Suns Season On the Brink After Being Outclassed Again By Timberwolves

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It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Hi, I'm Jake from Locked on.

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On today's episode of Locked-on Suns, the Phoenix Suns ORG season is just about over. After a game three loss on Friday night to the Minnesota Timberwolves, it can seem complicated with all the scheme and adjustment talk we do during the playoffs. But let's talk about why in this series, it's actually pretty simple why the Sons ORG have gotten known so far.

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You are Locked On Suns, your daily Phoenix Suns podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.

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We are back. This is Locked on Phoenix Suns. We are part of the Locked On Podcast Network ORG. I'm your host, Brendan Clean, a credentialed media member covering the Suns for the past seven seasons, a writer at Suns.com, and the host of the Just Basketball show, wherever you get your podcast. Thank you for making Locked on Sons, your first listen. Happy Saturday. It is a weekend, even though it is not a happy occasion to be meeting with you hereif you're finding the show, but we are free and available everywhere, including YouTube ORG, so just hit that follow or subscribe button. Wherever you're getting us, get a new episode in your feed all throughout the postseason and into the off season and beyond. Today episode guys is brought to you by nissan we'll talk about them later on in the show are you the kind of the driver that likes to push things a little bit further we'll take the nissan rogue pathfinder or armada go find your next big adventure check them all outtoday at niss Nissan ORG usa.com. 126109 was the final score look there's not a lot of game playing stuff to really focus on here so we'll talk about why the sun's lost this game and then we'll talk about why this series has been so lopsided before we get into some finer details to close out the show. But why the Sun ORG's lost this game? I mean, in specifics, it was another third quarter run, right?12 to 2 run in about two minutes time from about 8.5 to about 6.5 minutes in that third quarter. All of it came on threes, four three-pointers in a row by the wolves, Conley, Towns PERSON, and then two from Alexander Walker, one, a pull-up, one, a catch-and-shoot corner three, and the suns only put up two points in that time. That put the lead at 75 to 60, never really got close again, ended the third quarter up 22.Minnesota goes on to win by 17. More maybe broadly over the course of this game, Minnesota continued to solve Phoenix ORG's defense. You know, I think the most descriptive thing that was said postgame was from Beal PERSON, which was that they spent the first two games, you know, the first, let's say, week of this series, basically,feeling decent about where their defense was, holding Minnesota ORG to low point totals, and feeling like, hey, if we can get our offense running, then this is a series. And for the second time in three games, that didn't really pan out. And Minnesota scores 126 in a road game, you know, and in a situation where you would typically think, hey, role players are going to be the home team's role players are going to be better.Road teams role players are going to be worse. Well, Nas Reid PERSON had his best game of the series offensively. To Kill Alexander Walker kept it up, 16 points, five assists, so they combined for 29. And obviously, Grayson Allen being out doesn't help the Sun ORG's role player situation. And Eric Gordon had a decent first half, but the Suns only get 19 points, sorry. I guess they get 30 points off the bench,but eight of that came from Akogi PERSON, who didn't play until the very end. And it wasn't enough. The wolves, and in particular, Aunt Edwards PERSON, have just solved every single thing that the Suns ORG defensively have thrown at them, right?We don't even have to go backward in time. Just take this game. Minnesota, sorry, the Phoenix ORG tried a variety of things against Edwards in the first quarter alone. We saw them basically blitz him in the pick and roll where the guy defending the screener and the guy defending himpush him out toward the half court line, force the ball out of his hands. We saw straight up switches, make him beat you one-on-one. We saw switch in doubles where the first ball screen that Aunt got, the Sons ORG would switch that, and then they would send a double team from somebody nearby, basically again, kind of taking some time off theclock, forcing the ball out of his hands, forcing him to make the right decision. And at the end of the day, decently high turnover game for him, but 36 points, 50 plus percent shooting, and five assists, even though he did have the five turnovers plus 19 in 43 minutes as a result of them then needing toplay a little bit more aggressively against Edwards PERSON as we saw often in game two especially where they're putting two to the ball almost every single time and going out of their way to send more bodies toward Edwards PERSON. Conley PERSON's been able to step up routinely.To kill Alexander Walker PERSON has been able to step up routinely. Both of those guys in basically secondary ball handling roles, and today they combine for 31 and 12 with only four turnovers. On 7 of 17 shooting from deep, just those two alone. You sprinkle in, Carl Anthony Towns taking advantage of his matchup against Royce O'Neill. I thought the Sun ORG's actually held up a little bit better defensively early in this game than they had been lately, but they still go down.I think it was 17 to 8, 17 to 9. Durant PERSON has a couple of rim protection plays. Nurkich has one on a pick and roll, and it doesn't really matter. The wolves solve it. They get towns going downhill against O'Neill. They use towns as a shooter and as a passer a little bit.He makes three-threes, has two assists, and this game gets out of hand in that third quarter. The Suns... this game gets out of hand in that