What Can Dillon Brooks Provide Outside Of Being Suns’ Favorite New Villain?

What Can Dillon Brooks Provide Outside Of Being Suns’ Favorite New Villain?

As if Grayson Allen wasn’t enough, the Suns now have Dylan Brooks to fully embrace their villain era. We’re going to get into that. We’re also going to talk about the latest with Jonathan Kaminga coming right up. Psychos and sickos, welcome in to another edition of the PHX Suns podcast, live from Studio K, presented by Circle K and fueled by Circle K. I am your temporary fill in host for Eric Ruby, who is still on vacation until next Monday, Gerald Borgay, joined as always by the freckled mamba behind the Mac, and Steven Pion Garner. Now, we got there it is. There’s a Stephen, how you doing today? Uh, confused obviously. Uh, before I was doing good, though. I was doing great actually. Uh, how about you? How y’all doing? I’m doing good. Three for a loop, so we apologize for that. We’re 1 minute into the show, but we’re going to get things right back on track as best as we can. Thank you everyone for being here in the chat with us. We understand it’s the end of the July and the news is sort of running dry, but that’s not the case for today’s show because we do have a lot of stuff to get into today. Atypically jam-packed schedule for a late July show. Um, so thank you for being here with us. BS Murray, Ashley Shaw, Amelia, Cara, BS Murray. Again, thank you guys. Andy Cruz, we appreciate all of you being here with us. Make sure to leave a like. It really does help us out. And subscribe if you haven’t already. We’re always trying to hit that next threshold of subscribers and you can get notified whenever we go live. Um, let’s see, Stephen, where do we even begin? We’ve got news on Jonathan Kamingo. We’ve got the Suns preseason schedule coming out. We’ve got a Dylan Brooks breakdown or two to get into. And we’ve got some Jaylen Green hold over clips from summer league that were worth touching back on, but obviously the most pertinent news that I think everybody will want to talk about again is Jonathan Kaminga and the latest from Sham Sharania. This is what he wrote this morning over at ESPN. Um, he was saying the most significant negotiations for a sign-in trade have been with the Sacramento Kings and the Phoenix Suns, getting proposals up to four years, approaching 90 million total, including a player option for the final season. Phoenix has made the most lucrative push via sign and trade. Uh, the Warriors have been uninterested in the trade returns from the Kings and Suns for Kaminga. Uh, and they’ve been kind of signaling a plan to cut off sign and trade conversations entirely, which would then kind of reduce the options for Kaminga to either taking their 2-year $45 million offer with a team option for the second year or uh him signing the $7.9 million qualifying offer, which would make him an unrestricted free agent next summer and would present pretty substantial risk to both parties. Kaminga obviously preferring the longer term options presented by the Kings and the Suns. Um where where do we even begin with this? First of all, it feels like nothing is going to change on this front. It feels like each side is clinging to their leverage. The Warriors saying, “Look, we don’t want any of these offers from the Suns or from the Kings. Um you’re a restricted free agent for a reason. You don’t have the power here. So, you either take our two-year $45 million offer or you take a gamble on yourself and become an unrestricted free agent next summer. Kaminga’s camp is saying, “Look, you’re probably waiting on Dean Anthony Melton and Al Horford to get done until this wraps up.” That’s not happening. Uh, and then you’ve got the Suns who are kind of poking around trying to see where they might be able to fit in despite not having a first round pick and despite the Warriors reportedly not being interested in Grayson Allen, Nick Richards, etc. I think the fun in it all for me is uh Sacramento just doing whatever. They they make no sense to me at all. Like what is like I I genuin like I will give credit I will give credit when it’s due. I will never I will never go against a team that is willing to take a chance at making things make sense in terms of contending or competing rather. Sure. What are y’all doing though man? the point guard the point guard hold up and everything that went through that process with them made no sense since they traded Dear and Fox and didn’t have a plan in place contingency wise. Yeah. And also didn’t get compensation back appropriately either. So nope, that part makes no sense. And then them trickling into the conversation. Okay. Um you still haven’t figured it out with you haven’t figured it out with Keegan Murray and you want to add another young wing to the mix. Like all right man, y’all got it. Mhm. Anyways, for the Suns Mhm. the price line has to be right. Yeah. There was the report of them offering upwards of 70 mil more. So 70 million more guaranteed. I think that’s probably factoring in the second year for the Warriors would be a team option as opposed to the Suns would probably be guaranteeing it. I’m assuming that’s how they got that math cuz 90 millionUS 45 million does not equal 70. Correct. I’m assuming it’s based on the team option versus secondyear guarantee. That’s a lot of more money. It is. Either way, like yes, it the context definitely matters there, but for a young player that still has a lot to prove, like obviously you want if you’re taking that swing, you’re you’re taking the dice roll hoping to kind of roll right in your favor, but that’s not a that’s not a player that’s shown much completeness and and pockets much desire to do anything outside of find ways to put the ball in the basket. Yeah. No, I agree. We we did get a super chat from Maria. Thank you, Maria, for your uh 499 super chat. She didn’t leave a message, but she did follow up in the chat. Said, “Love when life allows me to catch these shows live again. Always appreciate the insight from you all and I’m ready for the new season.” Thank you, Maria. We absolutely are, too. We are going to be here every day, Monday through Friday, for the next two months until it is back. Um, but we’re excited because we are going to find a lot of fun things to do over the summer, a lot of basketball conversations to be had, a lot of season previews and breakdown type stuff as well. Um, and we appreciate you being here live with us. everybody who’s in here with us as well. Thank you for being here. Make sure to hit the like. Um I’m yeah I my stance on Kaminga has not changed. A lot of people have been asking does this mean that we could get him for less? I don’t think so. Um 90 million over four years is about 22.5 million which annually is not that bad. I think we earlier when we were having this conversation we were talking about him wanting you know 30 million a year and what that would look like or 25 million a year. 22 and a half million a year is not that bad. Again, I don’t know that I like the fit here, especially with Book and Jaylen Green already on the roster. I like it a lot less for Sacramento. They already got Zack Lavine, Demar De Rozan. The two guys that they shouldn’t be trading, Malik Monk, and Devin Carter, it feels like are up for grabs for some reason. So, I don’t know what Sacramento’s doing, but it does kind of feel like the Warriors are going to hold firm here. Um, I don’t know that for sure. I don’t know how long they can continue to do this because of the Al Horford and DeAnthony Melton additions that they’re waiting on for this to resolve itself. Um, but it kind of feels like everyone is at a stalemate and until one side blinks, we’re going to continue to get these types of leverage reports. Uh, where each side is kind of making it known that no, I actually hold all the cards, not you. And this is the fun of restricted free agency, everyone. We’ve seen it in the past, but it seems to have gotten much worse under the new CBA. When you look at Quinton Grimes, when you look at Josh Giddy, when you look at Jonathan Kaminga, uh it’s pretty much the team holds the cards and if you take if you want more than the low ball offer that they’re going to give you, cool. Catch us in August. We’ll talk to you then. Uh so yeah, I I don’t I think it’s