It has been a busy few weeks for the Phoenix Suns. Last night, the team had the 10th overall pick in the NBA Draft, and selected center Khaman Maluach from Duke. They also traded for another center from Charlotte, Mark Williams.
The Suns got that 10th pick as part of a trade with Houston this past weekend, in which they sent Kevin Durant to the Rockets. Durant had widely been expected to be traded this offseason. The Suns also got two other players and draft picks in the deal.
Finally, there’ll be a new head coach on the sidelines this season. Earlier this month, the Suns hired Jordan Ott as their fourth head coach in the past four seasons.
All of this follows a disappointing season for the Suns — they finished 10 games below .500 and missed the playoffs, despite having championship aspirations at the beginning of the season.
Brad Cesmat, CEO of Sports360AZ.com, joined The Show to discuss.
### Full conversation
**MARK BRODIE: So, let's start with the most recent, last night. The Suns picked up a pair of centers. This seems like it was a need for them. They needed, you know, sort of a big man in the middle of the paint.**
**BRAD CESMAT:** Oh, for sure. I, I think you could have made the argument they could have gone a different direction. Carter Bryant, just a first year player at the University of Arizona, was taken a short time later. He's a wingman rather than a big man.
Khaman Maluach, very intriguing player. But this is wait and see, Mark. I know we're gonna get into this. This is, this is all wait and see. The Durant deal is not announced until July 6, so we can talk about Dillon Brooks coming here and Jalen Green coming here. And why they, why they now have three centers on their roster.
We can talk about how LeBron's agent is also representing Maluach, and you have to watch out when that sort of thing happens because LeBron behind the scenes may want somebody to to be involved. And then you have to look at Bradley Beal as the 800 pound elephant in the room, you know, the guy that said, “I control all the cards.” One of the worst quotes in the history of Arizona sports.
I've been here for 30+ years, but when you look into a camera and your team's getting their heads kicked in, and you're gonna miss the playoffs, and you look in the camera and say, “I control all the cards, that's just selfish.” I don't want that guy on my team in any way, shape, or form, and it's gonna be a big buyout if they want to get rid of him.
Point of all this rant is, Mark, this is wait and see. I know in our industry it's easy to do. What's the hot take today? The hot take, the hot take is not the smart take. The hot take is just simply that. It's, it's being in the world's largest sports bar, which is social media.
So everybody's got an opinion even if it's the wrong one. I'm at the side of the street of, let's just see how this plays out. It's June 26, when Mark and Brad are talking again on August 26, I'm pretty sure this is gonna be a different conversation.
**BRODIE: Right. Well, I mean it seems like maybe the question to ask now is like what, what direction are the Suns trying to go in? Because obviously they tried the big three with Booker. Kevin Booker, Kevin Durant, and Bradley Beal, that clearly did not work.**
**They have traded Durant. There's talk of potentially trading Devin Booker, although that seems kind of unlikely at this point. As you reference, you know, do the Sun, what do the Suns do with Bradley Beal, who has a no-trade clause?**
**Do they go full rebuild? Do they try to sort of reload and win now in sort of in a different, with a different conglomeration of players? Like what direction do you think is the right one for the Suns at this moment?**
**CESMAT:** Currently not the one that Mat Ishbia has taken, right, since he took over the organization. Like, I'll look at Oklahoma City, they just won a championship and Sam Presti, their general manager, he had a big three at one point in time, Westbrook, Harden, Durant. They won. They moved on, they broke them up.
That's how it works in the NBA. You have to know when to break up a team. Jerry Colangelo was the best at it with the Suns when they were in their heyday, when everybody in the valley and across the state was into the Suns.
I think one of the big issues the Suns have right now is who are these guys? You know, they don't know who these players are. What they hear is Bradley Beal's contract, or Kevin Durant is out doing shoes or whatever. Fans want to see victories. Fans wanna embrace, like, I think the fans, Mark, are really gonna embrace Maluach.
I don't know if you saw his interviews last night, but he was flat out bawling about being …
**BRODIE: Very emotional when he got picked.**
**CESMAT:** Right. And he's a refugee of Uganda, went to the NBA Academy. He's walking down the street one day and a taxi cab driver says, “Hey young man,” he was 16. “You need to get into Luol Deng's basketball camp with the NBA.” Luol played in the NBA. Had a cup of coffee with the sons, if I remember correctly, and, that's how it all started for him.
So this is just a baby. He's not played basketball for, you know, very long, but he's 7'2, can't teach size, right. His frame, he's only about 245. You turn him side. Sideways, have him get a glass of tomato juice, he's a thermometer. So, you know, he's, he's one of those players you look at, I think the fans will say he's not even 20. Let's embrace this young man. Let's see.
Clearly they can't have three centers on their roster. I mean, I say that, but I don't know what this owner. This owner is ready, fire, aim. That's what he is. Ready, fire, aim.
We want Kevin Durant. We're gonna get rid of Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, even though we're right on the cusp. We're right on the cusp, but let's just, we gotta sell tickets. We gotta get excited. We gotta get, and all fans want to see is, you know, let, let's go from Jordan not to Coach Budd, to Vogel, to Monty Williams, you know.
When you have an organization that is stable, you're not turning over your people, or your people don't wanna leave, or when I go to the arena and I have people that say, you know, this isn't what it once was, well, then you should leave. The culture matters.
You can talk all you want about being an NBA owner. I've seen plenty of sports owners, Mark. Unfortunately for me, I started with Donald Sterling. I started with the worst of the worst.
**BRODIE: Yeah, with the Clippers.**
**CESMAT:** Yeah, the worst of the worst, and I've seen all sorts of bad owners. They're bad actors. They don't care. They just flat don't care. And I'm not saying Mat Ishbia is that. What I'm saying is, is he trying to hit the 10 run home run as an owner because there is no such thing as a 10 run home run.
You need to take your medicine for a couple of years. You run this thing into the ditch. Fans will embrace, fans will show up in Phoenix. We love a front-running team, but we also like a team full of good guys. We don't like a team that has a player that says, “I control all the cards.”
**BRODIE: All right, well, Brad, you and I will have to make a put on the calendar. We'll talk in a couple of months, see, see if the Suns are gonna win, win the regular season, not the offseason.**
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