PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Arizona Athlete Job Swap

Episode Date: November 10, 2021

Makayla Perkins is joined by an All-Star panel of PHNX beat reporters to discuss a variety of sports topics in the Valley of the Sun! Leah Merrall, Chierstin Susel and Lindsey Smith join the podcast to discuss their ideas for which current Arizona athletes would be the best owner, GM, coach and broadcaster! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome into the Phoenix Sports Podcast presented by Jack King Sportsbook America's top-rated sportsbook app. I'm your host, Michaela Perkins, and joining me today is Lindsay Smith, Leah Merrill, and Cherston Sue Sell. I might be biased, but this is probably going to be my favorite episode of this podcast because coincidentally, all of us today are women on this podcast, which just so happened to work out. Which kind of makes me excited. I have never talked to sports with all four of you at the same, all three of you at the same time. time before. I hope we live up to your expectation. Don't let me down now. How's everybody doing on this beautiful Wednesday? Good. Yeah, pretty good. It's, it's been a easy week for me, considering I just came back from vacation. Usually I would think this week would be tough, but surprisingly, it's been

pretty calm so far. Hopefully we keep it that way. Yeah, at least it's calm. We're all very jealous. You got to spend two weeks in Mexico, your lucky duck. Welcome back to Arizona. You came back at a perfect time though because last week was a pretty good week for Arizona sports. Everybody won, including the coyotes, which is kind of shocking. Let's get into our Valley Sports Temperature Check, starting with the Cardinals. They surprisingly beat the 49ers with their B squad pretty much. Kyler Marie was out. So was D'Andre Hopkins, AJ Green, they lost Chase Edmonds early. Cherson, what did that win do for Team Morrell? Well, first off, it was a lot. It was a big ruin for the reasons that you just mentioned, but it was also a division win. They swept the

series against the Niners. That was a big deal. It was a road victory, and it propelled them to an eight and one record, which is a really good record best in the NFL and a record that the Cardinals have only seen a handful of times in franchise history. So all things consider, this team is feeling pretty good about themselves. Still not going to let it get to their heads, though. They feel like they want to keep the underdog mentality regardless of where they rank or what their record is. But, you know, the way that they bounce back from the Packers' loss, they had a lot of time, extra time to let that resonate and sink in. But the way that they were responded in, they were short-handed, I think that told this team

what they're made of, all they need to know about themselves, and they're in a really good position right now. You love to hear it. I know I mentioned some of the injury is, do you have an update on Kyler or any of the other guys that were out this past week. Where are they at with their return to game status? So Kyler Murray, DeAndre Hopkins, Max Garcia. I feel like I might be missing one more all day to day. Aaron Brewer, the long snapper, is going to be out for a few weeks.

And they're going to have to bring somebody else in for that position. And AJ Green is still in COVID protocols, but Cliff Kingsbury said today that he's hoping that they're, that he's going to get, he's going to return to the team with the next couple. it is so awesome love that they're taking on the panthers what are you expecting from that match up on sunday well i you know it's the the cardinals were heavy favorites in this game they're back at home and the panthers have their backup quarterback that's going to be sir which might might be better than sam darnal with the way that he was playing but um you know this should be a game that they should be able to to win easily last i checked they were about 10 point favorites so on the draft

Sportsbook app. So it should be a good game and they're going to certainly be wanting to take care of business because they've got the Seahawks up next. Absolutely. Well, there you have it for the Cardinals. Speaking of winning the Sons, and they are on a five-game win streak. Yes. They are taking on Portland tonight. Lindsay, what are you expecting it from that matchup? Well, hopefully a W, and we can extend this win streak to six straight. I mean, that would be amazing. The Sons, you know, earlier this season, they lost to the Trailblazers by 29 points, which I'm sure that one stung just a little bit. So hopefully they kind of enter tonight's game with a little bit of a chip on their shoulder because of that. And then, you know, just to keep things going. It's good to see,

unfortunately, I missed out on most of that wind strike, but it's good to see that this team is kind of clicking again and finding that rhythm that we all kind of expected them to have from the jump. Yeah. But it just took a little bit of time. No big deal. At least they're there. That's all that matters. You're expecting the trajectory to keep going forward.

Obviously, the rocky start kind of like a finals hangover. But now it seems like they're back to their ways. And listen, I'm sure there will be ebbs and blows of the regular season. As always, it's not often that a team can just coast through a regular season. But I'm glad to see everyone's kind of finding their rhythm again. Unfortunately, tonight DeAndre Dayton is still out. Landry Shamet is doubtful. so we'll kind of see Landry later on this evening if something changes there,

which is kind of a bummer that DeAndre has been out for. I think this is his third. Bring on the tank. I know, but Frank the tank, man. Frank Kininski has been shown up big. That's one of my favorite things about sports is, you know, when an injury does occur, like you don't ever want anybody to get hurt, but it allows for the next man up to kind of have an opportunity to do something really cool and create a,

neat storyline and I love Frank. I think he's an amazing guy, a great player. And I love that he's been able to stay ready and come in in this time when they needed him and have an impact on this team and a positive one at that. So we'll see tonight how everything shapes out. But I am confident. I believe the sons are also, they have a 6.5 favorite against the Trailblazers tonight. So not bad. Yeah. We all love hashtag Frank for MVP. Just trying to appease us, So he comes in Kiko. Open for business. We can finally continue the winning train right on down to Coyotes town because the Coyotes

finally won their first game. It might end there. I'm just going to put it out there. It took 12 tries. It was their 12 game in the season. They finally beat the Seattle Crackin to get their first win of the year. Leah, how did it feel watching the Coyotes finally win a game? It felt like something I hadn't felt in a long time.