still unlikely the Suns wind up getting Kaminga, but we’re going to continue to do this with every new development. This is like my worst nightmare because this is exactly what we were doing with the Kevin Durant trade when we were waiting up for it. But that was Kevin Durant. This is Jonathan Kaminga. After Kevin Durant, I hate the offseason. It’s Kaminga after Kevin Durant. Like there’s a significant kind of underwhelmness about it, especially if you’re reporting on it. Yes. Every detail, every step of it. Yep. I think the other fun part u fun derogatory. Yes. Is that he he um he shot down the no trade clause, right, in the one of the offers presented by the Warriors. That’s very, I would say, surprising slashin interesting kind of what that entails about the relationship and how far off of see eye to eye they are. Uh yeah, that’s that’s that’s a mess of a situation that I don’t feel like we have a resolution coming for in the distant in the or not too distant future, right? Cuz cuz signing that offer they would be able to trade him and I think not doing that. Kamingo wants like I it’s interesting to me because I think for the Warriors they’re trying to pitch it as like we can sign you and then we can potentially trade you during the season and get better value. So that is an interesting wrinkle to keep in mind as we move forward. Uh the other thing do you have anything else to add on? Yeah, we we’re going to have it like you remember anchor man the panda watch. We’re going to do that with Kaminga moving forward. Um, the other thing that we got today was the Suns preseason schedule. A little less exciting, a little less sexy. But, uh, we know when they’re going to play. They’re only going to play two different opponents. It’ll be the Lakers on October 3rd in Palm Desert. They like those Palm Desert games for whatever reason. And then, uh, three days later in Macau, China, they’re going to be playing the Brooklyn Nets at 5:00 a.m. Pacific time. Uh, I’m not sure that. Yeah, I’m not sure. Maybe a postgame show where I skim the highlights on Twitter. Uh, and then two days later on a Sunday. Love being woken up at 4:00 a.m. on a Sunday. Psycho and sickle stream. The Suns are basically my human child now. I’m waking up at 4 a.m. on a Sunday for Suns basketball uh in a backtoback with the Nets. I guess they have a day in between. And then two days later, they’re back in Phoenix, Arizona for their preseason finale against the Lakers. That’s a crazy preseason schedule. That’s a Yeah, that’s a lot of uh travel in a short span there. Um tough. So, yeah, that’s the preseason schedule. Tough. I will say I’m all for No, no, absolutely not. No, no way. Uh cuz that’s going to set such a negative tone for everything. I couldn’t even be mad at him if that was the case. But yeah, that’s fair. I do love the international kind of globalization of the game. finding ways during the regular season creatively and making the schedule for said existing parties logistically make sense. Not the case for the Suns with it being in the preseason. So, you know, that is what it is. I wanted to do cuz I remember last year I think it was the Nuggets played can’t remember who they played, but they started maybe it might have been Boston. Okay. And they played they started training camp a week before everybody else to accommodate for the travel. Mhm. Um I don’t know if you’ve heard anything or if that’s the case with the Suns. I haven’t. I don’t know. That’s interesting. Was it who was it? The Mavs are going to Vancouver for their training camp. Yeah. So, we are the globalization of the game is definitely underway. I think Adam Silver is meeting about a European league as well. Um so, we’re definitely going to see more NBA extensions overseas moving forward. Mhm. Um there’s also obviously the big uh heavy hitters for expansion are Seattle and Las Vegas, but Mexico City is kind of the third one that’s always thrown in there. So something to keep in mind moving forward. Um but that kind of takes care of the odds and ends for the show. We are going to have a very Dylan Brooks and Jaylen Greenheavy episode, especially on Brooks. I wrote an article over at gophnx.com that is for dieards only. Uh so make sure to go check that out after the show if you have not already. I promise you nobody’s uh breaking down Dylan Brooks postups quite to this degree at this point in the offseason. Um but we’re going to get into all that after a real quick break. Stephen, I’ve told you about our friends over at Pure Edibles a few times and how they have 130 dispensaries statewide, which is pretty impressive. I don’t know how many how that divies up per city in Arizona. I’m not sure how many cities there are, but I got to think that there’s more than one per city in Arizona. They are gummies that are not covered in sugar like a lot of their competitors. And they’re a full-fledged candy company, which is pretty cool. They’ve got gummies. They’ve got kicks, which are like Starburst. Um, my wife and I just bought a bag of Starburst, so I mean, I I I love the throwback to those days. They got the soft candies like caramels for chew. They got hard candies, and the effects are listed clearly on the side, so you know exactly what each one uh can offer you. They’ve got gummies to support sleep as well as candies for uplifting effects derived with unique cannabonoids such as CBN, CBG, CBD with marijuana derived THC. They were created in Flagstaff a Noble Herb Dispensary, the home of Pure Edibles, and now they’re made throughout Arizona and made in Phoenix, Arizona. Uh they can be ripped in half or bit in half, so they’re ideal for sharing with your friends and you can dial in your exact dose. So, go find yourself some Pure Edibles products from one of over 130 dispensaries across Arizona. Um, Stephen, I’m not going to ask you if you want a cookie today for the Circle K read cuz I was told that that’s gotten stale. But you know what isn’t stale? Those $1 cookies at Circle K. If you are an inner circle member, that is just one of many current promotions that you can take advantage of at your at America’s thrift stop. Um, you can save 25 cents per gallon on fuel when you buy three Coca-Cola 20 oz products. You got the 99 cent frosters, the 79 cent Polar Pops. You can get two slices of pizza for their $5 meal deal. Uh, and it comes with any 20 oz soda or Polar Pop up to 44 oz. So, a lot of great deals over there. And the best part about being an inner circle member is it is completely free. Uh, I know Espo when he did these reads in the past would like to pretend that he’s part of some exclusive club. It’s it’s for everybody. It’s It’s like I can’t remember those other commercials that do the exact same thing, but I think Espo ripped them off. I hope he’s not watching this episode, but uh make sure that you become an inner circle for free. Uh become a member by downloading the Circle K app today. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit circlek.com for details. All right, Stephen, let’s talk about Dylan Brooks because we’ve t I mean the centerpiece of the Kevin Durant trade was obviously Jaylen Green in terms of established players you’re getting back. He’s the youngest one. He’s the guy that you’re looking at how is he going to fit with Deon Booker and then a lot of people are looking at the number 10 pick that you got in that deal obviously come on Malawatch what he’s going to become. Yes. I feel like Dylan Brooks a lot of people think that they know what he brings to the table. the whole villain narrative, all that. And it’s a narrative that he leans into on the court only. I I don’t want anyone to make that mistake because he’s been very clear like on the court, hell yeah, I’m a villain. Off the court, like I’m a normal guy. Love my family, love my teammates, love my friends. Like I’m not that dude. But it feels like people kind of put him in a box in terms of who he is, what he is. And I I’ll admit, we’ve been guilty of it here before he played for the Suns. is the ultimate love him if he’s on your team, hate him if he’s not kind of guy. Um, but so I think especially as we’re doing all these player breakdowns because we have nothing better to do for the next two months, I was enjoying learning more about his game and what he brings to the table. But