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Speaker 2: co slash audio. All right, well, good hoops tonight you're
Speaker 2: at the volume heavy sun to everybody. Hope all you
Speaker 2: guys are having a great weekend. Well I was. I
Speaker 2: saw a report this morning that my buddy Logan, who's
Speaker 2: our head of content here as the Volume, sent me
Speaker 2: saying that most likely the Kevin Durant trade was gonna
Speaker 2: go down either today or tomorrow, and I was secretly
Speaker 2: hoping it would be tomorrow because we have Game seven
Speaker 2: of the Finals today. I'm going live with Colin Coward
Speaker 2: later this evening. We're gonna have playback. It was gonna
Speaker 2: be celebrating a new champion. My first thought this morning
Speaker 2: when I woke up was today we are crowning a
Speaker 2: new NBA champion, and now Kevin Durant's going to the
Speaker 2: Houston Rockets, and that is our top story to start
Speaker 2: this day. I'm gonna be breaking down this deal from
Speaker 2: the perspective of both teams when we are done. Obviously
Speaker 2: we're still planning on doing all of our NBAF NBA
Speaker 2: Finals coverage tonight, and then obviously we go headlong into
Speaker 2: the draft and everything next week. So it's gonna be
Speaker 2: a little bit crazy. But we have our reaction to
Speaker 2: the Kevin Durant trade. You guys know the joke before
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Speaker 2: our mail bags throughout the remainder of the year. All right,
Speaker 2: let's talk some basketball. So Kevin Urrant has been traded
Speaker 2: to the Houston Rockets. Houston is sending back Jalen Green,
Speaker 2: Dylan Brooks, the number ten pick in this year's draft,
Speaker 2: and then five additional second round picks now for starters.
Speaker 2: Everyone is dogging the Phoenix Suns today forgetting an awful
Speaker 2: asset return and basically nuking their franchise over the course
Speaker 2: of the last two years. I have a little bit
Speaker 2: more of like a nuanced, positive ish kind of take
Speaker 2: on that. We'll share more about it in a bit.
Speaker 2: I'm a big believer in self awareness and not like
Speaker 2: doubling down on your mistakes, so we'll get to that
Speaker 2: in a little bit. But I want to start with
Speaker 2: the Houston rocket This was my second favorite KD destination
Speaker 2: behind the Minnesota Timberwolves. I think redundancy is where you
Speaker 2: see teams that are on paper looking very talented, underachieved.
Speaker 2: That's how things went south for Phoenix. It's very easy
Speaker 2: to talk yourself into just shear in a vacuum talent
Speaker 2: into a Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal team being
Speaker 2: a very good basketball team. But the problem is, Kevin
Speaker 2: Durant and Devin Booker basically do the same job, and
Speaker 2: Bradley Beal, while not being as good as Devin Booker
Speaker 2: and Kevin Durant, basically did the same job in Minnesota.
Speaker 2: And so I always talk about this big picture concept
Speaker 2: of needing to check boxes on a basketball court. You
Speaker 2: need your lineup of five guys to check boxes on
Speaker 2: both ends of the floor. An offense, it's like advantage creation,
Speaker 2: play finishing, screening, you know, all these like different connective playmaking,
Speaker 2: all these different things that you need of the perfect
Speaker 2: concoction of for offense to work. Shooting ability, vertical spacing ability,
Speaker 2: all these things kind of come together. On the defensive end,
Speaker 2: guys that can guard on the perimeter, guys that can
Speaker 2: guard multiple positions and different types of switches, Guys that
Speaker 2: can protect the rim, Guys that can communicate like on
Speaker 2: the back line, as like as basically the defensive coach,
Speaker 2: so to speak, on the back line calling out coverages.
Speaker 2: There's all these different things. Defensive rebounding, you need guards
Speaker 2: in the NBA these days because of long rebounds to
Speaker 2: crack down off of the weak side or off of
Speaker 2: the perimeter to help their bigs in long rebound situations.
Speaker 2: You need all these boxes to be checked to be
Speaker 2: a good basketball team. And so if Kevin, Devin Booker,
Speaker 2: and Bradley Beal all checked the same boxes, there's gonna
Speaker 2: be a lot of unchecked boxes. That is the redundancy effect.
