Pelicans Pushed, Suns Held

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Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, thanks again for pressing play.

And welcome once again to another edition of the Sun's Jam session podcast

on the Belie podcast network brought to you by FanDuel, where come on MalaWatch.

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Tonight we get to talk about a Sun's victory.

After an interesting 24 hours, man, this has been an interesting 24 hours

between the Sun's losing the way that they did to the Chicago Bulls,

to Dewey Dillon, to, you know, again, understanding the fact that this could be a game

where they might lose.

And you look at that final score, it's 118 or what it's hard doing this.

It's 118 to 116.

It wasn't that close, but it ended up being that close.

So we're going to talk about that and much, much more on this edition of the Sun's

Jam session podcast.

Again, thank you for hanging out.

To all the Jamsters out there who are spending your Friday night with me.

Make sure you crack open a beer.

Make sure you're ready to go because Matthew's here and we got a lot to talk about.

Hey, you're listening to the Sun's Jam session podcast.

Shooting the shit about the Sun since 2019.

I'm a crack in one tonight, Matthew.

I could use it.

One, I'm low on water.

You know when it's like when you get down to the very last water jug and you got like

this much left and you don't want to go through it because you know the moment you do,

you got to go get some and it's nighttime so you know you can't go till tomorrow.

So I'm just going to drink beer instead.

How you doing?

Yeah, actually, I know that feeling because I actually did it two hours ago.

Actually, I have time.

I had to go to fries to fill up a three gallon bottle that we have.

It's kind of like a case of emergency.

Yeah, the emergency.

We had a gallon left.

I'm like, that's not enough for me because you know the water situation is what I always

worry about.

So much water, dude.

Whenever Matthew comes to your house, man, he just, he gets like a 32 ounce pump and

he just, he hangs out literally by the water cooler.

What do you think back there?

You're like, hydrating, dude.

I'm not as much anymore, but I, I do need to know the water situation heading into, you

know, going over to someone's house or, you know, even living here.

So yeah, I'm going to, it's first thing tomorrow morning.

I will be loading up my truck.

I got five.

It's more jugs.

Do you hate it?

It depends.

I hate it.

It's the worst thing in the world.

Not when it's summertime or I mean, when it is summertime, I'm sorry, when it's summertime,

I absolutely hate it.

Tomorrow, I won't mind it because like I'll throw a podcast on, I'll go to the fries

where there's, they got three of those primo machines.

So I could just do it.

I don't go to the store anymore.

Okay.

How much more are you spending?

Like a couple bucks.

Who cares?

It's like two bucks a gallon.

I hate going to the store.

I hate going in.

I hate having the heart to bring the cards back inside or yell at you if you don't.

Yeah.

This one.

I've been at one where like, hey, man, don't, don't take the card out there.

Don't, don't read the sign.

The sign says you don't take it into the parking lot.

It stays on the curb.

I'm like, Jesus fucking, too many rules.

Too many rules.

We're almost at the fries.

Yeah.

Okay.

Go to fries.

Go to fries.

That should have been my Matthew.

I got to ask, but I'll ask you something different.

Matthew, I've got to ask.

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So Matthew, I got to ask this game, obviously, a lot of different things are happening as it

pertains to the Phoenix Sons with, you know, and we're going to get into all of these.

I hate you.

I don't want to go with the must win question.

I'll ask you this.

How important was this win?

How important was this win, Matthew?

It was the 40 and 20 or the 20 and 44 pelicans.

It's important.

I think after losing last night's game, it's even more important.

I think this team knew that, but still we're seeing a different version of this team right

now where they're facing different challenges.

And they're responding.

Obviously, we don't have a couple guys, but they're responding in different ways where

they're not following up at the fourth quarter or when they're letting 10-0 runs just go

by them.

They're turning the ball over at will.

This game could have been tied to design and would have caught that ball and just went

to late to lay it in or dunk it.

So it's a different team right now, obviously, same challenges, same coach, but the demeanor's

different and the fans are hanging in there.

But if you're watching the game, they left early.

They thought this was the old suns.

Oh, they're going to take care of business.

But no, this is the new suns post-all star break where they're making mistakes and you

got to kind of wait until the end to see if they can actually pull it off.

100% agree.

This is unfortunately, it's a situation where this suns team that we're witnessing right

now and have witnessed for quite some time, it isn't finishing.

They're not finishing the way that they were.

When you have a Jordan Goodwin, when you have a Dylan Brooks, when you have a Mark Williams,

you finish better than the alternative.

And it's unfortunate that it got down to what it ultimately did because if you didn't

watch the game, the suns were up by as much as 14 and the fourth.

They were up by 14 points in this in the fourth quarter.

They were up 95 to 81.

They won 118 to 116.

And it was Dejante Murray, right?

He had 10 points in the fourth quarter.

He just did what killed the suns last night.

And that's all the Pelicans had to do in all honesty is like, hey, Dejante Murray, just

try to get to the rim all night.

You're going to be fine because that's literally what Trey Jones and Colson sexton did at

Will last night.

And it's something that I thought they would do more of as a team.

They were granted.

They outscored the Phoenix Suns 54 to 34 in the paint in this game.

But the suns three point shooting showed up and that saved them and they needed all 20

of their attempts.

They were 20 of 58 from beyond the arc, 58 three pointers they took of 90 field goal attempts.

And that's one of my questions is, is the sun's offense right now concerning to you?

It is, but is it their fault because I think that, you know, working in Molly watch and

also, you know, God, the other record plumbing, excuse me, those, those two guys working

them into the offense and just trying to, yeah, sick card right there.

Really nice.

And you detect me now.

And that was my favorite one out of the two.

You showed me.

Oh, I haven't shown you like the other four that I bought.

Have I?

Well, when you go to the games, are you going to get flaming?