before we do get into all of that, we should talk about the alpha leadership, the villain mentality, the ability to get under people’s skin that he brings to the table. So, who better to give us his thoughts on who Dylan Brooks is than Dylan Brooks himself? Um, no bull. Um, I would say, you know, I don’t back down from anybody or anything. Everybody’s, you know, to me the same. And, um, you know, I can’t wait to, you know, um, get a technical file in, um, in, uh, is it is it called sticks? It’s still still called sticks. It’s a PHX now. It’s a PHX now. Okay. Okay. Sorry. uh in the PHX um you know for them to go crazy. Uh so um you know I can’t wait uh you know my toughness and my grit you know goes all around and um I hope it’s contagious for the team. I love when you ask a guy to describe himself and the first thing he says is no BS and then he proceeds to talk about how he can’t wait to get his first technical foul. Fun fact that I got while researching my article. Dylan Brooks for three years in the row has finished second in the NBA in technical fouls. I got to believe he’s coming for that number one spot at some point. Stephen, who was outdoing him? Draymond. Draymond did it one year. Yeah. Luca one year. Okay. And last year was Anthony Edwards, actually. Uh, yeah. Ant was flirting with that suspension come playoff time. Yeah. Yeah. And Chris Finch was benching him intentionally for multiple reasons. Yeah. Okay. Yep. Okay. I think I think the Suns they’ve been their best version of themselves the last four to five seasons when they’ve had one or two of those a-hole type guys. And I mean that in the most complimentary way. Guys that break the break the ice in terms of you have guys that simply just do their job. You have guys that go a little bit beyond the job in terms of the the inner game dynamics. And then you have guys that go 10 toes down into it. But those guys that go 10 toes down into it, that’s not the only value that they bring. And I think that’s the important part because who’s going to respect someone that’s doing all that talking if you have no impact on the game? Yeah, absolutely. And I think for a lot of guys in the league, it’s a gimmick or they view it with Brooks in particular as a gimmick because I I even even saw it firsthand at the Team USA scrimmage with Canada in Las Vegas over the summer uh last summer where Brooks cut through right in between where the players were and where the media was. He could have gone around that whole media circus. He cut right through and like cut Book off and you could see him like make this face. And for a lot of guys, it’s kind of annoying, but it’s one of those things that if you’re on his team, you appreciate it because he whether it’s a bit or not, whatever you want to call it, he’s committed to it and he does it every single day. Um, somebody in the chat mentioned that Brooks is going to be someone who’s who’s great for Ryan Dunn. Yes. Um, and funnily enough, it is not just the front office that is high on the impact that Dylan Brooks is going to have on this locker room. Here’s what Dunn himself had to say. That’s someone that, you know, I can look up to now. Um, you know, a guy that, you know, I can see myself as, you know, doesn’t care if I miss or make shots. Just cares about doing his job. Doesn’t take nothing from nobody. Um, there’s a dog on the floor and, you know, if you’re on his team, he he loves you, but he wants to go after everything on his team. And, you know, that’s what we’re trying to bring out here in Phoenix. So, I’m glad we got it. Yeah. I spent a lot of time yesterday speaking to how Ryan is one of a few players that are perfectly positioned to learn from guys that have been doing his job in a way maybe a little unique from how he does it but in ways that he can learn and add layers to his game too. Mhm. So, I think him spending time just naturally with Dylan Brooks in the competitive nature that he upholds, while Ryan does that himself in his own way, he can find ways to kind of walk that fine line in competitiveness to where it’s not just your impact with your activity, but the little things that help to gain even the slightest percentage of an advantage because we all know that the the the cards are stacked in favor of offensive players. So, you have to find ways on the margins past just doing your job to be successful defensively. Yeah, I think a little bit of that FU mentality rubbing off on Ryan Dunn would be kind of a scary combination there as he continues to mature and expand his game. Um, so that that is kind of exciting if you’ve got Dylan Brooks and Ryan Dunn in the starting lineup together, the impact that they’re going to be able to have in addition to, you know, having two committed defenders out there on the wings as well. Um, and this is not just coming from guys who are excited to play with him, but also a guy who’s coming over from Houston in this trade in Jaylen Green who spent the last two years um, kind of learning from Dylan Brooks in the same way that we’re talking about Ryan Dunn potentially. Here’s what Green had to say about summer league. Super valuable. Um, I mean, you just seen what we did in Houston and 52 wins don’t come easy like that. So, um, he was a big part of that and, um, you know, me and him both growing up over here, we understood what it took to win last year, all the sacrifice and the dog mentality, playing hard defensively, offensively. Um, bringing that to Phoenix, I think it will help out and, you know, give uh, Book a little bit of leeway so he can, you know, get some buckets, too. If you’re trying to make the comparison that the Rockets were a young team that made that leap to, you know, the two seed in the Western Conference over a short period of time to this young Suns team and you’re hopefully trying to bring over some of that experience with Dylan Brooks, with Jaylen Green. Um, it is reassuring that you have guys like that that have been part of it firsthand and part of that ascendance because as much as you’re not going to point to Dylan Brooks as the culprit that the reason why they won 15 games, he was a starter for all 75 appearances that he had for the Rockets last year on a two seed. Jaylen Green started every game as well for the Rockets. So, as much as Green is younger and Brooks is seen as more of a role player, having guys that were in that type of environment every day and know what it takes, know how to, you know, bring the grit and the grind defensively that the Suns keep talking about and actually live it. Um, I think that is beneficial. I don’t think they’re going to soul single-handedly carry it over. A lot of these guys in this in this uh city need to take that upon themselves, but it definitely won’t hurt. Yeah, it won’t hurt for sure. And I think I think there’s definitely some parallels between the Suns roster this season and what Dylan Brooks was at his best in multiple career statistics uh last season with the Rockets. Now the front court obviously is significantly different. There is no Alfred Shenon. There is no Steven Adams either. I think both of those two are equally important to why he was so good last year. But what is common, Jaylen Green, literally not a carbon carbon copy of him, it’s literally Jaylen Green that he’s coming over from Houston with, right? Um, also last season, Dylan Brooks had great success defending with Aman Thompson on the floor, now Ryan Dunn is not Amin Thompson, but his strengths are similar in terms of being on the defensive end, guarding a lot of perimeter oriented guys, and offensively, he’s guarded very similarly to Amin as well. and the ways that they’re featured when they’re at their best and non-shooting ways are very similar too. Um difference though, they did not have a Devin Booker on that team last season and I think that shifts things for him as well. Yeah, I I completely agree with that. And I think if we’re talking about wanting to instill a culture, wanting to instill an identity, having a guy who has been who has been willing to play the part of the heel to be the villain at every stop. I think that helps get you off to a good start because it was funny even when they were asking him about, you know, you’ve had your clashes with Devin Booker over the years. How do you see that working