I mean, they almost, if they had lost that game, they would have beaten the franchise record for worst starts. In franchise history, 12 games without a victory. But they just simply tied the record. So that's not the kind of record you want to break. So funny, you said, bring on the tank in my head. I was like, oh, yeah, like the tank, like the coyote's tanking. That's where my brain went immediately. So, yeah, matchup tonight against Minnesota.

Minnesota's second in the division, coyotes are last. So, Minnesota's been playing really well. So, I don't know, there's the games on the calendar. You can say maybe there's a chance. There's others you don't think so. And I don't know how I feel about tonight. Am I allowed to say that I really like the name Seattle Cracken? It's an amazing name.

They have a whole branding is incredible. Yeah, they did a really good job with that. Like the branding, the vibe, like I am a big fan of how they put that team. organization together. As far as like a marketing purpose, you know what I mean? I don't know anything going on behind the scene and how the organization is run or anything like that. Even when they unveiled the name and everything like that, they had like, they did a great

job with their videos and stuff like that. I'm excited at their team. Yeah, I'm a big fan of teams that embrace a little bit of edginess. Because I think the traditional vibe that most teams went with originally was like family friendly, you know what I mean? And that's great because you want to have a family friendly and But I love a little bit of edginess, you know? The Kings have that.

So I'm glad that the knights have it a little bit too. The nights are great. They're so fun. I would say Carolina, too. Yeah. I like that. I think it's great. It's fun for hockey.

Yeah, for sure. One bright spot so far in the season, however, that I don't think any of us who are anticipating Vamalka is looking like a freaking brick wall and net. Yes. How cool is it to watch him kind of step up and carry this team? Super unexpected. I mean, the goaltender situation going into the season. none of the goalies that were on the coyotes last year returned, which is really rare.

So all new goaltenders and nobody really knew what to expect. And Carter Hutton is currently on the injured reserve list. So Vamalka has had a chance to step up. This is his first season playing in the North American game. So he's only played in the Czech Republic before. So that's an adjustment. But he's probably been the brightest spot of this coyote season so far just to see him succeed. He gives the team a chance to win every night.

The team just hasn't been matching it with providing a lot. offense and defense, but, you know, he'll, he'll get the team some wins this season for sure. Those are the stories I'm talking about. Like, that's what you, exactly. When you're in a situation like that, if you have to be in a situation like that, finding those bright spots and seeing seeing people succeed when they probably wouldn't have had the opportunity prior to, I love those. Yeah. I got to imagine that that's sort of a morale boost as well when your team stinks that bad. if there's a guy day in and day out that first off, nobody really had much belief in, that's consistent, shows up as a bright spot.

It's a little bit of a motivator when you've got a guy in net that's at least putting you in a position to win some games. Right. Hopefully everyone else steps up during the same way. It's like, okay, if this guy can do it, I got to show up too. Yeah, exactly. It's always nice when you see the Arizona team succeeding. I think it kind of makes our jobs easier too.

I can attest to that. Yeah. I will say my first season in the NBA, I obviously reached out to a lot of women who worked in the NBA for some advice and things. And the one that stuck out the most to me was, hey, I know you work for the sons. But let me tell you, if you can learn to cover a losing team, when they start winning, it'll be like a cakewalk. So this is just you learning to enjoy it when your team does finally get to win. Well, poor Leah, she has had to come up with very many creative ways to cover this coyote's team. But she's done a great job.

If you guys haven't checked out, the P.HNX Coyotes podcast, we must go check it out. Same with the rest of the podcast that everybody else is on up here. They are all phenomenal at what they do. That was our Valley Sports Temperature Check. And before we get into our topic of the day, got to tell you guys about Jack King's Sportsbook. Attention all hoopers. All you hoopers out there. I feel so bad.

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New customers only eligibility restrictions apply. See drapkins.com slash sportsbook for details. All right. How about we get into our main topic of the day? We're going to play a little game called owner GM coach broadcaster. And I feel like this is a really fun way to talk about current players on our Arizona teams and how they would fit into different roles if they were given a chance. So I want to know which current players on each of your teams you think would make the best owner, GM, coach, and broadcaster.

I think we should start with the Cardinals, Tierston. Are we going to list all of them first, or should we do it by position? I think we should go by team and tell me each of your selections. Okay. Okay. Right off the bat? Yeah, hit me with it. Well, I guess we should start with a top rate for management's sake.

So who would you think would make the best owner of the Arizona Cardinals? That's a current player. So owner, I would say if Larry was a player, would be Larry because he has ownership experience. But after that, I would say D'Andre Hopkins because he negotiated his own dang deal, studied himself, got himself like, I think the top. deal for any receiver ever. So he was really good at it and sat there with Steve Kime and was able to pull that off, which is a scary thing in and of itself. And he's also like probably the most business savvy than anyone on that team. He is all about, he's got like all sorts of different companies in his hands and anything from, you know, real estate to, you know, clothing to

nonprofits to, I mean, you name it, he's a part of it. And so, and that started at a super young age for him. So I think that he would probably be the best owner. That's a great answer. I did not know that he did all of those things, like outside of playing football. Oh my goodness. DeAndre Hopkins is probably more business minded than like football minded. Didn't he come up with his own cereal? Like he did all of that himself too. Yeah, the cereal thing. So I did look into it a little bit. I believe, like, Josh Allen, Bill's quarterback and, like, one other player also with this company have their own serial. So I don't know if he, like, was the one that, like, originally came up with it.

