PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - TPSP Lasting Legacies: The Arizona Cardinals draft Paris Johnson Jr; Devin Booker & the Phoenix Suns advance to semifinals

Episode Date: April 28, 2023

There is a new Arizona Cardinal in the Valley. Last night Monti Ossenfort drafted OT Paris Johnson Jr from Ohio State with the sixth overall pick in the NFL Draft. Was this the best move for Jonathan Gannon’s team. Speaking of the new head coach… apparently the Cardinals didn’t go about hiring him the right way. Devin Booker stunned the world with his Game 5 performance in the first round of the NBA Playoffs against the Los Angeles Clippers. Kevin Durant called Bookers performance “spiritual”... was he right? Zac Gallen has been lights out pitching for the Arizona Diamondbacks this season but why won’t MLB take notice?Join Makayla Perkins and Shawn DePaz for another episode of THE Phoenix Sports Podcast!0:00 Intro2:00 It's a great time to be a valley sports fan6:15 Tampering with Jonathan Gannon...13:00 Arizona Cardinals and Paris Johnson Jr.21:00 What will they do in Round 2 and 3 of the NFL Draft?24:30 Devin Booker is HIM36:00 Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets56:00 The Arizona Diamondbacks are a wagon1:02:00 Zac Gallen is himAn ALLCITY Network ProductionWATCH YOUR FAVORITE TEAMS HERE: https://www.fubotv.com/phnxSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsKeepin It 100 Golf Scramble: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/phnx-kee...Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.BetMGM: Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code PHNX (betmgm.com/phnx).Place a pre-game, moneyline wager in the amount of at least $10 on any market at standard odds price. You will receive $200 in Bonus Bets instantly regardless of the outcome of your wager! Just make sure you use bonus code PHNX when you sign up!Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (CO, DC, IL, IN, LA, MD, MS, NJ, OH, PA, TN, VA, WV, WY). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-327-5050 (MA)21+ to wager. Please Gamble Responsibly. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (KS, NV), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-270-7117 for confidential help (MI).Visit BetMGM.com for Terms & Conditions. US promotional offers not available in DC, Nevada, New York or Ontario.Knockout Nights: Join our cornhole league during the 1st Friday night of every month! They’re free to enter and will include food and beverage specials, giveaways, and BetMGM prizes: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/62201618...PHNX: Join us at the BetMGM Sportsbook at State Farm Stadium for all Suns’ away playoff games. Our PHNX Suns watch parties, presented by NUTRL, will feature food and drink specials, PHNX giveaways, and BetMGM deposit matches. Join us by grabbing your free ticket: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/61670606...Pins & Aces: Check out pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.Circle K: Make sure you’re not missing out on all this great stuff, and be stocked all March Madness long! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. 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.

into the phoenix sports podcast happy friday everybody i hope you've all had a wonderful week i know we sure have it's me it's a girl d j mackey michela perkins and v1 the only sean to pause yo yo sean what's popping how's it going it's it's going it's going it's it's good it's a good it's a good time to be a valley sports fan we got a new tackle we got a second round play series and I don't know the best pitcher in all professional baseball maybe possibly possibly it is a good time I'm going to put you on blast for a second it's not a good time to be Sean to boss because Sean has basically started working out oh my god Sean was going to die this morning because he can't stand up straight and watching that is trying to walk around the office and sit in chairs

is hilarious and I'm so sorry that you're that you're hurting so bad I mean I haven't necessarily tried to hide the fact that my I'm pain, but I didn't think I was being like that. It was like that blatant. Sean, you're moving like an 80 year old man. My lower back isn't a lot of pain. I cannot lie to you. It is what it is.

It's a beauty requires pain. Pain is beauty, yes. Hello to the fan in the comments. Charles, Elizabeth, Chris, Daniel. What's up guys? What's popping? What's popping? If you're in the comments, drop a comment.

Let us know you're here. Say hi. We love to incorporate you on the show. We also love hanging out with you guys. And we got to see a bunch of you. yesterday at our Four Peaks draft party, which was so much fun. Sean and I were both out there. And it was just great being able to hang out with some of our diehards,

watch the Cardinals draft, a very large man. It was all very fun. Very large one. No, I love, I love drafts because I mean, much to the, I guess, dismay of Craig and Petey this morning, complaining about how football fans always are excited about their pick no matter what, even though they don't know what's going on. I love that energy. I love that they are,

They everyone's just, there's so much hope with an NFL draft. And it's, it's fun being in a group of fans with when that's the case. Yeah, absolutely. So shout out to our friends at Four Peaks for hosting us. It was always a great time. I didn't get the chicken tennies this time. I know. I usually get the chicken tennies.

But I did enjoy a nice, hazy IPA. What were you drinking? Redbird lager. Shout out Max. He gave me some Redbird lager because he had one of pictures. Very good beer. Very good beer. I also had a slice of Emma's pizza, which I don't know if I even.

knew that they had pizza, it's bomb-ass pizza. Yeah, it was great. Everything that's good, though. I shouldn't be surprised. So shout out again to our friends at Four Peaks. It's the weekend, guys. Head out to your local store. Go pick up a six pack of Four Peaks. There's really no better beer in the valley. Just remember, you must be 21 years or older to enjoy responsibly. Also, want to thank our friends at Mountain Mikes for feeding the office this week. The pizza, always delicious. Always delicious. Always delicious. My favorite is the pepperoni, but I'm a classic squirrel. I just like, you know, just like the pepperoni pizza. Like a solid.

I like the pizza to speak for itself. I like pepperoni pizza. I said earlier, I think this week was the first time I had ever, like, been able to eat it fresh. Like, usually I'm doing some, so I got to wait a couple hours. It was always good. It's so much better when you eat it, like, right away. Yeah. It was bomb.

Absolutely. You can head over to Mountain Mic's Pizza.com or to their Mesa Chandler or two cell locations to place your next order. Reminder, if you sign up to be a diehard, you'll get a $50 voucher upon signing up. Speaking of signing up, before we get into the show, we're doing a cornhole tourie. Yeah. I'm about to kick all y'all's at. No, because I'm going to kick everyone's butt. You are on a team with Emma.

Y'all don't scare me. Emma and I are going to shock the nation. We're going to shock the world and we're going to kick everyone's butt. I mean, if you beat Saul and I, you just get fired. So think about it. Okay. Well, the best part about this Cornhole attorney is it's open for you guys to come participate in. It's teams of two.

If you want to sign up as an individual, we can match you with someone else that signed up as an individual. Come out, play Cornhole with us. It's going to be the first Friday of every month, starting in May on May 5th, all the way through. August. It's going to be so much fun. You can head over to go phnx.com, go to our events tab, and sign up there, either your team or yourself. It's going to be electric. And you get to watch me and Emma and the rest of the PHNX crew attempt to play in Cornwall. You can attempt. I will play Corhole. I'm good at that shit. Okay. We'll see about that. I think you're talking to big game. You do that a lot. I do that a lot. I do that a lot. I usually back it up. I usually back it up.

That's very true. All right. Before we get into it, let's say hi. Amelia's here. A bunch of people just dropped in the comments. Hi, everyone. Gabriel. Will is tired of our pizza talking about Sunn's talk. Yeah, Noah's ready to go. James. Hi, James. What's up everybody? So good to see you. We will be getting into Suns Talk. But before we do that, we obviously have to talk about the Arizona Cardinals and just the Valley is peaking as a whole. Yeah. We are on such a high. We are absolutely out here winning a life. It's nice to feel like things are going our way, you know? No, it definitely does. I mean, the mountains not always. straight up.

There's dips, but ultimately, yeah, I think we are at the peak. It is, like I said, it's a good time to be a Valley Sportsman. Well, you mentioned a dip. Yeah. Start with a dip. We had a slight dip yesterday.

It's a little one. This is the one thing we're going to say that's not a peak. And then we're going to be talking about peaks for the rest of the show, I promise. But we do have to talk about it because it was an unexpected dip. Yeah.

One that I did not see coming. No, I didn't even like realize it happened. It just kind of, it just kind of, it was just happened. I was like, okay, we're here now. If you don't know what we're talking about, literally right as the draft started, which we were all so excited for.

I don't think anyone even said hi to me yesterday. I walked into four peaks and they're like, we lost all of our picks. It's breaking down. Yeah, the wheels fell off the wagon so quick yesterday. Right as the draft was starting, freaking Shepty broke all of our hearts and broke some breaking news.

The Eagles and the Cardinals settled a tampered. investigation involving the hiring of former Philadelphia defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon as Arizona's now head coach. And as a result of that settlement, the Eagles traded their number 94 pick in this draft and a 2024 fifth round pick to the Cardinals for pick number 66. So essentially the Cardinals went from having a high third round pick to a low, low third round pick.

