 We're taking a quick break coming up later in the show. The idea is the league is considering free throws for flopping. Good idea or not. But before that, Jock Landale Phoenix Sun Center is standing by. Yes, we're going to get the scoop on everything. We want to hear what he thought about this game seven. And while former Spurs are always welcome here, when run it back, returns. Run it back, run it up, run it back, run it back. Finishes it off, Landale at and one. He's doing it all right now. It's fun to watch yourself on a loop joining us today. Jock Landale for the Phoenix Sun Center. And I was going to get right into game seven, Jock. And thank you. I know it's early out on the West Coast. But before we came back, you were telling us about your day and why you're stuck in Los Angeles. And I would love for you to share this story. Yeah, we took a little trip right after season. And we went out to dinner and we were kind of at dinner discussing the possibility of going to Europe. And I'm just spending a week out there because we've got some stuff out there next year that we needed to kind of check again on. We came back from dinner and the dog was sitting there and my passport was just spread out across the room. So the dog definitely had other plans in that regard. So right now we're doing a little trip out to San Francisco to get a new passport, which has just been a pain in the ass. So that's that. To expedite a passport. And it's a golden retriever for anybody who's wondering if you're in the market for a dog. I don't know if that sells you on a golden retriever or sways you away. He's on style to shape right now. So just for a little guy just didn't want you to leave. All right. So I know we got basketball to talk to it and we had the improbable happen this past week. We got a game seven out of what seemed like a very easy sweep for the Miami Heat. What were your reactions as a player watching a team like Boston come back from something like that? I mean like when they came out and said don't let us get one. I really like believe that because momentum as you know in the NBA is a crazy thing. And once a team gets going just like Miami had it going in the first three, it's really hard to slow them down and stop them. So I felt watching that series unfold that Boston did a great job of kind of getting the momentum swing back on their side. And I thought that it was going to be tough to slow them down. But every win that they had, I was, you know, it was without game Vincent, who was a huge piece of the puzzle for them. And then, you know, Jimmy had a couple of nights, Bam had a couple of nights and their role players kept kind of ticking along. So I felt as though the whole time if they could just get there, the whole thing to kind of click and come together then that fourth win was going to be a no brainer. And it took them into game seven, but you know, I feel, I really feel as though their bench and their role players stepped up in a huge way all those undrafted guys as people like to keep calling them. They were huge. And Caleb Martin was massive for them last night and being able to kind of help them get across the line. But I felt as though last night was kind of a complete picture for Miami and they did a great job of just banding together and doing what it took to, you know, win at the right time. So, Jack, the heat are not going to face the nuggets who beat your sons in the West semis. Do you think that he can do this? Can they really pull this off and win? And do you think there's anyone there that can really contain or stop Nikola Yoke? I just don't believe you can stop Yoke playing against him and, you know, trying to push him to the brink of, you know, fatigue and just slowing down as much as possible by working him, you know, up and down the court nonstop and crashing every board. He really is able to just take his foot off the gas from an intensity standpoint but still be able to pick apart the defense. So, I don't necessarily believe that they're going to be able to stop Yoke. I think it's more about can you stop the players around him from being massive contributing factors? Can you hold Jamal to 15 to 20 rather than giving him 30 tonight? I think that there are some huge players that Bruce Brown makes on a regular basis. Can you kind of cut those out? And then I think their secondary unit, can you do a great job of kind of hurting them? I think that's where you can really win games. It's a tough matchup for any team. In saying that Bam is a really great defensive player who's a nice kind of mixture of an all-star but who also gives an incredible effort every single night. And I think that that is a rare combination that maybe he hasn't seen yet in the playoffs. So, it's going to be an interesting one. I believe that Miami, I was thinking about last night, I think that they can really push them in this series and surprise a lot of people. The other thing is there's been this constant narrative around Miami of being the underdogs and I believe that that's where Boston might have lost a few games at the start was they took their foot off the gas thinking, this is an eight seed, we can come in and get this done with our eyes closed and obviously that didn't happen. So, I think this is going to be a series. I don't think it's going to be a walk in the park like some people might believe it's going to be. Miami is tough, they make great adjustments and I'm not entirely sure who Dem is going to defend them with. So, I feel like this is going to be a tough matchup for both teams. Big fella, you got a lot of praise for the job you did on Nicola Jokic in your guys' series and you had some great minutes in that series. What's it like guarding Jokic? I mean, this is a guy who can do literally everything on the court at that size. Give us an idea of what it's like to just have to deal with that matchup in the playoffs series. It's tough man, it is really tough. I have a few players in the back of my head where I defend him as well as I can and he just has this feathery touch which is damn near