But, like, that's another thing. Like, he has so many business ventures. It's insane. He's really impressive and extremely intelligent. I don't know where he finds a time. Yeah. Seriously. Yeah.

I feel like most of his time that's taken up. But the fact that he can do that is incredible. just speaks to his time management skills, which I can definitely use a little bit of it. I think that's a great option. Yeah, that's great. Thanks, guys. Good job, seriously.

We should lied. I think we should do each position for each team. I agree. I think that would great. I mess on you. All right, Leah, hit us with your nomination for which player would be the best owner of the coyotes. So this one was tough. I collaborated with Craig and Pete,

my co-hosts on the coyote show. And we came up with Louis Erickson. he's new to the team this year but he's you know been in the league a long time really experienced player um he his so this is not enough to buy a team but his career earnings are 61 million 6666,870 so you know it's a start wait how many million dollars I mean compared to the rest of the roster I feel like he probably has the most lifetime earnings saved up for a long time he's a veteran I don't know maybe Kessel oh that's true yeah Kessel and we actually it's so funny and we talked about Kessel because he looks he literally like looks like he would be an owner somehow.

Like that was like my runner-up choice. Are you saying he doesn't look like an athlete? I'm saying that he looks like an owner. Yeah. But also another thing about Louis-Erickson is he's been a finalist for the Lady Bing trophy, which is for the player to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct. And I feel like that's what you want from an owner. That's what you want from an owner.

And, you know, I just think he has a quiet presence. He looks the part. He's been in the NHL for a long time. He's from Sweden originally. So he has that international vibe. And I just feel like he would make a great NHL owner. That's great answer. I love that as well.

Good job, Leah. Lindsay, hit us with your son's nomination. All right. My nomination is going to be Diana Tarasi, not technically a son, but within the son's Mercury organization. So, for starters, she's the only person that I know of. within that organization that has expressed multiple times her interest in owning a team or being a part owner of a team and that, you know, when people ask her, ask her what her post playing career

is going to be, it's always like, broadcast or coach, and she's like, no, I want to own the damn thing. So I think she would be great because she wants to. But in addition to that, she's an incredibly intelligent person, just in general terms, but also basketball-wise, I think she would put a lot of focus on putting the right people around her. And first and foremost, creating a winning team and environment, but also equally as important, you know, creating a profitable organization. I also think she'd be at the forefront with her organization of, you know, social justice

and doing the right things and being a champion for change where it's needed, not just within sports, but in life in general, love that out of sports organizations personally because sports is a leader in a lot of things culturally. And we've seen it with the W a lot. Those women are constantly out there fighting the good fight and making change in this world. And so having somebody who's already had that experience at the helm of an organization would be chef's kiss. Plus, whenever the media did get her in front of some cameras, she'd be hilarious. And we love that. It doesn't help, or it certainly helps, rather, that she's so well respected.

Yeah. It wouldn't be like, I was just going to say that. Like, there's not one single person on this planet who wouldn't want to play for Diana Tarassey. Exactly. Like, she's incredible. She probably could be at any one of the positions that we're going to talk about, to be honest. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing is, like, some of these picks that I have, I'm like, well, I guess I could throw them here or here or here. Kind of bit and everywhere.

But, yeah, yeah, so Diana is my pick for all. owner. That is a great pick. I am actually going to do Diamondbacks, if that's okay with everybody. If anybody does not know, I am a huge baseball nerd. I love baseball. So I feel like we need some Diamondbacks representation, so I'll go ahead and do it. My nomination for the owner of the Diamondbacks who's a current player would actually be Merrill Kelly. So he is one of the Diamondbacks starting pitchers. He spent some time in Korea in the Korean Baseball League out there. And I feel like he has the type of personality that you need for a baseball owner. So he would be the type that would let his general manager and his vice president

baseball operations make all the decisions. And he would kind of just be there as an overseer who would, you know, just make sure everything's running correctly, but let the people who are in the positions do their jobs correctly. Very important trade. Super important. I am scarred by owners who don't do that. So I was making.

Trust the people you put in place that they're going to. do the job you hire them to do. And if you don't think that they will, then why did you hire them in the first place? Exactly. And Merrill's definitely that type of person that would do that. He also has connections. You know, obviously all the international connections are really important in baseball when you are scouting talent from other countries that don't come from the Americans' college system or high school system. So it's always good to have those international connections. And I think more than anything, the selling point for him is just that he would let the people who he hires do their jobs. So.

That's a big one. I'm going to go with Merrill Callie for the owner of Divax. That is my nomination. All right. Let's do GM. Go back to the Cardinals. Chirsten, who do you have as a player who would make a great GM? All right.

So I'll preface it with saying that I did have a hard time marrying it down to one because I do feel like the Cardinals have a lot of really intelligent, well-respected players that I feel like could potentially become a general manager. But I've been riding this train all season long. Kela, I think you agree with me. I'm just going to go with Jordan Hicks because he is, he's an absolute leader. He's very intelligent in order to play, you know, Mike Backer and be the quarterback of the defense.