Yeah. Sean? Yes. Why can the Cardinals not stay out of the bad news cycle? Can I say? I mean, this might be a hot take. Fuck it. I don't give a shit.

They got their head coach. Go cheat if you have to. Like, it's a third round pick. This was so avoidable. I mean, it was so avoidable. No one was looking for Jonathan Gannon to be their next head coach.

I mean, it most certainly was avoidable. But ultimately you got your coach, you lost their third round pick, blah. Like, I mean, it's definitely not ideal. It definitely you would rather have that.

You'd rather have that 66th overall pick. Why can't? It's interesting. You look at a franchise who had almost everything change, except for one key piece, and there's still problems. It's almost like you should probably look at the common denominator, common thread.

Michael Bidwell. You would think that that would be the natural assumption. However, we are still here. and I'm just like, oh, I'm so over the Cardinals doing dumb shit. Can we stop? Please, for the love of God. But at least this time they did dumb shit and the name of doing smart shit. No, it wasn't even smart.

I think it was completely avoidable. Yeah, but nobody was racing to get Jonathan Gannon as their next head coach. Yeah, but at least they weren't out here tampering and then ended up being like Danch Joseph, you're our next head coach. Like, at least they got their guy. I mean, I guess, like if you're going to tamper, at least follow through and make sure he comes. But, good God.

I don't know, the Miami Dolphins who lost their first, their first round draft pick for tampering to get a quarterback they didn't never even get like that. At least we're not in that situation. I just, I'm done. No more Cardinals bad stuff. We're done. We've maxed out.

We have hit the capacity for bad news with this freaking organization. Like you said, it's not the end of the world, although I'm going to laugh my butt off if this number 66 pick turns out to be like the best player in the league for the next five years. Because that would be the Cardinals' luck. thankfully Monty did address it because obviously Monty Awesome for the new general manager was in charge of the hiring process for the head coach.

Thankfully, well, or not, depending on how you look at it now, Michael Bidwell let Monty take the reins on that. So when Monty talked to the press yesterday, he did own up to it and this is what he had to say. I made a mistake. I own that. You know, it's a situation that we were able to resolve. I've apologized to Michael Bidwell. I've apologized to our staff.

And, you know, I think the deal that we worked out, you know, it is what it is. And we're just moving on from it. And that's, you know, really don't have a lot more to say on it. So he owned up to it. He apologized. He said he apologized to Bidwell, to everyone else. I just kind of tired of these. dumb things happening.

Sean, are you concerned about Monty's ability to be a GM? Do you think this was just like a rookie mistake considering this is his first GM job? What are your thoughts on this situation? I mean, like I said, I really don't care all that much. Like, it's an ideal situation. I'm not worried about Monty as GM.

I mean, it would have been one thing if he did that then also fucked up the first overall draft pick, which I don't think they did. We'll talk about the second. But I don't know. It is what it is. I mean, you could tell in that thing. Like it was just kind of something that happened and now it's not like, what are you going to, what are you going to do?

You're going to dwell on it. You, you, you, you move back in the third round. Do you think that there's going to be more operational errors that are avoidable moving forward though? No, I feel like this is one of the things where you, you learn from hopefully. And it wasn't, it wasn't the Dolphins. I didn't lose a first round pick. But like, it was, it wasn't so egregious that I'm like, like, I'm super concerned. But I think it was the penalty was bad enough where it's like you're not going to be.

you're not going to make mistakes like this again. Yeah. You're not trying to lose assets, which they ultimately did do. So I am not concerned about more operational errors. I mean, Manti's come from two really well run for it. Well, well, actually, I change everything I just said, yes. This is probably, this actually was probably on purpose. He's probably a cheater.

He spent a lot of time in the Patriots organization. This might just be who he is. Okay. I think that we are hopefully out of the choppy waters and onto smooth waters from here on out. I kind of think this is maybe just a case of a rookie mistake and just I don't know. But I mean, like we were talking about this before the show and Craig Morgan sitting over here said like the rules are so clear. Like they could not make tampering rules more clear than that they are. So how do you mess something like that up?

I don't know. What's done is done. big shout out to Sean Marks for the super chat. A $1.99 from Sean Marks saying a great Sean, Sean think alike. F it, it's all good. Sean Marks is on the same page. Sean DePause. Yeah.

Yeah. So I guess we'll just have to see. And I do want to say, though, because now we're going to talk about it, I would be more concerned if the first round of the draft was a bust. But I think he redeemed himself. So we're going to recap it really quick. Try to stick with me. There's a lot of numbers coming away.

So the Cardinals went into yesterday with the third. overall pick. Then they traded down. So they traded for the 12th overall pick to the Houston Texans. The Texans got their third pick and then the Cardinals got number 12, number and number 33 and a couple of future picks.

And then they traded... Not just a couple, but also a first round pick from next year. Yeah, a first round pick for 2024 as well. So a great trade on paper, right? Like they traded their third pick and they're a hundred and the Texans too, by the way. Yeah. And the Texans gave them back number 12, number 32.

and a 2024 first round pick and a third round pick in 2024 as well. So on paper, that's a great trade. I think they got a lot of value out of that. And then after that happened, they traded back up. The Cardinals then acquired pick number six and number 81 from the Detroit Lions in exchange for pick number 12, number 34, and number 168. And then with the sixth overall pick in the draft, the Arizona Cardinals selected, offensive tackle Paris Johnson Jr.

from the Ohio, no, from Ohio State. The Ohio State, okay. I don't know. Sometimes I get nervous with the Ohio State because people will come after me. That is the one. It is the Ohio State and the U and nothing else should have the

and Paris is very excited about it, which you absolutely love to see. Overall, what were your thoughts on the pick? Were you surprised that they went within a big guy up front? Do you think that was the right choice? No, I think I ultimately think it was. wouldn't have been mad if they had stayed at three and drafted Will Anderson. I mean, I think he's just an absolute game record coming off.

But I do ultimately think this was this was the right move. I mean, the Cardinals were not a team that were a piece away from being a contender or being good or anything they needed to create assets. And also, like the one investment that this team really has is their quarterback who also, I don't know if you know this, tore his ACL last year. So you need, you need to protect your quarterback. And you also need to make him happy because obviously that has been a major point of contention with this franchise and this quarterback over the last couple of years is his personality,

his attitude, his happiness. Drafted a good young offensive tackle earlier in the first round. Not only do you keep that quarterback safe, you keep them happy. And I think that is one of the most important building blocks to turn this franchise into like an actual winning one. Yeah, absolutely. You mentioned the piece of it being the preferred selection by Kyler Murray. So NFL networks Mike Garofalo kind of broke the news a little bit after or before. I don't even know if you consider breaking news, but whatever. Just kind of defining that, like in confirming that this was

Kyler Murray's preferred selection. Of course it. Paris actually was at the facility in Arizona. He got to talk to Kyler Murray while he was here. We actually have great sound from him. It just came down so we weren't able to add to the show in time. But if you go to PHNX underscore Cardinals, the sound is over there of Paris talking about how excited he was to meet

Kyler Murray. He was like, I wasn't trying to fan boy, but it was really cool to meet that franchise guy. You know, Kyler told him, you know, I would love, I see your work ethic. I would love you on a team. I would love you protecting me. So to get the stamp of approval from Kyler Murray for whatever that's worth is always a good thing.

You never want to piss off your franchise quarterback Packers and have him very unhappy with how you decide to spend your draft picks. But so, yeah. So it was something that Kyler Murray was excited about. It's what he wanted. One thing that I also love that came out of this pick was Paris Johnson Senior was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals in 1999. And Paris had a great quote. He was saying that, quote, I want to be here. I want to be in Arizona Cardinal and finish what my dad started, which I think is really cool.

I think it's, I didn't know that his dad was drafted here. Obviously, I wasn't a lot. Well, I was three years old when he was drafted by the Cardinals. I was not in the right frame of mind to ingress that information at that age. She had a lot going on. I think the pick is like, we can't really analyze the pick for. Because we don't know how he's going to play. You know, we don't know what it's going to turn out.

But on paper, like, if he wants to be here, I love that. I love a guy that wants to be here that is excited to be a part of the organization because I think more now than ever we need that energy in this building. Like, we need players that want to be here because there's a lot that don't of. Yeah. And I mean, I think it is, like you said, it's hard to analyze how good of a pick this actually is because you don't know how good a football player is going to be. But you can say it's a good pick in the sense that like you look at what you look at

what this fan base has gone through with Steve Kimes drafts. They didn't draft a lineback or they didn't draft a running back. They drafted a major position of need. And they just made like the right pick. I think this is the first time that in a while that Cardinals fans can come out of the first round of the drafts and be like, okay, they did that right. Like they did what? They did the smart thing. They didn't do anything that left me scratching my head afterwards.

