Brian Gregory talks Offseason Moves, NBA Draft, and Summer League | Phoenix Suns Press Availability

Brian Gregory talks Offseason Moves, NBA Draft, and Summer League | Phoenix Suns Press Availability

was all sweaty. Need a towel? Too late now. He’s an unbelievable kid, isn’t he? Wow. Brian, obviously, um, ultimately traded Kevin. What ultimately led you guys to making that decision, move forward without Kevin to make that turn? Well, you know, we were in contact with with with Kevin and his team during the whole time, and our our biggest thing was to uh number one goal was to find a way to uh bring in the the valuable pieces that would help us continue to move forward in the in the right direction. Um that was our number one goal in the whole thing. Um, and with the the trade came the draft picks and also brought in, you know, one of the rising stars in the NBA in in Jaylen. And, uh, with Dylan, uh, just a winner, you know, uh, brings the toughness and the grit, defensive intensity. Had his best offensive year of his career last year. Um, so the team got together at the end and felt pretty good about, you know, what transpired, you know, and I’ve talked about Kevin at length, the respect I have for him, uh, in my two years previous, just the relationship and the the the way he treated me, uh, and his professional approach every day. Um, but that was kind of the game plan there. What was it like to be a first time GM and be part of such a huge 17 biggest trade in the history of the NBA? Yeah. Um it took about three days to figure it out once it all got out there. Um but you know, things just kept adding to it and adding to it and adding to it. Um obviously we were pretty con uh uh focused on our part of it. Um, and Matt Telum who who handles all the financial pieces and all those different things did a great job on that. But again, I think one of the things that I talked about, you know, after the draft and I’ll continue to talk about was that, you know, we’ve kind of made a change and and and we’re a team working together in a lot of this stuff and uh you can’t pull off something like that. um you you can’t execute our the game plan we had heading into the draft days, day one and two without everybody working together on the same page and the the communication. Uh at times I’m the one who ends up at the end executing it, but there’s a lot of work that goes in before and I and I think it’s that system that process has worked out pretty well over the last five or six weeks. The reason I asked because it just felt like You know, when you talked about game plan, was it more of, okay, we get this this player, then we’ll go this direction and then another area? If we don’t get this player, how much of it was following the plan as opposed to reacting to something and then going? Well, I I I think you you whenever you’re talking about drafts or trades, you have a game plan in place, but there are times where you may have to pivot. You know what I mean? But the the most important thing is we we always create a threshold of what you know where we want to be at and what’s acceptable for us to move forward and and and it always has to be a positive impact on the organization or the team and I thought we accomplished that. You’ve changed the roster pretty significantly. Are you happy or comfortable where you guys are right now? Yeah, I’m very happy. You know, I mean, you look at it, we, you know, the the game has changed. We talked about that during my press conference, during coach’s press conference. Um, we are bigger, we’re longer, more athletic. Um, I think we’ll be able to play faster. I think defensively we have a chance to become very, very good. Um, some of it will be time, you know, because there are some younger guys on the on the roster now. Um, but I think the the um when you look at the the three guys we just drafted and you add Colin Oso and Ryan into that mix, you throw Jaylen in there, you throw Dylan in there, you know, uh, all new guys, Mark Williams in there. Uh, how the team looks has changed. How I think we can play will change as well. You mentioned Jaylen, one of the rising stars in the league. Obviously, he’s another kind of two guard who likes to operate with the ball in his hands. How do you feel about, you know, the potential fit with him and Book in the same back court? Well, I think we’ll be really fast, if you know what I mean. Uh, and the game is played at a faster pace. Um, and the ability to attack and get downhill is something he does exceptionally well. Uh, had his best three-point shooting uh year of his career last year. He’s 23 years old, going to be 24. Um, I think the sky’s is the limit for him. And I think him and Book um being able to man that back court together in a lot of instances and the pace that they’re able to play with and playing off each other. Obviously, I think there’s going to be greater movement, cutting, open opportunities for downhill drives. You know, I mentioned it, you know, after the draft, we did not attack the rim very well last year. It’s an area we have to get better at. You do it three specific ways. you know, on the drive, on the cut, you know, a big man getting the ball in the post area, which doesn’t happen all that often anymore. Uh, and then the effort way you do it is on the offensive glass. I I think Jaylen on those first two is going to be really, really good. When you when you made the Mark Williams train, you couldn’t talk about it last time we was the You tried to You guys Someone tried. Someone tried. Someone tried. But when we spoke about it, um, what was the timing of that like? Cuz you know, from the outside it felt like the Mark Williams trade and then Model Watch was available quickly after, but obviously you guys are having these conversations behind the scenes. So, how did that kind of unfold? And what do you think about being able to add two younger centers like Well, when we saw the opportunity to do both, it for us, we were like, we we have to do it, you know, cuz I talked about we were very poor protecting the rim last year. Um, now you should be able to have um, you know, full game where there’s protection of the rim. You know, even if you go, you know, smaller at the at the five, I think you, if you saw Oso out there, the weight he’s gained, the strength he’s gained, he’s going to be better defensively around the basket this year. That’s a key. the the the game. So much of it is is offensively attacking the rim, getting to the rim, scoring those baskets at the rim or creating that kick out option and then protecting the rim, you know, cuz the the better you protect the rim, the more you can pressure on the perimeter. So, um, to get both those guys, we we we weren’t passing that up. I thought that was, you