Tim Legler: Phoenix Suns Are The Best Team In West Play-in

0:00the NBA playoffs are right around the corner. Let's talk about how the Phoenix Suns might fit into the picture, joining us is Tim Legler. Tim, I know that the Suns right now have not been winning a ton of games. We'll talk about that specifically in a second, but I would like to know from your perspective, if the Suns were able to get Dylan Brooks and Mark Williams back to fit the starting lineup, they've been missing for a long time. Are they legitimate threats when it comes to the play-in slash playoffs? It's certainly to win the play-in, yeah, definitely. I think that actually, when you look at those teams, I mean, I think Phoenix probably has, if they get everybody back, I think they probably got the best case to say, they're going to be in a best of seven series when you look at those play-in teams. But to do damage in the Western Conference playoffs, I mean, you gotta be realistic about it. And I think every team's gonna define success in a different way. So success for the Suns, get into, win out of the play-in,

1:00because that's where they're gonna be, and I don't see much changing, right? They're not gonna catch Houston, and I don't see them falling back to the Clippers. They're gonna be the seven, seven-th place team, which means they're gonna get two cracks to get into a best of seven series against either the number one seed or the number two seed. You know, let's just say best case scenario. They win that seven-eight. They're the seven seed, and they're gonna play the San Antonio Spurs in a best of seven. You gotta be realistic and honest about what to find success in that case. They get run out in four straight. You know, they lose five, and three of those aren't really close in the fourth quarter. You're not gonna feel as good going into the summer without question, like, you're gonna really wonder, like, well, how close are we really? But if you give the San Antonio Spurs, you know, a hell of a series. You know, that's a six or seven game series with a lot of close games in the fourth quarter, and you felt like you were really in the series, but ultimately you lose to a team that's a two seed for a reason that's got this, you know, generational, you know, massive difference-making player in Wemba Nyam,

2:01and you lose to that team. Yeah, in a close series, I think you gotta feel pretty good overall about your prospects, and I think that is the reality most likely facing the suns. They get in as a seven, and then they lose a very competitive series, probably to the San Antonio Spurs. And I think that sets the stage going forward because you learned a lot about yourself as an organization this season. I think when you say learning a lot about yourselves, I think about this recent losing streak for the suns because it's been their worst of the season, even worse than the first five games where they started one in four, but a lot of these games minus the blowout against Minnesota on the second night of a back-to-back, and then a pretty unacceptable loss at home to the tanking bucks have been close losses to playoff teams, sometimes game winners from a guy like Wembae or Yokech, which are pretty good players if you haven't heard of them, is there any positive takeaways from playing all these good playoff teams so close, even though at the end of the day on the schedule, there's an L next to the game. Definitely, there's no, yes, you can.

3:02And I'm not a guy that believes in moral victories, but when you're shorthanded, and you're losing guys that have been such a vital part of your story this season that are not out there, it affects you, and it's a domino effect offensively and defensively when you're missing key guys. So to be in games, to have possessions where potentially you can win a game, you'll make a basket, you win, get a stop here, you win. Go back and look at several of these losses during the loser streak, and if you just wanna take a couple of possessions in each game and flip the result on those particular trips, you get wins, and you feel a lot differently. So yes, there's something to be taken from those. For a team like Phoenix Denton, like it had such a negative aura around it over the last few years, just in terms of the product and how people viewed them as an underachiever, they've shed that, and that's the best thing that you can have right now. Then no one looks at them that way anymore. Now you look at this team as you better show up, be ready to play against the Phoenix Suns,

4:04they've got great individual stories of guys that have broken through, and collectively, the way they've played, we view them differently and how we analyze them, and that is a very difficult thing to turn around, particularly in one season, but they did it, and they're setting a stage for the future. Now I'm not saying you, hey, you go into the playoffs and you go, hey, we're just happy to be here, and let's go play the Spurs and take our loss and go into the summer. I'm not saying you do that either. You play every night to win, but you have to be realistic. If you're a seven seed going on the road against a team that some people feel like can make a run to the finals, potentially win a championship this year, and you lose that series competitively, you got to be able to accept that, and overall look at it as a big success what happened this season, and now you go, you tweak the roster, going into next season, and you set the expectations higher. So talking some X's and O's and just kind of getting down into maybe some of the reasons why the sons have lost some of these games recently, the fourth quarter has been a really big problem for them,