Speaker 2: That is what causes a team to not live up
Speaker 2: to what their potential is on paper. There's no doubt
Speaker 2: that Kevin Durant's life on offense in Houston will not
Speaker 2: be as easy as it was in Phoenix, or as
Speaker 2: it was in Brooklyn, or as it was in Golden State.
Speaker 2: There are places where Kade could have gone where he
Speaker 2: could have had an easier life on offense if you
Speaker 2: would have chosen Miami. I think with the Tyler Harrow
Speaker 2: and bam Adebayo as a screening folk from up top.
Speaker 2: Things would have been a little easier for him an
Speaker 2: offense if you would have somehow made it to the Knicks,
Speaker 2: but Had's skill set would have been less valuable in
Speaker 2: those situations. If we've learned anything in this year's playoffs,
Speaker 2: it's that the playoffs are a physical blood bath. Houston
Speaker 2: dragged the Rockets. Excuse me, Houston dragged the Warriors to
Speaker 2: a seventh game with that physicality. Minnesota bullied the Lakers
Speaker 2: out of the playoffs with that physicality. Look at what
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City has done to everybody. Look at what Indiana
Speaker 2: has done with their ball pressure in a different form
Speaker 2: of physicality, in terms of just the way they can
Speaker 2: wear you down by running. You win in the playoffs
Speaker 2: by winning the physical battle. And the teams that KD
Speaker 2: has been on in recent years have not been very
Speaker 2: physical basketball teams, and that is where they have lost
Speaker 2: the rope, which we'll get to when we talk a
Speaker 2: little bit about Phoenix. The Rockets, though, are a team
Speaker 2: that is perfectly built to thrive in that setting. A
Speaker 2: bunch of really big, strong perimeter defenders, even without Dylan Brooks,
Speaker 2: and then a power player on offense, a legitimate power
Speaker 2: threat on offense in Alburn Shangoon that can draw into
Speaker 2: a lot of defensive attention right around the basket. The
Speaker 2: one thing that Houston lacked, despite being a two seed,
Speaker 2: despite being able to take that Warriors team to seven games,
Speaker 2: the one thing they lacked was high end, refined offensive skill.
Speaker 2: And I would argue KD is still one of the
Speaker 2: most skilled and most refined offensive battle squall players in
Speaker 2: the entire world. Last year, just this last the season
Speaker 2: we're still finishing the one that ends today. He was
Speaker 2: still the best jump shooter in the world this season.
Speaker 2: Among fifty eight players in the NBA to take at
Speaker 2: least five hundred jump shots. This season, Kevin Durant was
Speaker 2: the only player in the league to shoot over fifty
Speaker 2: percent from the field. Second place was Shay who was
Speaker 2: at forty five percent of full five percent below and
Speaker 2: even when you weiit it for threes, Kevin Durant's one
Speaker 2: point two to two points per jump shot was number
Speaker 2: one in the NBA among the fifty eight players to
Speaker 2: take at least five hundred. He was also far and
Speaker 2: away still the best one on one player in the
Speaker 2: league last year. Out of the ten players ran at
Speaker 2: least two hundred and fifty ISOs including passes. His one
Speaker 2: point one six points per possession was number one in
Speaker 2: the league and a full six points per one hundred
Speaker 2: possessions better then shake Giljes Alexander, who was in second place.
Speaker 2: He immediately comes in the door and provides a ton
Speaker 2: of offensive utility for this team. The Rockets didn't have
Speaker 2: a single player that you needed to show at the
Speaker 2: level in screening action against. I've talked about this concept
Speaker 2: a lot. We talked about it with Desmond Bane and
Speaker 2: the Orlando Magic. One of the most valuable things you
Speaker 2: can do in the NBA is via threat as a
Speaker 2: jumpshooter coming off of a screen, because it inverts spacing.