You've got to be extremely intelligent and have a high football IQ. And then, you know, he obviously shows that he is able to be level-headed and mature in situations that are uncomfortable. And he stood his ground, even when speaking behind the scenes, he stood his ground in terms of like, I'm going to take the high road. I'm going to handle this situation that was uncomfortable with the general manager and with my teammates and remain respected throughout it all. the high road that I feel like most players wouldn't and we've been you know we've just been singing his praises all season long but I feel like he's a guy that would show respect to every player regardless of the situation and um it's just is just super intelligent so I'm going with jordan hicks yeah that's a great pick I completely agree with you I'm a huge Jordan hicks man

I think he's a great football player but an even better person and so you can't really go wrong when you have someone like that leading your organization and dealing with players. So great pick. Leah, hit us with your coyotes pick. All right. So for GM for coyotes, I picked Andrew Ladd again, new to the coyotes this year, not new to the NHL. He's an NHL veteran drafted in 2004. He's been on a number of teams, Carolina, Chicago, Atlanta, Winnipeg, Islanders, coyotes. So he's been around. And he's won two Stanley Cups. He won a cup with Carolina and with the Blackhawks as well. And I think just having been in all of those positions and all those teams, you get to be a part of a lot of different situations and see how different teams are built. Atlanta moved to Winnipeg, so he's been

part of a relocation. And he's just a mature leader. I mean, the coyotes brought him in. He got an A on his chest immediately before he even played a game that he's looked to as that veteran presence. So when I think of, you know, a GM and somebody who would, you know, know how to construct a team based on all of his experience in the NHL and just his, you know, personality as well. I think he'd be a great pick. And I also was curious, I looked it up of the 32 NHL teams, 23 of the current GMs had a pro career. So it's a common thing. And I could for sure see Andrew Ladd being a NHL GM.

I'm so glad we did this because I don't know any of these people that you're talking about. And so getting to know them through your lens is like so interesting. I could chime in on the conversation instead of just nodding my head. It's just how it is this year. I know all the new players, all the new faces makes it so hard. Well, and it's tough too when your main job is to cover a different team. Like, for me, we compete. Like, we're both playing tonight.

I can't watch your games, you know what I mean, as often as I would like. But that's why we have you so we can go watch your shows and get all up to date on everything. I feel more invested in these players now because I think there's so much cooler now that I know that we've done some cool things. So, totally. Love that. All right, Lindsay. So this one was a tough one. I'm not going to lie.

So Chris Paul could have definitely been a candidate for this, but I didn't want to use players twice. So we're saving Chris Paul for a later position. So for this one, I'm going to go with Devin Booker. I know he was instrumental in recruiting Chris Paul to the team. I think he's got an incredibly high basketball IQ. You know, his dad has experience as an. agent now and moving into that space later on in his life and his career. So I think Devin could absolutely do it. The one thing that I would be a little bit maybe hesitant about is I don't know

that I would say Devin is a natural born leader. But I don't know that you also need that from a general manager. From a general manager, I think you need somebody who has a very high basketball IQ is good at the behind the scenes negotiating and working with players and convincing them to come to your team. I think Devin has those two things. If he were, if this was a coaching option, I think the natural born leader thing would be a little bit of a bigger red flag maybe. But I think he would be good in a general manager role and kind of stay behind the scenes. And again, I know I mentioned this with Diana putting the right people around him, you know, those analytic brains, the people who are the numbers guys like you can tell he's already done that within his career so i think he would

do the same thing if he moved into a general manager role you bring up a good point about like the leader like i don't look at i've never ever ever talked about steve kimes leadership ability you know what i mean although i feel like james jones probably has a little bit of that more so in terms of those qualities than steve kime if you're just comparing the two but um yeah you're you're probably right. It doesn't. It means probably leadership qualities. It means it, yeah, in the general manager role. But at the same time, I do think having a little bit of that, which Devin absolutely does. I think he's more of a lead by example. And you can't really be an example in a leadership role, whereas a teammate, you can absolutely be an example. Right.

So I think that's the difference in his leadership styles. It's not more of a vocal or a communication thing. It's more like, I'm going to show you by doing instead of telling. And as a GM, you can't really do the job as much, you know. Right. So that's a good pick. Love it. All right. My pick for GM current Diamondbacks players, I think I'm going to go with Nick Ahmed.

Nick Ahmed is a great human being again. I know we talked about that a lot, but he really is a solid human being. I feel like a lot of the players on the Diamondbacks roster respect him in a way that would indicate he would make a good leader of an organization. And so I think he is obviously a leader in the locker room. been there for quite some time now on the Diamondbacks roster. He's also extremely analytical. He is one of the best defensive short stops in baseball. And I know that he makes a lot of adjustments to his playing game based off of analytics. And I know too that when Zach Renke was here,

Zach Renke is like a baseball nerd. Like he knows the game of baseball in and out. He is constantly looking at stats. Like Zach Renke had suggestions for draft picks based off of their high school careers for Toro Lavello and they were going into the draft. And I know Nick, Nick and Zach talks about that a lot. So obviously Nick has that analytical piece, which is super important in baseball. Obviously, knowing stats and knowing numbers is important for any general manager position, but even more so in baseball because there's just so much of it.