third quarter. The Sons offensively have never given themselves a chance in this series,but as I've said multiple times throughout the week here, the reason that it's been so ugly and so lopsided is because their defense has not even been able to limit a team that ranked middle of the pack on the offensive end over the course of the season. Had two all-stars, all-NBA, probably second team, Anthony Edwards, and was still 16th in the regular season in offense. The Sun's inability to quiet that group that was pretty mediocre in the regular season down as a defensive unit in this series is why you've seen blowout after blowout after blowout.Yet, Minnesota ORG continues to win. blowout after blowout, after blowout. Yet, Minnesota ORG continues to win on the margins as well. The rebound battle, the three-point battle, a lot of the little things are going the wolves way as well. So let's zoom out and talk about why the series is the way that it is and why the way that the sun's imagined it going has justnot come to fruition. Coming up next. First, today's show brought to you by Nissan ORG. That's right. Are you the kind of driver that likes to push things a little further? Have you ever wondered what adventure could bearound the next corner? Will our friends at Nissan have a lineup of SUVs with the capability to take your adventure to the next level?Starting with the 2024 Nissan Rogue PRODUCT, perfect for city drives and great escapes with classic exclusive Google ORG built in.You're always updating assistant to call on for almost anything. Gone to the days of connecting your phone. Google Assistant, Google Maps PRODUCT, and Google Play Store are built right into the 12.3-inch HD touchscreen infotainment system,all combining to make the 24 Rogue PRODUCT the perfect mid-sized crossover for your next adventure. In addition, the 2024 Pathfinder PRODUCT, Nissan Pathfinder, has room up to eight, expansive cargo capacity cargo capacity, advanced available 4x4-capability, and 284 horsepower with up to 6,000 pounds towing. When Adventure calls the Pathfinder PRODUCT, is there to answer. Take the Nissan ORG Rogue Nissan Pathfinder or Nissan Armadaand go find your next big adventure. Shop, Nissan ORG, USA.com. Today's show, guys, also brought to you by BetterHelp ORG. Unfortunately, good timing here. Sometimes we all have things that we need to get off of our chest. Sometimes it just helps to have a separate person outside your life who you can confide in,who you can get things that are heavy and heated out of your head, digest them, process them a little bit better. And I'm going to tell you today about something that I'm feeling this week about the Phoenix Suns ORG, which is the annual spring disappointment. You know, embarrassment and let down, right? It's just a team we all care about. We all follow all season long, and for three years now,it has ended in disappointing fashion on a home court with a lackluster effort, and that sucks. But look, therapy can be different for everybody. Most of us have bigger problems than our favorite sports teams, and it's important to get things off your chest every once in a while. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp ORG a try entirely online, flexible and suited to your schedule.Visit BetterHelp.com slash Lockdown NBA to get 10% off your first month and try it out yourself. That's BetterHelp, H-p.com slash locked on NBA ORG. Keeping the show rolling. Okay, so game three here, another third quarter run, Anthony Edwards solving coverages, other guys stepping up, towns filling in the gaps.But here's the deal, right? So Minnesota gets 15 offensive rebounds tonight. They also, in the competitive part of the game, right, take out the Josh Akogi 3, take out a couple from Beal PERSON. For most of this game, Minnesota was far and away in the driver's seat in terms of three-point effectiveness. They actually did turn the ball over more than the Suns ORG in this game,although I would say that in a couple spots the Suns ORG still did have some inopportune turnovers. Free throws, the Suns ORG have actually been pretty solid in in this game, especially from that first quarter where they were 14 of 15. It's kind of worked out. The Sons also started this game, 0 of 5 in the paint. Ended up 15 of 22 at the rim, which is one of their better games this series,but they were 6 of 18 from floater range, that short mid-range area. So their inability to finish inside to get the ball into the basket in the paint has been a consistent problem as well. The reason I list off all of these smaller parts of the game that the sons have been on the wrong side of is to point out something, I guess you could say it's the worst part, I don't know. The Sons ORG have not given themselves a chance in this series to play a close game.Part of that is the third quarter letdowns every single game, the mental mistakes, the lack of fight, you know. In theory, you know, there could have been a fourth quarter run after Minnesota's third quarter run in some of these games. But that hasn't happened. So, yeah, you know, some of it is big picture. But in these granular ways where Minnesota ORG is able to continue to keep owning thesegames, the glass, three-point margin, turnovers, the sons have not even given themselves a chance to have crunch time, to outdule this team that they're supposed to have more shot-making weapons than, right? They haven't even had that chance to show it. That was the idea with this son's team, right? This series is unraveling a lot of things that we thought here.As I said, countless times during the course of the regular season. The way this roster was set up, right? The point was, find ways to put as much, find ways to put as much size on the court as you can, which was always going to be a little bit of a struggle, right? Execute on defense with a coach who can scheme that up for you and then outscore every opponent you come across, have an answer for every defense that you face.And if you get into close game situations, especially in the playoffs, ride your all-NBA caliber, guys who routinely over their careers of average 25 