Speaker 2: If you can come off of a screen and knock
Speaker 2: a shot down, you draw a lock and trail defender
Speaker 2: who's gonna chase you over the top, and you're gonna
Speaker 2: force the screen defender, the guy who's guarding the screener
Speaker 2: to come up to contest you. On the other end,
Speaker 2: that means your screener can slip out behind it and
Speaker 2: there's four on threes all day, every day. If you
Speaker 2: have that type of player, he will immediately bring in
Speaker 2: so much advantage creation with his ability to shoot off
Speaker 2: of screens. This will open up all sorts of opportunities
Speaker 2: on the roll on the skip. When rollers are tagged,
Speaker 2: advantages will be much easier to come by for this
Speaker 2: Houston team. Amen Thompson has already shown great utility as
Speaker 2: a connective passer and as a vertical spacing threat out
Speaker 2: of the dunker spot. Now we're going to get to
Speaker 2: see a ton of action where a men Thompson is
Speaker 2: getting four on three opportunities short rolling off of KD.
Speaker 2: I'm super excited to see a whole new level to
Speaker 2: a men Thompson's offensive game. Just by playing two man
Speaker 2: game with KD. In dictating that both defenders go with KD,
Speaker 2: KD easily drops it over the top. Now, Amen Thompson
Speaker 2: is screaming at you downhill with all of the playmaking talent,
Speaker 2: the vertical talent, and the shot making talent close to
Speaker 2: the basket to be a threat there, KD will score
Speaker 2: an off ball action. He'll attract attention and off ball
Speaker 2: like off ball like pin downs and stuff like that. KD.
Speaker 2: I've created videos about this in the past. We did
Speaker 2: a whole YouTube video about it. A couple of years ago.
Speaker 2: Katie is a master at getting easy shots for himself
Speaker 2: by setting up his man for screens and doing a
Speaker 2: good job getting open in the flow of the offense,
Speaker 2: He'll create space as a weak side spacer off of
Speaker 2: Alburn Shangun post ups and face ups. He will immediately
Speaker 2: come in the door and make things way easier for
Speaker 2: the Rockets on offense. On defense, he provides an element
Speaker 2: of functional rim protection that makes Shang Goon a more
Speaker 2: useful defensive player. There was one guy on the roster,
Speaker 2: Jabari Smith Junior, didn't play as much as you'd think,
Speaker 2: who brought some sort of vertical kind of length element
Speaker 2: at the rim for the Rockets as an athlete, obviously
Speaker 2: Shangoon and Adams have length, but they're just not great jumpers, right,
Speaker 2: They're not guys that are going to block a ton
Speaker 2: of shots around the basket. Right. With Kevin Durant, you
Speaker 2: now break out one of those classes two man dynamics
Speaker 2: in terms of screen defender in lowman that should allow
Speaker 2: Shangoon to be more useful offensively. You can now bring
Speaker 2: Shangon up to the level and have him be active
Speaker 2: with his hands. Knowing that you've got a seven footer
Speaker 2: standing underneath the basket in that lowman situation. I think
Speaker 2: Kevin Durant has always been a pretty underrated defensive player.
Speaker 2: His effort can wax and wane from time to time,
Speaker 2: but he legitimately has insane tools for the position. He's
Speaker 2: just gonna make life better for them on both ends
Speaker 2: of the floor. As I look at the Rockets new roster,
Speaker 2: because again you're losing Dylan Brooks in this situation, You're
Speaker 2: losing Jalen Green at the guard spot. You still have
Speaker 2: Fred van Vliet, There's Reed Shepherd and Aaron Holliday. Definitely
Speaker 2: a little light there. My first thought was, like, man,
Speaker 2: you remember when Phoenix signed Tias Jones and I told
Speaker 2: you guys that I thought it was redundant. That I
Speaker 2: didn't understand the point in wasting one of those five
Speaker 2: key spots that you have in your star group or
Speaker 2: closing group on a player who's again redundant. With Devin
Speaker 2: Booker and Kevin Durant in this roster, if I was
Speaker 2: Kevin Durant, I'd be calling Tiaest Jones and being like, hey, bro,
Speaker 2: this is the set, this is the setting for you.
