts comedy theater the Gold Cup whatever you might want to go see and when you save money on tickets you can splurge on food drinks merch or even invite a bigger group to come with and Game Time makes that all possible it’s fast and simple they have lastminute deals views from your seat within the app and a lowest price guarantee to make sure you are getting the price that you 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the draft today how do we feel now in a revised We have all the players Kevin Durant trade that we haven’t seen these players play yet but how do we feel now Brendan okay so we’re not including Mark Williams right because that’s a separate thing right that Yeah sorry I read that first i read that wrong no no I’m not correcting you i’m just You’re right jaylen Green Dylan Brooks Malawatch Fleming Brea bria I feel good about it but I mean like I feel better doesn’t it feel crazy that they were even able to do this in the second round it’s a credit it’s one of those things where it really makes you realize how fake second round picks are it’s like when you see Oh they’re so dumb like some of those like venture capital guys and stuff who it’s like they made $200 million off of a company that was never profitable and you’re like “Okay.” It’s kind of what it feels like with with the second round sometimes they basically just conjured two players and that’s kind of what they did last year where they ended up getting Dun and Oso the players that they wanted and netted with more picks at the end of the night that was what they did last year this year they basically just conjured the two players like whatever you want to say about Ishbia and and Jones or Gregory or any of the people they are master manipulators of the draft i know that’s not the highlight because Malawatch and probably whatever becomes of green are going to be the highlights of this of this trade but it it goes a long way to add a couple of interesting players that that could be in your rotation eventually on the back half of the draft like they did tonight so I mean even just the to like we just know this team needed depth man so just the the sheer ability to get four guys well five guys right green Brooks Smallatch and these two who I’m interested in that could play this year plus Mark Williams like that’s six new players with pretty limited resources that just weren’t even going to be on the team so I get you can’t be mad about that part of it yeah I feel a lot better about it um like looking back at it at it like I I I think of the other offers that might have been thrown out there the Heat offer no shot I would have done the Timberwolves offer sounds like it was contingent on Kevin Durant signing an extension maybe I judged the front office a little too harshly on Monday and that’s on me but what I will say is the Rockets still got Kevin Durant they got the best player in the deal and ultimately if they make a finals run if they make a Western Conference Finals like right now they won the deal we won’t really know who won the deal for a couple years now and theoretically the Rockets just gave us the picks they didn’t give us those players it’s kind of a like those trades are impossible like to to say win or lose to me right like it’s completely like the the the goals are completely different it’s not like trading when the Raptors traded OGN and Obi for whatever or when the the Knicks got him and gave up RJ Barrett and Emanuel Quickley like that one it’s like all right which players are better that’s the winner of the trade this one it’s like the Suns achieve their goals the Rockets make it to the finals win-win you know what I mean so but I agree with you and so I I like I feel a lot better about it because I wanted Jabari Smith Jr and it was like “Okay Ben could I interest you in a Rasher Fleming instead?” And I’m like “Well 20 years old contract he seems like he’s got a high upside.” Yes Javari Smith Jr right now we know what he is but I do feel a lot better about it and so credit to the front office man we we have went after them a lot of times and you we still have all the reason in the world to be highly skeptical of them and their ways of getting to this point they like this is a good start but like let’s see you do a couple more good things in a row and then we’ll continue to to praise you a little bit so I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself yeah so let’s talk about what what what the new what the more things are going to be right because so this roster right now let’s say let’s just go guard wings bigs all right let’s just kind of do it that way you got Gillespie Beal Jaylen Green Bradley Beal or I said Beal i meant to say book okay i was going to say Gillespie Book and Jaylen Green beal is kind of in parentheses right like we’ll we’ll put him off to the side that was what I was going to ask you got Grayson in there still whether you want to call him a guard or a wing whatever on the wing you’ve got Brooks you’ve got Brea you’ve got Dunn it’s kind of it fleming if you want to call Royce yes Royce and I guess we can put Fleming in there whether you want to call him a wing or a big we’ll see and then as the bigs go you’ve got Malawatch Williams Fleming or you know whatever oso and Nick Richards oh oh so I forgot about him right so I mean I think the first order of business is still to trade Nick Richards right see what you can recoup as far as picks or maybe you get a different young player i mean I don’t know that That’s just a clearing of the deck though like so what do you think what do you want to see to fine-tune this roster to be something that can actually play an NBA game by the time October comes around the next week or two weeks what do you want to see the Suns do well you mentioned Brea as a wing okay whatever right i think they potentially got him to take over the Grace Nen role now Grace Nen right now is definitely a better player but I want to see Grace Nen moved