plus per game, and win. A lot of that's falling apart, right? Because, well, I think the pretense of being able to put enough size on the court and facing a matchup that I think we underestimated the physicality, the forcefulness of in Minnesota ORG is making that part hard.The defensive scheming may be obvious, you know, there's obviously strategy going on there, but the players aren't able to execute it, largely because they're just not capable. You know, Yusuf Nurichirch PERSON having to be in this mode where he's out stretched out onto the perimeter against Anthony Edwards is unreasonable. It's not working.You know, these guys who are having to contain closeouts, we can criticize their positioning, their stance, their effort, and that's all valid. But, you know, I would bet you nine times out of ten, Jaden McDaniels PERSON is going to be able to get downhill against Evan Booker if there's a lot of space there and he's playing well and he's confident.It's not a huge surprise. And their offense has come up against a team and a scheme and an intensity level that is not even allowing it to get off the ground. So everything's sort of, it's a bunch of unchecked boxes there. That checklist is not, notapplicable to this series. And I think obviously bigger than all of that, or I guess maybe a result of all of that, is the Sons ORG don't have the best players on the court right now. Maybe it's just because they're not clicking together as well as the wolves are. Maybe it's because, in the case of somebody liked to rant, potentially they ran out of gas. I mean, there's obviously always reasons and explanations and excuses. But Anthony Edwards has been the best player on the court in this series.I think you would say Rudy Gober has been second. Maybe then you make a case for a son's player. I would probably put Mike Connolly PERSON there, if I'm being honest. Jade McDaniels was pretty quiet on the offensive end tonight after a big game too, but he's been pretty damn impactful on the defensive end. Towns PERSON has had pockets.He's probably not on that list. Kiel Alexander Walker PERSON has been pretty consistently good on both ends of the court. The Sons ORG haven't had anybody you could say that about. So they don't even have the star power against a team that is less experienced than they are in terms of age and playoff games played and any of that. And I just think at the end of the day, you're seeing like Minnesota won 56 games.The Suns 149, you know? And the wolves have weaknesses. I even think we've seen them get exploited, right? In the second quarters of games two and three, there were lulls where Minnesota ORG was not scoring, sons haven't been able to take advantage of it.Sometimes these teams, we get tied in a pretzel, evaluating and analyzing the matchups and the game to game. Largely, teams are who they are. Their strengths are their strengths. Their weaknesses are their weaknesses. A lot of the time, how they got there in the regular season,it's still going to work in the playoffs. That's that. The sons are in this position because their plan was faulty. Not the point guard thing. I truly don't believe that. Not the way they built the roster.You know, you're talking about instead of Bradley Beale, you want a mid-level exception. The best guy that signed a mid-level last year, probably Dante DiVincenzo PERSON. Now he probably was going to the Knicks ORG anyway, but let's say the sons get him.They cut Chris Paul PERSON, they have dead money. They stretch him, do whatever. No Bradley Bealtrade PERSON. Dante Devencenzzo PERSON is all you're getting back. Dante Devencenzzo, and I guess you keep Landry Shamit PERSON, maybe you flip him for something not very good.You have your picks. Those probably weren't going to help you tonight. the picks perform for minnesota doesn't have their picks doesn't seem to you know it's not it's not a valid part of how game three EVENT went it's not a valid part of how this series has gone so you know if if you think somebody like dante de vincenzo and landry shamit are changing the fate of this series i'll'll hear your argument. I don't think that would have been the case. So the plan didn't work in terms of they're running up against a machine that is just better than their machine.And is able to stifle what was supposed to be the sun's strengths. Closing out the show, let's talk about the reaction, the mood, the temperament. Coming off of this one, what was good about it, what was bad about it, as we near the end of the season, and some difficult decisions. We'll get into all of that briefly coming up next. First, today's show brought to you by LinkedIn ORG Jobs. One of my favorite sponsors is I'm a direct beneficiary of LinkedIn. When you're hiring for your small business, you want to find qualityprofessionals that are right for your role, which is why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs ORG, which has the tools to find the right professionals for your team faster and for free. LinkedIn Jobs ORG is not just a job board. It helps you hire professionals you cannot find anywhere else, even people who might not be actively searching for a new job. In a given month, over 70% of LinkedIn ORG users don't even visit other leading job sites. They're all there just for you. That would be me. I was not, I'm not familiar with a bunch of other places to look for jobs in my particular industry in this sports media world. A lot of it happens on LinkedIn or even on Twitter ORG or just kind of through networking. So I'm,I'm tending to spend my time there. I was able to find a posting I didn't know was even going to be there. Link up with the hiring manager, get an interview set up. I knew I was qualified. They knew I was qualified. I was liking all of the benefits and salary situation that was there, and it worked out. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com slash locked on NBA ORG.Become one of the 2.5 million small businesses using LinkedIn for hiring. That's LinkedIn.com slash locked on NBA ORG to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Hi, I'm Jake from Lockdown WORK_OF_ART.