So I think Nick would be a great general manager. He's very laid back, very easygoing. So I think he's an easy person to get along with. And I think he would make a really good baseball GM. I think Nick and it's interesting because now I've got myself. thinking of like, okay, what's the difference between, like, what qualities do a general manager do they truly need? But I think Nick does a lot of, like, missions trips overseas and a lot of outreach thing. I think a lot, like one theme, I feel like a lot of us have already chosen for, like,

people for these positions. Like, they've all got, like, one thing in common so far. And they're all out in the community in some way and are giving back in some way. And I don't know. know that that's a quality that a general manager needs, but I certainly would, you know, would like high character people in high positions. And so I feel like we all agree on that. Well, I also think to that point, because as a general manager, you're having the hard conversations with players at times, right? If you're potentially going to trade somebody or when a trade happens. You have, you are the representation for your organization as far as, uh, your, what's the word I'm looking for? Um, shoot, I just had a brain fart. I did this the other day

when I see, like just your reputation. You're the representation for your reputation. Right. Yeah. And if you are blindsiding players and players are constantly being like, oh, my GM came to me and told me I wasn't on the trading black and all. And then all of a sudden, I found out on. And, you know, I found out on. And, Twitter, like that reputation follows you for a long time. And then it makes other players question, like, do I want to come play for this organization? So to have compassion within who you are, to be able to have those conversation and explain and, you know, maintain those relationships. Because what if the player wants to come back or you want them to come back at a later time? Well, your culture is way beyond just your players on your court, your head coach. I always believe

that it starts at the top and trickles down. And so when you're you're talking about building a culture, a culture that people want to come work for, people want to come play for, that has a good reputation here in the valley. We've seen examples from both ends of the spectrum on this one. You always want high character people in those positions for those reasons. So yeah.

And like you were saying too, it's a huge selling point in free agency when players are looking to go to organizations. Like a lot of the times, like the connections that they have with the players and like what they've heard about the reputation of the team sells them on a place to go. Yeah, or detours them. Yeah, exactly.

So if you have players that are advocating for your general manager, for your owner and saying this is a place to be, they treat us so good, you know, that's going to be crucial to a team's functionality and just operating its team in general. So it's a good point. Cheers it. Who would make a great coach that is a current player?

I feel there's a lot of options. Oh, there's a lot of options. But I have one just that is just fitting for today because Cliff Kingsbury spoke this morning and mentioned that Colt McCoy is the only guy that he knows of that has dinner periodically with the coaches because he considers himself a coach. We've seen. I knew you're going to say that.

Yeah. We've seen, because you probably saw my tweet. Because it was a super interesting tidbit on him. And we've also seen the coaching role that he's taken on specifically with Kyler. And so Colt was brought in for a multitude of reasons, one, because he's. as we saw on Sunday, a great option as a backup quarterback on the field. But then also because he's super intelligent, he's a veteran, he's got a humble personality, and he's willing to take on that backup role, which includes a lot of coaching.

And so I think he would be a tremendous head coach. And I'm sticking to it, although you're right. I feel like there's probably multiple people on the Cardinals that can definitely coach and have the qualities of a head coach. I think I'm interested to see Colt McCoy's post-playing career what he does after he's done being a player because I really do feel like he actually could be a coach in the NFL. Oh, absolutely.

Like he's so talented. And he's been with a lot of teams too. I mean, he's been put in a lot of positions and learn from a lot of different organizations, head coaches, other quarterbacks, offensive coordinators, et cetera, so much so that he's still in the league. after I think 12, 12 seasons or whatever.

I mean, there's a lot of people that was like, wait, Colt, you know, that outside of Arizona, like, wait, Colts still in the league, you know? And you don't, there's a reason why as a backup quarterback, kind of a journeyman type of player, that you are able to stay in the league for so long. And I would say a lot of that has to do with just leadership intelligence. And you're going to make whoever you're starting quarterback or that quarterback room in general better by your presence. Yeah, absolutely.

Hopefully he'll be a coach someday. cool to watch. Leah, who is your nomination for coach? All right. I'm finally bringing in someone everyone knows. So my nomination for coach is Lawson Krause. He makes a good personality. He gets along with everyone happy, but he's also a gritty player competitive. He was a high draft pick, but he paid his dues in the American Hockey League. And, you know, looking at the turnover of this current Coyote's team, he's kind of now in that leadership. position having been a consistent member of the team which is not which is rare for this team right now but in saying that I think what's really important in hockey especially with coaches is as a

player you want to play for someone who you know you know would do the same like as a coach you can't ask a player to go out and and fight or you know take big minutes and do all these things if you haven't been in that position yourself and that's one thing about loss and cross that I feel like just based on the type of player he is and he's, you know, skilled and scores goals and gets points, but he also, you know, will stand up for his teammates and take hits and, you know, just all the things that he's, he's a well-rounded player. And I think that that would translate well to coaching a team and asking that of his own players. And then, you know, just being a likable guy, I mean, I think the way coaching is his change that used to be, you know, old school, hardball. And I just, I think he can, you know, still hold everyone to a high standard, but also have a relationship.

He's got an Instagram for his dog. Exactly. Exactly. He's so likable. He's so relatable. So I just feel like players would like playing for him because he would connect with everyone on an individual basis. We've seen it. I mean, obviously with Ted Lasso and Monty Williams, like, players want to play for coaches now who can relate to them as human beings first and then athlete second.

Because not everybody is motivated to Ted. They're like very similar. No, just in general speaking, they're very similar kind of personalities where... Gotcha. Because Cliff compared himself to Ted last. Did he? Wow. Well, then Cliff's right in there, too.

I love that. So for me, I'm sorry, were you done? Yeah. We're done, Leah. Thank you. I'm sorry. I just set her up so well. She's running the way.

