Locked On Suns - Daily Podcast On The Phoenix Suns

We are back to get you ready for the start of the 2019-20 season, breaking down the latest controversy in Suns land and answering your Twitter questions.

First, it’s a quick detour toward the idea of Deandre Ayton playing the 4 this season and why it doesn’t make sense if the goal is maximizing the players on the roster for future success.

Then we dive into the mailbag and answer all your pressing questions heading into Suns media day on Monday. From wacky lineup combinations to the identity of the Suns under Monty Williams, we break down what we’re thinking about as the season nears.

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Finishing off our predictions for the upcoming season, how do we see all of the NBA’s awards being distributed?

Going step-by-step through all of the categories — Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Most Improved Player, Sixth Man of the Year — who takes home the hardware early courtesy of the Locked On Suns crew? Our predictions may surprise you.

Stick around as we close out the show going through all of these once more from a Suns perspective. Devin Booker winning team MVP seems obvious, if Phoenix wants to see real improvement this season, but it’s a real debate involving the others.

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Incredibly enough, we are less than two weeks away until training camp beginning. Time flies when you have plenty of topics to talk about throughout the offseason!

On today’s show, we predicted who will make the playoffs this season. Any surprises on either side as player movement was at an all-time high this summer?

This shouldn't shock anyone, but it’s going to take a miracle for the Suns to break through as a surprise playoff team with the Western Conference slate at an all-time high.

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The 2019-20 season is setting up to be one filled with improvement for the Phoenix Suns. However, what do these possible scenarios look like? It’s time to analyze them all from opposite spectrums.

Will the new additions like Ricky Rubio and Dario Saric adjust well? If so, how will that change the Suns’ offense? What’s the next leap look like for Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton?

This exercise really helps solidify what a realistic ceiling and floor could be for the upcoming season. No surprise, a lot of it relies on the success of their two franchise pillars aided by a newfound roster balance.

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We are joined by the one and only Espo to break down the Suns’ summer and discuss what we should expect from the 2019-20 season.

James Jones had a ton of leeway in his first summer running the Suns, but is it a sign of greater autonomy or just the new car smell of a general manager’s first run? What can the past tell us about how things could go from here?

From the departure of Aaron Nelson to the stadium renovation deal passed in the spring, this summer symbolized a new era for the Suns, and there’s no one better to discuss the past decade of this franchise than Espo.

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Saving the best for last (or maybe we just went from smallest to biggest), we break down the Suns’ big man rotation as we continue previewing the 2019-20 season.

Everything that went into reconstructing this group was centered around building around the lone holdover, 2018 No. 1 overall pick Deandre Ayton.

His backup is better, there is more shooting around him, and the end of the rotation is filled with young developmental depth pieces. This is where James Jones shined this summer.

Will it work?

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We continue our positional breakdowns with a preview of the Suns’ wing rotation, where the question of who starts between Mikal Bridges and Kelly Oubre Jr. looms large.

However, both are expected to get significant minutes regardless, which begs the question of how they fit together and improve individually. With rookie Cam Johnson rounding out the group, the depth chart is heavy on shooting and weak defensively.

But before all of that, we react to the Sports Illustrated Top 100 and where a trio of Suns players landed on the list!

We close the show with our superlatives for the wing position.

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We start our positional breakdowns off with a preview of the Suns’ guard rotation, with Ricky Rubio and Devin Booker front and center.

Can they take a leap forward with a real point guard next to Booker, or does the partnership take time to gel? Who amongst the young players is most likely to make an impact?

We close the show with our superlatives for the guard position.

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We toss out our early predictions of the Suns’ rotation for the 2019-20 season, including who starts at small forward, how many minutes new point guard Ricky Rubio plays, and which of the young guys at the end of the Suns’ bench play on a nightly basis.

How will new coach Monty Williams split point guard minutes between Rubio, Tyler Johnson and Devin Booker? Could Mikal Bridges and Kelly Oubre Jr. start together? Is there any position you can trust Cam Johnson to defend as a rookie?

So many questions, as our season preview continues.

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We revisit the key moments of the Suns’ offseason by breaking down the biggest winners from throughout the summer.

From James Jones earning the full-time general manager role to free agents getting paid and even one player getting away from Phoenix, we dig through all the potential candidates before each picking our winner.

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