I think you can have the rookie sign autograph, right?

Because they don't really care.

And they try to fit in.

I purchased autos.

Oh, you did.

Okay.

I purchased some autos.

Well, if you're trying to work those guys into the offense, it's going to be a little

bit difficult.

And obviously green too, he's trying to shine.

So I think the biggest thing right now is to find who's the main guy.

I think booking that their quarter really took over and everything kind of fell into place

at that time.

But right now, you have a guy in green trying to hit buckets, having the worst six games

span and being history, basically, the field goal percentage.

So when that's happening, you have two rookies that need the ball to to see some improvement

there.

It's going to look weird.

It's going to look different.

I feel like the sun's playing right now.

It's just weird and different.

Yeah.

There's two things kind of happening at once.

And weird and different is part of what's happening.

While simultaneously, the suns are in a spot where there's a valuation and development

occurring and that equates to weird and the other word that you said.

So I think that that's different, yeah, different, weird and different.

But the suns, I am concerned, I'm concerned in the grand scheme of things because I want

to see that ought has more up his sleeve from a schematic standpoint because this team

is six in the NBA in three point rate.

So they shoot what 46, 40, I think it's like 45.1%, or maybe it's 46.1, I was doing writing

an article today about it, 46.1% of their shots come from beyond the arc.

They're unbelievably reliant on the three.

And there's times where, and like last night was a great example of that, we talk about

it.

It's a podcast saying, live by the three, die by the three.

Today, we lived by the three and one by it because we were 20 of 58.

The New Orleans Pelicans were 10 of 28, right?

They made 10 less than us.

We had a plus 30 advantage from beyond the arc and we only one by two points.

That's concerning to me.

But to your point, Matthew, and it's a various student observation when you have come on

Mala watch, now playing a lot of minutes because he ended up playing what, 20 minutes

tonight.

20 minutes.

Yeah, I'll trouble.

When Rashir Fleming's getting more minutes, when these guys are being integrated, there

is going to be some challenges.

And that is the, is one of the things that I certainly noticed.

And it's something that I want to talk about in a new segment, Matthew.

I just cited.

Thank God.

Games into the season that we're no longer going to do the burn book.

We're no longer going to do the bright side.

What we're going to do is we're going to grade aspects of the game, players from the

game.

So we consider like Jalen Green, I give him a seat a night.

You're like, now I give him a B.

So welcome, jamsers.

Great.

It's time for gravy, gravy, my friend.

Is that, is that me from high school?

That's exactly what I look like.

The long hair, chubby arms, I put it, I put it, no, it's not you, wearing a suns.

I'll play it one more time.

You can like it.

It's time for gravy, gravy, my friend.

All right.

So you're spicing things up with our relationship, right?

It's getting kind of dull.

I was in the kitchen early.

I'm like, yeah, maybe we don't do what we're doing at the beginning of the season anymore.

Well, I just like, I want to, I want to grade things.

And one thing I want to grade and give a grade to the Phoenix Suns is as they have this

challenge where they aren't used to having somebody like come on Mala watch in the game,

right?

I said, this is a weird place to start is, is come on Mala watch, but that's where I'm

starting.

Oh, man, tie the suggestion to my, come on Mala watch to it.

Come on watch had four points in this game.

He was two or three from the field in 20 minutes played.

He had four rebounds.

He had five blocked shots in this game.

And he could have had a lot more.

If the Suns knew how to a conduct an entry pass or be attempt an entry pass.

So I give the Suns entry pass ability and F in this game, because there's multiple times

where he was coming, the one thing I'll give come on Mala watch, he runs up and down

the court.

The efforts there.

There's no him just standing there like, oh, shit, I didn't get a rebound.

I'm going to stroll down the court like so many bigs do in this league.

He was sprinting up and down the court.

And on multiple occasions, as the Suns were bringing the ball up in transition, if they

just had their eyes up and look towards them, they could have thrown on the ball.

He would have an easy to multiple times.

And that's something that as a part of this integration and evaluation process for the

Phoenix Suns, they've got to learn how to get that guy the ball and to be looking to

get him the ball because they clearly are a team that even in transition, they're like

looking around the perimeter or even in offense when they have a high screen enroll action

with him.

The booker had one pass, we threw it behind him, you know, and to turn over.

Another two or three times, Grayson Allen would run high screen action with him.

And then he would just look to the corner to try to pass over there.

If his eyes had just shifted to the left, come on, it's like wide open, running down the

lane.

It's like, you just throw it towards him.

So I give entry passes an F in this game, Matthew.

Yeah, I'm right there with you.

And you have a guy in Jalen Green who has a low IQ.

I feel like when he has a ball in the perimeter, he doesn't really find the guy, especially

when he turns around second chance opportunities.

He's not looking for the guys.

He's trying to get into the offense in his own.

He's trying to actually maybe hit a step back three or just get into the rim, but there's

guys that are open.

And I talked about it the last time I was in the pod and now you watch was there a few

times.

And I don't know if that was really the pelicans, just kind of leaving them down there

because he can, they can make up ground because he is a little slow, right?

Getting a position going up for the dunk, whatever gets to do to really get into his offense.

They can make up ground.

So maybe they're trying to do that, but he was wide the hell open a lot.

And Booker is probably the wrong guy to throw a lot to like for him to throw a lot of

some value watch.

Like he's the wrong dude to make those entry passes.

I didn't see any Gillespie, right?

So obviously, I mean, if you're grading the passing right now, it was really bad.

And even the last pass of the game, that was almost stolen.

Like, and definitely it's an F.

But I want to say like Gillespie is not really in there when the pick and roll with him.

Like he works a lot with Oh, so I know that.

But my guy Gillespie who's not the best passer, he might be the best on the team.