Like the Detroit Lions who drafted a, the second running back in the top 12. Yeah, that was weird. Port Kay, Yono, say. Lions are going to lion, I guess. Yeah, the lions are going to lion. But oftentimes the carnals going cardinal, and they didn't this time. And I think that is very encouraging if you're a Carmel's fan. Yeah, absolutely.

I think I will say, though, I guess I was just, I don't know if I was surprised. Yeah, I guess I was, I don't know. Okay, maybe not surprised. But I just like, I don't see Kyler Murray, like, as a pocket passer. Like, he a lot of the times is outside of the pocket running around, not utilizing, like, the front lineman. And like I just, I think I was a little surprised that they would spend like that high of a first round pick on on an offensive line. And because I just don't see Kyler Murray utilizing the pocket that much. And so do we really need like all star talent like the best of the best like up front?

Like I could be wrong about that. But I just, I guess I was a little caught off guard because I just don't see Kyler Murray like using the pocket like a lot of traditional like pocket passers do. Yeah. But I mean how much of that is because he hasn't had a line to keep like give like give many. Obviously, Kyler is like a mobile guy. He does like getting out of the pocket. But it doesn't change the fact that the left tackle is probably like the second most important single position. Yeah.

And he definitely needs protection. I'm not saying that he doesn't, but I'm just saying it's not like he like takes a couple steps back, plan his feet and stays in the pocket the entire game. You know what I'm saying? I also think he can't see over his linemen sometimes. So I think moving outside of the pocket might be a necessity to see down. Yeah. And I mean, Thunder kind of referencing it too.

I think part of drafting such a alignment so high is he is he like linemen are athletes like they can move in their own right and obviously he's not running as fast as Kyler but to get a guy with the kind of athleticism and just strength that Parrott Johnson Jr. has I think he can help right you've seen so Johnny tweeted this out this morning there was high school tape that went viral like three or four years ago of a kid just plowing people. over from the left tackle position. Yeah, and it was him. That was him. Yeah. So that it's ridiculous.

Like I'm, listen, I'm not trying to take away from his athleticism, his talent as an athlete. Like, he is a very, very, very talented lineman. I'm just saying I was a little caught off guard by the thought process of using that pick at that position because it's not like Kyler is a traditional pocket quarterback. That's all I'm saying. I think he's a great athlete, Thunder in the comments saying because Paris can move. Yeah. I mean, from everything I've heard, He is a athlete, but I'm just saying I wasn't necessarily thinking that that was where they were going to go with their sixth pick. Yeah, I mean, I once it got to that point, that's what I thought they were going to do. Like I said, I thought there was a good chance that they held out of third overall pick and drafted rule Anderson.

Yeah. I'm ultimately glad that I think this was the best move for them. Okay. Well, looking forward to today, the second and third round are happening. The Cardinals have number 34, so the third pick in the second round. and then I think that's all that they have if I'm up to date. What? At least for now.

Yeah, that's all that they have for now in the second round. And then in the third round, totally different story. They have quite a few picks in the third round. It's looking like they will have pick number 94. And oh gosh, there's so many words. Yeah, I'm pretty sure they have a couple of picks in the third round. Definitely pick 94. So I'm excited to see what they do today.

Do you think that they're going to address any glaring roster issues? I mean, I think there's a chance they go back to the offensive line, do more interior linemen. But for me, what I'm looking at for today is, does de-hop trade come? Are they going to get even more picks? And obviously, the big ones are the bills and the chiefs. But who knows who might sneak back in there. But I think with like I think there's a chance that they they addressed that our interior offensive line or like we talked about right before the show, Jacob mentioned trading that pick too. There's still a quarterback that a lot of people thought Michael top 10 on the board that a lot of teams might be interested in moving up to that 33rd overall pick in.

So I always say is I don't think that the Cardinals are going to be going into tonight with the picks that they have and making exactly those picks at exactly those spots. I think you're going to see a decent amount of movement. But getting to your original question, position-wise, I think that they're going to try and address that interior offensive line. Yeah, absolutely. So it'll be interesting to see what the Cardinals do. I'm always excited. I think I love draft day the most just because I love seeing kids' dreams comes true.

Yeah, it is cool. I think it's so cool to see how they react to all their hard work paying off and getting drafted into the league. And I love their family's reactions. So I'm excited to see what the Cardinals do today. And I guess we'll be. Real quick. Jesus saying that they're not trading D-Hop.

Monty did say yesterday that they aren't trading D-Hop, but that doesn't mean anything to me. Yeah, they also said that we're going to be drafting a quarterback after they drafted Josh Rosen. Look what happens. I'd be like you hear stuff like that all the time. And if anything, it just in part,

health, raise the price. It'd be if the right price comes along. Like, Manti said that, but if the bills come up here, it'd be like, here's the 27th overall pick for your old-ass-wide receiver. I'm not sure Monty's saying no to that. So we'll see. We'll see.

Yeah. I never really take what they say about what they play to do at base value. I believe it when the draft is over. All right. It's the time we've all been waiting for, especially most of you in the chat. It's time to talk to Phoenix Suns. But before we do that, got to talk about OGs because they are the best scratch made THC Gummy in the state of Arizona because they're made right here in Arizona.

And I just, I don't think of anything better than an OG's gummy in the weekend. I mean, I was talking about my back. I need to hit one of these strawberries and cream get that THC in me. Yeah. You need to get some of your pain. And then I need to hit the aqua berry sleep gummies because my back hurts so much that I can't sleep. So I need I need something to help with the pain, something to help the sleep. And then OG's got to cover.

The next day when I'm feeling good, just take some of their sativa and just have a good day. Yeah. They've got anything and everything you need, like Sean said. So you can check out OGs at OGs. Or you can find them at your local dispensary. You must be 21 years or older to enjoy responsibly. If you're going to pick up a pack, I definitely recommend picking up the orange. creamsicle Sativa because that is my all-time favorite and my go-to.

It is to die for. All righty. The Phoenix mother-haven signs. Oh, my God. The Phoenix sons are them. They are them. Okay. Well, Devin Booker is him.

I am, I mean, okay, well, that one is yes, yes. Agreed. I wasn't. The, the sons are very good. I'm not really to say they're them necessarily. But David Booker most certainly is him. He is the best player of these playoffs right now. In case you were living under a rock this past week,

the Phoenix Suns did defeat the Clippers in five in the first round of the NBA playoffs. Game five started out a little rough. Not going to lie. I was a little nervous about how things were going. I didn't think it was going to turn out well for the Phoenix Suns. What were you thinking and feeling in the first half of that game, Sean? I don't know. Like, no, even when things weren't going well, I was just like, okay.

I wasn't worried because, like, I, like, I knew the sons were going to win this series. There was no way that the sons were going to lose to this Clippers team without their two best players. Yeah. So even if they lost, even if they had lost that game, I really wasn't like all that concern because they were in a position where they only needed to win one more. Yeah.

And they had two more opportunities after that. So I wasn't really concerned about it. But it was more just like, why did this team keep struggling with these guys? Like, why is it? But I just think part of its matchup, part of it's just the guys that are on that team. They have a lot of real, like, veteran experience.

And, yeah. I mean, Russell Esbrook is just an absolutely. dog like he does not go down quietly regardless of the situation. Russell Westbrook looked like vintage Russell Westbrook. He genuinely did. That was the worst possible time for him to figure that out. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I was a little bit nervous. I was glad that they did it at home. It was the first time that they had won a playoff series at home, like finished the series at home since 2007. Yeah, first time in books career. So in the first time, yeah, first time Devin Booker ever did it. So I'm really glad that they were able to just close it out at home and it in five. Get a couple extra days of rest because they are going to need it. because they're matching up against the one seed, Denver Nuggets.

But before we move on to that matchup, we've got to break down the absolute masterclass of basketball that Devin Armani Booker put on in game five. I was my jaw was on the ground. Like I know that Devin Booker is a baller. I have followed him since the beginning of his career with the sons, but I was shook if watching that kid ball out the way he did. I like I'm not I wasn't I was just like yeah yeah that's yeah that's him that's just he that's Armani like he's just really good at basketball and like he does do I mean I'm not gonna like he doesn't shit that surprised me all the time but I'm like I'm like I'm not surprised that I'm surprised because he's Devin Booker like I said I genuinely do believe he's the best player

in the playoffs right now him and Jimmy Butler are dominating yeah um he's at least the best player in the west um and I'm just like yeah he's a baller he right Why is this to the occasion? And now he's on a situation where he has, I don't know, a top five basketball player all time, who's still really good on his team, taking away some of the attention. Of course he's going to thrive. Yeah, absolutely. But it is awesome to see that, like, he does have given around his team, but it's still

Devin Booker's team. Like, he is that guy. He is what is going to, he is the difference between this team losing in the first round and this team winning a national, or national championship college, winning an NBA finals. Devin Booker is the key. And he showed that throughout this series, especially in that game five. Yeah. He finished game five with 47 points, 10 assists, eight rebounds.

