Beal or No Beal? The latest on the Phoenix Suns situation with Bradley Beal | Extra Point Podcast

Beal or No Beal? The latest on the Phoenix Suns situation with Bradley Beal | Extra Point Podcast

This is the Extra Point, an
Arizona’s Family Originals podcast sponsored by your Phoenix Suns. Yeah, let’s talk a little
Phoenix Suns Beal, or no Beal? Let’s talk to a man who has an article
up right now on Bright Side of the Sun. The one, the only, John Voita III Zooms
in here to the Extra Point Podcast. I think he’s been broadcasting
nonstop for the past 54 days, talking about the sun’s off season. Uh, am I close to the number on that one? Yeah, it’s How many days has
it been since April 13th? I mean, that’s what it is, mark. That the moment that we celebrated
the end of that season, we began in our heads trying to reconstruct
what this team would look like. And here we are now, and we still
have a lot of of decisions to go. Uh, hope Meter. Hope Meter for 20 25, 20 26. Uh, where is your Hope meter if, uh,
and the meter in the middle is like, you know, average to good, to great, uh, uh,
cancel your vacation plans in late June. Yeah. Championship wise, my hope
meters probably at like a two. I don’t think that what the suns have
done relative to the rest of the Western Conference and how a lot of other teams
have gotten better, it’s not very high. But when I, when you, if you talk
about a team that has the potential to at least be competitive, which is
something over the last two years. This team wasn’t my hope. Meters at like a seven. I’m not canceling any plans next June
because I know I’ll be here in Arizona. Sweating, not watching the suns
in the championship game, uh, the finals or even potentially
the, the, uh, deep playoff run. I do have some excitement about
some of the direction this team is taking, developing an identity,
hitting all those buzzwords relative to like alignment and culture. We’re starting to see the fruition of
that come to light, and the hope is in the long term, in three or four years. Yeah, we’re canceling some of
those plans in June because I. The suns are in the finals.
Oh, I’m drinking the alignment Kool-Aid. Big time. I just thought, yes. Oh, hashtag the alignment. Yes.
It used to be the timeline. It’s hashtag the alignment now,
that name we’re making this happen. Mark, that’s a name for a new podcast. I think we have one. Uh, maybe you and I can start one. Uh, as far as uh, the Bradley Beal
situation, do you think he will be part of the alignment, the vision,
and the roster for 20 25, 20 26? I don’t think he will be. I think that there’s news that came
out today that the sons are in, talks in going down the avenue of buying him
out and if they buy him out, now that the precedent has been set by what
Milwaukee did with Damien Lillard. If you buy him out and you stretch him
over an extended period of time, five years in this case, it really helps
your cap in the now and reports have. Been coming out all summer
long that Bradley Beal wasn’t gonna be a part of this team. And now it kind of seems like that’s
coming to light and it, it’s a really interesting debate whether
or not you want short-term greed or long-term greed to kind of take over. But taking Bradley Beal outta the
equation, you’re gonna have a lot of decisions to make once that. Cap space freeze up. But I, I don’t know if he’s gonna be here. I don’t think he’s gonna be here,
although I oddly kind of want him here now, which is strange. ’cause all summer I’ve been beating
the drum of we need to get rid of Beal. But now that it’s on the precipice
of potentially happening, I’m like, well, I don’t know. Like, maybe we just deal
with him for a couple years. He’s off the books and then you’re, you’re
clean, you, you’re clean and free of it. Because again, I don’t think we’re winning
a championship next year, potentially. The next one. Why do we hamper ourselves with $22
million of dead cap space for five years simply to double down on a bad
decision that was made two summers ago. Yeah, good guy, good player. Uh, massive salary. But if, if you take his salary and
stretch out over five years, what does that do to the son’s ability
to put together a championship team? Uh, it, it makes it very hard. It doesn’t make it impossible because
the cap’s gonna go up every year. Compounding upon itself. This upcoming off season,
it’s 154.6 million. It’s gonna rise by 7% next
year, the following year. That remains to be seen, but it has
the potential to continue to grow while that cap figure that Bradley
Beal earned or will be bought out for. Will remain at 22.2 million. I think that that’s the best
case scenario for Bradley Beal. Worst case scenario for the sons is 22.2
million, so you gotta think about that in terms of a contract and a player. Grayson Allen makes about 16 million. So this upcoming season, you’re giving up