Speaker 2: They actually need a backup guard, they actually need ball handling,
Speaker 2: so why don't you come down here. It's definitely an
Speaker 2: area where they're a little light on the wing, Amen Thompson,
Speaker 2: Tarry Easton, Cam Whitmore, Jayshon Tate at the forward spot,
Speaker 2: Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith Junior at the center spot, Shangoun
Speaker 2: Adams and Landale. Again, I think they're pretty deep and
Speaker 2: pretty solid at every position group. They're just light on
Speaker 2: ball handling, and so if they can get a backup guard,
Speaker 2: a solid backup guard, and again I would literally like,
Speaker 2: I think Tias Jones could help the Rockets in a
Speaker 2: way that he couldn't help the Suns. That's the type
Speaker 2: of fit where there's less redundancy. If you have Tias
Speaker 2: Jones surrounded by a bunch of big, physical athletes, all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, his ball handling and shooting becomes pretty valuable.
Speaker 2: If you have them alongside a bunch of other skinny
Speaker 2: finesse players, it's a redundancy. You're getting a diminishing return there.
Speaker 2: Who's the starting slash closing five? So we know it's
Speaker 2: gonna be Shanegun, Kevin Durant and Fred van Vliet most
Speaker 2: likely a men Thompson, who's that fifth guy? Though that
Speaker 2: fifth guy was Dylan Brooks. That was the spot that
Speaker 2: he filled. You start to view a men Thompson because, again,
Speaker 2: when it comes to positions offense, you can figure it out. Defense,
Speaker 2: you gotta build your lineup spased on who you can guard.
Speaker 2: Amen Thompson is defensively effectively a two guard. He's gonna
Speaker 2: guard the other team's best guard. So I think Fred
Speaker 2: Van Vliet and a Men Thompson that works defensively as
Speaker 2: a backcourt Kevin Durant and Shane Goon works offense or
Speaker 2: works defensively as a four to five. Who's gonna play
Speaker 2: the three? Though? That's where it gets a little tricky.
Speaker 2: Does this mean Jabari Smith Junior starts at the three?
Speaker 2: I think both Jabari and Kevin Durant are pretty much
Speaker 2: functionally fore men. Neither of them move their feet insanely well,
Speaker 2: neither of them navigate screens insanely well. And specifically, Jabari
Speaker 2: Smith is a little bit of a ball stopper on offense.
Speaker 2: So I don't love the natural fit of that fifth guy.
Speaker 2: They're going to have to figure that out and that'll
Speaker 2: happen in time. Maybe it ends up being one of
Speaker 2: the bench guys. Maybe Javari Smith ends up taking a
Speaker 2: leap as a decision maker and as a connective playmaker
Speaker 2: and as a guy who can move his feet on
Speaker 2: the perimeter, and maybe it all comes together. But I
Speaker 2: am curious to see how that starting closing five takes shape.
Speaker 2: But they do have surpluses they can afford to move
Speaker 2: a guy at a different position group like Jabari Smith Junior,
Speaker 2: for instance, is a guy that I think has some
Speaker 2: value around the league that you might be able to
Speaker 2: flip for a player that stands more in line with
Speaker 2: what you need out of that three spot. Like do
Speaker 2: you call up a Brooklyn and see if you can
Speaker 2: put together a deal that sends Jabari Smith Junior and
Speaker 2: some additional draft compensation for Cam Johnson And now all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, you're rocking Cam Johnson and Kevin Durant
Speaker 2: alongside of men Thompson, Fred Van Vliet, and Alprin Shang
Speaker 2: Gun with just a boatload of super athletes coming off
Speaker 2: the bench to anchor everything. They're gonna have some stuff
Speaker 2: they need to work out. But I always say, don't
Speaker 2: overthink it. This is the two seed in the NBA.
Speaker 2: Last year in the Western Conference that had a kick ass,
Speaker 2: physical defense that had a huge problem when it came
Speaker 2: to generating offense. Kevin Durant seamlessly slides into that spot
Speaker 2: and makes life a lot easier for them. My prediction
Speaker 2: is that Kevin Durant right away makes a big impact
Speaker 2: and that the Rockets look like a bona fide contender,
Speaker 2: and that everyone starts becoming convinced that Kad somehow got
Speaker 2: better or something, which is ridiculous to me. All the
Speaker 2: stuff Katie has been saying on Twitter about how basketball
Speaker 2: is a team sport and some of the realities of
Speaker 2: what's gone wrong over the last few years is true.