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Speaker 01509.98s - 2029.68s

Okay, so we have a lot of time to get into the right and wrong of the season and a macro level and blame and who's going to take that blame in the form of losing their job or getting, you know, traded or whatever. Role change, all that. We're going to talk about it. Look, I'm going to keep doing this podcast for you guys every day until after Summer League EVENT. So we got time. I'm not going to go too deep on that.What I will go deep on is tonight, right? So, again, I thought the Sun ORG's defensive intensity early in this game was decent. They started 05 in the paint. Maybe you could talk about that being a mindset problem as well. I think there's some validity to that in terms of how worried they have been. If you maybe want to use the word scared, I wouldn't blame you, of Rudy Gobert PERSON. He's in their head a little bit with some of those shots, but look, I'm notgoing to say the suns came out flat or didn't care or didn't do any of that. I think they did. But because of all those little things I mentioned, they end up down 17 to, I think it was 8, 17 to 8. And then I believe somebody split a pair of free throws to make it 17 to 9. And they're right back in the hole they were in from the beginning. Now they have a little bit of resilience,get to the free throw line, get the wolves in the bonus, end up scoring 32 points in the quarter. They hold a lead most of the second quarter, and then Minnesota goes on a run to close out the first half, like 8-0-60 type of run. But it felt kind of big in that moment, right? Because, again, as I mentioned in that last segment,there have been these spaces where the wolves go into an offensive lull. You know, they had two huge quarters in this game, but the middle two quarters, well, they had three huge quarters, I guess, but the second quarter, they scored 25 points. That's an opportunity, right? The Sons had scored 32 again in the second like they did in the first, they would have gone into halftime up five.Instead, they'd go into halftime down six. And you know the third quarter has been an issue. You know the wolves have kind of won the long game. And that happened again. So is that a mindset problem? Is that a mentality problem?Is that an execution problem? I mean, it's all of the above. Obviously, you don't get smacked in the face three straight times in a playoff series that you were kind of favored in for just one tiny little reason. It's all of it. But I think where I come down at the end of the day here is these guys don't hate each other. Is there a lack of maybe an in-your-face raw-rah type of leadership?And that usually comes in multiple forms, multiple people on a team, right? There's maybe like the vet. I think Eric Gordon PERSON has been that at times for this group. Not consistently. He's probably not impactful enough to have that respect. Hasn't been around these guys long enough to have that respect.So it hasn't been consistent. There's sometimes kind of the FU ORG guy on a team, right? In this team, it's probably Nerkich PERSON. But again, you know, when he is, when he has weaknesses as a player, how much can he really be that? And then I think there has to be some kind of star setting the tone there. So yeah, that's a problem. Is there a little bit, I think, under the surface here,some disagreement on how this team should be playing? Yeah, I think that's become pretty obvious. If you listen and read what these guys have been saying, guys being the players as well as Vogel PERSON, right? You know, you hear somebody like Durant PERSON kind of expressing frustration about how thin the defense that they're playing is getting stretchedbecause they're sending so much attention toward Anthony Edwards off screens versus the coaching staff putting together that game plan offensively, you know, I think the disagreement over kind of mismatch hunting versus playing faster has come to the surface. There was a quote going around that Sam Cooper from the Timeline ORG podcast tweeted from Kevin Young's introductory press conference at BYU ORG where he said his preferred method of offense is sort of a spread-it-out, you know, move the ball, get up a lot of threes type of offensive approach,and this team's not playing that way. And he said, you know, Durant and Booker