I think Chris Paul, obviously. I do think Chris Paul could have been a really good GM as well. But this year in the GM survey, the GMs voted him as the current player who they think will be the best head coach one day. So obviously I had to pick Chris Paul as a great potential head coach one day. You know, Chris Paul is a natural born leader, in my opinion. He's got an incredibly high basketball IQ and knowledge in general. You know, he served as the president of the NBA, prior to. to him being the president. He was on the executive committee for 11 years. He just has a lot of

experience in leadership type roles, basketball-wise, and others. And I think he would make a really great head coach because I think he's, he is that kind of person. Let's be honest, he does have a reputation of being a little bit hard sometimes on his teammates. But I think as a coach, he could maybe navigate that a little bit better because he's not in the game. He's not maybe feeling that emotion as much as leading from the sidelines versus leading in a game. I know a lot of people have talked about him being just kind of a sounding board, whether it's coming to him for advice or just to vent a little bit, get some frustration off their chest. And I think that would be a great characteristic of a coach. I think you could consider him already sort of,

like a mini coach on the team for sure. And he elevates. He already is coaching, you know, he took Devin Booker under his wing. We all know that DeAndre Aden sort of felt like he wanted to elevate his game when Chris Paul became a part of the team. And, you know, Chris Paul's done a ton for the players on this team. A ton. And he's got, he has really good, what do you call?

A perspective. Yeah. And I think, you know, even Monty Williams said at one point in his career, he was super harsh and at times unrelatable. And he had to kind of, and he was harsh with Chris Paul. And he had to sort of, through the years, realize this is the way, you know, guys want to be coached. This is the way guys don't want to be coached and had to grow into that role. And Chris has the awareness, I think, where he would be able to realize what's working, what's not despite how he is on the court.

Like I think he's just that intelligent and has that much awareness. And you have to in order to hold the positions that he's held and be respected the way that he that he is as a player within the organization and within the league. So Chris Paul for sure. Yeah. And he's had like, I forget who it was. Was it Devin Booker that like he had. you know, like over to like just train and stuff like that. I think he does that anyways with like

different players, yeah, like up and coming athletes even like not even teammates, but just like guys that are like, you know, about to enter the draft or like young in their careers, you know, he'll have them over, get to know him, you know, get the chance to play with Chris Paul. And I swear it was Devin Booker that kind of did something like that with Chris like way back when, but maybe I'm maybe it was somebody else. So he already does all the right things that like a coach would. And when you say leader in sons, I automatically think of Chris Ball. I was like the first person that comes to mind. And he's definitely an extension, like you said, of coach out there on the floor.

And then just the last little thing is he's super tactful with his words and he knows how to handle the media already and answer tough questions with poise. So I think that's an important kind of role as well of the coach because you're constantly in front of the media. media more so than all the players are because you talk every single day, every single game multiple times, sometimes a day. So that's something that you'd have to be very comfortable with as a coach. He's had a lot of practice having to tactfully answer questions, unfortunately, for him. But that was a great pick. My pick for coach for Diamondbacks, I think it's obvious.

I don't know how you guys feel about it. I would definitely pick David Peralta. He is a hilarious human being who I think. Sign me up to play for Diamondbacks. David Prowda. He has the best personality. He's spent his entire Major League career with the Diamondbacks. And for those of you that don't know, David Peralta actually played independent baseball.

He was an independent baseball player and also worked at McDonald's at the same time to make ends meet for his family. So he has grinded his entire life to get to where he is today. Obviously, he's already a leader in the clubhouse for the Diamondbacks. He has been on the Diamondbacks for the longest out of anybody there that's left. and he I think is a leader in the in the clubhouse and I think he would be a great coach. He knows how to motivate guys. He knows how to talk to guys in a way to get them to perform or to make them feel better or whatever it might be. And I think he has the respect of a lot of people in the Diamondbacks organization and is just an overall great human being.

He also has a great personality, which I think is always great when you have a baseball coach because sometimes baseball is a little boring. I'll admit it. It's a little long and a little slow. And so you need someone that can interject that energy into the clubhouse and get guys to get guys to, get motivated. So I would go with David Paralto. He has like a zest for life too that's almost contagious or maybe it's a zest for baseball. But either way, if you've got somebody that's like shown up to the clubhouse, win or lose as your manager and he's the guy that's going to set the tone really for morale, et cetera. Peralta is like, you don't get much better. I mean, he's like the epitome of all of all of that.

Yeah. Plus, I feel like when you have a story like his, anybody who is at the helm of your team who has a really inspiring story, I feel like that always helps too because you look at that person and you immediately have so much respect for what they've been able to do and what they've been able to accomplish despite, you know, hardships in their life. So those are the type of person, the people who can bring some perspective when you are going through a losing streak or a tough season or a tough day. decade, whatever it may be, and turn to and be like, okay, yes, if this person can make it through what they went through, we as a team can make it through this. Yeah, definitely. And I think that's another huge piece about David Peralta being a good coach is like he, a lot of about what makes baseball a difficult sport is the continual development aspect piece of it. So, you know, when you're drafted either out of high school or through college and you go through the minor system, it's, could be four or five years before you even get to the big leagues. And that entire time, you're developing as a baseball player and as a human. But,

And also, you know, you're doing all of that as a professional athlete, but also not getting paid a lot, having to live in horrible conditions. It's all like a, it's a horrible situation for minor league players. But, you know, when they get to the big leagues, finally, it's a really hard adjustment period for them. And a lot of people don't realize how hard it is to go from, you know, spending four or five, six years of minor league baseball to finally being a major league baseball player. And I think David Peralta can really relate to those young players that if you were a coach would be on his team to help them adjust to that period and to help, like, give them advice on, you know, how to make that switch. and I think that would be a good selling point as David as a coach. Totally. That's a great pick.