what does that mean he’s not going to be moved like it’s important now that we have 341 people to mention this you’re not moving Grace Neil with Bradley Grace Allen with Bradley Beal because it’s like $80 million you got to come up with it’s not happening but if you can move Grayson Allen for future picks and maybe you get back like I’m not so sure what you get back in return but there’s no spot for Grace Allen on this team anymore um I still really like Can I push back on that a minute i sure why not they want to compete so hey Kobe Bray will just play 30 minutes come on like we don’t know that so and they do need shooting so I don’t think it’d be crazy to keep both of those guys like I actually I I tweeted this right before the Brea pick came down and so I understand why people might think like they need Grayson less because of that i just think that they do actually still need a lot of shooting i would be more willing I would be more um in a hurry to trade Royce at this point that’s funny that’s where the overlap is to me right that’s funny because I I I There’s that veteran presence that I just really like with Royce O’Neal and we went from a really old roster to kind of a little bit of a younger roster like overnight like Mark Williams is 23 Malawatch is 18 like I kind of like him being in there and for a Suns team that we talked about leadership probably wasn’t a great thing i do like Royce i don’t know what his leadership really looks like i can only see it from the outside looking in um but I would agree with you sure if you want to keep Grace Allen here awesome but I do think you’re going to need to choose between one of them because I think one of those guys is going to net you back some of the assets that you lost nick Richards Gambo mentioned today that there is a market for him and he feels like they will be able to trade him so right there if you can get two second round picks back for Richards you and I were talking about one last night all right next year in the draft Suns like to have these second round picks i mentioned them as currency so yeah Richards I mean Richards has to be gone i think yeah between those two guys I think I’d rather keep Royce but I get it either way but one of I hear you that he’s a vet i just I I think Royce is a pretty quiet guy if I’m being honest you know I I know at like the Jordan not press conference he was there with the rookies and that that could think that can make you think differently but Royce just seems so mildmannered you know what I mean so I don’t know it’s hard to know that but either way that’s that’s one order of business the Richards thing is one order of business we talked yesterday i think Oso is a little bit more expendable now just because of the the the big man glut so do you get value there we’ll see i’ll just say with Grayson and Royce though you’re not getting a ton back for either guy no I’m talking about getting maybe which is why I’m not even sure if you get first round a first round pick for e either one unless you’re taking back a different team’s salary that they don’t really love either what was what was the one you mentioned yesterday the Bulls one it was Patrick Williams for Grace Now and Oso for and a first round pick coming back here is that the one you said maybe maybe that’s what I said something like that but like and we both said we would do that but now with Fleming I’m kind of like Patrick Williams is that Yeah it is a little much um what I think now uh I think the Suns are preparing to move on from OSA we mentioned this last night i think so you and I again hold on someone said the Suns are on the clock what i really didn’t think this was going to happen but it may have here oh great another guy that we have you guys got to give us some more info we’re live folks we gota We got to have something fed to us listen this is what happens this is the structure you don’t get when we’re live yeah sun’s on the clock via Denver are we sure this isn’t the pick that we traded for 41 guys yeah it is it is i’m seeing the press release yeah just the pick they own thank you animal not not the Suns pick come on guys don’t scare us like that we’re going to have to go back and talk about another player in the middle of all this you got to be sure of your your warnings if you’re going to tell just took Alex Tui okay there you go not the That’s I don’t even know who that is i Wait a second back to either way back to what we were talking about the the Bulls trade I think would be Mhm um maybe it’s an it’s an example that’s what all like that type of thing it it’s not going to be just like trade Grayson Allen and get a pick i don’t think that’s what it’s going to be like people have said with the the Hawks trade exception oh trade him to there and get get a first from them i don’t think so so you and I both said this at the earlier the week and we reporters out there i don’t want you know mentioned Sun’s getting five second round picks to move off of Beal and you and I both said that’s that’s gonna get you to move off from Beiel that doesn’t make any sense and you pointed out and said earlier today on Twitter the five second round picks they’re not getting you off of Beal i think now that the Suns have used those five second round picks to get back in the draft I’m coming all the way around on this i think it’s pointing to Oso Agadaro is going to be on the move with Beal i think that is much more enticing to a team to bring in a guy like Oso maybe they move Grayson somewhere else and they do somehow get a first round pick and they package that with Beal um but I think it’s become more and more clear that the question might not be Royce and and Grayson Allen although we will get there i think it’s more so about I think OSO is the unlucky man going with Bradley Beal in a deal if the Suns find something yeah I I would say that one thing about this is that the Suns actually now I think have the depth to potentially survive