To me, why is he not working with him on the picking rolls?

That's just something that's going to come in a couple of games or three or four games.

It'd be interesting to see how the overlap of their minutes was.

Because again, Gillespie doesn't run a lot of high screen and roll action.

He runs it a little bit with Oso, but not a ton.

He runs with Oso more dribble handoff action because you're not getting a, they're essentially

trying to take advantage of a matchup and either Gillespie can come off of the Oso screen

for a wide open three.

And if not, he's passing the ball back to Oso and then initiating the action at Oso's hands versus Gillespie's hands.

Because Gillespie at the end of the day isn't your traditional facilitating point guard.

He's more of a scoring point guard with some facilitation attached to him.

But that's a great point.

And again, that's something to watch and to be excited for over these next few games,

over the next couple of weeks with Mark Williams out.

Overall, what grade do you give Mala watch tonight?

I actually give him an A.

I think this is his best game by far.

I think the last few games he's played big minutes.

He's had a hard time kind of with spacing, finding the floor, his footing, all of that,

not really knowing where the baseline is.

But you've seen it, you've seen it today where he really knows where he's at.

And he's actually getting a lot of, this is weird to say, a lot of big bodies.

Don't add him, right?

Yeah.

For the full of 20 minutes, he was playing like Zion's going at him.

He's keeping his hands up more.

He was doing more where he's facing the defender.

He does, he's not turned around all the time.

So he's doing a lot to improve on that.

So I give him an A just because he's making the improvement.

You're seeing that he's in a positive way.

And there's a lot of naysayers still.

And I was still one of them.

I got frustrated with the dude.

I'm like, this guy doesn't even know what he's doing out there.

But the fact that he's made the biggest leap this game shows that like he does

what he's doing.

It's just about having the confidence out there and obviously having and feeling the

game more in the paint.

And I think he's getting there because he has the five blocks.

I feel like he had seven tonight.

Yeah.

And that's like, you know, I mean, Winby, I mean,

he obviously has like 600 blocks by now, but he is eight feet tall.

Come on, seven, two.

So he should have at least four or five blocks of game.

And that's what he might have that.

And it's a reminder.

And we're going to continue to see this for quite some time.

And it's the haters, right?

The people that you're mentioning, the people who don't believe in him, quote, unquote.

And they're going to continue to happen because he's going to have down performances.

He's 19 years old.

He is a little bit slow afoot.

There's times where he could have had seven blocks in this game, in my opinion,

like where he just jumped a little too late.

And it's things that I've seen him do down to the G league where it's like he's still in

the mode of processing things.

And that's fine.

And that's OK.

I always, and we'll continue to say, like, I'm not going to judge this guy until like year

three when he's like 22 years old is when I'm going to judge who and what he is.

He has an opportunity for development.

Like foundationally, he has the skill set.

We want to see him, his hands, obviously, to get stronger, him to catch balls, not to

come down with it.

The basic center stuff, but that takes time to learn.

So I give him a B in this game, maybe a B minus.

I was training towards a C, and then I looked at the five blocks, I was like, OK, that's

a B minus.

There's a long way to go.

A guy who's obviously a lighting rod of topic conversation right now.

Jalen Green.

Green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green,

green, green, green, green.

So Jalen Green, 30 minutes played in this one, almost 31, eight of 17 from the field.

That's 47% from the field, 33% from beyond the arc as he shot three of nine from the field

or from beyond the arc, 25 total points, three assists, five rebounds, two turnovers.

I spent a lot of last night's podcasts talking about Jalen Green.

I wrote a 2,000, 2,100 word article about Jalen Green and the, and the inefficiency loop

that he's currently stuck in.

And so let me ask you this, what are your thoughts on Jalen Green over the past couple

games because you haven't been on the podcast and what grade do you give him for tonight's

performance?

It's been brutal.

You kind of see the Jalen Green were afraid of.

I think I gave him a few games, a little bit of a cushion here and there like with him

coming back, you kind of want to see some guy make a positive impact.

He hasn't done that really.

He hit his shots tonight, but you can see even in the first half where he is kind of

just swallowing the offense and he's just owning the ball and just, you know, Booker

has to swallow his tongue too, man.

Like he can't say to you, Booker waits until their quarter takes over and the game is

a lot better in the sun's favor, but there's just shots he's taking and he's not moving

the ball.

It's not about moving the ball really because I know Booker gets into his stuff, but he

has a really, he has a knack of getting efficient shots now, right?

He's like the best in the game at doing that.

Green just doesn't.

Green gets into the paint.

He is getting blocked in the paint.

He's trying to force these shots to 70 in the ball back out.

So I understand that him and Dylan Brooks when he comes back, these are guys that want to

get shots up, want to shoot 20 times a game, but it comes down to like who's the most

efficient step in Booker.

It's his team.

These guys need to fall in line.

That's why when Booker steps up in the third, he's hitting his shots, playing his best

quarter in a long time, I feel like then the other guy's going to fall in line in a way.

So these guys try to take over, but I don't enjoy this much, man.

I just, I don't.

I don't enjoy watching them still.

So in the chat, John Humboldt, who gave us $1.99 in the super chat last yesterday and

was very pro green, he says, considering he's still getting into basketball form and A

plus.

Okay.

You know, J 959 says a C plus Mark says C Seth says B minus David says C minus green is

a B from Mark Brooks.

I give him.

Well before I get into my grade, I'll start off by saying this.

I'm in a weird spot with Jalen Green right now because I want so bad for him to be good.

But now I feel myself as I watch these games being hyper critical of how he plays.

And I know that's not the best way to approach this.

I know that he needs this get the offense to come to him.

I know that he is somebody who has a history being inefficient and we are experiencing

that efficiency in a really negative way.

That progression will happen to the mean.

