Locked On Suns Friday: 2018 NBA Draft recap with The Stepien’s Cole Zwicker and 7SOL Pod

On today’s episode, Evan was joined by The Stepien’s Cole Zwicker plus David Nash and Max McCauley of the 7 Seconds or Less Podcast to recap the 2018 NBA Draft, especially diving in further from Phoenix’s point of view.

How do we see Deandre Ayton blending in to the current ecosystem built for him alongside Devin Booker and Josh Jackson? Should we expect a lot of growth from Ayton defensively, and how does he fit into Igor Kokoskov’s scheme?

Then, we went into the discussion relating to Phoenix’s aggressive push for Mikal Bridges and getting great value with Elie Okobo at No. 31. How do we see Bridges’ winning pedigree impacting the Suns, including his elite two-way wing skill set? For Okobo, he’s raw but also has tantalizing upside. How do we see the Frenchman long term next to Booker?

Overall, the Suns are seemingly going all-in on Devin Booker as their franchise. Unlike last year, they now have given him so much space to operate that he could be on the verge of taking his All-Star leap in 2018-19. Are we heading down the James Harden path with Booker? It’s certainly an intriguing idea.

We ended the podcast with overall draft thoughts. Who were the biggest winners? How does Luka Doncic have three teams pass on him while De’Anthony Melton, a lottery talent, slips into the 40s? There was definitely some interesting selections by some teams and it will have long term ripple effects for their future in terms of roster construction.

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