If you missed this week’s Valley of the Suns Live! have no fear! We have the replay here! The show streams weekly on Monday evening’s at 6pm AZ on Twitter, Periscope, and YouTube! Join in on the conversation!
For Phoenix Suns fans, Media Day in the NBA is sort of the unofficial start to the season.
Yes, it happens before Training Camp.
Yes, it happens before the Preseason.
Yes it happens before the Regular Season begins.
But it is the first time that fans get to see their favorite team in uniform – for the rookies and recently acquired, see them in their new threads for the first time – and is the first opportunity to hear one-on-one interviews about roster construction, how players have been developing over the offseason, what the team’s expectations are, what future moves might be in stock to continue to keep the roster growing, and so on.
In many ways (especially for a franchise that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2010), it’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!
To coincide with the event, we had our weekly Valley of the Suns Live! episode, and got to discuss all of the important information released in the day.
Most importantly: Devin Booker‘s health.
It seems that the Phoenix Suns believe that he might actually be ready for opening night!
Of course, nobody wants to rush him, but the fact that Booker might be ahead of schedule in his recover from right hand surgery is tremendous news.
The more Booker is on the court, the better the Phoenix Suns have a chance of winning games, and now that General Manager Ryan McDonough has stated that the three-season (let’s call it what it was) tank-fest is officially over, we just want to see the Suns back in the win column once again.
It was also noted that both second-year small forward Josh Jackson and fifth-year veteran T.J. Warren have been working on their 3-point shooting this offseason.
The two of those young players improving on their outside shooting would be absolutely huge for the offense.
Last season Warren shot an absolutely abysmal 22% from beyond the arc while Jackson shot a not-much-better 26%.
There is a chance that the Suns run with Devin Booker at point guard (which the discussion of was another bit of big news – although fairly expected knowing that they really do not have a definitive starting point guard on the roster), so having a starting lineup of Booker, Jackson, Warren, Trevor Ariza, and Deandre Ayton, is not only a talented defensive unit (especially between Ariza, Jackson, and Ayton), but if they are all shooting well above 30% from 3 (which “well above” might be too much to ask for Warren and Jackson, but we’ll see), the starting unit should easily be expected to stay in games, never really getting blown out.
Don’t forget to join the show next Monday evening (October 1), as Valley of the Suns Live! will stream at it’s regularly scheduled time of 6pm and take you up to tip-off!