impossible to stop. So, I wasn't really too concerned with whether or not he had 53 on a given night or if I held him to, you know, 2017 and 18 and it was funny and in that series some people were saying, you know, I got the best of him on any given night and then I look at the box score and guys got 26, 18 and 16. It's like, well, it's kind of tough to see it that way from my perspective. My whole mindset was just like, slow him down as much as possible by giving a great effort every single possession and just working myself to exhaustion because I kind of know where my limit will be but seeing if I can bring him to that just a little bit quicker given the minute, you know, discrepancy and everything that we were playing. So, I knew that I was going to get 20 to 25 minutes in games three and four and then I was going to just take it from there but I wasn't really too concerned with whether or not he made buckets and did what he does because he's a two-time MVP for a reason and all I was concerned with was crash the glass every single time and just kind of run through him as much as possible and then up and down the court as much as possible and then on top of that it was like, you know, making sure that I wasn't doing, you know, the NBA thing where you just kind of walk into an on-ball it was to sprint down to the baseline, make him touch the baseline with me and then come flying back up into an on-ball I was just trying to really wear him down as much as possible so that, you know, we could, I never thought we were going to stop him on the offensive end but could we get more production out of our guys offensively with him being tired on the defensive end so that's where my mind was at the whole time. I had the luxury of kind of sitting back and watching those games one and two unfold court side so it was, I felt as though I had like a good idea what I had to do so, yeah. Yeah, Jock, keeping it with the big fellas, DeAndre Aten, he's got a lot of criticism all season long, especially in the postseason and you defended him, you said, you know, I'm tired of people shitting on him basically. What did his critics not see that you as his teammate as his boy see every single day in the facility in the locker room? Yeah, I mean, DA to me is someone who copped the brunt of criticism ever since. Obviously, I wasn't on the team last year but ever since they're lost to Dallas last year in game seven and when I came into the facility there was a lot of negativity being kind of slung towards him and I got to really know the guy over a year and I thought that he was a great teammate every single time that I was out there competing, he was the first one off the bench to kind of clap and come talk to me and he was always kind of in my ear about what to do next and then that trickled over just into the locker room and then into the practice facility and then it was, you know, we were hanging out off the court as well and I just kind of got fed up with hearing about how this guy took me in from the start of the year and I saw him kind of always being up and about and clapping for his teammates and I know that there's little things and I know that there is a side to basketball players and we need to perform on the court but there was just so much more that he was doing well that people weren't necessarily recognising and me being from Australia, me being from a culture that kind of, you know, claps and emphasises the teammate aspect of everything I thought that that was something that was being overlooked completely the other thing was we were in the middle and it was obvious that all this chat and talk was getting to him so I was like someone's got to step up here and let him know that he's not just in this by himself and he's not just, you know, like I'm not cool with how people were talking about him being one of my boys so all I did was just kind of be who I was and said, you know what, enough's enough and this guy deserves to know that, you know, we got him, we got his back and that he's not in this thing alone so there's a lot of things that DA does well you know, even on the court even though he wasn't having the best series like we all understood that and I think he understood that he had a great year and he was a huge piece of the puzzle for us early on in the season and through the whole regular season he had a good series against the Clippers but he was fine on his feet you know, we went through a huge transition during All-Star break and he was... he's role changed drastically so I felt like he needed to hear that from someone within the organization I know that Monty was trying to be in his ear about it but I thought one of us players needed to step up and just let him know publicly that we had his back You mentioned Coach Monty and he obviously was fired shortly after this series how did you feel about that situation? Were you surprised? Were you hoping he'd stay on? What was your vantage point with that? Yeah, I mean, I love playing for Monty you know, those decisions are obviously well out of my control but yeah, I really enjoyed playing for Monty I mean, he gave me my first real NBA opportunity ever and I'm going to be forever grateful for that someone that I thought did a really good job within his role of kind of managing our team and helping us through the season despite, you know, despite all the criticism that was around us despite all the changes that we went through roster and organization base I thought Monty did a hell of a job so, you know, I can't really speak on the decision that was made because that's well above my pay grade and all I can say is that I'm very appreciative of what Monty did for me and you know, enjoyed my time with him throughout the year and kind of navigating a pretty rough terrain for the most part Jock, what type of coach do you think would be best suited for you guys moving forward? What characteristics would you look at? Yeah, I think that I think that a coach that can really manage our locker room is huge and necessary and I think that someone who can kind of piece together