Dave King | Phoenix Suns Insider

We are pleased to welcome Dave King, who's got the bright side of the sun and is a longtime insider for this NBA team with all of the ups and all of the downs. He was there for the Kevin Durant introduction.

Dave, what's the reaction to what you saw on Thursday? Also, watching at the same time. So they staged it in the arena on the floor of the arena. They had, like I said about 3000 fans up in the stands, getting they gave out free tickets for it. And then the media folks were in the first couple of rows.

And we, you know, we just took turns using the mic and asking questions. And it was funny because any questions regarding Kevin's time with the Nets were met with major booze because the fans didn't want to hear about that. These are Phoenix Suns fan. uh and then any questions that were met that were asked about the phoenix sons were you know big cheers and all that both before and after kevin duran answered questions it was fun did they sell tickets or they just opened it up for the first 3 000 fans hey uh they sent tickets to season ticket holders i believe is what they did like free ones like they didn't sell tickets uh but they they the tickets were sent to people's email so i assume it's it was season ticket holders who got in in order not to get booed right off the top dave what did kd say about how this came together with the sons and his attitude about being in a new place for the rest of the year well he certainly seemed happy of course it helps when you've got three thousand fans totally cheering every every move you make every gesture you make he was he was definitely this was the most uh gregarious i've seen uh kevin duran in an interview um he's very talkative he gave good explanations good long answers but it was a lot of softball questions because this was an intro press conference with kevin duran and because of all the fans there uh he had very few hard questions to answer he seemed extremely excited about it i asked him a question about you know what is it about devin booker that got chris paul and now kevin durant to want to join him so badly that they got themselves traded to play with him and he just went on just saying how great he thinks devin booker is he thought he was great for a long time so quiet and mature about the way he plays the game and then he ended with people are going to teach classes about how devin booker plays the game and this was two minutes after katie had said yeah there's a lot of pressure on me i'm one of the greatest of all time he's not humble no he's also very respectful at the same time and and i thought that was interesting dave king is with us from phoenix covers uh the suns for sb nation and also has uh the bright side sun that is uh the biggest suns website in the world actually um we you know we're suns only 24 7 and it's under sb nation it's a great place to go if you're a sun fan you want to hear the latest news and also analysis and thoughts about how the team is doing and and opinions it's a great place to go well we appreciate your insight here on after hours cbs sports radio so then dave what did he say about his time with the nets and the very short era that was yeah he gave a less of an answer than kyree did a few days ago when asked an oppressor and some of that had to do with the fans booing the person who asked the question of him about how his next tenure went he basically just said we only played 16 17 games together that's the bottom line it's as simple as that if we had been healthy it would have been different but if we weren't healthy he actually said there were some there was a terrible ending to the whole thing he actually used the word terrible but uh he didn't really go much beyond hey it's over now and i'm looking forward to my next chapter okay well good thing that that works in the nba where a lot of guys get to start fresh hit the reset button and go play with a different group what if devin booker and chris paul and some of the other suns like diondre aton said about welcoming durant into their locker room and onto the court yeah uh so devin booker has just uh has just been so respectful and reverend he's just like i can't believe i get to play with one of the greatest of all time chris paul has said that you know has talked glowingly about kevin durant as well my favorite answer when asked that question was diondre aton because basically he is embodying all of us because when i asked him i said what do you think about playing with kevin durant one of the greatest of all time on your team and he just looked at me he said i am still trying to answer that question myself i don't know i'm looking forward to it i don't know what's gonna happen big smile he couldn't stop smiling about it he'll be the kid in the candy store the rest of this season where book and cp3 and and durant will take it very very seriously diondre is just going to be the guy who just feasts off everything and enjoys his his his chance to play with those guys this is a group that has a lot of potential we saw them obviously get into the nba finals a couple years ago where they lost to the milwaukee bucks now adding kd makes it a completely different foe a completely different opponent but what has kept them in that big group in the middle of the western conference this year why are they not higher in the standings the simple answer is health devin booker missed almost two months he missed so much time he wasn't he didn't qualify for the all-star game even though he won player of the month in november chris paul missed over a month of time uh there was just so many injuries the suns at times were playing with a injury list longer than starting lineup and his six seven guys at a time being out and it's really tough to keep continuity when your lineups in some games were a couple of two-way players and three league minimum guys so that's why the suns were are down at their fifth in the standings going into the all-star break but they're only a game