Speaker 1: So the coaching carousel is finally slowing down. There's only
Speaker 1: one team that needs a coach left. It's Toronto. Did
Speaker 1: anybody think Toronto was going to be the last job standing?
Speaker 1: I didn't now the Phoenix Suns. They just shook the
Speaker 1: foundations of the NBA by hiring Frank Vogel. Wild You
Speaker 1: might think that this is a peculiar higher. Matt Ishbie
Speaker 1: clearly likes headlines. This is about the least splashy headline
Speaker 1: higher you could have. Like, Frank Vogel was the coach
Speaker 1: that was the second option after Monty Williams turned down
Speaker 1: the La Lakers job. If you remember that so quite literally,
Speaker 1: Frank Vogel is just walking in Monty Williams a shadow.
Speaker 1: If it's not for Monnie Williams, Frank Vogels maybe not
Speaker 1: coaching at all. It does make a little bit of sense, though.
Speaker 1: Frank Vogel's very good at managing egos. He's known for that.
Speaker 1: He had a lot of experience overseeing the roster with
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, Lebron James, ultimately Russell Westbrook, which didn't work out,
Speaker 1: but he did win a ring in the bubble. He
Speaker 1: was very successful at figuring out a way and also
Speaker 1: like low key Kyle Kuzma, like managing Kyle Kuzma's ego
Speaker 1: could not have been easy either. There was no Kyle
Speaker 1: Kuzma league fits strolling down the Staples Center tunnel. All
Speaker 1: the league fits from Kyle Kuzma and his crazy, wild
Speaker 1: like electric magneto. Like doctor Sue, shit came when he
Speaker 1: went to Washington. What he inherits Frank Vogel is a
Speaker 1: team with has a good bit of locker room drama.
Speaker 1: Like Jay Crowder wanted out, he was on strike until
Speaker 1: the trade deadline, he got shipped out. DeAndre Ayton is
Speaker 1: quiet quitting, Chris Paul's body is quiet quitting. And then
Speaker 1: you add that to Kevin Durant and Devin Booker doing
Speaker 1: everything that they can to shoulder the burden of this
Speaker 1: franchise and a team with absolutely zero depth where you've
Speaker 1: got to rely on Landry Shammant hitting eight threes in
Speaker 1: a fourth quarter in order for your team to stay competitive.
Speaker 1: I would say personally that Frank Vogel has his work
Speaker 1: cut out for him. First of all, the hallmark of
Speaker 1: Vogals teams is defense, and the running gun souns are
Speaker 1: kind of the opposite of that, vocals defense is built
Speaker 1: around a rum protector. When you know the Lakers, they
Speaker 1: had Javel McGee, they had backup Dwight Howard to support
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis. With the Pacers, he built around Roy Hibbert
Speaker 1: and shockingly, Andrew Binham. In Phoenix, he's got again a
Speaker 1: non rim protecting DeAndre Ayton, who probably maybe gets shipped out,
Speaker 1: Jacques Landell, who I don't know what you're getting from him,
Speaker 1: and Bismack Biambo. It's gonna be a hard, hard road
Speaker 1: to build a Vogel style defense without a big man
Speaker 1: in the middle protecting the rim. A second, it's we
Speaker 1: got a point guard problem in Phoenix. Chris Paul not
Speaker 1: only had his annual injury during the playoffs, but by
Speaker 1: the end of the season he looked like his legs
Speaker 1: were pretty much gone anyway. He averaged twelve five and
Speaker 1: seven in the playoffs, which was his season average of
Speaker 1: fourteen four and nine, by far, the least productive numbers
Speaker 1: of his entire seventeen year career. Literally, even in his
Speaker 1: rookie ear Chris Paul averaged sixteen to five, and that
Speaker 1: was his worst statistical season until this past season with
Speaker 1: his injury problems by the way, he missed twenty three
Speaker 1: regular season games in the last four playoff games, plus
Speaker 1: his declining production, the Suns need help with the point
Speaker 1: guard spot, and they need it fast. Plus. Vogel described
Speaker 1: his offensive philosophy as intelligent movement through randomness. He said
Speaker 1: this in his final season with the Lakers. We want
Speaker 1: to give our playmakers as much space as we can.
Speaker 1: Just emphasizing the movements off those cuts and then the
Speaker 1: reshapes out of those is something that we're trying to
Speaker 1: do with all of our guys. Chris Paul, like three
Speaker 1: four years ago would have been really a great fit
Speaker 1: for Frank Vogel CP three, maybe even two years ago
Speaker 1: would have been fine. But this version of Chris Paul,
Speaker 1: he's not fast enough anymore. He's not cutting any more.
Speaker 1: That means taller guards who he used to be able
Speaker 1: to the gate with the speed are now absolutely cooking
Speaker 1: Chris Paul. His defensive rating this year was one hundred
Speaker 1: and twelve point three, again the worst of his career.
Speaker 1: His defensive rating ballooned to an obscene one seventeen point
Speaker 1: three in the playoffs this year. Gross, here's the thing,
Speaker 1: let's be honest, Chris Paul's not a starting point guard anymore,
Speaker 1: and Frank Vogel knows it. Matt Ishbia probably knows it.
