So the coaching carousel is finally slowing down. There's only one team that needs a coach left. It's Toronto. Did anybody think Toronto was going to be the last job standing? I didn't now the Phoenix Suns. They just shook the foundations of the NBA by hiring Frank Vogel. Wild You might think that this is a peculiar higher. Matt Ishbie clearly likes headlines. This is about the least splashy headline
higher you could have. Like, Frank Vogel was the coach that was the second option after Monty Williams turned down the La Lakers job. If you remember that so quite literally, Frank Vogel is just walking in Monty Williams a shadow. If it's not for Monnie Williams, Frank Vogels maybe not coaching at all. It does make a little bit of sense, though. Frank Vogel's very good at managing egos. He's known for that.
He had a lot of experience overseeing the roster with Anthony Davis, Lebron James, ultimately Russell Westbrook, which didn't work out, but he did win a ring in the bubble. He was very successful at figuring out a way and also like low key Kyle Kuzma, like managing Kyle Kuzma's ego could not have been easy either. There was no Kyle Kuzma league fits strolling down the Staples Center tunnel. All the league fits from Kyle Kuzma and his crazy, wild
like electric magneto. Like doctor Sue, shit came when he went to Washington. What he inherits Frank Vogel is a team with has a good bit of locker room drama. Like Jay Crowder wanted out, he was on strike until the trade deadline, he got shipped out. DeAndre Ayton is
quiet quitting, Chris Paul's body is quiet quitting. And then you add that to Kevin Durant and Devin Booker doing everything that they can to shoulder the burden of this franchise and a team with absolutely zero depth where you've got to rely on Landry Shammant hitting eight threes in a fourth quarter in order for your team to stay competitive. I would say personally that Frank Vogel has his work
cut out for him. First of all, the hallmark of Vogals teams is defense, and the running gun souns are kind of the opposite of that, vocals defense is built around a rum protector. When you know the Lakers, they had Javel McGee, they had backup Dwight Howard to support Anthony Davis. With the Pacers, he built around Roy Hibbert
and shockingly, Andrew Binham. In Phoenix, he's got again a non rim protecting DeAndre Ayton, who probably maybe gets shipped out, Jacques Landell, who I don't know what you're getting from him, and Bismack Biambo. It's gonna be a hard, hard road to build a Vogel style defense without a big man in the middle protecting the rim. A second, it's we
got a point guard problem in Phoenix. Chris Paul not only had his annual injury during the playoffs, but by the end of the season he looked like his legs were pretty much gone anyway. He averaged twelve five and seven in the playoffs, which was his season average of fourteen four and nine, by far, the least productive numbers
of his entire seventeen year career. Literally, even in his rookie ear Chris Paul averaged sixteen to five, and that was his worst statistical season until this past season with his injury problems by the way, he missed twenty three regular season games in the last four playoff games, plus his declining production, the Suns need help with the point guard spot, and they need it fast. Plus. Vogel described his offensive philosophy as intelligent movement through randomness. He said
this in his final season with the Lakers. We want to give our playmakers as much space as we can. Just emphasizing the movements off those cuts and then the reshapes out of those is something that we're trying to do with all of our guys. Chris Paul, like three four years ago would have been really a great fit for Frank Vogel CP three, maybe even two years ago would have been fine. But this version of Chris Paul, he's not fast enough anymore. He's not cutting any more.
That means taller guards who he used to be able to the gate with the speed are now absolutely cooking Chris Paul. His defensive rating this year was one hundred and twelve point three, again the worst of his career. His defensive rating ballooned to an obscene one seventeen point three in the playoffs this year. Gross, here's the thing, let's be honest, Chris Paul's not a starting point guard anymore, and Frank Vogel knows it. Matt Ishbia probably knows it.
James Jones knows it, which means not only are the Suns in the market for a rim protector aka potentially Miles Turner, but also they need a point guard as well. The Suns are going to be a playoff team as long as they're healthy, but with Chris Paul, Kevin Durant, and Devin Booker all with injury issues, even Devin Booker last year missed nineteen games, this is a very thin team that's not going to survive even a paper cut.
The best thing the Suns did was not just hiring Voguel, It was making sure Kevin Young, the lead assistant who was the finalist for the head coaching job, stayed put. All they needed to do to accomplish that goal was make him the highest paid assistant coach in the NBA two million dollars per year. I like the Suns. I like Devin Booker, I like Kevin Durance. I also like DeAndre Aighten, But I don't really like Frank Vogel teams at all, Like they're not very fun to watch. I
hated watching the Lakers. When Frank Vogel coaches him, it's a lot of defense and not a lot of offense. Hopefully he will not uglify the Suns too much next season. Moving on, let's talk a little bit about Kayleb Martin. Caleb Martin two way player, coming out party in the playoffs average ten to five and two this season for the Heat, but put on the afterburners in the playoffs average fourteen six and two, shooting forty four percent from three. Had some huge games to put him on the map.
A bunch of people are now excited about Caleb Martin. But the one thing that a lot of people don't know is how Caleb Martin got into the league and that he owes his career to Ja Cole. Because Jeff Ban Gundy will not stop talking about it, we now know that Caleb Martin was an undrafted free agent. Every game, I swear to God, Jeff Van Gundy talks about all the undrafted free agents that Miami picked up. Take a drink every time you hear heat culture. Take a drink
every time you hear heat role players stepping up. Take a drink every time you hear the word undrafted. Anyway, back to Caleb Martin. Caleb Martin played two years for the Hornets, and he was at this point getting the vibe that they were out on him as a player. So he went back to North Carolina with a twin brother, Cody, the train playing some North Carolina runs and if you remember, both twins went to NC State, so North Carolina was
sort of back in their backyard. J Cole, who's also from North Carolina, played professional basketball in Africa for Rwanda, a little known fact, had followed both of the Martin's careers at NC State and was also in the run playing as well. But apparently Caleb was so impressive and cooking pretty much everyone on site that J. Cole called up his friend and Miami assistant called Ron Butler, and said, you need to give Caleb Martin a shot. He's really,
really good. You need to You're an idiot if you don't give him a look. He's easily one of the best player on the floor on these runs, so you need to at least invite him to camp. What's the least. That's what you guys do. That's all you guys do is pick up undrafted free agents, so you might as well look at Kayler Martin. Martin goes into camp and presses the fuck out of Eric Spolstra, and he earns
himself a two way contract. Halfway through his first season with the Heat, he was in the rotation, helped them becoming the number one seed in the East and one three away one Jimmy Butler three away from the finals and without Jay Cole. I don't even know if Caleb
Martin is in the league right now. He's definitely not on the Heat and kron Butler pretty much said that when asked about Ja Cole, cron Butler said, there are certain people that when they call you about particular people, the messages and the favor is a little louder than others. It was just one of those things where I was like, damn, he actually called me about this kid, and he was like, Yo, Martin needs that opportunity. I love this story. I love
this story because Jay Cole had nothing to gain. He had no reason to make that call other than the fact that he saw a player who deserved an opportunity and a city situation where he could help. He did it because Caleb Martin needed a break and if given the break, Caleb Martin was going to run with it, and he did all the way to the NBA Finals. That's all the time that we have for the Heat Check.
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