the financial hit and the dead roster spot so to speak although you can obviously resign somebody in his spot it’ll just be a minimum player to survive cutting Beal if they needed to like that that would like they got three players for Durant and now they’ve gotten three more off of that with all the trades and then you know the Mark Williams thing so to me I actually feel better about the idea of if you just have to take the hit on Beal because they just have more players now cheap rookies and guys on their rookie contracts that they don’t have to sweat like oh now we’re just replacing Beal with a bunch of vet guys they actually have some interesting things that they could do if Be’s not on the team so I I wanted to get that in there and then uh we just got it from Nathan what about the aprons that was going to be the last thing that I brought up is they’re not under the second apron and it’s a harder path to be to get under it now um maybe they can find a place to dump Nick Richards that just brings them back no money and then that would that would help that’s 5 million off the books and then Cody Cody Martin maybe you cut him um yeah Cody’s not on this team I don’t think yeah but it’d be nice if you could trade him um but yeah you might just have to cut him he is trade him for like a second round pick or something yeah he’s June 30th so four days from now that might be the best bet and I Let’s see how much is Cody Martin is guaranteed for zero nick Richards is guaranteed for zero so let’s say you just got off both of those guys with no money back in a trade or you just cut them both that’s uh 13.6 million and I think that that gets you at least under the second a Yeah it does you’re 2 million under the second apron if you do that but we went into this whole thing Ben thinking the Suns had a decently easy path to getting under the first apron and now I don’t know if they can do that so they might still be pretty pretty hamstrung but not the worst of the worst you got to give it to again credit to Ishbia he doesn’t care if this team like we’re not changing our opinions that the Suns are going to be a lot more fun to watch next year we think maybe it blows up in their faces but they should be much more fun to watch not championship contenders not conference championship contenders but building something here maybe a fringe playoff team and like that’s a great place to be and it’s even better when Ishbia is willing to support that and listen man that’s how you build a culture you if if the players know that from ownership they’re always going to give it everything they have then that’s a great place to be it’s awesome um Beal it’s still the the lingering question mark man if they get off a bill would that put them under the first apron well it depends on how right if it’s a trade if it’s a trade then we got to see what they’re getting back salary-wise if they cut him completely then yes they would um but you know we’ve gone through all that before so to me uh yeah I I just like the the the more encore thing that I want to just say when we’re talking about what we want the roster to look like I actually think the identity of this team it’s exactly what the front office said it was going to be i’ll give it to them on that too they said it’s going to be tough it’s going to be physical it’s going to be defense first and they’ve basically taken a pretty weak physically team that was all offense and flipped it almost entirely in a week to being a pretty much all defense team outside of I guess you would say Book and Jaylen Green right so I think the identity might fit a Monte Morris coming back potentially i don’t think it fits a Bull Bull coming back no you know that that’s kind of where I’m at with those guys and I just think that they I I really do think that they need to prioritize offense with the rest of their moves um they like you you gotta and especially shooting and and just kind of passing like things things that aren’t just scoring the ball because Jaylen Green has that but they need more of like a cohesive balanced group as as far as an offensive unit because right now it’s a lot of single skill players and book is going to have a lot on him based on what we’re looking at right now do you consider offloading Beal and I this is a two-part question so I’ll have you answer this first then I’ll answer the second part do you consider offloading Beal for likely other bad contracts a big move yes or no um sure okay outside of that are the Suns done like it was was tonight it right maybe a Beal thing coming down the line but was tonight it like last year we all wanted a big splash right the big splash was hiring Mike Benholtzer was the splashes this year the hiring of Jordan Kn and the draft picks and we’re likely not going to see anything else now it’s going to be some vet players try to get someone here or do you think the Suns still have one more ace up their sleeve where they there’s a guy out there that they’re going to get because they pulled a rabbit out of their hat they traded Grace N for him they traded somehow Bradley Beal for him it for another shooter and I’m not trying to allude to anyone in particular that’s not what I’m trying to do i’m just curious if you think that maybe I think I think they’ll try i mean like Mattpia has proven that he’s going to just be active like one way or another he’s going to do whatever’s on the table to do like even if it doesn’t make sense in the moment even if you accidentally agree to get Mark Williams and then you get Kaman Malawatch like he’s going to he’s going to be active so they still have the I believe they still have the 2027 first right or did they trade that with Nerkage i always forget what they traded with Nerkach um they have one additional second I believe still um yeah no they still have the 2027 first to take a trade they have I think they still have a Denver second over overflowing from last year they have OSO I think who’s