He shot 70% from the field and 57% from three. I think my favorite moment in the game, though, was when he just banked it and hit that hold it shot where he was just like standing there like this. Yeah. We got some pictures of when that happened. Shout out to Danielle, by the way. She is our photographer and she took some of the coolest pictures of D-Book I've ever seen. He just knew.

knew that shit was going in. He stood there like that for like at least a couple seconds. Katie just lost his mind. Katie's down in the corner there just losing it. And I mean, we have a video sound from him that would get through to a second. But like, that's not,

that's not Kevin Iran. He doesn't do that that often. It takes a special performance, a special person to get that kind of emotion out of Kevin Rand. And that is exactly Devin Booker. I just, that first bad picture there is just everything I love about Devin Booker because like he'll talk his shit a little bit,

but he's not like, he's not out here to be a fucking Dylan Brooks. Yeah, He's not a flashy guy. This team in general is not that flashy. Yeah. But if he's, when he's on,

like he's going to let you know. He knows. He knows he's on. I'm Devin' motherfucker booker. You will recognize. Like, kind of saying, be legendary.

He is legendary. Like he will, he's going to sit there and he's going to have his moment because he is a bona fide baller. And I love it. When he hit that hold his shot, that was the moment. I was like, okay,

it's fine. We're going to win this game. Like, we are winning this game. I think the sons are definitely a second half team for whatever reason. Well, yeah, And that's the other reason why I wasn't concerned.

I was just like, that's what this team does. They're going to come back later. Devinbrook is going to go crazy. And if Devin Bucke doesn't go crazy, Kevin Duran will crazy. Yeah. And Kevin Drenna go crazy. I just wish that they would get a little bit more of a fast start though. No, for sure.

It's so easy for me to just like get so discouraged and so down. And I'm like, I just want to watch the sons come out and plunge him in the mouth. We've been here so many times where it's like, oh God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. But I just want to watch the suns just come out and punch them in the mouth.

That's not how these. Well, first time, that's not how the sun's working. That's not how these playoffs work. We'll see because if they do come out, and they push somebody in the mouth, then I'm starting to get concerned. I'm like, yeah,

they're like, oh, no, that's like it happens to be so bad. Here comes the fall. Devin Booker did record 40 or more points that game, and he is now the franchise record holder for 40 or more point plus games in a playoff game in Sun's history. That was a lot of words,

but I think you all are understanding what I'm trying to say. The previous record holder was Charles Barkley, who had five 40 or more. point games in the playoffs. I love that moment on TNT when they brought book on and Shaq was teasing Charles, calling him a bum and book was just laughing. And Charles was like, I mean, congrats. It was so funny.

So, I mean, book is just an absolute baller. I think the other favorite moment that came out of that game was the press conference when they were talking about obviously that moment that we were just mentioning the shot. And Kevin Durant sat next to Devin Booker and said, Watching Devin Booker play basketball is a spiritual experience. A top 10 player all time is sitting next to you telling you that watching you play basketball is a spiritual experience. Like that had to be one of the coolest moments in Devin Booker's career. Yeah, yeah.

And not just the top time play basketball. The guy who asked the question puts it. It's like it's score to score. Like it's two of the best scores in the game. And yeah, I mean, game recognized game. That's exactly what Kevin around. And Kevin around is not afraid to give guys praise when they deserve. it. Holy shit, does Nevin Booker deserve it?

Yeah, here's what Kevin Durant said after the game. From one score to another, what was it like seeing Devin exploding that third quarter? Yeah, it was spiritual. I don't show too, I don't scream too much in the games more as I got older, but when we hit that three on the top of the key, I felt the energy, and I know everybody in our crowd felt it. So we feed off his aggression.

Not just us on the team, but Suns fans watching TV, Sun's fans in the arena, his impact and his presence just means a lot to us. So that was incredible to see and to be a part of. Devon, just hearing that coming from a guy you know that that's what he does and has been doing, what's it mean to you to have that kind of night and get that kind of praise from Kevin? Hard to put the words. Somebody that I followed for a very long time before we developed a personal relationship. So, you know, to even be sitting up here with them right now is kind of surreal.

But, you know, just competing at the highest level, iron sharp as iron. And, you know, even getting that, you know, the work that you guys don't see, you know, in the practice facility together, you know, all-star break. I remember working in there together playing two-on-two. I don't take none of it for granted. I think my favorite part was when Katie was saying it's spiritual and Demabooker's face. like he he smirked a little bit I think he wasn't trying to let it get to his head

but watching book hear that about himself like Devin Booker just deserves all the flowers yeah yeah and first off I got to mention Elizabeth pointing out Katie's hat Katie rocking the Debeck's hat I love it he's clearly bought in but yeah I mean like it

it is Kevin Durant said it the team the fans everybody thrives off Devin Booker's aggressiveness. Like you, it just seems like one of those things where when Devin Booker is on, you don't, like this team's not going to lose. Like it's just and even if it's not because of Devin Booker, like if he's doing it,

Chris Paul's turned back the clock and he started doing it. And then oh, yeah, and then Kevin Durant's going to go hit two back to back threes in your face. And it's just like, oh, and now you're down 15 and they've stripped you of your will to live. Yeah. And I'd be like I said, I do really think that Devin Booker is the source of that.

Yeah, absolutely. Best shooting guard in the league. and it's not even up for debate. I mean, Jimmy Butler was trying to give him a run for his money, then I'll say that. Kevin Durant also had a good night. He finished with 31 points, six rebounds, four assists.

He shot 52% from the field and 66% from three. I think one of my other favorite things I love about watching this team is how they've managed to kind of like gel together, but also they have alleviated so much pressure off of D-Book.

Teams can't really double-team him anymore on defense. And I feel this is, just like the next evolution of Devin Booker's career and he's allowed to take that stuff because KD is on the team. He has help. He has talent. He has help. Yeah, he has talent, which is like what Suns fans have been banging the drum for for years. Like, they've known that Devin Booker is a generational talent, but he just hasn't had the support around him to let him shine the way that he needs to shine. And the fact that Kevin Durant is now in a Phoenix Sun's uniform, which still like just doesn't

compute in my brain and is allowing that to happen and just seeing Devin Booker like evolve still in his career is just so cool. Like I cannot get enough of watching Suns basketball. Yeah. And Connor is right. Jimmy is more of a three. I'm not sure what I was thinking of. But yeah, man. And I think that's something that that was never even, I mean, it's obvious, but wasn't talked about or thought about too much with the Kevin Durant. Traders. Like, everyone's like, okay, we just got a top five player in the league on our team.

Like, he's in a ball here. It's even going to be so much good because they added that talent. But people didn't really talk about how much that, like, yeah, the team is going to be better, but not necessarily because of, I mean, because of KD, but not necessarily because of the production. It's not like he is the one dropping 40. It's because his presence allows Devin Booker to be Devin Booker in a way that he had not really allowed. He had not really been allowed to be at any point in his career. Because even, I mean, D.A. was never that.

Chris Paul was obviously older. Obviously, when he first got here, was still really good, but was not the kind of guy that demanded that attention from defenses in the way that Kevin Iran, obviously, he does. And it's just, it is really awesome to see that Devin Booker is forcing the rest of the country to, like to pay attention and then part of that is because of the attention that Kevin Durant brought with him. Yeah and if Devin Booker is having an off night Kevin Durant is your next best player. Are you kidding? He's right there. Are you kidding? I mean Chris Paul is your fourth best player maybe at best he's your fourth best player sometimes third depending on how the A's feeling. Sometimes like eight depending on how Chris Paul's feeling so like yeah it is it is really good to know that

like Devin Booker can do this and then if he doesn't oh you still have Katie yeah absolutely you'll love to see it. Now looking forward, they are moving on to take on the Denver Nuggets. JT, thank you for the Super Chat saying Sun's going to cook some chicken nuggets. They are going to be taking on the chicken nuggy as the Denver Nuggets. How are you feeling about that series coming up with the Nuggets? Listen, I mean, we talked about it a little bit last week. I don't like the nuggets are good, man.

Yokits is a top three player in basketball now, like at least was throughout the regular season. Like, I don't think it's going to be easy, but I just don't know. I just, the starting, when you're giving me starting five, starting five, and taking the sons. Yokic is amazing. Kevin Arras, the best player on either side. And Devin Booker is better than Jamal Murray. I don't care what you all say. Jamal's McCorme Murray is not that.