Thanks. Cherson, round us out with your broadcaster picks. So picks? Or pick, single pick. Single pick is fine. I only wrote one down. So again, I think it's a position that a lot of Cardinals players could hold. But I'm just going to go with Justin Pugh because he, I don't know if you guys know much about him.

He's an offensive lineman. so I mean, maybe not everybody knows much about him, but he's got a great personality. He's super fun, super light. There's something about offensive linemen in general where they're typically like the funniest guys on the team. And he kind of reminds me of a Joe Thomas type of guy, former Browns offensive lineman, that is now a really successful broadcaster. And so I'm going to go with him. but I also feel like

Justin Pugh and DJ Humphreys should have their own show. Oh my God, that would be hilarious. Hump is a great interview. So like if they could just like have their own show, that would instantly be like one of my all-time favorites. They should start a podcast. They should.

That would be incredible. Let's get them to join PHNX. That's actually something that I've noticed that athletes have started doing. Shelby Harris from the Broncos. He's a player there. He has his own podcast. Patrick Peterson has his own. Yeah.

They need to hop on the podcast street. It's so, even in the NBA, there's so many former players and a handful of current players. I know, but the weird thing is the current players, because you definitely weren't seeing that, like even like five years ago. We're like,

wait a second, you're still playing and you have your own podcast. Yeah. That's very interesting. But the former player, absolutely, it's a natural transition. But I'm just going to like put this out there.

Justin Pugh, DJ Humphreys, please start your own pot. We love it. Get tracing the credit, but you have to, Describer already. All right, Leah, who is your denomination for a broadcaster?

All right. This was the most obvious one for me of all these. I said Christian Fisher. I mean, he's like the personality on the coyotes. He's hilarious. Right now he has, there's like a little video series the coyotes are doing where he just walks around the locker room with like a tiny microphone and asks the players like. A natural.

Yeah, exactly. Just ask them like the other day was do you put your Christmas tree up like before or after Thanksgiving? Like just random. He's also, I agree. I agree. Oh my God. I love that for us.

I agree. You're sane human beings on this podcast today. Oh my gosh. To be fair, Halloween decorations go up in September. So don't have me on my own. But anyway, I mean, yeah, he's just a no-brainer for me. He's also been a guest on the Pagy next Coyote show. And he was hilarious on that too.

You know, he brought, he, like, Craig hates ketchup. And Christian, like, showed up to the interview with a bottle of ketchup. up like in the camera like just funny so I just think you know when you're watching hockey and especially for a color commentator not necessarily like play by play but that would just add so much fun and I think you know he has the personality for it so that's my choice I love color commentators who can bring fun like knowledge because that's their role right is to break things down bring the more extensive knowledge but I also love it when they can bring fun and like it's a little different when a former player is like ripping on a current player because it's not as mean I guess and it's a little

more playful so I love those yeah that's a good one doesn't like ketchup Craig does not like ketchup well then you should ask I also don't like ketchup oh sorry uh it's a conversation for another time that could be a whole podcast I like ketchup just not my hot dog anyways um that was a great pick christian fisher's hilarious I could watch any digital segment that he does through the coyotes any day he's awesome at that so good pick Leah. How are you feeling, we're going forward with your broadcaster? I couldn't narrow it down to one. Sorry, so I put together a whole squad.

Is there a sideline reporter in there? Yes. She's like, yes. I'm going to put Skylar Diggins-Smith and Cam Johnson in the analyst slash play-by-play roles. And then Frank Kaminsky is our sideline reporter. And that's just a traditional broadcast, but outside of the traditional style broadcast, I also think all three of these guys and gals would be amazing at like an NBA Twitter Live kind

of broadcast or even just fun podcasting. Skyler and Cam are extremely thoughtful with their words, and they put a ton of thought just behind not only what they say it, but how they say it. And I think that would serve them incredibly well in this position. Frank is obviously hilarious and would bring a ton of personality to any broadcast, which like I just said, I love that in broadcast. And then, of course, all three of them are very knowledgeable and would provide great insight as former players.

So I think those are my picks for broadcasters. The which one? The Frank pick, I feel like for sure. Cam Johnson is, that's like a no-brainer. and I feel like he's got like a little more of like a serious vibe too. Skyler's already doing the thing. Right. So we know that she'd be great.

And then to like add Frank in there. Fantastic. Yeah, I think honestly you could make, if you brought in a traditional play by play person into this broadcast crew and then you had Skyler and Cam as there's been a couple times where we've had two analysts on different broadcasts. You could put them in or interchange them every few games, right? And then you have Frank as your sideline. And I just think it would be a solid move.

I love the Skyler pick. She like Cherson said, is already doing the thing. But she reminds me a lot of Candace Parker. And I hope that eventually at some point in her career, she'll get to do what Candace Parker does on the show with a shack. So I think that's a lot. And I think Skyler, like last year was, I think the first time she had ever really dipped her toes into the broadcast.