a player who’s not playing for you, dead cap doesn’t play on your basketball team. You’re giving up a player worth more
than Grace Allen potentially to not be on your team as time progresses. It hurts. It doesn’t, it doesn’t
hurt as bad by year five. But again, in year five, now
we’re looking at Devin Booker. You know, he’s what, 32
years old by that time? 33. So that’s, you know,
again, short-term greed. Long-term greed. That’s what Brian Gregory,
Matt ish, Josh Bartelstein. That’s what they’re weighing
right now is they tried to. Decide if this is the correct
path they want to take benefits for him being on the
roster, mentoring young players versus the negative effects of
having him on the roster and maybe keeping other players from getting
valuable minutes and experience. I. That’s the decision, right? You look at the way that this
team is constructed right now, it’s very shooting guard heavy. And we almost have to take ourselves
back to that conversation two summers ago when he first came here and we
didn’t have point guard play, and it was him and Devin Booker who were the
back court for the Phoenix Suns, and we adopted the term positionless basketball. And that’s kind of the way the
basketball’s going these days. Isn, is it Mark? It’s, it’s a lot of combo guards disguised
as two guards, uh, or as point guards. I’m sorry. And so. You look at his ability to in inject
himself into this lineup, knowing that Jalen Green is coming over in
the Kevin Durant transaction, knowing that Jalen Green is somewhat of a
younger version of Bradley Beal. He’s young, he’s athletic, he has the
ability to put pressure on the rim. Uh, he’s quick and it’s almost. Positive to have him on this team
to mentor Jalen Green and how to become the best version of himself. But then of course, as you mentioned, you
pull Bradley Beal out of this equation. You open up a roster spot and you
open up the possibility of potentially bringing in a point guard, maybe even
a season point guard in like a Chris Paul who can assist in providing. Quality facilitation. And that was the issue with that
team two years ago, the, the facilitation just wasn’t there. Now if you go back and you look at
some of the advanced stats in a hundred or what, 1,111 minutes that Bradley
Beal and Devin Booker played on the court together, they were plus 1 76. That script got flipped last
year when they played together in probably about 50 more minutes. They were negative 1 36. So it’s like, well, what changed? Well, Tys Jones came to town
because we needed a facilitator. The fourth quarters in that season
two years ago were abysmal when either Booker or Beal wasn’t playing. And what happens? Ty Jones comes in, gets promised to start. We go into small ball lineups, we
get eviscerated on the defensive end, and now here we are. So what’s the right way? You can’t have Bradley Beal, Jalen
Green, and Devin Booker all starting. ’cause you don’t want Devin Booker
to play the small forward position. You don’t want to take your prime player
and, and put him out of position again. It’s a disservice to him during his prime. You also are, are taxed
with that decision. Well how do we navigate this? And one of the ways that you
could do that is by taking Bradley Beal outta that equation. Point God or Point Book Point God is the way I would like to go. I think we’ve seen a lot of Point Book. It all depends on if you get rid of. Bradley be, who do you have come in? Is it Point God, is it Malcolm Brog? Is it Russell Westbrook? I mean, there’s a bunch of, you
know, old names that you can kind of kick around the yard and, and
fall in love with potentially. But I’m not, I’m not
super against Point Book. I just think that again, you have to
put him in a position to be successful. And by the way that the suns are aligning,
you know, there’s that buzzword again. But the way that they’re aligning by
having big, long athletic defenders behind him, he, he proved last year
that he could be a quality facilitator, a career high, and assists per game. I. You know, the, the scoring average dip. But there’s other reasons for that. But I think if you put him in a position
to be successful, and he can be out there with potentially a Jalen Green,
and on the defense end, he can gamble a little bit because you’re gonna have
behind him, Dylan Brooks, Ryan Dunn, maybe Rashir Fleming, come on, Malaak,
uh, Mark Williams, Nick Richards. I mean, you have a bunch of long
athletic guys behind them where they can gamble a little bit on defense. So I’m not opposed to
the idea of Point Book. But I think we all have a soft spot
in our heart for CP three, right? Having the point guard back in town
isn’t something that I would be against. I, I like him, bring him back. He’s the one of the only retreads I’ll
actually enjoy having back in town. I, I would put him in the ring
of honor the moment he walks back into the building because I sat