out? He didn’t really back down from the fact that they’ve had beef in the past. He was kind of like, “Yeah, I can learn from him and he can learn from me, which is is vintage Dylan Brooks.” And that’s the type of confidence that you want to see with a little bit of an edge as well. So, I’m excited about that. And I think it’s telling that it’s not just Houston, but he’s been able to kind of leave his mark wherever he’s gone. And he actually spoke about that at summer league as well. I would say, you know, I like to just leave my imprint. you know, it’s just something that comes natural. Um, and you know, when I’m on any team or if I feel like, you know, I’m playing pickup or whatever the case may be, it’s like that’s how I play, like smashmouth, um, physical, in your face. Um, and guys like that, you know, when they’re playing with you, guys like that. Guys want to, you know, embody that as well. And you know even sometimes you know the quiet guys are starting to you know not be quiet no more and you know showing themselves and you know being comfortable and being confident and you know I feel like that’s what I embody and that’s why you know I like to give to you know each one of the teams that I’ve been on and now it’s going to be fields. I mean yeah you pretty much said it perfectly there. That’s what you like to hear. Yeah, it’s a it’s a um it’s a comp it’s a riser for competition level for everybody that’s on the court with him because if you see somebody that’s given all of those extra efforts, especially someone that like Dylan is a good defender but he’s not the like he’s not a A+ type of athlete, if you will, right? That hits different because it’s like, okay, that guy is giving 110%. Who am I to slack off? Yeah. And it hits even more when it’s not coming from a rookie like it was last season for the Suns on the defensive end. Yes, cuz now you got somebody that’s not scared to call people out. Will do so even if it does come against him losing minutes to kind of cool his head before he comes back to the court. Like you have to have somebody that’s willing to have uncomfortable conversations and do so at the most urgent high leverage type of moments, right? That’s very it’s a breath of fresh air quite honestly. Yeah. Because last year I I kept saying this. I never got the sense that the Suns locker room didn’t get along despite how frustrated they were, despite how inexplicably disappointing that season was going. I never got the sense that these guys were like fighting with each other behind the scenes or whatever. And on one hand, you kind of wish that they were because it felt like a lot of beating around the bush, a lot of tiptoeing around the issue. Dylan Brooks is not going to do that. He’s going to cut to the chase. He’s going to be very blunt in his assessment of things. Uh the one thing that we know about Dylan Brooks is he does not hold back how he feels in any given moment when he’s on the court. And I think that’s a good thing for the Suns team. And you mentioned it that that type of uh leadership like I I’ve spoke to a Sun source who said that they view him as kind of an alpha um a guy who can lead in that way by being will being willing to be the villain. Um and Jaylen Green actually at Summer League even spoke a little bit about that accountability side of things. Yeah. And no, it’s good. I mean, that’s one person that was on the Rockets team that has pushed me and like motivated me to to keep working, get in the gym, watch film, and you know, I told him from the beginning to hold me accountable, and I think that’s what he’s done. Um, so just for him to come with me to Phoenix is is a big step and a big part for us to, you know, grow and and carry that leadership role over. So, I think it’s going I think it’s going to be really good. Um, I’m happy my brother’s with me, too. I didn’t go by myself. So yeah, it’s awesome. Holding him accountable. He asked him to hold him accountable and he’s been pushing him to be in the gym to watch film, all that good stuff. That’s exactly what a team full of a lot of new young players could really use in that respect. And that’s what I imagine a a first year head coach would like to have as well, so that it’s not so repetitive to the point where it gets stale that the message is coming from the same um sender all the time. If it’s coming from multiple voices, it’ll hit different. I think it’ll resonate with certain guys differently than if it’s coming from the head coach as well. And it’s just another layer of leadership to the point that you made up earlier. Yeah. And this is this is all coming from a guy that is not going to get a ton of usage or a ton of shots necessarily on offense. He’s not going to be a focal point, I guess I should say. He he’ll probably get a decent amount of shots, but I think that as well speaks to his value to this team. And that was kind of the biggest thing when they asked about what he can bring to the table and as as an example to some of the younger guys. Unselfishness. Um I want guys around me to get better. Um and learn from me what I you know obtained from you know going on my eighth year. Um and then like just a relentlessness to always try to find a way to win. If it’s not my shooting night I’m trying to get on the defensive end. if you know I’m, you know, not doing my best, I hope someone, you know, is able to pick me up as well. And just being that adrenaline, energy, um, player that, you know, you can put me on the floor at any time and, you know, I can produce. We talk a lot about when the shot isn’t falling, what else can you do on the floor? And he just touched on it right there. He’s always trying to find a way to produce even when that’s not happening. and because of the defense, because of some of the other things that we’ll talk about now that we’re going to transition a little bit to breaking down his game, he is able to do those things. And I think that is important for a role player who’s probably going to be a starter. That’s the that’s the separator for role players. The role players that find multiple opportunities that teams continue to see value in and that have impact in all of that are the ones that just figure out how to do the job in respect to whatever team context they’re operating in. Last season, his role was different than what it was his first season in Houston, which was significantly different than every role that he played this the three seasons prior when he kind of had his claim to fame with the um with the about to say Warriors, not the Warriors, the Memphis Grizzlies. Um so that’s I think that part is important. And again, speaking to how he can help the young guys that play a similar role for as he does, having that experience in a more immediate fashion than Deari Carroll might have can kind of help to add just again a different perspective. And to be able to watch him do it on a nightly basis as well. Um, and be able to be taught up by him in real time too, I think will help for them a lot. For sure. And not to borrow a transition from yesterday when we were talking about Ryan Dunn and Osu Gadaro being leaders at summer league, but all this leadership talk is great, but it wouldn’t mean as much if they couldn’t back it up on the court. So, let’s talk a little bit about Dylan Brooks’s actual game because most people think that they know what Dylan Brooks is all about and they always focus on the narrative villain type stuff, but in terms of what he can actually bring for the Suns on the court, let’s take a look at his stats from last year. Average 14 points a night. uh 3.