The mean isn't great averages, but the mean is better than what he's been doing.

I did the math on it, entering tonight, if he wanted to get back to his career average

of 34.2% from beyond the arc, he would have to make the next 12 consecutive three pointers

to do.

So that's how far behind his mean through his four years of his career prior to playing

here that he is.

I'll say, so with that in mind, I know that I'm personally developing this bias and the

shell almost of being hyper critical.

And I don't know if that's a good thing.

But what I will say is because of that, I'm very cute into what he's doing.

And Matthew said a lot of things that I completely agree with.

He swallows possessions.

There's times where it's like, okay, man, you've had the ball for like eight seconds

now.

And I'm literally saying that the screen passed it because his superpower, his superpower

is he can penetrate.

But he has a hard time finishing at the basket.

And in the article that I wrote on bright side of the sun today, I noted that he's finishing

at the basket at 44.1%.

That is easily the least in his career.

He should use his superpower for good, right?

Not for evil.

When you penetrate, there's like four or five times where we penetrated tonight, not

graded.

He did a much better job tonight getting fouled and getting to the line.

But he didn't convert a lot of those.

I think he had like four and one opportunities he committed, he converted two of them.

But all four of those drives on my dude, there's Grayson, there's Colin, they're wide open.

Because that's his superpower.

He draws people to him.

But he'll sit there, he'll dribble the ball for eight seconds and then penetrate and

then try to be the superhero.

Whereas his real superhero power is to dish it out to his teammates.

So he was six of seven from beyond or from the free throw line, which is fantastic.

He does dribble the air out of the ball a little too much.

He doesn't pass as much as I would like for him to pass.

But this was a step in the right direction.

So after I said all of that, this is a step in the right direction.

We need to see more performances like this where he is getting 25 points and 17 field goals.

That's fine.

17 field goals for 25 points.

Sign me up for that every day.

That's what you need to see from Jalen Green.

You don't need to see 17 points on 20 shot attempts.

So for all those reasons, I give him a B plus tonight.

I'm not giving, I'm not going all the way to an A, but I'm giving him a B plus tonight.

Yeah.

And then the second or second half, he had the only the four shot attempts, which is, you

know, he had the 17 total.

So 13 in the first half, that was a lot.

And it's, it's weird because these stats look okay.

They look all right in the box score, but just watching the game, you know, something's

off.

You know, something's just different.

And I always do this when guys say things and press conferences, I'm like, that was

a little alarming two years later, I'm like, yeah, it was alarming.

There's something there.

He mentions before about how this team is kind of built around him in a way.

And I don't know.

It's just a slip of the tongue or him just like, you know, just being like, Hey, I'm one

of the main dudes here.

But I don't know if that's going to be something with him in book because the shot attempts

and stuff shooting 13 times when book only has the five shot attempts or six.

That's weird.

How does that go over in the locker room?

I don't, I don't think there's anything there now, but eventually it might, that's why

I was always scared with Dylan Brooks, the same exact thing.

So if this guy's getting that many shot attempts, how is Booker going to take that?

And it bookers, it bookers been the most selfish star in the league if you want to say he's

a star, but it might be something where it just is not good enough for the team.

It's not really an equaling success in the first half.

So it's just something to watch that I want to know about United Health Group is simplifying

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Yeah.

Shot die is important.

And as time progresses, when losing occurs and shot die is out of whack, that's where

tension occurs, right?

That's where you look at a team like the last couple of years where, especially last year,

where the team didn't even make the play in.

And the shot die, it was all over the place.

Kevin or Anson are saying, I'm taking all the shots, you guys need to help me.

And then the other guys are like, well, if we take the shots and we miss them, you're

mad at us, we're just going to defer to you.

The hope is, again, I have no issue with him taking 17 shots.

I don't, because he needs to get that rhythm.

This is the season to determine whether or not he's a valid number two on this team next

to Devon Booker.

And you might even go as far to say that because of injury this year and all the trying to

come in past the midway point pretty much, two thirds of the way into the season, he finally

gets on the court.

He's finally being integrated that you might even say, you know what, next year's an evaluation

period too.

And then from there, we make a decision.

So the sun is, that's that that is all possible.

All of those scenarios are possible.

So we just wait and see.

We observe and we appreciate nights like tonight.

But obviously, the guy who lit it up and took over when Jayling Green would pass him

the ball 21 from the field, five of 12 from beyond the arc, seven of eight from the

free throw line.

Devon Booker had 32 points, four, four assists, four rebounds, a couple of steals as well.

He was really active on the defensive end.

And I'm given Devon Booker and A in this one.

I think that he was really focused on setting up his team and almost to a fault early in

the game where he had multiple open shots, but he kept trying to get his teammates involved

which I, which I appreciate it.

And then obviously the third quarter was where he really put his mark on this game, put

his stamp on the game, 18 points on six of nine, giggity, giggity, how right from the field

and three of six from beyond the arc.

But what are your thoughts on Devon Booker in this game and what grade do you give him?

I give an eight and eight to like, I'm just handing out eights, right?

I'm heading into, is this spring break or fall break spring break spring break?

All right.

Are you on to Mexico?

I'm doing shit.

I can't top off.

Okay.

Keep my top on.

Stay at home.

All right.

Well, I give him a name and this is a, this is a team that has to live and die by Booker

and the playoffs coming up because he has to get this out of the mud.

Then we will die.

Yeah.

But we say that with Dylan Brooks too, right?

When he's taking these shots.

So I think he got us out of the mud today.

It was a huge, huge game, especially in the third quarter there for Devon Booker.

And I think that when you're looking at this team as a whole right now, you're looking

at the two guys in Jellin Green and Devon Booker, like who's going to get us through the trenches.