PERSON, they are guys that thrive in the mid-range, so that's how we've played. But my philosophy is X, Y, and Z in a more, you know, Boston Celtics ORG type of approach.So all those things are there, right? The leadership probably not consistent enough. Chemistry's not quite there. Booker PERSON has talked about falling kind of, not falling apart in like that extreme sense of the word, but falling apart in the more literal way, literally, falling away from one anotherrather than coming together when there's difficult moments. That's there. Different opinions about the best way to execute and approach this series or just how to win with this roster. That's there. But I don't think this is some kind of mega collapse.It feels kind of like the on-court stuff that I was just talking about. It's just everything that was there. It's just everything that's been staring us in the face. Teams are who they are. You know, there's not a guy in there when the going gets tough in the middle of those. Vogel PERSON called timeout after timeout.The dude went into the fourth quarter with two timeouts. Okay, he emptied the holster. They played different guys out there in this game. Part of that because Alan PERSON was out. They tried different schemes. Would it help to have somebody in that moment who has the respect and has earned it fromthe other players on the team? Yeah, that would help. Would it help to have had more chemistry and not have to be deciding on the fly the best way to play, but have kind of learned the best way to play over trial and error and successes and failures over time, yes, that would be helpful. All of it would and could be better in a different world. Maybe somebody's job's going to get lost anyway.The talent is still there that none of that is an excuse. These guys are vets. They knew what the deal was. And it hasn't been good enough. But I actually don't think it's some travesty, blow it up, embarrassment, whatever. I think this thing was put together hastily.Maybe it didn't make the most sense in the world, and there were significant limitations to what the roster ended up looking like all along. They've run up against a better team, a more mentally tough and physically tough team, a team that's played together longer, a team that has a better game plan that's working for its personnel,and that's how you lose. NBA ORG playoffs. Not always that complicated. That'll wrap us up. One more episode coming this week. Well, Sunday evening into Monday morning for you, I guess, kicking off next week.So hit follow or subscribe to get that show in your feed on Sunday night. And many more throughout what should be a pretty interesting next couple of months for the Phoenix Suns ORG. They always keep it interesting, don't they? Yes. All right. That'll wrap it up. Talk to you guys Sunday. Enjoy the Phoenix Suns ORG. They always keep it interesting, don't they? Yes, all right. That'll wrap it up.Talk to you guys Sunday. Enjoy the weekend. Goodbye.

Speaker 12031.98s - 2061.04s

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Speaker 22061.4s - 2092.32s

Today's Lockdown podcast is brought to our friends over there at Nissan ORG. Are you the kind of driver that likes to push things a little further? Ever wonder what adventure could be around the next corner? Nissan's SUVs PRODUCT have the capabilities to take your adventure to the next level. The 2024 Nissan Rogue alone carries class exclusive Google ORG built-in technology that's perfect for city drives or great escapes.Take the Nissan Rogue, Nissan Pathfinder, or Nissan Armada PRODUCT, and go find your next big adventure. Shop Nissan.usa.com. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp ORG. Around New

Speaker 32092.32s - 2119.06s

years, we get obsessed with how to change ourselves instead of just expanding on what we're already doing right. Therapy helps you find your strength so you can ditch the extreme resolutions and make changes that will really stick. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give better help a try. It's entirely online, designed to thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp ORG a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Celebrate the progress you've already made.Visit BetterHelp.com slash Locked on NBA today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com slash Locked on NBA.