and a half out of third and while memphis and denver are kind of pulling away a little bit any team on a really good run is going to get up to third or second by the end of the year and then no one's going to want to play the suns in the playoffs so i think they just need to take care of their own business get on their own run playing really well going into the playoffs and it might be different than a year ago when the suns were playing poorly going into the playoffs and it showed and they couldn't close the deal so they're looking forward to just finishing on a good note and then being ready to take over when the playoffs happen dave king is with us from phoenix talking suns basketball and what could be as we head into the all-star break and then the stretch run actually because the teams are already about 75 of the way through their schedule it's after hours here on cbs sports radio when you think about the western conference right now dave what's your impression because it's not just phoenix there's a huge group of teams that are kind of all clumped together within a few losses of one another yeah it's pretty wild in the west that's for sure what it's going to be fun to see how the matchups go in the playoffs but you've still got your the clippers if they're healthy they have just as much a chance to win a championship as the number one nuggets the problem the little problem with the nuggets is that they don't play great defense and in the postseason you got to play great defense it may be unstoppable offensively though so we'll we'll find out memphis is really young um the sacramental kings are kind of surprised to be there as much as anybody is and so it's it's going to be a really interesting playoffs when you know when all those seedings shake out and uh it could be that the three or four or five feet end up you know in the western conference finals you're going to have a lot of you know in the western conference finals shooting for the you know for a finals appearance not only did they bring guys in or kevin durant namely but they also shipped a bunch of guys out any thoughts on how long that might take them to get adjusted to one another well at the very top end i feel like kevin durant is going to fit in pretty seamlessly because he's very malleable he fit in with the warriors and and that you know and uh he had the thunder and the nets and all that he's a pretty easy guy to play with because he's just so freaking good um it's the other guy like you said they lost michael bridges and cam johnson in the trade uh for kevin durant they brought in a terence ross who was a buyout from the magic tonight against the clippers terrace terence ross led the team led the sons in shot attempts that dude is not afraid to shoot he was born with a born with a green light coming out of the womb and uh and so they're the sons are going to have to figure out how to integrate their other parts they're basically very top heavy now like any quote-unquote super team the sons haven't proved anything yet to show that they are one of those but they're very top heavy with their top four with deandre aden chris paul devin booker and um and kevin durant and then beyond that they're kind of a bunch of six seventh eighth guys in a rotation and someone's going to have to step up so we'll see we'll see how that goes and sometimes you get through postseason and you win a championship anyway because what is it the heat uh miami heat of the bronze you know the heatles right then mario chalmers in their starting lineup so um it just depends on how good really it's going to come down to how good those top four are uh and then the rest of the season they'll just be kind of shaking out the rest of the rotation well and it certainly depends on when kd is available so what do we know about when he might be able to play again you always got to read the tea leaves right so when i asked him earlier today when he'd be available he didn't give a definitive answer he said soon um i'm close right after the all-star break hopefully but i'll leave it up to the trainers but then just during the game tonight um espn announced that they have moved the tuesday night game suns against the thunder uh to an espn game starting at 8 pm so maybe they have inside information you got to read the tea leaves on kevin durant's availability it's possible he'll play next tuesday before i let you go monty williams is one of those guys who's been around the league a long time he stays fairly even keeled a lot of respect internally but also externally what has he said about adding a player of this caliber to the suns well monty is is one of those guys who doesn't give you great answers you know the first thing he says is i'm only focusing on today's game uh you know i'm not thinking about that in the future i can't because we've got to win today's game but in the times he has like it's not right at pregame or something like that he has said that uh they're just going to try to keep it simple with their schemes but he feels like kevin durant can fit easily into the offense and defense that the sun schemes already have and they don't have to tailor them other than just letting durant bend uh the offense and defense to him you know what i mean so you don't have to change the scheme to make kevin durant fit uh kevin durant will just fit in and just be better than anybody else has been in that scheme so that's the thought right now they're not going to tweak a ton they're going to try to incorporate them uh as it is and then uh you know modify from there as you find everyone's strengths and weaknesses always a lot of fun when the fan base is excited and the locker room is buzzing and man his debut will be something to behold maybe on national tv but you can find dave on twitter at dave king nba and he has got the bright side of the sun blog it's huge join the fun for sb nation uh we appreciate a couple of minutes especially on such a busy day dave thank you so much yeah thank you for having me on