And I think obviously in the chat right now, they're talking about Booker and comparing

him, you know, with Jellin Green, when he was 23, Jellin Green is very young, right?

The only difference really is there's a look and a feel with the guy on the court, right?

The stats can look the way they, they are, the turnovers are going to happen.

But it's just a look and a feel that you have with the guy.

And I think even with Jellin Green, it just does not sit well with me right now, right?

I think for Booker, most of his career, it's sat well.

The expectations rose and he's rose to the occasion too at times.

But then also we give him a lot of shit too.

But I think in tonight's game, this has to be the book that really takes over in the

second half.

I think he does a good enough job in the first half, moving the ball, getting guys involved,

playing great defense and all that.

But when it has to come down to like, hey, you're tied with the pelicans in the third quarter,

you got to get us out of there and you have to get us the set, the 10.14 point lead and

lead without Dylan Brooks.

And I feel like he did that tonight.

I feel like he did too.

Real quick, Laney's barking something crazy.

So take over the bottom.

Okay.

Um, I'm positive here in silence.

All right, try to play the longest job we had and that's actually Mark Williams.

Laney is possibly passing away right now.

So we'll see if he'll come back.

I played Mark Williams because there's one thing that has been missing is Mark Williams.

So obviously there's something that the sons have to move forward with and that's without

Mark Williams starting.

And we were at the, at the point, the two, the three games before he was actually off that

we were like, can he actually take a step back?

Can not he watch come in?

Can he actually prove himself?

Yeah.

I think that's exactly what's happening right now.

So Mark Williams is the guy that we definitely do miss.

And I think that if you guys actually want to let me know in the chat, like, how

was his team performing without Mark Williams?

And it was what's going to get him back into the group to come back by the playoffs.

And what's the rating that we're going to give him coming back?

Because I do feel like we do miss Mark Williams.

So I kind of went out script a little bit bringing up Mark Williams just kind of missing

him because he was going to dog a lot, right?

But heading into the actual injury, he's, he's been, he's been struggling.

You know, another piece that I wrote for right side is comparing kind of pre 44 games,

post 44 games because that was the line of demarcation for Mark Williams.

And his efficiency has, has definitely waned and fatigue, probably physical and mental.

And that's why again, I think that this injury, which is only a two to three week injury,

which is injury, interesting because it's a foot injury.

It comes at a good time for him, a good time for the sons.

And to get some rest in allows come on Mala watch to develop like it's a best case scenario,

kind of thing.

You don't want anyone to get hurt, but if they're going to get hurt in this manner at this

time, it does nothing, but benefit him long term and benefit come on Mala watch long term.

Yeah.

And that's why I put the two drops together because we want to see more Mali watch and

then Williams is out.

And a lot of people on Twitter too are talking about like, oh, this is kind of nice,

right?

Because we have the opportunity now, which is great.

But then we kind of see what we're missing in Williams, even though the stats didn't

look good.

He did seem fatigued.

He's still actually I feel like was kind of the anchor of the difference at times.

And also just a guy offensively knew what to do to get the ball moving around until everyone

just want to also to start over him.

So they kind of got what they wanted to, but it's been just a rough stretch with out Williams.

So it's I think it's just duly notable.

Well, it's only been this only game two without him.

So yeah, it's been terrible games.

It's been a row that had been terrible.

We just need some stability, man.

I'll real quick on the Devon Booker thing and I know that I'm backtracking a little bit.

But remember that, yes, Devon Booker at 23 was turning the ball over a ton.

And I know that, but the difference between Devon Booker and Jaylen Green at 23 is Devon

Booker to that point in his career was somebody who was an efficient player, right?

In his year, it is 23rd year, which is also his fifth season, just like Jaylen Green.

He was 35% from beyond the arc, but almost 50% from the field, and 91% from the free

throw line.

That's the difference between him and Jaylen Green is Devon Booker's always been a professional

score.

And he's been asked to play make more than he probably ever should have, whereas Jaylen

Green hasn't.

Jaylen Green wasn't asked to play make in Houston.

Fred Van Ville was there last year.

Jaylen Green was simply asked to score and he did so inefficiently.

So yeah, but Booker was also losing every season too.

And they were tanking every season.

And then Jaylen Green had how horrible outing in the playoffs.

So I think it's just different parts of their career right now.

It is.

Especially for Booker.

It is.

Who else should we grade?

Do you like the grade thing?

Yeah, I do like it.

I do.

I mean, we don't have the grade people, too, because we just grade situations in the game.

Yeah.

We can grade things.

What do you want to grade?

Hmm.

Let me actually look at my notes.

Did I actually have anything to grade?

Oh, I got a grade.

I got a grade.

I got a grade.

I got a grade.

Fair next time.

But now you know.

Yeah, now I know, you know, it's been.

I want to give Devon Booker's Book Tues an A plus for color, but like an F because they're

Arkansas.

He's doing this thing right now.

Like last game or when they were in a Sacramento, he wore USC Book Tues.

And I like the way the Book Tues look when he does these color ways.

But then I find out it's got like the Arkansas logo on the side.

I'm like, God damn it.

Because I like to wear maroon.

It's one of the, I like to wear maroon and navy blue.

For some reason, I just like to wear those colors.

And those shoes would have gone great with anything that I wore that I showed him up

close to it was an Arkansas.

I was like, damn it.

Is it designed?

What about the Duke one?

Did he have multiple ones?

The ones he wore last night, the black and the blue?

Oh, no, those are the shattered.

Those are called shattered.

Are they?

Okay.

I thought they were a Duke.

No.

No colored ones.

No.

No.

No.

The ones he wore last night were all black and it's got like a white swoosh and a blue swoosh.

Okay.

I like the ones for the game, though, the gradient.

Those were nice.

The gradients were so good.

Oh, they were this color.