Speaker 2: Is every bit as good as the Lebron James that
Speaker 2: took the Lakers to the Western Conference finals in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty three, or the Steph Curry that has done the
Speaker 2: work that he's done with the Warriors over the last
Speaker 2: few years. He's been on flawed rosters. Does Kad deserve
Speaker 2: some blame for the types of teams that he's put
Speaker 2: himself in position with over the last couple of years
Speaker 2: and kind of putting him in a position of redundancy,
Speaker 2: putting himself in a position of diminishing returns, sure, but
Speaker 2: once you get there and you look at the rosters
Speaker 2: and you look at the way it works, there are
Speaker 2: basketball reasons why those teams failed, and it wasn't because
Speaker 2: Kevin Durant wasn't good enough at doing Kevin Durant things.
Speaker 2: Is here's the deal. Is Kevin Durant still a top
Speaker 2: tier superstar that's a true needle mover. No, and that's
Speaker 2: why he didn't go for four or five first round
Speaker 2: picks this time around. But he is still a legitimate
Speaker 2: second tier superstar in this league that on any given
Speaker 2: night can play as well as the top guys in league,
Speaker 2: and he will immediately address a specific need for the Rockets.
Speaker 2: And what I think is frustrating is We're gonna be
Speaker 2: like watching KD in a second round playoff series having
Speaker 2: like thirty seven points and hitting three or four clutch
Speaker 2: jump shots, and everyone's gonna be like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: Kevin Durant, as if it's not the same damn guy
Speaker 2: who floundered in Phoenix last year. It is the same guy.
Speaker 2: Basketball is a team sport, it is, ultimately, and Kevin
Speaker 2: Durant's gonna go play for a much better basketball team
Speaker 2: and you guys are gonna pretty quickly see a lot
Speaker 2: of success. That doesn't mean he's gonna win the title necessarily,
Speaker 2: it's hard to win a title in the NBA, but
Speaker 2: he's in the mix now, and I think that for
Speaker 2: most of us, it's just gonna be like such a
Speaker 2: pleasure to get to watch Kevin play in meaningful basketball
Speaker 2: games again. That's what I'm looking forward to. These big
Speaker 2: spots or you see it's a Big West Conference finals
Speaker 2: game or semi finals game or finals game where there's
Speaker 2: five minutes left in the scores ninety nine ninety nine,
Speaker 2: We're gonna get to see KD in those moments again,
Speaker 2: and that to me is the most exciting part. I'm
Speaker 2: I'm this was my second favorite KD destination because I
Speaker 2: wanted to see him go play for a physical, ass
Speaker 2: kicking team where his specific trait of you know, indomitable
Speaker 2: offense would simply serve to lift them over the top,
Speaker 2: rather than him needing to carry everything. And that's what
Speaker 2: Houston is going to allow him to.
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Speaker 2: On the Sun's front again, it's very easy to go
Speaker 2: and look at where they were before the KD trade
Speaker 2: and be like, oh man, you trade McHale Bridges and
Speaker 2: Cam Johnson and all this draft compensation, and all you're
Speaker 2: getting back is Dylan Brooks, Jalen Green, a first round
Speaker 2: pick that's towards the tail end of the lottery, and
Speaker 2: five second round picks. I get it. I get that
Speaker 2: that looks terrible, but unfortunately that's not actually how life works.
Speaker 2: You don't make both of those trades in concert with
Speaker 2: each other. You make them separately from each other. I'm
Speaker 2: a big believer in taking risks, and I'm a big
Speaker 2: believer in self awareness. And what happened to the Suns
Speaker 2: is they took a risk that didn't pay off because
Speaker 2: they had self awareness, and now they're moving off of
Speaker 2: KD because they have self awareness. And to me, like,
Speaker 2: let's be real about what happened with the Suns in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one with Chris Paul and Devin Booker and
Speaker 2: a bunch of really good role players in a year
Speaker 2: that was weird because of COVID and all of the
Speaker 2: top playoff teams in the league at the time, Miami, Denver,
Speaker 2: the Lakers, Celtics, all of them were a beat broken,
Speaker 2: just not ready to compete in that season. All of
Speaker 2: a sudden, we have this weird playoff run. There's a
Speaker 2: Tray Young led team in the conference finals. There's a
Speaker 2: Paul George led team in the conference finals without Kawhi Leonard.