He's not that guy. Oh, boy. Jamal Murray is not that guy. I don't know what you're going to say, but I swear to God, if it involves, if it involves someone from D&VR fucking saying that Jamal Murray is as good or better than Devin Booker, I'm going to fight somebody. No, no. Okay, good. Okay. Can I tell you it? Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. I was on Twitter this morning, as I always am frequently on Twitter. Oh, God. And I believe it was Bleacher Report, but don't quote me. Oh, God. Bleacher Report sent out a tweet or it was another outlet. And they said, rank these four players. Oh, my God. Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, Nicola Yochich, and Jamal Murray.

And I was like, oh, I feel like this is like pretty straightforward. Yeah. What's your four? I'm going, are we going like right now? Because if we're going in general... Not all the time. Like right now. Well, if we're going to the playoffs

and taking Devin Booker first, generally speaking, if you're doing this during the regular season, I probably would have gone... I'm sorry, sentiment. I probably would have gone Katie, Yokic, Booker, Jamal Murray.

But the first three are relatively interchangeable. Jamal Murray is an obvious four. Okay, well... Oh, God. I clicked on the tweet, right? Because I was like, oh, this is pretty straightforward. If we were going right now,

I was going to go, Booker... Yeah. Right now, I'm probably going to... and Booker. Katie. Yeah. It's so tough. Oh my God.

I know it hurts. Katie, Yokic is just like so important to that team. He's like if he's not there, they're not playing. Exactly. And the sons were a playoff team before KD got here. So it's like,

but Yolkich is really really good. If you're in the comments right now, drop what you would rank those four players at the moment. Book Katie, Nikola Yokic, Jamal Murray. I want to know what the comments are going to say. If you're coming out here and being like, Oh, y'all catch is number one and then KD your book after.

Like, I'm not going to be that mad about that. But Jamal Murray is obviously number four in that list of people. Okay, this is where I'm going with this. Okay. I clicked on the tweet to go through the replies. Nearly every single tweet in the replies from when I saw it had Jamal Murray number one. That's just. I almost deleted my Twitter account on site.

I was like, this is asinine. Asinine. That is absurd. I'm shocked, appalled. I'm disgusted. I'm not kidding it wasn't satire I don't I

I mean you shouldn't be going to Twitter for looking to look for like intelligent conversations about anything let alone sports but like I mean like listen I understand Nuggets fans you want him to be that guy so bad

you want to be that guy and you love your team support your team I respect that but be honest with yourself be honest with yourself I could not I was like am I in an alternate Like did I wake up on the wrong that like where am I right now? I was beside myself that people were like not Sarcastically putting Murray first. Yeah, that's absurd. That's that's that's absurd. It was Nuggets fans too. I was like how are you gonna put that over you like yokech out like oh oh oh

Oh you mean first overall. Yes. Oh what? Yes. Oh number one over their own yokeets. Yes. Oh get the fuck out of here. No they're they have had to be trolling. No shot. No shot. I thought you just meant they were putting him in front of Devin Booker. Oh my God. They ranked him first over everyone else. There's no way they're being serious. Someone said rank. It was a media outlet like bleach report said rank Katie, Devin Booker, Yokic and Jamal Murray. One through four right now. And like 90% of the reply said Jamal Murray number one. Yeah. Totri just violently vomited all over the office. He was so disgusted by We just saw. Shout out Grant House in the chat, by the way, saying that I am a number one owner,

uh, number one owner pick for drafting. Grant is a dog. Grant's my number one. I was going to say grants my number one pick for like ASU swimmers, but even he would know that's not true. Um, so I was beside myself. I was like the delusion in this, in these comments is top tier. Nuggets fans are delusional as hell. Let's be real. Like, how are you going to have a two-time MVP on your team and still put Jamal Murray over him. I like, I don't think, I'm not going to say, you're telling you're lying, but that is the

most absurd thing I've ever said. I'm not lying. I almost can't believe it. I swear to God. There's no way to. It was absurd. Jamal Murray is probably the fourth best player in this series. Probably.

But I mean, there's times where like MPJ goes crazy and he's better than Jamal Murray. And obviously, John Dr. Aiton has his moments where he's better than Jamal Murray. Fuck out of here. Fuck right out of here. Where's Jamal Murray's consistent 40-point games of the playoffs? Yeah, I was just beside myself. You ruined my day. I wrote in the comments say, or not everyone, but Ernesto's saying,

Katie, Booker, Yokich Murray. No, no one is on the same page except for the fact that Murray is last. That is the one thing that we can all agree on. Yes, everyone in the comments is saying Murray last. Thank you. Thank you for having reason. The DNVR nuggets, people would not even say that. There's no shot.

They would, they would. There is no way that they would put Jammer. above yokech what have it what have it but they might put him above book yeah okay maybe they're delusional too but they're not putting him first overall they're not putting him above kd what have we been hearing for the last three years oh if only your mom are you're healthy yeah we don't we go we don't we don't learn we don't learn the night or today or this weekend on Saturday speaking of which what are you the most confident about in the series and then what are you the most worried about um most confident about devon booker most worried about dick we hook

Like, it's not, I'm the most confident they don't have an answer for KD. I don't think anybody on that team. Yeah, I mean, if they have an answer for KD, then they don't have an answer for Devin Booker. Like, you're going to have to take away one of them. And I don't think you, like, you can't stop both of them. Yeah. I mean, really, what am I most concerned about is the bench this is that? I mean, that's the reason this first series was even a contest because the son's bench had nothing.

But also like, it's not like the Nuggets have the most depth on the world either. Like, they're also a little, I mean, if you ask a Nuggets fan, they'll tell you have that they have the best bench in the league. But on paper, I don't think their bench is anything to be scared of either. Yeah, that's fair. I mean, it's definitely not the best in the league. That's for sure. But I mean, and at Yokic is just so talented that he has the ability to completely pick defenses apart.

And that is concerning. But he's not the kind of guy that I worry about like, I don't know how to explain this. He's like, he's not the kind of guy where I'm like, he's not going to do what Devin Booker did. He's not going to, he's not going to give you a 40 point game where he completely. completely demoralized. Like even if he's dropping 40, it's not going to be like, he's not dropping threes and massive moments in your face, like completely taking the wind out of the cells of the opposing team. Like he doesn't, he's not a soul crusher like that in that sense, in the

way that Devin Booker can be. Obviously, he's a top player in basketball. I'm not trying to disparage. Like, he's one of the craziest paths I've ever seen, one of the most unique players I've ever seen. I do generally love Nicolioch as a player. But I just don't, I don't know. He's not the guy in that sense. But he's still really good. I'm, I'm just, just are they going to be able to slow him down? DeAndre Jordaners, their backup five. I didn't know that. I guess it doesn't really matter when you have Nicolio,

he'll control that much. But still, yeah, the bench and Yokic, worry me, the Sun's bench and Nikolio, which Yokichwikwari me. But as far as what I'm confident about for the Suns, they have two top five scores in the playoffs right now. Maybe the two best scores in the playoffs right now. I'm not worried.

Yeah. If you look at the last like, maybe like five to seven minutes of game five, the way the sons were playing basketball was a like un like it was spiritual to quote Kevin Durant. If the sons can play like that consistently, which is a big if, but yeah, is a big if. But the way that they were playing the last five to seven minutes of game five in the first round was unbelievable. Like it is everything that we could have hoped for and more. So I think if they can just figure out how to click that quick that like that like, hold on.

Click like that sooner. It's going to be. I think the sons are going to be able to figure it out quickly. Yeah. Speaking of Yolkich, though, Gerald Borges, our own Jail Berge is in Denver for, to cover this game. And Yokic met with the press a little bit ago. And someone asked, how did the Nuggets plan to stop the sons in the pick and roll? And Yokic's quote was, pray.

Yeah. So, I mean, even Yokic is aware of what they're up against. But I mean, if you were to ask, if you were to ask, you know, any son's player about how you stop Nikolai Yokic for, from getting a triple double the answer, probably to say. Prey, yeah. So he also went on to say he called, um, he said they'll try different things and, um, try to figure out how to, uh, figure out Chris Paul, Devin Booker and Kevin Durant. And then he called Kevin Durant the best score than, yeah.

Yeah. So I mean, I mean, at least he's aware. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, getting back to what the concerns to, um, Manti's got to make adjustments and he's going to have to make adjustments in the series. Is he going to be able to do that at a high enough level? Yeah.