They're like my hat that I'm wearing.

And he was puts out one that are good and the rest kind of suck.

Those were fantastic.

Well, let's talk about this.

Let's grade this.

So, obviously, it's a big story going on right now to Dylan and Brooks.

Arrested last night, D-U-I in Scottsdale on what Scottsdale and Thunderbird about two in

the morning got arrested, released, not charged, D-U-I, marijuana-based, I've actually

seen they've released the body cam footage, you know, the cops like it smells like a dispenser

in there.

He's like, there's no marijuana in the car.

And then, you know, he blows zero so he's not drunk or anything.

Yeah.

What do you just kind of think about the whole situation?

I don't want this to put you or me in a situation where we're sitting here and telling people

like the way they should live and, you know, like drunk driving is bad because the moment

it happened, everybody's like, drunk driving is horrible.

It's like, yeah, nobody's going to just agree with you.

What about the situation?

Yeah, exactly.

Well, hold that leader accountable.

It's like, well, hold on.

Let's hear the whole story, everybody.

So, I don't know the fuck yeah, before you brought-

Yeah.

Notice the only thing that I tweeted out, there's only one thing that I tweeted out, somebody

asked me on Twitter, they go, what do you think of the deal-brook situation?

I just go, Dylan the villain.

Yeah, I mean, he's a villain.

He's living up to it, right?

He's a killer.

Or he has to do it on the streets.

It's all I said.

I mean, thousands of us, even people watching the pot, we've all drove home drunk, even if

it was a drunk charge, right?

You try to get home, you try to make it, like that's always been us.

I don't think anyone's ever going to admit it, but I'll admit it for you guys, you've all

done it.

And that's what I first thought.

I was like, oh, damn, that sucks.

He just, it wasn't a thing where I was disappointed in him.

I'm like, this is just a bad time for the sun.

And I think when things do hit the fan, you know what I mean?

There's always one more thing that kind of just seals the deal for us.

I thought that was it.

I was worried about the suspension.

Obviously, you don't want to drive drunk, but I do think that just initially being released

and not knowing the info and the body cam stuff, everyone kind of saying, like, you know,

poor choices, like what a dipshit.

I think so, obviously, like we've all made mistakes, but I don't think it was a thing

to really kind of just trade his ass and get him out of here because all everyone's

post like him and Jalen Green, like just, you know, they're throwing at the suns now.

Look at them.

Like him, like Jalen Green going through the worst six game stretch and then him getting

a DUI.

Yeah.

It was just a big thing.

And we all kind of realized it wasn't nothing like a big deal.

So I don't know, man, I don't, I wasn't too bummed.

I was just kind of like, damn, this, this kind of sucks a little bit, but I kind of just

thought we'd get through it.

I don't think it was going to be that big a deal.

Yeah.

Obviously, when you talk about drunk driving, it's a, it's a sensitive topic.

Yeah.

Cause lives can be taken.

And that's a stupid decision.

To your point, unfortunately, I think a lot of people would listen to this, probably

did at some point, you know, so like, don't throw stones at a glass house kind of thing.

But I just think I, I'm kind of with you.

I was like, oh, man, not this now, like, fuck, like, it's like, geez, when it rains at

pores and phoenix, man, like what, it's marked, like ever since it turned to February,

this team's got a shit.

And then like, but the same thing, I'm like, you know what, let's hear the story.

You know, again, and if you're, if you're driving impaired, you're driving impaired.

And that's a, you're a vehicle's a dangerous thing, man.

So be careful out there.

Don't, don't do dumb shit like that, but, you know, it's just the one thing I, I do appreciate

is the fact that he was at the games tonight, man, he was there with his teammates, you know,

so they just show them on the broadcast, but like, obviously, everyone, everybody, you

know, just, uh, uh, noted that he was there.

So yeah, we'll see what happens.

We'll ultimately see what happens in that situation as it pertains to him or anything

else you want to grade before we go to the very light subreddit tonight.

Um, what, what's going on with Queen?

He played 12 minutes, Derek, Queen.

Last time we played against him, he was something, right?

Now he's can't find minutes and I'm sticking his minutes.

So here's what's happened in your hand.

I haven't heard anything.

There's a couple of things.

So one Zion started at center tonight, uh, the whole team's finally healthy.

So Queen got a lot of run early in the season when injuries were, uh, around, Eve's

Missy was the one who was injured last time we played them.

We played them on back-to-back games and Queen was getting a run and he was getting some

shine right there.

And I think that everybody who's a son's fan, uh, knows that Queen was shining because

he was playing well and everyone was like, what about all the walks?

What about all the walks?

Seven fuck down, dude, like, uh, we should have drafted Queen.

It's like, Queen has his deficiencies too.

The problem with Queen was always the problem that I, that, that, to my knowledge, the Phoenix

sons had with him as a prospect and the reason why they were excited for Mala watch and

it's one word and it's a word that we should value very much here in Phoenix and the word

is motor.

Queen doesn't have a great motor.

Come on, Mala watch has a great motor and in time, he's going to prove it to you.

But Queen, I want to say he's been played off the floor, but I feel like that's a team

that one has no reason to tank because they don't have their first round draft picking

that next year.

But they want to see, you know, they're giving Eves Missy some run, they're giving Queen

some run.

They, they like the lineup that they have now that Dejonte Murray's back and they want

to see what they have with Herb Jones, Trey Murphy, Sadeek Bay.

I really like the Pelicans players for some reason.

And this is the same thing that always happens with the Pelicans, right?

For some reason, when all their players play together, they're not good.

But like individually, I would like any one of those guys on my team.

What do you, of those, I don't feel like it's so individual out there.

I feel like, don't you feel like the way that's the challenge with that team.

Yeah, exactly.

