Suns Podcast: Deandre Ayton maximizing his role & ‘Made For Love’

In Episode 23 of the Valley of the Suns Podcast, Deandre Ayton maximizes his role, the Suns’ playoff inexperience compares to a few NBA Finals teams and HBO Max’s “Made For Love” wraps up Season 1.

Welcome, Valley Boyz and Girlz, to another episode of the Valley of the Suns Podcast!

In Episode 23, host Gerald Bourguet joins head coach Monty Williams in gushing over Deandre Ayton’s play over the last few weeks. Our latest Quote of the Week handles Monty’s side, before Bourguet dives into what is making Ayton so effective on both ends of the floor right now.

The big fella is maximizing his role in unselfish ways, but before anyone goes assuming that’s a bad thing (or that this proves he needs more touches), it’s worth considering how DA is doing the little things to make all the difference.

After that, the one elephant in the room for the Phoenix Suns’ title hopes is their lack of playoff experience, since four of the team’s best six players — Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton, Mikal Bridges and Cameron Johnson — have never played in a postseason game before. But will this really be the Suns’ Achilles heel come playoff time?

In order to answer that question, Bourguet takes a look at a few similarly inexperienced teams that made runs to the NBA Finals to see how they compared to Phoenix and how they fared during their postseason runs.

Finally, for our latest G-Rated segment, the episode dives into the recently completed Season 1 of HBO Max’s off-brand comedy, Made For Love. Based on a 2017 novel of the same name, this show starring Cristin Milioti, Ray Romano and Billy Magnussen is a quick binge that’s worth your time for its dark humor, fascinating premise and bittersweet twist.

Suns fans can check out the podcast or the YouTube video below

Here’s the breakdown for Episode 23:

• Deandre Ayton’s latest dominant performance (2:50)
• Quote of the Week: Monty Williams on Ayton (4:30)
• How Deandre Ayton is maximizing his role (6:30)
• Will the Suns’ lack of playoff experience matter? (18:35)
• G-Rated: Made For Love (31:10)

As always, thanks to everyone for listening! Please make sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and write us a five-star review if you haven’t yet! If you’d prefer to watch this episode, be sure to check out our YouTube channel for the premiere at 12 p.m. ET as well.