5:06and I think the head of the snake, Devon Booker, has had from my opinion as somebody who's watched every single game that he's played, probably some of his poor fourth quarter sense, he's hit his prime over the last seven or eight games. Is there anything from his late game stretches that worries you big picture, is this just kind of a slump for the son's best player? Yeah, I just think it's a situation where they've come together here in a short period of time. There's been some fourth quarters where he could have made a difference, he hasn't been out his best. I'm not worried about Devon Booker. I'm not worried about Devon Booker. If you get into the postseason and you need him to come through in certain similar situations, he's going to be able to do that. He's got a track record of being able to do that. I'm not worried about Devon Booker. It's unfortunate that he wasn't able to, and I do think even for great players, sometimes when you go through situations where these are coming at you kind of fast and furious in a short period of time, and you kind of feel like you're in the same position, it starts to get into your head a little bit. How badly you want it, you start pressing,

6:06and it snowballs against you a little bit. I think Devon Booker is going to snap out of it, he's going to be fine. I'm not looking at him and saying, yeah, I don't see Devon Booker as a closing player anymore. He's not going to be able to get done. Like, I don't see that when I watch the Phoenix Suns when I watch Devon Booker. Their biggest thing is this is a team that has to have all hands on deck. You have to have everybody at your disposal to go and try to really do something of note in the postseason, and they just don't have everybody out there right now, and that affects Devon Booker as well, the spacing's going to be a little bit different. He'd take a Dylan Brooks off the floor with the year he's had, just the responsibility. Dylan Brooks has taken and made a lot of big shots for this team this year at the fourth quarter, like that alone and sharing some of that burden, that helps Devon Booker. So it's a trickle down effect, but I'm not worried in the bigger picture about Devon Booker at all. Do you feel like just from a player's perspective here, like I know that when you talk to players post-game

7:08and we talk about like big picture stuff, how long focus on the next game, right? I'm focused on this, I'm focused on that. Do you feel like there might be some unspoken pressure now with Devon Booker and this team given the quote-unquote expectations they put on themselves at the beginning of the year, and then having a losing streak, players available or not, right now going into the play-in and play-offs and kind of feeling like this is the time that we need to prove ourselves. This is the most important basketball. Is there maybe some sort of like extra pressure that obviously they wouldn't acknowledge, but internally or in a locker room, it might be like, man, that's kind of why we're pressing in these situations. Yeah, I definitely think that that exists. And what happens is it goes from, you transition from, hey, man, this is a really good story, you know, the Phoenix Suns. And you kind of ride that vibe, there's not pressure on you. You're trying to, over the course of the season, basically change the narrative on how you're viewed, but you're not feeling a lot of pressure because there's other teams at the top that have superstar players that are competing to try to win a championship.

8:09And so that's where the pressure lies, that's where the focus lies, the scrutiny. And so you could kind of fly under the radar, but we're past that point. You're at the point now where people, I think view them as a good team. And so now the pressure is a little bit different. Now it's okay, man, we're going to be in these games and these are important games that you need to have. You've got to play well in the fourth quarter. So I definitely think the expectation level has changed for the team throughout the season. With that comes added responsibility, added pressure. And it's a little bit of a different vibe operating in those pressure situations than you had in the beginning of the year when you felt a little bit like house money trying to turn this around. First time head coach, you shed the way your roster looks for the last couple of years. You went in a different direction. There just wasn't as much expectation and the weight of it at the start of the year. That has changed as the year's going on. So yes, the pressure is picked up a little bit. And right now you're coming at the time of year where everything's just magnified. The pressure is greater. In general, the intensity is greater. The physicality is greater. You've got to be able to play through all that

9:10and navigate those situations and be at your best. You're not going to do it every night. So they just want to ride through this right now, get the Cavalry to come back, get a hole and roll your dice against the San Antonio team. By the way, that they've had some good moments against this year. So they have to carry a little bit of confidence into that. And San Antonio Spurs, by the way, this isn't a Tim Duncan Parker Genobley that every year you expect them to title. They haven't won anything collectively either. They haven't won a round in the playoffs. So to get that team, if you end up seven, it does have a little bit of a different feel than playing the defending champions who just won it and know how to navigate all of those situations, including two seven game series last year to do it. This is San Antonio Spurs who are really good team. I love their team, but they haven't done it either. And so if you're to Phoenix Sons, you're going to go into that series and say, hey, man, they're going to feel a lot of pressure here as the favorites to close us out. And so maybe you get a little bit of that house money feeling back in a series like that.