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists, shot just under 43% from the floor, but he did shoot just under 40% from three. That was on 6.3 attempts per game, which his percentage and his attempts were both careerhighs. Uh and as I alluded to earlier, 19 technical fouls, which was the second most in the NBA for the third straight season. Um, Stephen, we we can we’ll talk about some of the flaws, like maybe the rebounding, but in terms of the offensive end, what kind of jumps out to you that you feel people should know about what he can provide on that end of the floor? I think he has some quality connective uh characteristics about his game that can help to not necessarily be leaned into for like a 30% usage in any capacity, but if you need somebody to do something a little off script from what their role for the team is, he’s someone that can do that. If Jaylen Green and Devin Booker are being pressured, Dylan Brooks can bring the ball up the court to get you into the half court efficiently. Is he going to set an advantage for you? Absolutely not. but he can get you across the half court line viably and then allow for you to then get into whatever actions it is you want to get into. Similarly in the half court and I know we’ll touch on the post ups more in a more thorough manner but a pressure release for the Suns simply throwing the ball to him in the post and allowing for him to just dissect what’s going on around. He’s not Joic, he’s not Shenun, he’s not any of those type of guys. He’s not Draymond, but he can make a simple read. He can make a simple pass. He is a player that has skills. So, I think that’ll be a breath of fresh air to the reserve realm of the Suns roster this season. Yeah, I think connective, the word that you used is the right way to describe it because he’s not someone who’s going to be he didn’t run a ton of pick and rolls last year. You know, you can see from the assists, the 1.7 assists per game. He’s not a heavy a highlevel playmaker or passer, that type of thing. But, he is a good, you know, swing the ball where it needs to go type of guy. And he is a good guy. like we’ll talk about the post-ups, but the way that he leveraged the attention he drew in the post to find guys out of that was really impressive as well. And that was something I wrote about over at gophnx.com today uh for dieards only if you missed that. Um let’s talk a little bit about the shooting before we go to the postups because I think for me that’s kind of the swing uh skill. I don’t want to say skill because he’s got it like career-high attempts, career-high three-point percentage last year. But if you look at his three-point numbers from last season, 39.7% in the regular season, that dipped to 34.5% when the offense got kind of bogged down and the defense tightened up. Um, he did make 40.9% of his catch and shoot threes, only 33.7% of his pull-up threes. The good news is out of his like six attempts a night, five of them were catch and shoots, one of them was pull-ups. So, it’s not like it’s something that he’s doing a ton of. Um, shot 38% from the corner. You typically like to see that number a little bit higher, but it’s not terrible. Um, the biggest thing watching his film, honestly, and I included this in my article because I thought it was funny, his jump shot release as a catch-and guy, he was like 82nd percentile in his percentage of spot-up looks compared to the rest of the league. Mhm. It’s It’s very tell like he will do a quick hop two feet like every time and he’s got like a bouncy he like bounces like a pogo stick when he shoots the ball. When he’s able to set his feet on those catch and shoot looks, the results are usually pretty good. When he’s not, and this is especially prevalent on his pull-up threes, it doesn’t look as fluid, his shooting motion. And you can tell because a lot of the times on his misses or even any makes where he’s not 100% sure it’s online, he does like a second followup hop to like kind of like almost willing the ball in the like come on just a little bit more. Uh it’s really kind of funny to watch. But if you are watching Dylan Brooks shoot threes and he starts he starts that second hop that followup hop you know it might not be going in. So I think that that might be useful for his teammates like oh he hops we got to go crash the board again. Um, but Stephen, do you think that the shooting can carry over in this type of environment? And why do you feel like in Phoenix that’s something he can bring here as well? Yeah, I think it’s something that will translate. And I think it’s because he’s going to get a similar shot diet. I think he has two main perimeter oriented creators that he can now be paired with, which I think helps for um the the shot quality that he’s going to receive to finish plays, but also to drive closeouts, which we’ll get to a little bit later. But yes, that 41.3% that I think that can hold up in multiple respects for in terms of his catch and shoot threes in particular. Um only a handful of players, eight other players took more catch and shoot threes for him um last season. that 41.3% was I think second or tied for third. I think it was tied for second actually. Okay. Tied for second within that top nine. So he was very efficient. That’s amongst the likes of just the rough names, Malik Beasley, Derek White, Klay Thompson, Keegan Murray, Muel Bridges, Ojiana Nobi, Peyton Pritchard who shot the absolute leather off the ball last season, right? And Buddy Hill who’s an underrated all-time great three-point shooter on efficiency. So that’s the era that’s the kind of era of names that he was operating in last season. Obviously, he’s not going to get the same level of respect that those guys get because that’s like their mainstay calling card. That’s just something that he brings in addition with this game. But if it holds up there for the Suns and the like the likes of activity he’s going to be playing off of, I don’t see any reason why it can’t be copied and pasted. That’s a great point and that’s why we’re busy doing Dylan Brooks breakdowns in the late season of July because I think that’s one of the things that does fly under the radar. Like we’ve talked about, when you think Dylan Brooks, you think villain. A lot of people think dirty player. they think, you know, a-hole, whatever you want to call it. But there are things that he brings to the table that I think have gone overlooked as a result of that because a lot of fans just don’t like him and don’t care enough to, you know, actually watch what he does on the court besides those types of things. Um, so I think that’s one thing that has flown under the radar and for your to your credit, Dylan Brooks agrees with you in terms of their potentially being able to carry over that three-point shooting. Here’s what he said at summer league. It’s going to be a lot lot a lot more threes. Um a lot more spacing. Um and we got a little bit of different principles that we that we have here now that we’re implementing. Uh different from Houston. So, you know, I feel like the floor is going to be more spaced. I feel like I hope I get a little more threes up and um you know, keep being efficient on that on the offensive end. Like you said, there’s going to be a lot more threes. I don’t know how many more threes he’s going to be taking than 6.3 a game, but in terms of the offense and how it’s going to be different from Houston, I I think that’s a valid point. Yeah. Uh I think the other thing I’ll add with his shooting um significantly favors the right side of the court. Yes. So the right wing top of the key he likes, but the right wing and that right corner, 40% from the right corner, 42.9% from that right wing area, and then 41.1% from dead-on. All of those significantly above league average at those respective spots. And then even going to the left side, 36.6% from the left wing is very good. Um, that’s slightly above league average, but not as much as it was on the right side. Left corner, not the prettiest. 