Speaker 2: There's this Suns team, and then there's obviously the Milwaukee Bucks,
Speaker 2: the one team in that mix that was actually led
Speaker 2: by a bona fide superstar that actually had the characteristics
Speaker 2: of a championship team. But they won the title. They
Speaker 2: won the title that year. But in the process, the
Speaker 2: Suns end up going up in the finals two to zero,
Speaker 2: and it looks exciting and it looks like they're there,
Speaker 2: but as Draymond Green says, you can have two wins
Speaker 2: in the finals and still not be close. The Bucks
Speaker 2: random four games in a row. Then you fast forward
Speaker 2: to the next season, they get utterly humiliated by Luka
Speaker 2: Doncic in the second round, like straight up sunned by
Speaker 2: Luka Doncic in the second round. And I think they
Speaker 2: looked at the situation and they went, we're not good enough.
Speaker 2: We are not good enough to win the title. That
Speaker 2: is self awareness. Then they look at it and they go, well,
Speaker 2: what if we get Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant is better
Speaker 2: than Mikhale Bridges, is better than Cam Johnson. What if
Speaker 2: he puts us over the top. They took a gamble.
Speaker 2: There are lots of teams in NBA history that have
Speaker 2: taken gambles and it's paid off, And there are lots
Speaker 2: of teams that have done it and it hasn't. Generally speaking,
Speaker 2: I'm in support of pushing your chips into the middle
Speaker 2: and trying to go for the title. You get one title,
Speaker 2: you are immortal in the NBA. And by the way,
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty three when the Nuggets won the title,
Speaker 2: who is the one team who like really actually kind
Speaker 2: of made things kind of difficult for them? The Phoenix
Speaker 2: Suns and it wasn't enough and they weren't good enough
Speaker 2: and it didn't pay off. But you don't hang on
Speaker 2: to Kevin Durant because you traded four first round draft
Speaker 2: picks for him self. Awareness again entered the equation, we
Speaker 2: are not good enough with KD. He is our best
Speaker 2: vehicle with which to bring back draft compensation and to
Speaker 2: try to pivot and to try to make this thing
Speaker 2: tenable for the future. And this is what they did.
Speaker 2: So they pushed their chips in and it didn't work.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's as bad as it looks on
Speaker 2: the surface strictly because that Sun's team from before the
Speaker 2: KD trade was not good enough to win the title
Speaker 2: if they were, if they were a legitimate top tier
Speaker 2: championship contender perennially, and then they did this totally different conversation.
Speaker 2: They weren't good enough, they pushed their chips in, they
Speaker 2: got worse. Now they're getting ready to potentially rebuild. Now.
Speaker 2: Jalen Green, I've talked about this with respect to him
Speaker 2: and Jonathan kaminga super flawed players, Guys that specifically struggle
Speaker 2: with processing and reading the floor, Guys that are inconsistent
Speaker 2: with their jump shooting, young players that make a lot
Speaker 2: of mistakes, especially on the defensive end. It's a mixed
Speaker 2: bag with these guys. But in the modern MBA, with
Speaker 2: how much of the league is played in transition, with
Speaker 2: how much of the league is shifting more towards physicality,
Speaker 2: with the officiating, with all of these things, having a
Speaker 2: true S tier athlete that can get to his spot
Speaker 2: and elevate over the top to finish or elevate through
Speaker 2: traffic at the rim has a level of comfortability in
Speaker 2: those settings that lesser athletes don't have. Again, does that
Speaker 2: mean that Jalen Green is gonna go be a top
Speaker 2: ten player in the NBA. No, I don't think that's
Speaker 2: gonna happen. But I do think that Jalen Green and
Speaker 2: guys like Jonathan kaminga guys in this like super freaky
Speaker 2: raw athlete category, have a lot of upside. And so
Speaker 2: again I as far as Jalen Green goes, you're getting
Speaker 2: a chance with him. You're getting a chance with him
Speaker 2: in Phoenix to see if maybe he can develop into
Speaker 2: that type of player. Being around Devin Booker will be
Speaker 2: very good for him. Devin Booker has a lot of that,
Speaker 2: you know, traditional two guard bag, so to speak. But
Speaker 2: he is an excellent passer. He is a guy who
Speaker 2: has developed into one of the better high pick and
Speaker 2: roll playmakers in the league. Getting him with Jalen to
Speaker 2: help him learn about those reads, to get him to
Speaker 2: take a damn deep breath every once in a while
Speaker 2: and relax, and to approach the game with a little
Speaker 2: bit more of like a change of pace element, all
Speaker 2: of that will be good for Jalen. And you know what,
Speaker 2: maybe you can keep Devin Booker around Jalen for a
Speaker 2: year and just see how things go next year, and
Speaker 2: then pivot off of Devin Booker when the time comes.