definitely expendable um I I think they’ll definitely continue to be active and I wouldn’t be s I mean they’re gonna they’re gonna exhaust every single possible option with Beiel to to try to get something of value out of that situation rather than just you know eating it so there’s there’s a lot still to come I think this offseason for the Suns because I I don’t think this is a complete roster after seeing today because I thought I mean I thought okay they hired their coach they’re going to make their picks they got Malawatch I would have been very happy with that even at whatever 52 59 if they would have stood Pat i never thought that was going to happen but but but still um it leads me to believe with all the wheeling and dealing that the Suns have done today that they are going to uh that they are going to have another race up their sleeve what is that i’m not talking about any crazy star players i don’t even want to go down that route but like Malcolm Brogden I think fits that realm for like an actual point guard you could bring in i wouldn’t consider Chris Paul that route but not Lonzo but like something tangible that is going to help you win you didn’t think they were going to be able to get him and I think it’s a point guard because they didn’t really attack that here and I would feel comfortable at least just having one on the roster not just one to throw on there that they had a couple years ago i forgot who it was when the Suns had no point guard but someone on there just to make me feel a little bit better and I would just be curious who that would be but I’m not I’m not 100% sure an idea like I’m not super sure like Lonzo really fits that bill i think that guy might be cooked um CP’s interesting i thought about Malcolm last night when you had mentioned it that’s a guy but those are the type of ideas that I’m thinking that the Suns still might have up their sleeve i’m not thinking anything crazy okay let’s get to two questions before we wrap so from Aiden what’s your favorite pick of the draft malawatch it’s not even close it’s not even close that was my number one guy yeah oh yeah i can’t believe they got him i’m not going to switch it now yeah for sure agreed kind of a cheat cuz it’s the only guy in the first round but it’s like well okay but he’s the best player so what yeah he’s the best he’s the best player we didn’t think he’d be there uh no stradamus I have no idea undrafted players no clue i’m sorry i You know I started I started that one cuz I was like I started that one because I was like maybe Brendan’s got someone but I don’t have anyone no and I don’t even think the draft is over right now so I couldn’t even tell you who’s actually going to be available h last one for Maiden how much do you think Jordan Knox contributed to the picture good question i think that this is an interesting thing to close on because I would say that their confidence in him developing the bigs Fleming and Malawatch and Mark Williams ha has to have been part of why they did what they did here but it’s funny because the Cavs were very much an offensively offensive identity team in Brooklyn and in LA especially was was looked at as the an offense first guy and this roster is going to be as it stands right now really going to struggle to score points so I guess the answer is from a player development standpoint I think it absolutely went into it their confidence that he can make players better especially all the raw bigs that they’re now going to have but it’s not exactly the identity I would have expected if you said “Hey they’re going to hire Cleveland’s one of Cleveland’s top assistants is going to come be the head coach of the Suns.” This is not what I would have thought the roster would look like i think he had a lot to say especially with the Malawatch and um Mark Williams thing it’s hard for me to look at a guy like Rashe like Rasheed Fleming and not think Rashier Fleming and not think that he had a lot to do with that as well so that’s why I started that way i think it’s a really good question i think Jordan Kn’s fingerprints are all over this draft um I would agree with especially the Malawatch thing because I know you’re skeptical with him as a stretch five in some capacity i don’t think he’s ever going to heave up five threes a game but could heave up one and a half two a game later in his career i think you saw what he did with Evan Mobley yes a little bit of a different player but same uh uh young player same position i think Jordan Knot could have his fingerprints on that too again Rashir Fleming as well uh Kobe B Kobe not so much but I would say a lot of it had to do with Jordan not and that’s good it means they’re trusting uh their head coach trusting the vision and listen man if all this pans out we might want this guy drafting everyone so it’s a good question and I would say yes and I think that’s a good place to be that the Suns are trusting their head coach Suns definitely have a type after two drafts with Gregory you know being in the ear and James Jones having less influence Ryan Dunn o Gdara Rashir Fleming saying call come on Malawatch that’s that’s a type that’s definitely a significant identity and a way that they want to view the players they bring in and what this roster is going to look like so uh hopefully a does contribute to that and make the guys better that they bring in and the alignment can click that’ll wrap us up hit follow hit subscribe we will be here as soon as anything big end happens but definitely by the weekend if nothing else enjoy the fireworks and the craziness of the NBA off season and we’ll catch you guys next time

The Phoenix Suns were BUSY on Thursday, trading all the way up to No. 31 and 41 before kicking off Day 2 by selecting Rasheer Fleming.

Brendon Kleen and Ben Garcia give their INSTANT Reaction to the Suns’ 2nd round haul and how the roster is coming along after a busy week of moves.

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