Bickley Blast: How the NBA is limiting the Phoenix Suns

Bickley Blast: How the NBA is limiting the Phoenix Suns

and Mara boings Arizona Sports the local sports leader bigley blast so I had a brief chat with Matt ishia yesterday and he looked fit and tan and happy no signs of stress in his game at the moment and there was something very reassuring about seeing the sun’s owner attending a Mercury game while bonding with Devin Booker and new head coach Mike buen holer three guys who better be on the same page in the coming months but as free agency begins in the NBA I cannot help but once again curse our cruel luck because the NBA is effectively pulling the plug on a small minority of free wheeling free spending owners you see it happening with the Clippers who couldn’t resign Paul George you see it happening with the Warriors who are ditching Klay Thompson and then you realize that just as we were graced with a multi billionaire owner who doesn’t care how much he spends on players the NBA has made it nearly impossible to win checkbook championships once again our timing couldn’t be worse it’s particularly cruel because the NBA did this so the other 90% of owners don’t look bad or suffer in the standings when a rogue spender is in the midst in their market place and it’s cruel because if he could I’m sure ishia would be in the market this summer scooping up more great players instead the suns are likely going to end up with a roster that does not stack up with the NBA’s Elite and it’s going to take Booker as an MVP candidate and buen Hooser as a coach of the year just to pull this off all right today’s Bley blast brought to you by my great friends at Chapman BMW make luxury attainable find them online at Chapman bmw.com how do you feel about the state of their roster going into next year H very much I mean the suns are where they are I mean I didn’t like the bradby bill trade from the moment they made it they’re not it was not to me a very smart longterm move because you already didn’t have a ton of depth now you have no depth you have no flexibility to add around this group and it’s just very hard to win when you’ve basically got 10 or 11 minimum guys every year it’s just not really a path of sustainable success particularly when you’ve got older guys that are injury prone guys the Miss time Booker and Durant this time Yousef nkic is not the same player he was a few years ago after injuries he’s had I mean look could the Suns potentially be a scene that gets out of the first round maybe but I just don’t see a lot of reason to think that they’re going to be much better than what they were last year that’s uh Tim bontemps who joined us earlier uh actually in the last segment from ESPN Bick posing the question what are the Suns what what do they conjure up in you feeling wise not much were his first words well and and again that’s and I don’t I don’t think that that’s going to be the dissenting opinion I think that’s going to be a very common standard opinion yes and it’s going to take again it’s going to take what they have to be exceptional and and to be better in places than they were last year to to really make a run at this thing it’s not impossible but again it it just when you think about this it just it makes you it it just makes you insane that that an owner like this that that is not only a basketball guy and doesn’t care about making money but a guy who’s really willing to spend whatever it takes and it the it’s it’s proof the Royce O’Neal is deal is proof the Grayson Allen deal is proof yes it’s just it’s just really a shame that there are now stipulations and and shackles proverbial shackles put on owners like Matt ishia and like Steve Balmer and Joe lob because the rest of the owners do not want the pressure of having to compete with people who are willing to spend like that it’s what it is it’s true but I mean here’s the sun’s plight historically how do you win championships with at least two superstars there was a stretch where three Superstars seemed to be kind of kind of the pattern so they go down that road uh Bradley Beal did not play like a superstar last year I think he had difficulty in accepting that role I think at times he did consistently over the course of a regular season where he was in and out of the lineup I don’t think that happened to a degree so now the the format changed uh um the rules have changed the CBA has changed the restrictions certainly are more severe than they’ve ever been for a team that’s built like the Suns and I don’t know if you’re going to see teams built like the Suns anymore although Philadelphia I think your point on Philadelphia is pretty well taken um you know they have two guys of a big three that’s the way you have to do it now two of the three at least have to be homegrown for for this to happen yeah they’ve gone down that road but uh to Tim bont’s point about winning you know consistently with minimum salary players around your big three that’s not totally the case you’ve got obviously 151 some odd million dollars tied up in the big three but you mentioned reyce O’Neal you mentioned Grayson Allen you mentioned Yousef nurkic those are all players that are making a decent salary competitively speaking so you are still looking at a number of minimum