36.9 is below. So, it’s funny, but it speaks to the inconsistencies and what kind of makes it different for someone like him that’s amidst those names that we spoke about in that top nine for catch and shoot threes last season. Yeah. So, that is something to keep an eye on which side of the court that Dylan Brooks is going to be on because if he’s on that right side, that is the strong side for Dylan Brooks, unlike Remember the Titans. Y um last season there was Tyus Jones in those left corner threes where he was like flirting with number one and finished like top three. So, now it’s the opposite side for Dylan Brooks this year. Exactly. Um, the other thing, we alluded to it before offensively that stands out to me a lot about his game, and we we can kind of transition this into the playmaking component as well, but the postups that he has, I think he was 90th percentile in postup frequency and 94th percentile in stable postup points per possession. So, he got to it a lot and he was very effective in that. He’s only 6’6, but he’s got a strong frame. He’s got a low center of gravity and a lot of times defenses would kind of stash whe whether it was intentionally at the start of the play or off a switch or whatever, a smaller guy would wind up on him at times. And as soon as he saw that, he could catch the ball on the three-point line and he would dribble it into a post up because he wanted to punish that mismatch. And he was good at it, too. Like I don’t think people are aware like he’s got great footwork in the post. He’s able he’s got a very good handle as well. So he’s able to turn over either shoulder, so he could rock one way and then turn over the other shoulder and get a good look. He was very efficient on those turnaround jumpers out of post-ups. Um, and he could also obviously back people down and just go right through them. There were a couple that he had. I think he got poor Vit Cr. He just went right through his chest and just for an uncontested layup and Craig’s just laying on the ground like what the hell was that? So foul. Yeah, probably a foul, but he got away with it and that’s what you’re going to be rooting for as Suns fans. So, the post up component is something that’s interesting to me. It’s not going to be something you base your offense around by any means, but like you said, it’s kind of a wrinkle or something that you can throw in a release valve uh for when things don’t go right and he has that mismatch that he can kind of take advantage of. I mentioned it the day of the trade and I will continue to kind of tap the sign on this like this is something you might want to watch for because the Suns have to find other ways outside of Jaylen Green and Devin Booker putting on their Superman capes, running pick and roll, running in isolation or trying to score in transition as much as possible. They have to have more to your offense. Otherwise, teams can take that off the table and make you pretty much hit a stalemate on offense. I feel like they need to find creative ways to get both of those two in movement. One of the best triggers for movement is a post touch. Whether it’s mid post, low post, high post, Dylan Brooks is good at all of those. And again, talking to his connective skill set, if you can throw the ball to him in the post or even for his set, he doesn’t need you to throw it into the post to him. You can swing it to him on the wing and like in the playoff series against the Rock or against the Gri or Jesus, I’m all over the place against the Warriors. If they’re putting Steph Curry on him trying to stash him on someone else, he can just back him down into the post without the need for a pass like Kevin Durant has shown to do before. They call them dribble downs. Barkclays. Dear D Rozan is great at it as well. He can just dribble himself into the post. That sets the table with a live dribble instead of having to dribble stagnant and you can get into a ton of different things from there. So doesn’t always have to be scoring for him with his post touches, I think, is the point I’m trying to make. Yes. And the fact that he can score is going to make it have a requisite level of attention because it almost is awfully going to come with a mismatch in some capacity. Yeah, it’d be one thing if he was doing it all the time and was getting poor results, but he does he’s actually so efficient on it that you watch the film and a lot of his assists came off of just kind of around the horn swing passes. They came from uh those assists that I really actually hate that they count as assists. It seems like the NBA does it and other leagues don’t where you just like you just pass it to a guy and he like does an ISO and somehow you get an assist out of it. But a lot of them were off of postups where he would back down. He would attract a second defender and he would be able to spot the guy on the that’s you know moving around the perimeter or somebody cutting in the lane and feed it to him. A couple of them a little bit risky passes at full speed but like the guy caught him because they had a young athletic rockets team and they converted. So, he is very good at operating in that capacity. And you’re right, the Suns, if especially if they want to generate more cuts and more movement. He can be kind of a a a focal point in that in terms of getting the ball in the post and let guys cut every which way off of that. Um, anything else offensively before we touch on the defensive side? Yeah. Uh, I’ll mention he was very good on a low volume off of handoffs. Mhm. So if he’s getting screens into handoffs or handoffs into screens, he’s someone that showed to be viable and kind of secure and operating that maybe get him downhill a little bit or allow for him to play that secondary kind of connector role where he’s kicking off of attention. Um and then the other thing kind of bringing it back to the postups for last season including passes out of the post 40 players had over a 100 possessions. He had 113. Okay. His points per possession was 1.097. Oh wow. um that was that ranked 13th in the entire um for the 40 players in that group. Okay. But that 55.8% from shots that he took or shots that he created out of the post with his pass ranked fifth of that 40man group. So he was like one of the only nine bigs in the top 10. Okay. So obviously you want to contextualize that. But the fact that he was that efficient for that team that he was passing the ball to. How many viable shooters did the Rockets have last season? Like let’s apply the context in all respects. Mhm. That’s fairly good. That suggests that it’s something that can be leans leaned into potentially a little bit more than we saw last season with the Rockets. So, when you talk about contextualizing 6’6 Nicole Joic is what you’re saying, correct? Yes. Okay, cool. Just want to make sure we’re clear on that. Do not clip that. But, uh, let’s let’s switch to the defensive side of the ball because it’s interesting. I was looking for defensive clips of him on Twitter. um be before I go to you know NBA.com and go through the hours of clips that you can watch on there. Um and the thing that stood out to me was the majority of them came from his first year in Houston. A lot of the highlights, a lot of the defensive, you know, gamechanging sequences that he would have quarters even. It felt like last year Rockets fans kind of switched from this guy is all defense in year one to his offensive impact is honestly helping us a little bit more defensively. Did you notice a drop off for him defensively at all? Because I I think he’s still very good on that end. Yeah. But it felt like he went from, you know, all defensive team in 2023, very good the year before to maybe not quite as good last year. I’ll say it gets hard to make an alldefensive team when you have someone that does that job similarly to just elite level status. That is fair. The way that I’m in was last season. In addition to Amen though, he also had Tar E as well who does even closer to a similar type of archetype defensively as Dylan Brooks. So that makes it tough to get that type of attention. But I wouldn’t say he dropped off. I just think the role was different and he was kind of asked to guard a different archetype of players on volume than he was in his time with Memphis or that first season with the Rockets. Mhm. Um, which makes it which makes me curious to see what his matchups are going to look like with the Suns because if he started at the four, I think it’s going to be similar to what he did last season for Houston where he’s cross matched on fives at times so that Alp can kind of stay around the basket and play more of a Roma role. I imagine like we talked about last week that’s going that’s what they’re going to want with Mark Williams as well. Um, so I think there’s some there’s some um scheme versatility that comes with it. But yeah. Well, let’s let’s talk about that because um before we get into the advanced metrics, looking at the positions that he guarded by percentage, the lowest percentage that he actually guarded out of the five spots was small forward. Um it went shooting guards at like just under 24%, power forwards at 21%, point guards at 20%, centers at 18.5%, and then small forwards at 16.5%. But let’s take a look at what his defensive metrics had to say. These are from the Bball Ball in index in terms of his percentile among the rest of the league. Matchup difficulty 97th percentile. He was regularly taking the toughest matchup out there. Defensive positional versatility, the 100th percentile, as I alluded to there. The time he spent was split pretty evenly across all five positions. So, that’s going to boost your ranking there. It doesn’t have anything to do with efficiency, but the fact that he spent time on all five of those positions so evenly put him in the league’s top percentile. uh 95th percentile perimeter ISO defense. So in terms of stopping guys on the perimeter, he was still very much elite. 