know, again, we we discussed it. the first opportunity came, then the draft pick came. Um, so we were very happy with that. Was the plan to always try and get both or was that something that kind of revealed itself as it started to happen? We we had the the the trade from Mark started to happen. Uh, Kam was number one on our list at 10 if if available. Um, so I’m not sure, you know, a week before we thought that that was going to be, but as we progressed through the first day of the draft, it became more of a reality and and we made the decision to go for it. The marks of injury history give you pause at all? Well, I I think always when when a when a young player at again 23 years old has had those injury issues, uh you take a look back and you say, “Okay, do we have the uh things in place that can help him? Do we have the resources and tools and personnel that can put him in a better position where his body is able to recover from any previous injuries and the prevention of other ones? So, it obviously it’s talked about and discussed. Um, but we felt pretty confident in in our environment with him in our environment that we can get him healthy and then he can play the way he’s capable of playing on a more consistent basis. you look at the last part of the season, he was tremendous. You know what I mean? So, I think that gave us cause to say, okay, in with our medical group that which is as good as anybody’s around and their commitment level is probably even better. We felt very comfortable with that. When you look at just obviously with Brad, I know that you have a lot of respect for Brad and what he’s brought to the group, but clearly it seems as if the guys want to go I’m curious how you’re how you’re viewing him now with the situation with the team. Well, my my view of Brad will never change, you know. Um, and I appreciate that question, but again, you know, we’re with negotiations and and contract stuff, you know, we just don’t talk about the players. But your first point is true and that won’t that will never change it. it it’s just not who we are as an organization, you know, when it comes to people. When you been able when you I want to read this you asked about the roster. When going through this for the first time as a what are things that that now you’re looking at in terms of trying to get under the same apron and like there’s a lot of things that have to be on the mind. How have you been able to weave through that and and addressing issues? But there’s a lot of issues I guess. Yeah, I mean obviously I I mean I think the the last two years has helped me. If you were just thrown into this, I think it would be, you know, um more difficult, but to be able to slow roll into that experience and and really kind of learn over the last two years has helped. Um there’s a lot of different things. It’s a 30 years of of of coaching and as a head coach, being a the CEO, the GM, the head coach, the academic advis, all those different things. There’s a lot of stuff you got to do. Yeah. You know what I mean? And and this is about leadership. This is about building the right relationships and it’s about having great people on the team. And with with the day in and dayout um connection that I have not only with Josh Barlostein but Matt Telum uh Aronda Telerero uh I we have a pretty good team assembled here. When when you look at bringing Colin back and and going out and getting Nigel, how much do those two guys kind of address specific needs that you had for kind of a traditional point guard and and maybe another wing with size and experience? Well, I think everybody would would evaluate uh Colin and the way he played in that second half of the year as someone who deserved to be on this team. He earned it, you know, no question about it. Um, and he gave us a lot. He gave us a lot at the point guard spot. Um, but he also gave us a lot in everything that we’ve been talking about, the grit, the toughness, the first on the floor mentality. Um, the great leadership he provides every single day. um you know so I I I do think that there’s a need there was a need and he filled it um and so we you know we were we were happy with that and then you know we’ve been we’ve been really high on Nigel for a while I can’t you just got me in trouble erase that erase that off the record you five minutes ago you said you would never do And you just did it. I’ll tell you. Just did it. Brian, there was so much excitement uh when Kevin came, when Brad came and the, you know, the trio with Devin. Is there a lesson from that experience or is it just sometimes it just doesn’t work out the way you had hoped? you know, um, with the with the first trade and the second trade, you know, you’re trying to win championships as we as we stated, you know, um, and we we were not able to accomplish that. So, you have to be able to take a step back and say, okay, what’s next? What do we need to do? And um we felt that we needed to make some changes and and uh that’s where the the trade with Kevin occurred. Not to get you in trouble, but what do you like about Nike? I can’t talk about No, it’s not. It hasn’t official yet. One more. He keeps pushing it. Yeah, keeps pushing it. With Neil, I think it’s fair to say that that pairing with Booker hasn’t worked out as intended. What are the reasons that you guys believe Jaylen and Booker will be different? Well, I’ll just talk about Jaylen and Booker. I, you know, um, again, as I mentioned, I think there’s, um, a speed factor that’s being played in the NBA right now. They’re both great with the ball, you know. I think they can play off each other when they don’t have the ball. Um, I think our style of play, playing at a faster pace with better movement, is going to open up the court for both of them. Um, and I and I do think that you’re going to see uh our ability on the defensive end with more perimeter pressure that both those guys will really um their ability off the ball as other guys are pressuring the ball to play passing lanes and to read things. They both have unbelievable anticipatory skills defensively and I think they’re going to be really, really good in that. So, I I think you’re going to see them play well together, not only on the offensive end, but also on the defensive end. If you don’t mind if I play, do you think we got uh enough for the Durant trade or do you think you could have got We’re very pleased where where we ended up at the end of that trade. Very pleased. Thanks, guys. Thank you.

Phoenix Suns General Manager Brian Gregory speaks with the media after day one of Summer League practice. In this media availability he addresses the team’s offseason trades & signings, the 2025 NBA Draft, and the upcoming Summer League roster.

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