Speaker 2: I don't like the idea of a Devin Booker Jalen
Speaker 2: Green backcourt. I don't think that's a championship backcourt. I
Speaker 2: don't think that's a backcourt that compliments each other really well.
Speaker 2: But in the short term I like the partnership because
Speaker 2: I think Devin Booker has the ability to teach a
Speaker 2: lot of higher level offensive basketball to Jalen. Not to mention,
Speaker 2: Devin Booker on Team USA was their primary point of
Speaker 2: attack defender, and he can help Jalen Green with his
Speaker 2: defensive discipline and his attention to detail. So ultimately, is
Speaker 2: it ugly. Yeah, the Suns did get nuked over the
Speaker 2: last two years, but the nuking was a product of
Speaker 2: them being aware that they were not a championship team,
Speaker 2: gambling on one of the greatest players in NBA history
Speaker 2: it not working, and then being aware enough to acknowledge
Speaker 2: that it didn't work and to take the first step
Speaker 2: forward into the next era. You weren't getting four first
Speaker 2: round picks for Kevin Durant, not at his age. He's
Speaker 2: not a true like needle moving, top tier superstar anymore.
Speaker 2: He is a second tier superstar that can help an
Speaker 2: already really good team go over the top. That's about
Speaker 2: what you get in return star with some upside, A
Speaker 2: young guard with some upside, Dylan Brooks, who's legitimately one
Speaker 2: of the better three and D players in the league.
Speaker 2: I think Dylan Brooks is a really good Dylan Brooks
Speaker 2: is gonna help the Suns. Like Dylan Brooks will make
Speaker 2: the Suns substantially more of a pain in the ass
Speaker 2: to beat next year. There's upside there, there's value there.
Speaker 2: Maybe it turns into you trading Dylan Brooks for draft
Speaker 2: picks and trading Devin Booker for draft picks. But this
Speaker 2: was the first step into the direction of the next
Speaker 2: era of Suns basketball. I don't think they were winning
Speaker 2: a title with Chris Paul, Devin Booker and Michal Bridges
Speaker 2: and Cam Johnson. I don't think they were close. I
Speaker 2: don't think they were winning a title. They went for
Speaker 2: it with KD. It didn't work. It's time to move on.
Speaker 2: That's what they did today. All right, guys, that is
Speaker 2: all I have for today. Again, we would be back
Speaker 2: with Colin Coward tonight. I'm sure we'll have more thoughts
Speaker 2: on the KD trade as well. We'll have a new
Speaker 2: NBA champion tonight. That's super exciting. I've already talked to
Speaker 2: Sam Vessini. He's coming on the show on Monday. We're
Speaker 2: gonna be recording an NBA Draft preview. Tons of content
Speaker 2: coming out over the next couple of days, and then
Speaker 2: the Draft is literally on Wednesday, so the NBA never
Speaker 2: stops thanks to a long NBA Finals. It's all running
Speaker 2: into each other now. But we're gonna be with you
Speaker 2: guys every step of the way. I will see you
Speaker 2: guys tonight after game seven. What's up guys. As always,
Speaker 2: I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight.
Speaker 2: They would actually be really helpful for us if you
Speaker 2: guys would take a second and leave a rating and
Speaker 2: a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us,
Speaker 2: but if you could take a minute to do that,
Speaker 2: I'd really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: The volume