That's a good. That's a fair concern. I was a little concerned with Monty's coaching in game five. At least he's not Mike Boottenholter, fire his ass. He's a bum. He's a bomb. Yeah, I love. Shane saying,

Elm, F.O. Prey. Yeah, that's very fair. It's a fair assessment. Can you do his name? I always mess it up. Who? Oh, Ted Lubb. Thank you.

No, it's Ted Lubin. Ted Lubin. Yokic is to Denver like Nash was to the seven. Yonkitches to Nashville. Or Yokitches to Denver like Nash was to the seven seconds. lost sons. Nuggets rely too much on him and it will go the same way the sons went when they faced the Duncan aerospace.

I mean, I agree. That's my thing. It's like if you somehow figure out a way to take it with Yokic, like if the Andrei Ait can have himself a series, um, I am, I am not worried about Yokic or Michael Porter Jr. beating you if Yokch is not. Um, now I am, I am definitely concerned about those guys being like the nail, like the straw

that breaks the camel's back on top of Yokch dominating, but if you can slow down Yokch, I'm not worried about the nuggets at all. Yeah. I mean, I am definitely. look like this series with the Nuggets is going to be war like it is going to be knocked down drag out and I mean fight to the end fight to the death Devon Booker and Kevin Booker and Yokch have gotten into it before like these aren't two teams that necessarily have the best relationship with each other yeah and it's not going to be rainbows and sunshine and Kevin Ratt like he's not

afraid of the smoke like he and he clearly like has his team's back so you add that wrinkle into this this young rivalry it's gonna be some fireworks in this year it's not going to be an easy, it's not going to be an easy series for sure. No. But we're going to put our money where our mouth is. What is your series prediction for this? Sons and six. Suns and six? That's what I was going to say. I wouldn't be probably but went seven either. I think there's going to be a good series.

I think the thing that concerns me is obviously the sons have those games where it's just like, ah, we're not playing today. And I'm like, oh, boy. And then I get concerned about the whole series. But I don't like, they just, if Devin Book is playing the way he does and Kevin Devin Rats playing the way he does and Deion and has a good series that we know that Chris Paul can show up in the playoffs. I'm not,

I'm not worried. I'm going to send to six. I was also going to say sons and six before you took it from me. I think they closed it out at home again because they will be at home, right? If it goes six, one, two, three, four, five is in Denver. Six is here. Yes, yes. Or just sweep women and do it, finish it here too. I'm not going out far. I'm not saying those words. I'm not saying those three, those three cursed words. Yeah, we're not saying those cursed words. Get out of it. You get out of it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, JT. If you, if you're in the, if you're in the

comments and you're watching, drop your series prediction in the comments right now. Let us know what you think the series is going to go to. I want to see what you guys are thinking. I wonder if we have any nuggets. If anyone thinks that the nuggets are going to win. I mean, someone said it, Connor said he might not have to say off social. I might need to delete Twitter and Slack. Slack is going to be a war zone.

For those of you that don't know, we have a sister city in Denver called DNVR. We are a part of the All-City Network, which also includes our sister city in Chicago's CETO. And we are all in one. Slack channel with a form of communication to each other and our Slack channel is going to burn to the ground. You know how entertaining this is going to be for CHDO? They're going to sit there and they're going to be like, we've been done for minutes. We've been done for weeks. This is just getting my popcorn ready. That's going to be fun. So, RIPR Slack channel, the comments, the series predictions

are rolling in. Elizabeth says sons in seven. Charles says sons and six. JT. apologize for a sin. I appreciate that. I love the confidence. We're just not going to say it out loud. But if you believe that, In his defense, he asked the question. He didn't say it as a statement. He asked or she, I don't know. It's just a nimble. Ernesto saying sons in six, Daniel's sons in seven, Ryan's sons in six. Yeah, regardless of who wins this series, I'd be shocked if it went less than six games.

I think there's going to be a bigger. It has to go more than that. Yeah. Or six or more, I think for sure. I'd be shocked if it ended in five. Yeah, I would do. But hey, if it ends in five and the sons won in five, I'll freaking take it, baby. I don't care how long it does it.

Any day the week. Speaking of watching the sons, did you know, everybody watching our show that we do Sons Away watch parties out at the bet mGM sports book in glendale and we have our next one coming up it is obviously that graphic is says the 26 but it's supposed to say the 29th um it's going to be april 29th starting at 4 p.m out in glendale at the bet mjm sports book we have a ton of great stuff we're going to be brought the p h and x sons podcast is broadcasting live from there they have deposit matches um sometimes they just give you free like free

money. Free money. Deposit matches. Yeah. It's just, it's why about their, you giveaways. Food and drink specials. The food is so good. You got that pretzel we had last time. They got a big Bavarian pretzel with the mustard and the cheese. So good. I had a full pancake breakfast last time. So if you need plans to watch the Sons, come watch them with us at MGM Sportsbook in Glendale. It's going to be so much fun. Last time there was someone walking around just handing out neutrals. Yeah, free, free alcohol. Hello. And it's so good. They're so people, like, everyone has their favorite flavors. And I think every, like, like, no one else's favorite flavor is orange. I fucking love it. It's beautiful.

All the oranges are for me. I love it. I also love the orange. And also I guess there's lemonade ones that I haven't tried yet. No, I haven't tried those either. I tried the pineapple and the watermelon. I don't really like orange flavored things. The orange neutral, I genuinely really like to taste it like orange soda. Yeah.

It was very good. So come out on Saturday. If you don't have plans, come hang out with us. We'll be there starting at 4 p.m. at the BetM.G.O. Sportsbook in Glendale. All right. Ryan had a little cold beer on a fried and chicken fried reference I like it Yes Glendo is far but we promise it's worth the drive Connor I don't I'm not trying to drive

I hate the city of Lundale I'm not trying to drive out there if I don't have a good reason to and trust me it's a good reason All right before we talk about the diamondbacks I have a fun little game we're going to play Sean because it's time for the game time game of the week Big thanks to our friends at GameTime for sponsoring our segment. Game Time, if you don't know, is the absolute best place to get tickets. If you're a procrastinator like me and you're looking for some last minute tickets, the tickets are so, so cheap. It actually kind of is scary. I've said this before.

Before we even had a partnership with Game Time, it was how I was getting my tickets to deback games. So I love them. Yeah, I love Game Time too. I've used it a bunch of times. I got a couple of concert tickets on there, I'm going to a concert again tonight and I got my ticket from game time. So shout out to Game Time for Huckinla. I know.

I've gone to three concerts this week. It's kind of insane. So big thanks to Game Time for helping me get there. I've used it to get discounted parking passes for Cardinals games. Like game time will hook you up, guys. They are the absolute best and the fastest growing ticketing app in the country for a reason. But Sean, I have a question for you. Okay.

So our Game Time game of the week is the Arizona Diamondbacks taking on the Washington Nationals on Saturday, the game on Saturday. And at that game, they are giving out the Serpiente's replica jersey. Okay. Okay. So it's a big game. It's a Saturday game. Yeah.

They're giving away probably their best giveaway of the entire season. I love the Serpientis jersey. The Serpienti is so good. Okay. So my next question is for baseline reserve tickets. Okay. Right down third baseline. How much do you think you would have to?

to pay for a baseline reserve ticket on the game time ticketing app for this game specifically. I mean, I'm not going to say here and pretend that debats tickets are like the most expensive tickets ever. But I mean, obviously the giveaways are, I mean, the giveaways are relatively expensive. I mean, like you go in-field along the baseline like $75, $80 probably. Okay. I'd say that's fair. You're wrong. I mean, but that's okay. I love you for being wrong. If you go to the GameTime app right now and use promo code P-H-N-X when you sign up, you will get based on reserve tickets in Section 110, Row 24, for $34.

$34.34, Section 100, Row 24. And you get a free jersey. Also, that 34 right there, you know what's right outside that section, the best stand that they got there, Scoop Wells, edible cookie dough, $34. You get a replica jersey. You get to sit right next to system. cookie dough for $34. I'm there.

I'm there. It's $20 off. And yes, if you use promo code, P-HNX. So $14? So $14, basically. For a free jersey? I bet you I could sell one of these Serpienti jerseys for more than $14. I think that's a legal.

You get a baseball game with it and a ticket. And I'm a jersey, I mean. Yeah, it's crazy. This is why game time is the best, you guys. What a deal. You can snag tickets without stress with game time. Download the GameTime app. create an account and use promo code P HNX for $20 off your first purchase.

Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code PHNX for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute ticket, last minute tickets, lowest prices, guaranteed. Speaking of the Diamondbacks, oh my God, I love watching the dogs play baseball. They're dogs. They're a wagon. They're so good of baseball.

Oh, they're dogs. I don't know where that came from. adorable little howl. That just got me jazzed. The dive vans just get me jazzed. They are a freaking wagon. Sean DePaz. A little flax.