guys but the Suns have also had Buzzard’s luck when it comes to the minimum guys just not finding roles or finding any kind of comfort level to to compete on a on a regular basis last year’s group I was over the moon at what the front office did in the early stages of free agency but now we haven’t elaborated on this and I think there’s something something you can read into and maybe I’m wrong maybe I’m right Eric Gordon had a player option for $3.4 million we talked about last week what are Eric Gordon Gordon’s options is Eric Gordon a makeer break for the Phoenix H next year absolutely not but he opted out of 3.4 million and he went to Philly for 3.3 and he signed for a team with a general manager and darl M that he’s obviously got a lot of experience with from his days in Houston but was that the determining Factor was he that unhappy in Phoenix was he that convinced that this was not going to ultimately lead to a championship I might be reading way too much into that because I don’t know are we talked about the Houston Rockets maybe being in play for for Eric Gordon and there would be a market I I didn’t think he was going to get another minimum deal quite honestly same same and and I think now W with the confusion over Damen Lee who was reported that he opted in turns out he has not um people who do reporting around the Sun still think it’s a good chance he’s going to sign with the Suns but we’re going to find out when all four guys with opin opt out what does that tell you now it could be individual it could be guys looking for more money could be guys looking for a bump but but it does tell you something and that shouldn’t come as a surprise or or or seem slanderous to anyone we all saw the vibe off that team last year wasn’t good it’s not something that would make somebody go yeah I want to be yeah sign me up for that and as disappointing as Eric Gordon was maybe the most disappointing of all the signings he’s still going to be need to be replaced by somebody mhm like who’s going to be that you know seventh sixth seventh man off the bench last week when we thought Damen Lee had opted in and again there’s a possibility he’ll be back MH I don’t know what the market is for a player coming off a severe knee injury the way that he did yeah um but you know I if if he’s the guy I I feel pretty good about it if he’s not the guy I don’t know what I feel about it well okay so let’s let’s let’s look at this roster right now you obviously have Devin Booker Kevin Durant Bradley Beal Yousef nurkic Grayson Allen Royce O’Neal B bow Mason plumbley you got the two rookies and nir yeah nir L and you got these rookies and Ryan Dunn and Osa igori igora Andre Iguodala it’s pronounced that right exactly you just call him that um who am I missing besides that is that every is that pretty much everybody for now you said nkic I did uh jayen Bridges is a two Jaylen Bridges that’s right he’s a two-way guy yeah so you could obviously look at that and go that is that doesn’t stack up to the Celtics that doesn’t stack up to the Thunder um I again and they’re not done it they’re going to have to get lucky for once they’re not done but who are they going to sign at this point that’s going to be better than all those names you just mentioned that’s going to be ahead of them in a rotation we’re still looking for a point guard and speaking of being done they might be overdone drafting oryan Dunn they Chris Dunn remains a possibility to be signed as a point guard okay um you know kind of a done done and right exactly yeah they just need to sign two if that happens they need to sign two more D that’d before right d there’s a duh in there you’re the duh part Jared but yeah but but I saw I saw a lot of people geeked up about bub there was a lot of people geeked up about bub and look that’s part of the frustration at the end of the Frank vogle tenure yeah is his reticence to play B Bowl in in in minutes to change up the looks I mean it frustrated a lot of suns fans I don’t know if that went into the into the soup that got him shown the door but there was a lot of people that were not happy about it here’s the other thing that I do like if I’m looking for a slivers of optimism obviously book you know coming back having an MVP year that would change the calculus Bradley Beal being better would maybe change the calculus a little bit um Mike benen holer at being able to help kind of build out this roster even if they are spare parts at least they’re being added in tune and in sync with the coach’s Vision mhm yeah that’s true thanks for watching Bley and marada click to see the latest Bickley blast and hit the button in the middle to subscribe to Arizona Sports

In an NBA free agency period with Los Angeles Clippers star Paul George and Golden State Warriors veteran Klay Thompson on the market, Dan Bickley takes a closer look at how the league is limiting “checkbook championships” at a time that Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia is willing to pay whatever it takes to build a championship team.

Video: Felisa Cárdenas and Jeremy Schnell/Arizona Sports
Photos: Christian Petersen, Ezra Shaw/Getty Images; David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images

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