I mean, great trade pieces, but when they're together, like he said, it's, it's a tough

watch, especially he signs on himself and I kind of feel bad a little bit just because

now he's in his shape.

Now he's ready because there are guys that are going to come take his job.

He's going to get traded all that stuff because he never cared before and was always injured.

Now it's just like a shell of himself out there.

Like he's, he's, are not he's missing.

Man-man did such a good job defense wing against him, but like, he is just not himself

at all.

You know what I mean?

Like, try not to miss the ball.

No, Zion trying to lay the ball around the rim and just getting a block.

Cause he's trying to operate in a space that he's not, he's used to have in the other

big out there who pulls somebody away.

And then he can kind of operate in the space that he's supposed to.

So yeah, it's just a weird situation in New Orleans.

I think that there are very, very interesting team this upcoming off season.

I wonder what their thoughts are on Jalen Green tonight.

You know, they saw him go for 25.

He's a perfect.

He's a perfect.

He's a perfect.

You.

You get Jalen Green.

We get Sadiq Bay.

How about that?

I would kill three Bay.

What about Tray Murphy?

I would love it.

I mean, Tray Murphy's the answer.

Yeah.

Obviously he is.

Tray Murphy is the answer, but we would never, we would never get him.

Somebody of the chat said, great ought, um, who said that, who said that, uh, Mitchell said

that he says, can you grade ought, uh, I, I give ought a B for this one.

Me too.

Again, the challenges with us being kind of a one dimensional three point based offense

is disturbing.

It's frustrating.

I mentioned on the podcast last night.

I really like to see some, some other just types of plays run other than what we've seen.

It's kind of predictable.

And that's part of being a first year head coach.

There's teams that are adjusting to your adjustments.

So yeah, and I love the fact that, you know, they're moving right into the bench.

I think that's going to be the move really heading into the playoffs.

So I think even when you're running three guards out there, guys can get upset or fans

can get upset about it.

But I think he's really trying to play the guys more heavy minutes and getting them starting

to line up.

They're going to play more towards the end of the season into the playoffs and that's

going to be a course.

You know, it's going to be Devin Booker Kong.

Let's be in Jalen Green.

Those are going to be our guys.

So I think you have to roll with them.

Done is out.

He was only going to play like 14, 15 minutes of game, maybe the rest of the year, I feel

like, and that's fine.

I feel like him staying strong with that is good in playing the rookies more minutes is

exactly what he needs to do.

So I give him a B.

Oh, an A plus plus for Rashir Fleming again.

I absolutely.

Yeah.

I think he's my favorite son right now, other than like Devin Booker, like him going to

the rim, the pump fakes needs to do it all the time.

Yeah.

It has to be, I don't care how open he is that the guys coming at him.

Just go right by him and get to the rim because he can hang up there.

He can finish at the rim.

Well, he's got the physicality to go through people and that's what I'm waiting to see

is like, go through a couple of people, man.

You can do it.

Yeah.

You can do it.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Exactly.

The sun's jam session, sub reddit steak out.

Brought to you by Nettles air conditioning.

All right, I was scared at the end.

Not a lot of chatter on the, yeah, it was empty, like it was midway through the first

quarter.

There was 11 comments.

Oh, I guess if you're a Pelicans fan, that makes sense.

It's a Friday night.

You live in New Orleans.

You're like, I'm going to go live my life.

So yeah, here's what they have.

You guys like chicken or tenders better?

What?

Chicken or what about chicken tenders?

Well, that's like, what does he mean?

Just like chicken?

It may, maybe he means like, if you go to KFC, would you get tenders or would you get like

an eight piece chicken, you know, with the drums and the friends?

I don't know.

I was looking at the ingredients of those other day.

There's like 50 things in there.

So probably neither.

Yeah.

So special sauces, green refuses to pass the ball, LOL, like, damn, dude, even they

fucking know, leave him alone, DJ automatic, the sun's DJ might need to retire.

I was thinking about him during the game because you remember the thing with Steve Kerr and

all that.

And they're just so loud, even on the TV, you can just hear it.

It is like a, just a club up there.

This game I went to was against the Celtics and at around the end of the game, because the

suns were getting boned, there was a ton of Celtics fans and they started, let's go Celtics.

And so they turned it up even more.

It's already had a fucking 10.

They went to 11.

It was so loud.

I tweeted out like, dude, stop, like, I get you're trying to drown out the opposing team

from saying that, but like blowing out my fucking eardrums is not the right answer.

You know, the throwback they had with NBC, it was beautiful.

I wish they would just throw back with the old, like, just have a piano in front of some

old lady, you know, and just do that and just see how that goes, because I might enjoy

that more than the disco music called All Game Long.

Yeah, it's just, we're old, man.

No grace in Allen threes just yet.

I still have PSD from last time, Phoenix.

There's always one guy on the suns who will step up to torch us.

Allen, Gillespie, Mark Williams, have already done it this year.

So it's probably Jaling Green's turn to drop 39 on us almost.

If he had the shot of TMC would have, let's see, are we not tired of losing to the

suns?

Where is she?

Really thought we had a chance, man.

Suns were asked against the bulls yesterday and even lost to the G league warriors.

All the bulls had to do was have more energy and run against them.

That is correct.

That's it.

Yeah.

The most blatant tank job I've ever seen, and then somebody says, casual says what?

And somebody said, ah, yes, tanking when we don't have a pick, you're a genius.

That's the rest they got.

The suns jam session, subreddit stakeout.

It's, sir, well, what else you have?

Anything?

Oh, nothing else from the game?

No, I'm getting that.

You?

You have things other than the game you want to talk about?

No, I did not.

We're talking about water.

I'm going to get water.

I'm going to get water.

Oh, yeah.

Is he, is she passed out now?

No, she has these spells, man.