78th in ball screen navigation. I think the fact that he’s 29, maybe getting up there, maybe you don’t want him doing that all the time. Um he’s not he’s more of a Stonewall guy. He is not a guy that’s going to, you know, jump passing lanes, generate a bunch of turnovers. As you can see, 29th percentile in steals per 75 possessions and 43rd percentile in deflections per 75. Um, Stephen, any anything from the defensive end that we haven’t touched on that you feel we should wrap up with? Yeah, I think it’s that he helps to kind of insulate u Ryan Dunn on the defensive end in a a little bit more of a unique way than other players did last season. He’s not going to completely um he’s not going to completely take him away from playing point of attack in primary lineups that they use. I think that’s going to be more so the Jordan Goodwin types, the Colin Gillespie types when they come in, they can kind of reprieve him there. But he will help him from having to guard a LeBron James. And I think that part is important because I don’t think Dunn is built for guarding that type of bigger for Julius Randall type that’s going to try to punish him through the chest first and foremost and second and third before anything else. That’s not a strength. That wasn’t a strong suit for the Suns last year. We talked about them needing a bigger four. That was why I kind of thought they needed someone like Gershan Yabusle if they weren’t shifting their entire roster because they did that, brought in Dylan Brooks, they addressed a direct need there. The versatility to where he can start that possession there, doesn’t ever have to finish it there to be effective is important. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think that’s going to wrap it up for last thing though, he does leave because he’s 66 and only 66 leaves a lot to be desired if he’s at four. Yes. On crashing the glass. That puts more of a collective demand on all five players on the court to crash the glass, but it helps when you have an elite level size center and elite level want to in terms of rebounding um prowess from a center like Mark Williams. Yeah, the rebounding is something that’s going to be an issue especially if they are starting Ryan Dunn and Dylan Brooks together. Um we t we talked mostly about strengths today, weaknesses. I touched on some of them in the article. One of the big ones rebounding. I think he was 17th or 18th percentile in defensive rebounds per 75 possessions, which is not good for probably your starting forward, whether you want to call him a three or four. Um, the other thing is he is not good at finishing around the rim. He doesn’t for a guy that strong, he doesn’t create much separation at the basket. Um, he’s not long enough or quick enough to kind of create separation either. So, he’s having to extend on his layups a little bit earlier than you would normally advise a player to do just to get it past the trees there. So that’s something to keep an eye on as well. Maybe developing a float game would be useful for him. But we are going to circle back to a couple of Jaylen Green clips from summer league as well that we haven’t hit on yet right after our final break. Stephen, remember how hot we were when we were doing that one summer league watch along and the AC went out? Yeah. You know what would have been nice is if Espo had a smart thermostat so that he could have lowered the temperature for us. It’s not his building, but we’re still going to daydream about it anyway because a smart thermostat works with your APS rate plan to help you automatically adjust the temperature in your home. For every one degree that you raise your thermostat, you could save up to 2 to 3% on cooling costs. Again, I know this is an Espos building, but that could add up for the building landlords, you know. So being able to adjust it on the fly, on the go when he’s on an airplane even would be really nice because you can adjust it from your smartphone or your device from anywhere when you forget to do so. Uh APS customers, you can find instant rebates, discounts, and special offers on smart thermostats, energy efficient appliances, and more at marketplace.aps.com. And right now, APS customers may be eligible for smart thermostats for as low as $0 when you enroll in the APS Cool Rewards program. If you already have a smart thermostat at home, see if it’s eligible to enroll in cool rewards. Plus, free install is available at marketplace.aps.com. Must be an APS customer and pay shipping and taxes. Other restrictions apply. Go to marketplace.aps.com for more information. And Stephen, do you like customization? I love customization. Okay. 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When you open a free checking account online, you can get $200 in bonuses right now. Get started by visiting desertfinancial.com/200. Again, that’s $200 in bonuses, guys. Take advantage of that. All right. Uh, we got a super chat from Michael. Sorry, this came much earlier in the show when we were kind of talking about this, but uh, thank you for your $5 super chat, Michael. Appreciate you being here with us. Question for Gerald. Do you see any parallels between the 202526 Suns and the 20134 Suns? I see quite a bit but curious on your thoughts. That’s a fair point. Uh they were that 134 team was a team that everyone expected to be tanking. Like they traded away a lot of their good players. They were a young team and then that was the year that Goran Dragage had a third AllNBA team season, one most improved player, should have been an all-star, but they had to give Tony Parker his lifetime achievement award. Um Eric Bledsoe was great. That was when we he he only played like half that season, but he was fantastic that year. And that team wound up winning 48 games, which I think is still tied for either the most or second most wins uh in NBA playoff history that has not resulted in a playoff birth. So the West was just absolutely monstrous that year. How do you win 48 games and not make the play? That was before the playin. Obviously, they would have been a playin team. But um no, it’s a good point. I don’t think this Suns team is going to be a 48- win team. I think they’re probably I think they’re probably for me topping out around 40 44 wins at best. Um, but I do think there is something to that in terms of getting much younger. Maybe a Devin Booker gets back to having an AllNBA season like you got out of Gor Andragage this year. And I and I’m not saying like Devin Booker is a better player than Gorandra was. Like let’s be frank about that. But I think Booker bouncing back. I think Jaylen Green having a Eric Bledsoe or Gerald Green type season because Gerald Green was balling that year. Um, that could surprise some people. I think Miles Plumbley of all people took the league by storm for like half the season. I think you can get that out of Mark Williams for however many games you’re able to get of him healthy. So, I don’t think it’s out of the question. I think the structure of those teams is a little bit different. I think the NBA is a lot more loaded now than it maybe it was then. Even though I just said 48 wins wasn’t enough for the playoffs, it felt balanced and now it’s just absolutely brutal in the West. So, I don’t I don’t know. I I This is definitely something that we will revisit at the end of the season because if they have some surprise year, then yeah, those parallels are going to run pretty strong for me. Yeah, it could be very much a situation where they just just miss out. But context-wise, not the playoffs, but the play in just because of how deep the Western