Sean DePaz. Yes. At this point in the season, the Arizona divvacks are first in the NL West. Your first place, Arizona Diverall. Who would have thought? Who? Who would have thought?

Washington and Dodgers just lost a series of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who are also really good. I think they have the best record in that all right now. Yeah, they do. Place your diamondbacks over pirates and the NLCS futures right now. Because A, you're going to get great value on it. And B, that would be fun as hell. Fuck the Dodgers.

Can I say that real quick? Absolutely. They are behind us. They're a game behind us. So, L.A. No. Fuck the Padres, Rockies, and Giants while we're at it. Yeah, everyone else in the N-L-WS.

Really fuck the dog. Don't care about you. Did you expect this from the team to start the season? And if you, before this even started, you looked at their schedule. They played too many games against the Dodgers, too many games against the Padres, the St. Louis Cardinals. Did you expect them to be number one in the NL West? Absolutely not.

No. I thought they were going to be very, very good. And I'm not surprised that they got off to like a hot start, but this hot of a start, especially like you said, considering the teams that they had to play. And the Dodgers have not been like absolute world beaters. The pirates or the Padres haven't necessarily. like their lineup hasn't gone crazy. Like I think Soto hasn't gone crazy like I think people expected.

And the, oh my God, the St. Louis Cardinals, Jesus, what's going on there? But still, those are, at least on paper, very good teams. And the Diamondbacks still managed to come out of out of all of it on top of the NOS. Yeah. No, I certainly did not see this coming. I only told you were crazy. If you would have told me we'd have made it out of, we would have made it out of the first month in first place. Yeah.

And I mean, like, I don't know, there's parts of it where it's like, I should have seen this coming because if you look at like the individual pieces, did you expect Corby and Carroll to be good? Well, yeah. I mean, of course. Did you expect Zadena would be absolutely dominant? Yeah. Did. But there's also things like did you expect Gavin Moreno or Harald Prudamara to be batting over 300? Absolutely the fuck not.

Did you expect the team to DFA, Madison Bungartner, $3,34 million? Absolutely not. Did I think they would pull the trigger on sending down someone like Jake McCarthy this quickly? No, I did not. Did I even Gavin Radeo would be one of the best defensive catchers in the entire game. No, I did not. And also just start spraying the ball all over the goddamn park. No, I did not.

I didn't see those things coming. So I don't know what happened, but there is a fire under their butts. Yeah. I tried to tell you. Tori, he's him. I tried to tell you. They sent Dre too, right? Dre's back down.

They're not messing around. They're not messing around. There's urgency. There is urgency. And I love it. I don't know what Mike Hazen is doing differently if he's eating his weedies in the morning. I don't know, but I'm obsessed with the energy surrounding this team right now, and they are not messing around. I'm, I can't get enough of it. I'm like, they're not wasting

time. They're not making me suffer through unimaginable pitching. Tori, like, Tori said, and I quote, complacency sucks. There is no place for it on this team or in this organization. And that's exactly what you're saying. Because this team has ever reason to be complacent, or not every reason to be complacent. At no point did you expect this team to be contending. I'm not trying to get ahead of myself, but I'm saying, obviously based on their record right now, they're first in the West. At no point did you expect them to be contending for a World Series this year. Yeah. And so they could get complacent.

And they could have easily given Mad Bum more time. They could have easily given Dre more time. But they've not. They know what they have. They see where they're at and they have an opportunity to win. And I like that they're not being complacent. And I love that energy. I love it.

I was going to ask you what the best part of the season so far is for you. I'm going to answer it really quick. And it's the urgency. hands down. And that encompasses a lot. DFAing Madison Bumgarner. Absolutely loved it. Not wasting time on people that are struggling.

Like I just, I am so excited about the energy around this team. And I think the urgency goes hand in hand with that. And that is my favorite part. You see it out in a game to game basis too, with their aggressiveness on the base pad, stuff like that. For me,

it's twofold. It's Gabby Moreno and Geraldo Perdomo. Those two in particular. Okay. I didn't fully know what we were getting with Gabby Moreno. Like obviously he was a great prospect. but I mean, like I said, one of the best defensive catchers in baseball right now.

You cannot run on him. And that is such a great asset to have. I mean, ask people from the St. Louis Cardinals, not only when people are dumb enough to run on him, is he getting them out? But the Cardinals benefited from having Yadabana behind the plate for years, and people would not even attempt to run

because of the threat there. So there's that. And then Geraldo Pardomo, oh my God. Oh, my God. Where did this come from? Like, oh my God. I liked him last year just as like a guy. And obviously he had a handful of clutch moments.

And the Discord started calling him the Risp King, all that. He's betting over 300. Woo! What? Almost 400. Oh, you almost 400. What? He hit, but like he did hit 290 with runners in scoring position last year.

Yeah, no, yeah. The clutch thing was not that surprising. Clutch rating on the show. to go crazy. And he's doing it from the ninth spot in the lineup. Like you have that production at the bottom of your lineup. And I know they had them lead off just once, right? I'm like, that's awesome.

I love the idea of that. But I love the production. Like, he's clearly comfortable batting out of that ninth spot. And what is he 23 years old? Yeah, he's young. Yeah, he was two for three with a walk in the leadoff spot as well. So he just fully did his job. He's a dog.

You can put it anywhere in the lineup. And he's going to, he gets on base. He just simply does it. So I love it. I love that part. You're getting. like I was saying earlier the the normal suspects are producing

but you're getting this this addition on top of it yeah one more thing to tell Marte is back he's healthy and he's engaged again and I fucking love it my favorite part of just what that we just did right there is like we didn't even mention like each of our favorite things were different we didn't even mention probably arguably the best piece of this team or maybe

the best player and all professional baseball debt taxes and Zach Gallin scoreless inning streak Um, homie is burn in the place down. Dude, could you imagine being a player or being a team and Zach Gowd is pitching and we're like, okay, we're simply not scoring runs in the first six, seven innings of this game. We just are not going to do it. Yeah. In his most recent outing against the Royals, he pitched six and one-thirds inning, four hits,

zero earned runs, zero walks, 12 strikeouts. He extended his consecutive frame tally of not allowing a run to 28, and he shut out the Kansas City Royals. He finished the day with a season high, 12 strikeouts, which was one shy of his career high of 13. And again, only allowed four hits and not allowing a walk for a third straight start. Dude. One more crazy stat here for you. Opta stats said Gallin is the only major league pitcher in the modern era to have 40 plus strikeouts and a whip under 0.5 without allowing a run across a four-start span.

Hey. Holy mother F. guys are pretty big baseball fans. Is that good? That's unreal. That's pretty good, isn't it? It might be good enough for something in a locker somewhere, maybe. Oh, oh, oh.

And a PHNX locker? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe someday. Maybe someday. I'm working on. Maybe someday. Maybe someday.

Who knows? In five starts this month, Zach Allen has a 4-0 record with a 1.09 ERA, a 0.61 whip, a 0.157 batting average against and a 44 strikeouts with two walks. Can you like, what do we like what? Can we just take a minute? What? What? He's the best player of baseball, dude.

He's the best pitcher alive right now. I don't care. E. R. Gargaw's Pinscher strider. I love you. You're a great guy, but you're not, you're not him.

Like this man is playing for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Yeah. Yeah. I am beside myself. Yeah. I'm kind of speechless. is like yeah i'm just going to keep saying yeah because i don't have words for it like he's a dog i don't know what else he's what are you supposed to say about it he goes out there and there he goes out there

his job is to throw the ball and not let the other team hit it and the hitter goes up there with one job and it is to hit the baseball he can't every single time that galen does his job and the better that's all there is to it he's just simply better he's just simply better and the best thing is too is he's a great human being. I don't have yeah, yeah. Arguably one of the best guys in the clubhouse. He's hilarious. Did you see his quote about the snake belt that he had? He tried a new belt to match

the Serpianas jersey. I think he would actually love it. It's like a tan snake skin belt. And he wore it. And he was unreal. And he was like, I'm just glad I didn't get lit up wearing this belt because that would have been embarrassing. He is awesome. So like, he was awesome in college at UNC too. I think you would see. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

You would see. Just a gem of a human being hilarious. Has a great personality. and is the best pitcher in baseball. I don't care what anyone says. I don't care who you're a fan of. Zach Gallen is the best pitcher in baseball. And if this success continues, he will absolutely be a Cy Young winner.

Period. Period. Period. Strong said it. Like, if Gallen doesn't win a Syong, he should be fired. Please don't fire Zach Allen. Who should be fired?

