Locked On Suns - Daily Podcast On The Phoenix Suns

We are joined by The Athletic’s Suns beat reporter, Gina Mizell, to take us through her incredible profile of Aron Baynes and break down the Suns’ first dozen games.

Gina takes us inside her conversations with everyone from national champion Tony Bennett to Baynes himself across the Aussie’s journey to Phoenix.

Then, we break down what we each were most wrong about heading into the 2019-20 season for the Suns. We close the show by discussing some of the cracks that have started to show up in the Suns’ success as they’ve dropped three of four games.

Follow on Twitter: @LockedOnPHXSuns, @ginamizell, @esidery, @BrendonKleen14

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The Suns have now lost consecutive games for the first time this season as the second night of a back-to-back caught up with them in Sacramento in a 120-116 loss.

Devin Booker somehow finished with 30 points, but efforts from Mikal Bridges and Cameron Johnson can’t be ignored either as they continue to gain more confidence. Each reserve wing set a career high in scoring.

Meanwhile, poor outings once more from Dario Saric and Tyler Johnson are beginning to raise questions about their minutes and role moving forward.

Even without Ricky Rubio and Aron Baynes, Phoenix stayed afloat after a porous start. Will they build off this momentum found late in the game heading into Thursday versus New Orleans?

Follow on Twitter: @LockedOnPHXSuns, @esidery, @BrendonKleen14

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So, this is what it’s like to not have a bonafide starting point guard again. Without Ricky Rubio due to back spasms, and of course Deandre Ayton’s suspension that still lasts another month, Phoenix was too shorthanded versus a high-powered Celtics team operating at full speed right now.

They lost, 99-85.

After falling down by 15 at halftime, the Suns battled back after a 7-0 run cut the lead to 9, but it was too late to catch up against the current No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.

For the first time all year, it was tough to find many positives, but we discuss how the team can bounce back before playing Sacramento on Tuesday.

Follow on Twitter: @LockedOnPHXSuns, @esidery, @BrendonKleen14

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Surprise! The Phoenix Suns are playing like a legit playoff contender through their first 11 games of the 2019-20 season. Will it sustain? We take a look at the Western Conference standings to see if teams are trending upward or downward.

Outside of the true title contenders — Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets — Phoenix falls into a cluster alongside Dallas and Minnesota as young teams rising quicker than expected.

After diving even deeper into the early playoff picture, we close out by discussing an important back-to-back upcoming for the Suns against Boston and Sacramento.

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After the Suns fell behind 19-10 to the Atlanta Hawks, they outscored them 118-93 behind great team play. Even though Ricky Rubio and Aron Baynes had off nights, it didn’t matter as Devin Booker, Kelly Oubre Jr., and Dario Saric produced strong outings.

Phoenix’s efficient offense continues to slice through defenses, nearing 50/40/90 shooting almost every game. On Thursday night, they were oh so close to doing it again. The pieces within the Suns’ roster ares starting to fit together, and head coach Monty Williams is taking advantage.

This game proved to be similar to the Suns’ win over Memphis earlier in the year. They proved once more they can easily take care of lottery-bound competition, another good sign of what’s to come.

Follow on Twitter: @LockedOnPHXSuns, @esidery, @BrendonKleen14

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Through 10 games of the 2019-20 season, the Phoenix Suns are finally starting to get some national buzz with a 6-4 record. With that being said, we borrowed an idea from The Ringer’s Bill Simmons and Kevin O’Connor, who spoke about the Suns a bit this week, to help further analyze the Suns’ hot start handing out some awards.

That means it’s award time. From MVP to DPOY to biggest surprises and disappointments, we cycle through a ton of different factors for this Suns team award-style.

Devin Booker is the easy winner for MVP, but who are some players we are buying and selling stock on? Some of the answers may surprise you!

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We break down Phoenix’s narrow loss to the Lakers, 123-115, at home in another promising game for the upstart Suns.

As always, we begin with the positives, and there were plenty, from the three-point shooting to the strong play of Ricky Rubio and Dario Saric. Despite giving up 123 points, this still felt like a game the Suns stayed in because of their defensive energy and shooting.

We also discuss Kelly Oubre Jr., who has struggled against two big playmaking wings in the past week in Jimmy Butler and LeBron James. Is there any way for the Suns to stop those guys? Could Cam Johnson be part of the answer after another strong game?

Follow on Twitter: @LockedOnPHXSuns, @esidery, @BrendonKleen14

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As the Suns become a team opponents must actually gameplan for, they will change. Coach Monty Williams showed that Sunday as he benched Jevon Carter.

Going forward, will Ty Jerome get Carter’s minutes, or will the veteran guards just absorb them? Will we finally see Point Book?

And of course, with Frank Kaminsky struggling and Deandre Ayton set to return in about six weeks, the big man rotation will look very different by the Jan. 1, 2020. Does Ayton start when he gets back? Is there a chance Frank is benched?

It’s time to start thinking about how the depth chart could fluctuate.

Follow on Twitter: @LockedOnPHXSuns, @esidery, @BrendonKleen14

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We react to a dominant performance by the Suns against the Nets in a 138-112 victory. Devin Booker and Ricky Rubio again led the way, generating efficient offense for Phoenix as they shot 50-40-90 as a team yet again.

We also touch on Kelly Oubre Jr.’s consistency and Cam Johnson’s first big game, as well as Jevon Carter getting cut out of the rotation and Frank Kaminsky’s struggles.

Finally, the Suns piled up 37 assists compared with just SEVEN turnovers. So we talked about that.

Follow on Twitter: @LockedOnPHXSuns, @esidery, @BrendonKleen14

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After being the talk of the NBA world over the past few days, the Phoenix Suns ran into a Miami Heat buzzsaw led by Jimmy Butler, losing 124-108. Butler's red-hot start with 30 points at halftime was the precursor to a Goran Dragic explosion later on.

Phoenix continuously fought back in this one with runs to cut double-digit deficits, but the Heat were just too much on both ends of the court.

As usual in our live recap episodes from Talking Stick Resort Arena, listen for our free throws, flagrant fouls, and stats to watch, as the Suns fell to 5-3 on the season.

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