Conference is if players stay healthy. Yeah. Um, they have their work cut out work cut out for them for sure. Um, so I could see them having a season similar to that where you have an MVP type of player at the top of your roster. A bunch of guys that are known across the league, but maybe step up and roll in ways in which people didn’t account for that allows for you to contend on a nightly basis with whoever you’re going up against. It might just come down to they have more dues than we do. Yeah. And those dudes end up putting the ball in the basket a little bit more in crunch time. Makes things murky with the record. So, I can see it kind of playing out similar to that. Yeah. And I do think like Jeff Hornosk, he probably should have won coach of the year that year. I think Greg Papovic beat him out, which, you know, that was a very good Spurs team. I won’t lie. But, um, hopefully you get something similar out of Not where his system and his principles just help put all these young guys in the right positions. Uh, we do have another super chat from Maria. Thank you again, Maria. Another 499 super chat. Just wanted to give another super chat because I’m loving this conversation today and especially enjoying the chat. Truly appreciate this community. Thank you very much, Maria. We definitely appreciate you. We are glad that you’re enjoying this community. We hope everyone that is in here with us is as well. Hit the like button. We got nearly 200 people in here, but less than a fourth the amount of likes. Just doing rough math off the top of my head. We’re probably not going to hit our like goal, which we didn’t really set, but it’s going to be 100 as a standard for this off seasonason. But make sure to hit that like button if you’re enjoying being in here with us. We really do appreciate it. All right, Stephen, let’s round out the show by circling back to some Jaylen Green stuff because when we got the availability from Summer League with Jaylen Green that they held there, um, we were in the middle of a watch along and we didn’t really get to give a lot of these clips the time and attention that they deserve. So the first one, and I think this goes handinhand with a lot of the Dylan Brooks conversation that we’ve talked about, is being able to come in here, implement an identity, knowing how to progress from being a young upand cominging team to being a two seed in the West. And Jaylen Green kind of talked about that and his hunger to return to the postseason. Uh yeah, for sure. I mean, the hunger’s already there. I made it to the playoffs already as it is. I may not have performed how I should have performed, but at the end of the day, the goal is to be in the playoffs every year, and I got a taste of it now. And there’s no reason I shouldn’t have had a goal to get back. I think that experience and the hunger that comes with playing on that stage for the first time, it if for a dog is going to push you to a certain other level than what you came into and even exited the season that you got that exper experience in with. And I think Jaylen Green is kind of taking those experiences instead of being down on himself, compiling those things that he learned from it and looking forward to applying it in a new context. Yeah. And and the new context is the important part of that because it’s not a one for one carbon copy of what they had in Houston. We don’t know that Jordan is going to be an EU Odoka who can come into a new situation and two years later they’re the two seed in the West. Um I think that would be a best case scenario, but I’m not I’m Jaylen Green. The big thing that we’re focusing on is how he and Devin Booker are going to fit alongside each other because a lot of lot What are Jaylen Green’s thoughts on the situation? Here’s what he had to say. I mean, we are two people who are going to accept a double team and be able to play off each other. So when you look at something like that, it’s like we’re two people who know how to score the basketball. We know we’re two people who know how to attract the defense and everyone’s going to shape around us. So I mean, when we’re doing something like that, you got to pick who you want to score tonight. And me and him both is going to be a deadly scoring duo no matter what the situation is. So it’s going to be fun. It’s going to be exciting. Um, you know, people going to say what they want to say, but this this is a great opportunity for I think for myself and you know, Debb is a winning player in general, so it’ll work. Apparently I sound like a DJ. Hopefully I sound normal now. I’m not sure what the issue is, but we do want to thank all of our TV viewers. Uh, and a reminder, the party always continues over at gophnx.com, which means it’s time for overtime. Stephen, we’ve been hitting overtime pretty hard here in the off season, giving the people extra time. Uh, let me know in the chat if I still sound weird so we can get that taken care of. Um, but yeah, two guys that can attract to double teams like Jaylen was saying. I think that is important. I think one work to get through with it is not going to be pretty initially. These are the parts of the process that make it what it is. The players that figure it out, whether it’s attacking the score for themselves, but balancing that with passing or passing more and taking a step off the gas in terms of scoring, the guys that figure that part out, those are the ones that ascend to that top of the top type of elite level scorer. they can balance the attention they get with still scoring and passing efficiently. Yeah. And that’s going to be important for this upcoming season in terms of how they make this work. Um, in terms of how they make it work, I think the offc court chemistry is also a key part of this and how they’re going to get along, how they’re going to build that chemistry on and off the court. Um, Jaylen Green actually did talk about how they’ve been connecting off the court that they spoke after the trade went official. I seen a book out here and he called me when, you know, I was out in Phoenix trying to look for a house and stuff. Um, but, uh, yeah, I think from what I’ve read so far, just off, you know, his vibe and everything, he’s excited. Um, he’s ready to, you know, do what we got to do this year and he understands like the situation we in right now. Uh, people don’t expect us to, you know, do anything. People don’t expect us to come out to West at all. So, I think the situation we in just like last year, Houston didn’t expect they didn’t expect Houston to do none of that last year. So, what’s the difference? What’s the difference? Hopefully, there is none in the Suns of the two seed in the West. But, uh, we’re going to go ahead and wrap this show up a little bit early because we’re having some technical difficulties, but we really do appreciate all of you being in here with us. Make sure to hit the like button on the way out. We did not hit our like goal, but we appreciate each and every one of you taking some time out of your weekday here in late July to talk about the NBA even though we’ve got two more months till the season starts. You can follow on Twitter, freckled Mamba. You can follow me at Gerald Borgay. You can follow Stephen, StephenPG3, and you can follow the show phanx sons. We’ll talk to you all tomorrow. We all sitting like the mayor.

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Everyone knows Dillon Brooks is willing to embrace the villain role, but what else can he provide for the Phoenix Suns in his first year with the team? On the latest PHNX Suns Podcast, Gerald Bourguet and Stephen Pridgeon-Garner take a look at his game, including whether Brooks’ career shooting year will hold up, his underrated post-up game, what he contributes defensively and as a passer, and how he leaves his imprint on every team he joins. Plus, a look at Jalen Green’s comments from NBA Summer League about joining the Suns, his fit with Devin Booker and more!

0:00 – Intro
2:20 – Clarifying the Kuminga Rumors
15:00 – Let’s talk Dillon Brooks
30:30 – How Dillon’s Game Fits with the Suns
44:00 – How Dillon’s Defense will Help the Suns
50:00 – Does Gerald See Similarities between this Year’s Suns and the 2013-14 Suns?
56:00 – Jalen Green

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