10:12We know that if the Sons are somehow able to upset somebody in the playoffs or go on a somewhat deep playoff run or even just make some noise and end the season on a high note, Jalen Green is going to have to be near the heights of what we've seen Jalen Green be. Now, unfortunately, every time we've talked so far, the season lags, either Jalen Green has them in playing or he's barely at any runway. But this is the first extended period of time we've seen the former RocketSkart play with the Sons. What has been your brutally honest, just point playing takeaway from the good, the bad and everything in between that Jalen Green has been in a Sons uniform? It's about exactly what I expect Jalen Green to be. And that's kind of what he is. And I don't know that that's going to change for Jalen Green over time. And what I mean by that is this, he is at times an electrifying talent. He is an explosive scorer that is going to win you a playoff game. I'm certain of that. There's going to be a night when Jalen Green is the headline coming out of the game in a playoff win in that first round series. I have no doubt about that. But you also have to live with some of the inconsistencies

11:14with the shooting. You have to live with shot selection at times, not necessarily being the best. You've got to live with turnovers being up higher than you want. And then there's going to be, right after that, when he has a quarter with two or three step back threes that you wouldn't love to see in the first six seconds of the clock, a couple turnovers. Then you're going to see in the next quarter, he's going to go for 14 points. And he's going to be unguardable at times when he gets going. So it is what it is. It's a rollercoaster ride with Jalen Green. Ultimately, they needed that talent. Like they wasn't going to be enough to ride into this season with what they had even moving on beyond the Kevin Rand Bradley, Bill Devon Booker, pairing. It wasn't enough. They had to go out and they had to upgrade a guy that can get his own shot. That's good enough, talented enough offensively to be able to beat great defenses because of his talent. They added that, but it is going to be a little bit of a rollercoaster ride. And you just hope that there's more ups and downs when you really need him to be consistent over the course of a series.

12:15Another offensive option for the sons that I'll ask you here, Legs, is we continue to wrap up here on pH and X. Sons, appreciate you joining us. Is about Kong Lesby, who I know that you have a certain affinity for following his career for quite some time now. I'll just put it simply. Is Kong Lesby the most improved player in the NBA? Well, I think there's some great candidates, man. I think they fall into different categories. And this is what is going to be interesting to see how the voters decide. You have guys that kind of went from, are they going to be in the league as a rotational player at all to impact player? And by that, I mean, Guy like Colin Gillespie. Now, he had a different path than a guy like Reed Shepherd, but I think they're similar in that way. Like Reed Shepherd was a really high pick, but coming out of his rookie year, you weren't sure exactly what Reed Shepherd was going to be as an NBA player. I think he's answered it. I think Colin Gillespie went from a guy like, again, is he going to just bounce around and is he ever going to find anything beyond just holding on to an NBA roster and have an impact on an every night rotation

13:17on a good team? He's answered that. So that's one category of player. And there are other guys around the league I could use as examples. There's another category of player. Guys that have already kind of got a little bit of a name in the league for a different reason or another that have completely blown up their game and expanded their game and blown through the ceiling of what you thought they were. I'll give you an example. When they kill Alexander Walker, it would be a great example of that. It's guy average nine points a game in Minnesota, primarily as an on-ball pressure defender. On those nights, he'd give you double digits. Great. That was bonus. He's a 20 point score for Atlanta Hawks. He just had a 10 game stretch. Recently, he's average over 24 points a game or 50% three points a day. I don't think anybody expected that to be Nikhil Alexander Walker's ceiling. So that's another guy that you look at and go, hey, maybe it's a player like that. So it really comes out of how you sort of define it. Colin Gillespie absolutely deserves is deserving of being mentioned in that category and getting votes and he's going to get votes. Ultimately, will he win it? I'm not sure.

14:18I think it's going to be a very close vote. I think there are a number of candidates up and down a league that can make a case. Legs, yes or no, just to get out of here. Are the sons the best team in the play-in? I like the sons better than any other team that's in the play-in. Clippers have the ability some nights. Kyle Leonard is playing at a really high level. That's a different differentiating factor for them. So like at their absolute best, I might take the clippers, but the consistency and the totality of it, I like the Phoenix sons. I like the style of play. I like their balance when they've got everybody out there and I think that they play with the right spirit and the right chemistry every night. I think for me, that's my favorite team of the four play-in teams and I expect them to get out of that seven, eight game. One way or another, either you win, did seven, eight, or you beat the winner of the nine, 10, whatever it is, and they're gonna be in the best of seven.

15:19I'm confident in that with the Phoenix sons. At the end of the day, we're grateful here in Phoenix, that basketball matters. And we're always grateful that you can join us, legs obviously, you can catch legs with that in Mars on the LNBA podcast, you're on the All City. Now we're gonna, of course, turn on your TV, watch some basketball, you're here Tim Legler. Talk about it, we appreciate your legs. Anytime, talk to you soon.