No, no, no, no, pitching coach. Not, not, yeah. I thought you said Zach Gallin should be fired. He doesn't want to say, y'allon. I was like, wait, wait, whoa. No, no, no, no, no. No, not that. But yeah, I mean, everything is setting up for him to.

And I mean, like, listen, we've talked. I'm not getting, I've been very good so far not getting ahead of myself. Yeah. But all as I am saying is that this is the kind of pitcher that wins you World Series. You get to the playoffs and this is the kind of guy that pitches nine inning shutout. And you're like, okay, we've already are up one nothing on this series. Sign him. Yes.

Pay him literally every single dollar. comment saying give Gallen a blank check. Re freaking tweet. I don't care how much money he's asking for. Listen, this is coming from the girl that says, let's not do anything crazy, spend a lot of money that we don't have, and do something dumb like getting Zach

Renke or Madison Bumgarner and just let's just not do it. Like, let's stay on track. Let's stay the course. Let's not do anything wild. I don't think spending a bunch of money on Zach Gallin is wild. You're looking at four or five years 210. Probably. No. Give him whatever he wants. Give him my house.

Ken Kendrick. You want my car, Zach? I'll give you my car. Every single one of those baseball cards you collected. Sell whatever you need to do. Sell them all. Sell every single card, Kendrick. All of them.

I need this man here for a long time. Except for the Zaddown rookie card you probably have because that'll be worth even more. After you sign him and he becomes the best pitcher in the team. I talked about this with you and Derek when we were there before the season. And I'm interested at Jacob because I asked if there was anybody on this team that is going to have their number retired alongside Donzo and Randy and he said Corbin if they signed that Gallen to a contract that man is going to get his number retired by the Arizona car or the Arizona Diamondbacks. Yeah.

He's going to be a hall of fame pitcher. It's just crazy. I have a question in here that says what did we do to deserve Zach Allen? But then I just like thought for a second. I was like, we've done a lot. We've suffered. We've finally. We have something so good.

What did I do deserve that? Yeah. Because I just showed up. I never, I didn't care about the Diamondbacks before I moved out here. I showed up and it's the most exciting time to be a Diamondbacks fan ever. I will say I was rocking with them last year and things weren't that great so I'm not bandwagoning. I am all in on this team. And I just all as I'll say is I cannot wait for May 26th, 27th and 28th.

Yeah. Gabriel in the chat saying Zach Gallen's contract extension is going to start with the two. Yeah. Charles Woodall Pike is saying renamed Chase Field to Gallen Stadium. I'm all for it. If they're going to renovate Chase Field with milk? Yeah, they can just sell milk for the milkman. Stop it.

She hate milk. It's just crazy. I mean, I just can. They should have a milkshake slash ice cream stand. That's gallon themed. Watching Devin Booker play basketball is the same way I feel watching

Zach Allen pitch a baseball. Yeah. It's like, oh, man, he's gonna, you literally, it's like the, it's the,

it's the yokech quote. If you want, what is your plan to, to hit that gallon? Pray. You pray. Close your eyes, swing the bat and pray.

When Zach Allen is pitching, I don't care who it is, the opposing team, their batterers are probably like shit. It's throwing trutters. He's going down. He's throwing pitches. He doesn't even know that he has.

He has this weird pitch that's between a cutter and a change up that I've never seen before in my life. Vinny Pasquantino said he's never seen anything like it in his entire life. And that's a professional baseball player. But Zach had no idea. Like he looked down at his hand like in my magic. It literally, he had no idea. It was crazy.

Yeah, it's this weird pitch between that somewhere between like a cutter and a change up. And I've never seen anybody in my life pitch a ball like that. I don't know that I have ever seen a guy swing on a ball, not touch it. The catcher completely miss it. And then it knocked the ums mask off. Like I don't know if I've ever seen anything quite like that. That shit was ridiculous.

It was like, you know like rise balls and softball how they can pitch rise balls. It's like a fucking blitzball. It was like that. It's just like, I'm just going to go where. It's like the gold is stitching Harry Potter. It's moving all around this bitch.

Good luck. It is unbelievable. Like I fucking love it here. Oh, yeah. I just, I can't get enough of it. Like I just sit there and I'm like, wow. We really have like generational talents,

two generational talents playing for Valley teams and it's just we do it's crazy generational talents right here talking about him hey there you go um we made no love for carlo we talked about get out of here Alex we talked about the cardinals earlier we talked about the cardinals earlier cardinals uh carlyler's uh carly's uh he's uh he's her right now so he's always he got his he got his left tackle kailer marie hasn't won a play up game yet so we are going to delay that conversation for a couple years i have my future on that second i want to win the the uh say young by the you have a future on him doing a sign. That's pretty safe bet. I would take that bet. Did you do it on the BAMGM? Of course I did. Of course you did. Uh, yeah, I just love it. We're so lucky.

If you haven't been out to Diamondbacks game yet, you have to go. Like, you have to watch this team. They are so much fun. Um, get your tickets on a game time app. You want to go see them. Or, or, or you can come clear calendar on May 11th. Our D-Backs Chase Field takeover. We have another takeover happening on May 11th, which we are super stoked for. It is going to be a 640 first pitch against the San Francisco Giants. It's a long-go revenge game. The tickets are only $28 for diehards or $35 if you are not a diehard. We're going to be doing a pre-game meetup at Cold Bears and Cheeseburgers, and you'll get a ticket to the game as well.

You'll get to hang out with some really cool people. I will be there. Sean, are you going to be there? Of course. Yeah, so a bunch of D-BACs people are going to be there. We all get to sit together. It's going to be super fun. You can get your tickets for this by going to the Events tab on go ph-h-h-nx.com.

Or if you would rather, you could buy a season pass. Our season passes include five tickets for their takeovers the rest of the year. So we're going to five more Diamondbacks games. The May 5th, sorry, the May 11th game is included in that season pass. So if you would rather just get a season pass and come to all the games, I highly recommend you do that because we're going to be going to five games as a family, as a crew. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It was so much fun.

Chris and CWP were both there at the last one and we were hanging out. There was a bunch of people there. But it's fun. Listen, it's fun time to be a D-Dex fan. It's even more fun when you're there with other people. Chris did smack me in the back for doing the wave. As she should. Good for you, Mama Chris.

Thank you. I learned my way. I would have smacked him too if I was there. I learned my lesson because the wave came back around and I was, I knew she was behind me. I didn't do it again. So I learned. You're doing the wave. What I don't.

I don't know the problem with the wave. I don't have a problem with it. Okay. The thing that drives me, I hate the wave in general, but the thing that makes me extra irate is Diamond Max fans always seem to do it at the most inopportune times. Like, Zach Allen will be pitching a shutout, no-hitter perfect game and all of a sudden in the fourth inning, here comes the wave. Are you kidding? I will say, I don't mind the wave unless I'm in the section where the wave starts because there's nothing more obnoxious in the

world to me than the one person who is like, I need to make this entire sporting event about me and I need to stand up and demand my entire section start the wave. Like that shit is lame to me. It's all If it wants to start on the other side of the stadium, I'll throw my arms up. No, is you be doing the way of period? Is it just like an unwritten rule that you have to be that person? I think so. Like the one in the outfield, like the corner ticket that starts the wave all the time. Yeah.

Yeah. So no doing the wave. Thank you, Chris, for smacking Sean. Just the giggles. Get out of here. We're not even putting that comment on screen because it's not happening. It's never happening. So, yeah, just don't do the wave and it'll be fine.

But you can come hang out with us at our takeover. You can also sign up to be a diehard at go pageionics.com, which you should be. because we have literally so many events coming up. We have our first ever golf tournament. We've got takeovers. And you get discounted prices to all those things. When you're a diehard, you also get a free t-shirt,

a ton of cool benefits, access to our members only Discord, which we talk in all the time. There's really no reason not to be a die-hard. Like you're actually actively losing money by not being a die-hard. No, literally. I mean,

and you mentioned about Mike's earlier when you become a die-hard. You get $50. You get a free t-shirt or a hat. Yeah, we're really doing the most out here for you guys. So take advantage of it while you can. And thank you all so much for tuning into the show. I know we went long today, but we had a great time.

We did. It was fun. We had a lot to talk about. It's been a minute since we had this much positive news to talk about. Absolutely. I mean, and it just was that gal on. We could have sat here two hours talking about the DBX team. Make sure to tune into our draft show tonight with the Cardinals guys.

They're going to be live for the entire second and third round of the NFL draft starting at four o'clock. If a DHOP trade happens, it might come tonight. It might happen tonight. Thank you all so much for tuning in. I hope you all have a wonderful safe weekend. We'll see you out at safe bet MGM. out in Glendale on Saturday for our son's watch party. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.

And we'll see you next Friday at 1230. Bye.