through the 10 year playoff hiatus. It felt like 40 and things changed. The moment he got back to town. I, that’s why I think
this is worth a gamble. And if you’re just gonna, you know, wave
and stretch and just pay Bradley Beal not to be here, I think you take, take a shot
at seeing if there’s a little more magic there from Chris Paul some, some dust that
he can sprinkle in this franchise to get it pointed back in the right direction and provide some leadership as well. And you have to get rid of
Beal so Chris Paul can have the number three again, right? Fair? Yes. What? I don’t What would you do? Yeah. I don’t mean that’d be CP 33. You gotta ask Alvin Adams to
once again unretire his number like he did for Grant Hill. Like we don’t wanna go
through all that drama. Right. A battle royale for the number
three doesn’t need to happen. And Alvin Adams just retired. He’s, he’s living his best
life out in California. Have we gotta get him on the podcast? ’cause I mean, how many sons have
scored 30 points at an NBA finals game? You got book, you got Alvin Adams and,
and the, the, the rest of the, uh, list is short when you call role in that class. Um, as far as as bigs go for the sons,
uh, Brian Gregory talked a lot about, uh, two bigs when he, when he, when it it
is, it is introductory press conference. How much do you think we’ll see Two bigs
on the floor next year for the sons. I think the possibility is very high,
especially considering the fact that we’ve kept Nick Richards, that was
one of the off season free agency, you know, wonderment that we had is what
are we gonna do with Nick Richards? $5 million a year? Not, you can’t get a lot really for
him on the market, unless you’re just trying to dump him to get. Salary relief and draft capital,
which I’m not necessarily opposed against, but you just brought in. Come on, Malo watch, who’s
the rookie, 18-year-old. He’s gonna be 19 when the season starts. Kid from Duke, who’s just a monster
and has a bit, a great motor on him, and then you have Mark Williams on
the same day in a transaction with the Charlotte Hornets who’s off injured. And I think that it’s smart for the suns. To keep and roster Nick Richards,
because if Williams gets injured, as he often does, plays 40% of his games,
you still have quality backup, big depth available, and I think you can
get strategic with it, and it’s one of those weird and interesting things again. With Jordan Ott. Now the head coach, you take a look at how
the Cleveland Cavalier were constructed, uh, as he was there as assistant coach. Very similar to kind of how
they’re building out with Phoenix. You know, Darius Garland, Donovan
Mitchell, two guys who were undersized combo guards in the, in
the back court, but in the front courts, Evan Mobley in Jared Allen. So I definitely think that. OT is gonna want to experiment with that. He’s gonna want to put Malo watch
out there at the four and Williams at the five just to give us length. And it’s something, I mean, mark,
when have we ever had size in Phoenix? Honestly, like since Rodney
Rogers and Antonio MCIs were here. Uh, Mario and Shaq maybe, but they were never
on the floor at the same time. And Shaq was in the
stands most of the time. Let’s see.
Yeah, he was diving all over the place. I mean, we, we just historically
were not a big franchise. We got Pat. Pat, I did Pat an article, pat Burkin, Eric POWs on the fitness club,
the guys that never played. Uh, yeah, the, the backups. Remember Dan, Tony would play six guys. Yeah.
Yeah. Yes. Yeah.
Jake Sitis. Yes.
Yeah. When Pat Burke come in, you’d like
light up a cigar ’cause he knew the game was over because that’s the
only time you would ever see him. Yeah.
So historically we’re just not big. So we have an opportunity now with
these guys, with other acquisitions to just put some size on the court and I
think it’ll be fun to watch this team experiment with that se next season. Favorite son of all time. Um. Pat Burke or Bowl. Bowl. And why Pat Burke? Uh, he’s Irish. Go Irish. Oh, there we go. Hey, uh, I’m also a Notre Dame fan, you know.
Oh my. I, okay, so Dodgers, Notre Dame at least. Yeah, the sons. That’s, I don’t actually, I don’t mind. Notre Dame and the Cardinals. Yeah.
I love my Cardinals. So what do you rise up? Red Sea.
So what do you do when the Dodgers play the Diebacks? Is that, uh oh. Dodgers. I
bleed blue. Pantone 2 94. The prettiest color. And. All of the colors. It’s, it, it is be, Dodger Stadium is, is such a great
place to go watch a game. Oh, it’s beautiful. Yeah.
I’m miss seeing Justin Turner play. Great.
Great Swing. Did beat the Diamondbacks there in the,
in the playoffs a couple years ago. A long time ago. 2017, uh, was over there for that one. And then you, so you grew up
in Southern California, so you walked, did you watch the Gibby? Were you there for the Oh yeah. World Series. Oh yeah.