So there were times where I'm like, I can feel that she's maybe a little bit nervous or hesitant, but who isn't in your first kind of situation like that? that you have like this even after your career has been established right right but then i think when you start out too you're like oh i want people to take me seriously yeah and so you sacrifice some of like the personality aspect of it too and then you really see people flourish when they're like listen i've been doing this for x amount of games x amount of years whatever like i'm confident in it like if you don't respect me at this point it is what it is in this role you can yeah you can kick rocks and then you sort of loosen up a little bit right yeah and i think

think she absolutely would. Like I was able to have her on a podcast at one point in time. And she loosened up in that. And she's got a great personality. She's super fun. And I think if she were put in the right setting as a broadcaster, she would excel. I agree. That was a great pick for my friends. Good job. My pick for broadcasters, I feel like this is hard because like not a lot of people watch baseball and a lot of people think baseball is boring, which is totally fine. I've never said that. There are some players on the Diamondbacks who have great

personalities. I did a broadcast team. So my play by play would be Josh Rojas and then my color would be Carson Kelly. I'm sorry, switch it. Carson Kelly be my play by play. Josh Rojas would be my color. Carson Kelly is the catcher. Very good at

breaking down plays in baseball obviously as a catcher. He can call pitches and all that good stuff. So he's also really funny too and has a great personality. So listening to Carson, I think, would be easy. And then Josh Rojas has an incredible personality. He's really funny. And he does a lot of broadcast appearances for the Diamondbacks and radio interviews.

So I know he's got a good radio voice. And I think he would be a good pick for the Diamondbacks broadcast. So those are my two nominations. Can I just say, real quick, being a sideline reporter in baseball, I don't even know if they're called sideline reporter. so correct me if I'm wrong. Close enough. Because I've never really looked for whatever.

Would be really difficult for a winning team because they're constantly getting Gatorade dumped on them. Oh my gosh. Like every person in that role that I know, Instagram is covered in pictures of Gatorade being dumped on them. And I feel like that would be difficult because I'd be like, now I'm going to wash my hair. And can I wear this outfit tonight? Because would Gatorade ruin it? You got to like work a little extra money for like hair and clothes into your contract. Dry cleaning.

Yeah. All the whole thing. Totally. I feel like I would like it for the first time and maybe after like really big wins. But then like if they're just like dumping gator consistently, I would be so mad. I'd be like, okay, I'm done. There would be a couple times. I would be great.

Yeah. It would be really great to have those celebrations every now and then. Well, ideally you have somebody on your team as in like your broadcast team that's like going to tell you that it's coming so you can move out of the way. But it seems like lately in baseball, the goal is to get both the person being interviewed and the interviewer. It just seems like that's the goal. It just wouldn't be the case if it was me out. You just haven't been bro in your pocket. You're like press the buttons.

Yeah. I mean, it would be fun. But yeah. Great job, guys. Thank you so much for your very well-thought-out picks. I'm not surprised because I know you all are very good at what you do. So that was awesome to hear all of your picks for what you. Arizona sport athlete would make the best in each of those roles.

Before we wrap this up, you got to tell you what was about Jack Kings one more time. Make sure you use code PHNX when you sign up at the Jack King Sportsbook app. If you bet just a dollar for any NBA team to score, you will get $100 in free bets, which is obviously a no-brainer situation. Right now the suns are five and a half point favorites against the Trailblazers for tonight. Are you guys taking the Trailblazers? Are you going to go with Phoenix? What are you thinking?

I can put money on Phoenix all the time. Even when I know they're going to lose, I put money on Phoenix. I don't do all that, but I do think they're going to win. Well, at least like three bets from Drop Kings or theoretical dollars. I would always take the sun. Well, you heard it here first. Lindsay's taking the sun. So if you take the suns and they lose, it's Lindsay's fault.

Sorry, just kidding. But if they win, it's also my fault. Just make sure you use the code PHNX when you sign up in the Drop King Sportsbook app. We are going to post our selections as a four-part poll on PHNX, underscore sports Twitter for you guys to vote on which player you think would make the best in each designated role so you all can weigh in make sure you're following us on Twitter at p hnx underscore sports last week's episode was about rebranding the arizona sports teams and according to the people they most would want to see the cardinals rebrand to the firebirds so they won by 47 percent

compared to the rest of our options I thought the Diamondbacks rebranding to the Scorpions was going to scorpions. What were the other two? It was either Diamondbacks going to Scorpions, Coyote is going to Roadrunners, sons going to Wranglers, or the Cardinals going to Firebirds. And 47% of people said the Firebirds is the best rebrand. Well, I don't, I disagree with the people, but I also say I do like the name Scorpions for a team here in the Valley. Yeah, definitely.

But I hate Scorpions. So, like, having to see an actual scorpion on somebody's jersey and stuff. I'm just like. I don't know about that one. Well, maybe they could draw it in a way that is more appealing. The Scorpion? The Arizona Sting is a lacrosse team. They had an awesome logo.

Yeah, but it was lacrosse. It was just kind of wasted. No, if it's the Sting. I didn't even know it was a team. I've been to multiple Arizona Sting games. Wow. In my past. They still exist?

In my past. I don't know if they do. I don't even know if they exist. I don't think they do. I don't know. It was a cool. Are we offending people? I don't know.

Maybe. I'm sorry. Arizona Sting fan. I apologize. It was an underrated sport, but it's just like you don't have access to it on like a general setting. It was huge. I grew up in Ohio. It was really big in Ohio. It was like one of the most popular sports at my high school. And it was really big where I came from. I have not even heard the word lacrosse uttered here in Arizona though. And I've lived, I've lived here. So there you have it. Well, thank you guys so much for tuning into the Phoenix Sports podcast. Like I mentioned, make sure to go follow us on Twitter at PHNX underscore sports so you can weigh in on our poll. If you haven't subscribed to go phtonx.com yet, you must do so. We've got a ton of great content on there, written articles, exclusive video content.

You can join the Discord and talk with all of us whenever you want. We're usually on the Discord, especially during game days, chiming in about games. So make sure you go subscribe to go phtonx.com. Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel. We really appreciate subscriptions there, as well as the podcast wherever you are listening to this podcast. And we will see you next week.