Speaker 1: James Jones knows it, which means not only are the
Speaker 1: Suns in the market for a rim protector aka potentially
Speaker 1: Miles Turner, but also they need a point guard as well.
Speaker 1: The Suns are going to be a playoff team as
Speaker 1: long as they're healthy, but with Chris Paul, Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: and Devin Booker all with injury issues, even Devin Booker
Speaker 1: last year missed nineteen games, this is a very thin
Speaker 1: team that's not going to survive even a paper cut.
Speaker 1: The best thing the Suns did was not just hiring Voguel,
Speaker 1: It was making sure Kevin Young, the lead assistant who
Speaker 1: was the finalist for the head coaching job, stayed put.
Speaker 1: All they needed to do to accomplish that goal was
Speaker 1: make him the highest paid assistant coach in the NBA
Speaker 1: two million dollars per year. I like the Suns. I
Speaker 1: like Devin Booker, I like Kevin Durance. I also like
Speaker 1: DeAndre Aighten, But I don't really like Frank Vogel teams
Speaker 1: at all, Like they're not very fun to watch. I
Speaker 1: hated watching the Lakers. When Frank Vogel coaches him, it's
Speaker 1: a lot of defense and not a lot of offense.
Speaker 1: Hopefully he will not uglify the Suns too much next season.
Speaker 1: Moving on, let's talk a little bit about Kayleb Martin.
Speaker 1: Caleb Martin two way player, coming out party in the
Speaker 1: playoffs average ten to five and two this season for
Speaker 1: the Heat, but put on the afterburners in the playoffs
Speaker 1: average fourteen six and two, shooting forty four percent from three.
Speaker 1: Had some huge games to put him on the map.
Speaker 1: A bunch of people are now excited about Caleb Martin.
Speaker 1: But the one thing that a lot of people don't
Speaker 1: know is how Caleb Martin got into the league and
Speaker 1: that he owes his career to Ja Cole. Because Jeff
Speaker 1: Ban Gundy will not stop talking about it, we now
Speaker 1: know that Caleb Martin was an undrafted free agent. Every game,
Speaker 1: I swear to God, Jeff Van Gundy talks about all
Speaker 1: the undrafted free agents that Miami picked up. Take a
Speaker 1: drink every time you hear heat culture. Take a drink
Speaker 1: every time you hear heat role players stepping up. Take
Speaker 1: a drink every time you hear the word undrafted. Anyway,
Speaker 1: back to Caleb Martin. Caleb Martin played two years for
Speaker 1: the Hornets, and he was at this point getting the
Speaker 1: vibe that they were out on him as a player.
Speaker 1: So he went back to North Carolina with a twin brother, Cody,
Speaker 1: the train playing some North Carolina runs and if you remember,
Speaker 1: both twins went to NC State, so North Carolina was
Speaker 1: sort of back in their backyard. J Cole, who's also
Speaker 1: from North Carolina, played professional basketball in Africa for Rwanda,
Speaker 1: a little known fact, had followed both of the Martin's
Speaker 1: careers at NC State and was also in the run
Speaker 1: playing as well. But apparently Caleb was so impressive and
Speaker 1: cooking pretty much everyone on site that J. Cole called
Speaker 1: up his friend and Miami assistant called Ron Butler, and said,
Speaker 1: you need to give Caleb Martin a shot. He's really,
Speaker 1: really good. You need to You're an idiot if you
Speaker 1: don't give him a look. He's easily one of the
Speaker 1: best player on the floor on these runs, so you
Speaker 1: need to at least invite him to camp. What's the least.
Speaker 1: That's what you guys do. That's all you guys do
Speaker 1: is pick up undrafted free agents, so you might as
Speaker 1: well look at Kayler Martin. Martin goes into camp and
Speaker 1: presses the fuck out of Eric Spolstra, and he earns
Speaker 1: himself a two way contract. Halfway through his first season
Speaker 1: with the Heat, he was in the rotation, helped them
Speaker 1: becoming the number one seed in the East and one
Speaker 1: three away one Jimmy Butler three away from the finals
Speaker 1: and without Jay Cole. I don't even know if Caleb
Speaker 1: Martin is in the league right now. He's definitely not
Speaker 1: on the Heat and kron Butler pretty much said that
Speaker 1: when asked about Ja Cole, cron Butler said, there are
Speaker 1: certain people that when they call you about particular people,
Speaker 1: the messages and the favor is a little louder than others.
Speaker 1: It was just one of those things where I was like, damn,
Speaker 1: he actually called me about this kid, and he was like, Yo,
Speaker 1: Martin needs that opportunity. I love this story. I love
Speaker 1: this story because Jay Cole had nothing to gain. He
Speaker 1: had no reason to make that call other than the
Speaker 1: fact that he saw a player who deserved an opportunity
Speaker 1: and a city situation where he could help. He did
Speaker 1: it because Caleb Martin needed a break and if given
Speaker 1: the break, Caleb Martin was going to run with it,
Speaker 1: and he did all the way to the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1: That's all the time that we have for the Heat Check.
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Speaker 1: my friends,