Were you at any of those games? I was born in Phoenix and then
I moved to California ’cause my dad went to Loyola Marymount. And from ages three to 12,
I lived out there in 88. I was six years old watching Gibby with
my mom and my dad hit the home run. I mean, it was just, it was one
of those moments that I. It burned into your brain, that experience. And it was also my first
introduction to the Dodgers. I had gone to games that season with
my parents in the next couple seasons. So I grew up going to Dodger Stadium. So when I moved back to Phoenix in
19 94, 4 years before the Dime backs came here, uh, even though the Dodgers
were horrible in the nineties, ugh. But I loved me some Eric Carros
and, and Darryl Strawberry and Eric Davis, Brett Butler. I mean, I love those teams. Uh, but we didn’t get a
team until 2000 or um, 1998. And so like I’ve always. Liked the dime backs, but
I’m a, I bleed dodger blue. You know, I went to games two, six and
seven of the World Series with my mom. Shout out, mom, thanks for doing that. You spent a lot of money in your
credit cards and I’ll never forget it. It was the most amazing experience ever. But still, I bleed Dodger Blue and
she always is ashamed of me for that. And
what’s mom’s name? Sally. Sally. Has Sally been on, uh,
bright Side of the side. Has there been a reason to bring
Sally on to, to talk about the Suns? Uh, we haven’t brought her
onto to the podcast yet, uh, on the Son’s Jam Session podcast. I haven’t done it yet. Uh, although she does love her. Some sons and, you know, she cried
right along with me when Mario, Ellie hit the, the ah, kiss of Death. Yes.
And I broke one of her remotes. And again, I’m sorry for that too, mom. Well, uh, tell us, uh, the next time we
can hear you on the pod and where can we, you’ve got an article up right now on
Bright Side of the Sun and Jam session. When do you broadcast? And, uh, man, this has been, this
has been very informative, man. We gotta have you on, uh, I, I’ll, you’ll
probably like see my call and, and, and put your phone in the other room. But, uh, this has been,
this has been great, man. Really enjoyed the insight. I, I appreciate it, Marco. Uh, you know, it’s, it’s good seeing you. Uh, we see each other a couple
times on Media Row, you know, you’re in the better seats. I’m a, I’m in the, the cheap
seats over there at, at PHX Arena. But, uh, we go live after every
se, uh, every single Phoenix Suns game on our YouTube channel, uh,
at the Suns Jam Session podcast that we also release the audio. It’s the off season now, so we
just go live on Wednesday nights. And then you can always read my
writing at Bright Side of the Sun, where I’m the managing editor. Me and my writing team have
been cranking some stuff out. Really good educational stuff. If you are passionate about the suns
or just kind of casual and wanna know what’s going on, uh, it’s fun, it’s
free, and you know, it’s a good read. I highly, I’m impressed with our writing
team and I’m thankful for what they do. Yeah, the passion comes through. So thanks for all the effort that you
put into covering the local teams. Thank you for the time and, uh, we look
forward to seeing what storyline you, uh, you dig up and, and dive into next. Appreciate it, mark. The Extra Point Podcast is a
production of three TV CBS five and az family.com in Phoenix, Arizona.

Mark McClune talks with John Voita III about the Suns’ offseason moves, the future of Bradley Beal, and the team’s long-term championship prospects. They discuss the potential impact of a buyout for Beal, the Suns’ cap space considerations, and the strategic importance of developing young players like Jalen Green. Plus, they explore the possibility of bringing back veteran point guard Chris Paul and the benefits of utilizing two bigs on the floor. Don’t miss this deep dive into the Suns’ alignment strategy and what it means for the future of the team.

00:00 Introduction to The Extra Point Podcast
00:21 Phoenix Suns Offseason Overview
00:42 Hope Meter for Upcoming Seasons
01:57 Bradley Beal’s Future with the Suns
02:51 Debating the Beal Buyout
03:25 Impact of Beal’s Contract on Team Strategy
05:03 Positionless Basketball and Team Dynamics
07:11 Point God vs. Point Book
09:40 Big Men Strategy for the Suns
11:57 Personal Anecdotes and Fan Stories
14:03 Closing Remarks and Podcast Information
#suns #nba #phoenixsuns #bradleybeal #nbarumors