She came running in from outside.

She's so excited.

She gets so excited.

She's like, and she passes out, she passes out and shits herself.

Oh, my God.

17-year-old Lany man.

That's what she does.

She's my jam star.

Jam star of the game.

Right.

Subscribe, rate, review.

Do all that fun stuff.

Matthew.

Who's your jam star of the game?

We're going to go book her.

I think.

First time this year.

Pass me.

Pass me.

You'd find it at all.

He's a, he's the leading, hey, vote Getter on the bright side, Baller, which is the jam

star of the game on Bright Side Sun?

He is 13.

Who do you think said number two?

Is it Marg Williams?

Nope.

Ah.

Ah.

It has to be a Col vérité

.

It's congal recovery.

Yes.

Yes, we has $10 jam star or a bright side ballers, so all right.

Up next for the Phoenix Suns.

Man.

Uh, lost tonight, lost to the

minor heat. There's their streak has been snapped.

But they won six in a row before that, man.

They are like one of the best teams in the NBA since January 1st.

What are you looking for in this game, man?

Well, I was actually watching the game before the suns and, you know,

the end of the game is usually pretty crisp, but they were having a hard time

just kind of finding who they want to go to, um, you know,

I think the whole thing with the mellow is him being maybe the main guy

and they're forcing the ball to kind of make the decisions that's in the game

did not really work out.

Obviously, this team is the hottest team right now.

And I actually put a poll out there to say I was asking because I feel like

the suns are like the hornets of the West, right?

Those two teams we were. Yeah, we were there for a while.

Maybe we could get back there. Um, but who's going to go further in the playoffs?

And I think this team right now in Charlotte, even though this game,

they didn't end too well because here was going off.

He was hitting every three that was given to him.

I do think that they have a chance to go to the second round.

They're that talented.

They're that good right now.

They're that streaky. Um, so I'm really scared of this game.

I think them losing tonight having to come back.

I heard that the locker room in Charlotte was really positive after that game,

trying to figure out like what they did wrong and what they should have done.

That's scary because I've been that positive after a loss,

knowing that you're going to Phoenix and we have the injuries.

I think it's going to be almost a blowout.

I'm scared. I'm, I love the hornets right now to watch them,

but I'm scared about them. Yeah, everybody does.

Yeah, I think that this is one where it follows the same story board

that every game for the sun's follows right now.

You hit a ton of threes.

You have a chance, you know, and if the suns go, go cold, they're going to have

challenges. Since January 1st, the team is the, the fifth best defensive rating.

They've like the top net rating.

I mean, this seems better than OKC since the fucking, yeah, and it's the hornets.

And it's great to see, man, because I love Brandon Miller.

I love Conniple, Lamella Ball.

I know you're more of a fan of than I am, but just to see it all kind of come together for them.

Diabate is a son of a bitch on the boards.

You know, he's, man, that's, he's, he's nuts, man.

So I mean, it's going to be definitely one of those situations where

the sun's going to be faced with a team that's going to bring energy and efficiency at the same time.

Can they match it? We will see what's going to be rough.

But you know what, it's going to be good.

Are you going to go to the game?

Because that's going to be a foam wonder visit.

It's, it's a Sunday.

OK, I don't like to go on Sundays.

Yeah, it's depressing game Sunday.

That's the most depressing thing.

Well, it is because then it's like, OK, now I got to go to work in the morning.

Like, yeah, yeah.

Well, shout out to John Humble, 199 again.

That's, that's $4 and two days, man.

Thank you.

He said, green will only continue to get, continue to get better patients.

I agree with you, John Humble, because you set the bar so fucking low.

It's not hard to get better from here.

That is correct.

So when you're shooting like 15% from beyond the arc over the last nine games,

yes, I agree.

Man, it's the only one way to go from here.

Yeah, it is tough.

And you know, I hope there's not too much hate on us for hating on him.

I just, I think that we just got to see something.

I don't think that it's hate, though.

Again, I think that it's, it's, it's, it's grounded.

Again, I stated it earlier.

I'm probably a little bit more bice than I should be at this point.

But I'm very observational of what and who he could be.

And we should be in that situation because of the fact that this guy is going

to make 72 million over the next two years.

Is that how we want to spend Booker turning 30 and 31 is a guy who's highly

inefficient next to him, who's just chucking up shots.

Whereas like, Booker's trying to navigate the offense.

And you got him just like chucking up bullshit.

That's something to be fucking just cognizant of who can believe in the town.

It's like I wrote my article, man.

You, you look at his intangibles.

He has all the intangibles.

The intangibles are, you know, good personality, good locker room guy,

athleticism, upside, check, check, chickity, chickity, check.

But then you look at deliverables, shot, three point shot, efficiency, passing the

ball, defensive acumen, basketball like you.

He's not checking any of those boxes.

That's something to be cognizant of.

Yeah, it's, it's the IQ and the fitting in.

It's kind of like, I just feel like you know, when you go to like, you, I don't know,

I moved to different schools here and there, but when you go midway through the

year and you're just somewhere else and there's already those clicks and stuff,

you try to kind of fit yourself in like he's just fitting in right now.

I know he made his shots tonight, but it just not making sense to me right now.

Watch the game.

Do it again on Sunday.

Get me off your bed.

I'm green.

All right.

On that note, Jamsters, we appreciate you hanging out with us.

We'll see you Sunday night when the sun's played those Charlotte Hornets.

A team that carries the same color purple is the Phoenix suns.

Until then, Matthew, go feed your baby and tell them what to do.

Yeah.

Go home and love your babies and feed them.

Oh, I didn't click.

Hey, you're listening to the sun's jam session podcast shooting the shit about the sun

since 2019.

Fan duel is dropping bonus bets into everyone's account for the tournament.

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