a championship winning the team who's probably you know, done it in the past would be great for us because at this point it really feels as though the Phoenix Suns is you know, we're going for it all and we need to get across the line at some point so I think that the only question that really needs to be asked is who's best suited to be able to help us do that and I mean, that's where I sit on that fact on that matter is, you know we need to win a championship we all want to win a championship but we're here to win a championship so how can we best, you know pick a head coach to help us do that obviously there's I think there's three names on the card right now I'm not entirely sure but yeah, I think that there's some great options there for us and going forward and we've got to wait and see what happens you and your former teammate, Mikael Bridges have a hilarious, very interesting relationship online have one of you posted anything that you thought might have crossed the line at all or is this all in good fun nah, never I think people really, look I need to take it a step further from where I sit I really need to start outing some of his personal life and just letting him know to cool it a little bit and I think that some of the some of the people on Twitter took that last one a little bit to heart and really start even some of the Phoenix Suns fans, I had to text them after I was like man I don't even think I can go at you anymore because there's Phoenix Suns fans even when you're gone they jump on your side instead of mine so I think Mikael's a little bit of a protected species and I've got to cool it just a little bit just a little bit yeah there's no font in Twitter for Starcows unfortunately people still don't get it after how many years that things have been out there but I'm going to ask about Pop rookie season, San Antonio, under Popovich what did you learn are there any stories you can share I learned a lot first of all it was it was pretty cool to be a part of the winning record that was a really sick experience to be able to play a part a very very small part in that I think we only won like 23 games or something but we got across the line so that was good but yeah that was a really cool part of my career was being able to see that unfold and in terms of stories I haven't got too many for you that kind of top the ones that I've heard out there but you know in terms of what I learned it was about managing the NBA space I will say that like my first my first week in the facility he came to me and I kind of sit back on it now I was probably sarcastic but he came to me the first practice and he was like right I want you to do like a five minute presentation on the Joe Biden infrastructure bill it's about to be passed for like three trillion dollars and I was like is this guy serious I don't even know if he's serious so I went home and like in my notebook like writing down this full speech about it and I was like alright I'm ready to go and then like a week passed I didn't say anything a week passed and I was like I got this speech written down like I put some serious time into this you want me to make this speech what's going on and he was like oh I've been sarcastic but now that I know that you are for sure again I'm from a whole group and I read it out of this notepad and I was just like like I definitely could have done that yes this is awesome that was a good pop one but yeah he just he taught me a lot about the perspective on life outside of basketball and making sure that we don't just get too obsessed and too involved in this and have some perspective on the world going on around us and I think you see that day in and day out he's with his efforts outside in the community and what he's kind of doing for America right now I was about to say Texas but he's really doing a lot for America so yeah he's a pretty incredible man and to be doing what he's doing now and I don't think pop's going to retire anytime soon with the number one draft coming in so I think we'll be going around for a long time Jock you really established yourself as an NBA player this year of course as well as starting coming off the bench I think you've proven that but now you look into it you're going to be a restricted free agent this off season are you hoping to go back to the Suns what's your outlook when you go into free agency this summer as a guy that's going to be sought after yeah I would love to go back to the Suns we really enjoyed the city we really enjoyed the fan base the organization basketball we bought a house there because we loved it so much and we thought this could be a home for us long term I do understand however that it's a business and that there's a lot to go through and a few hoops to go through in terms of what can take care of our family so I'm not totally set on Phoenix and nothing else but I definitely want to return there I had a phenomenal year there and we just enjoy the culture and the lifestyle in Phoenix and then the organization's great the teammates there love playing with CP these are all guys that I really enjoy playing with and would like to do so for a long time but it's a business and at some point being 27 I really have to look at it as such and make sure that I'm taking care of long term and going forward there's a lot to happen it's exciting times but yeah if we can figure out a way to get it done with Phoenix I would love to say that Jack you went undrafted in the 2018 draft are you one of those guys who has the list in your head of all the big fellas who went drafted before you do you got like smoke for Mo Wagner every time you see him is that in there for you I don't even think I was undrafted I tell everyone I was the 61st pick in the 2018 draft so I don't even look at it like that but yeah I definitely I wouldn't say I have a list as such but I definitely have a little bit of chill on my shoulder and I feel as though given what I had to go through to get back into the NBA and all the hard days that I had to do out in Europe by myself and stuff there's it really changed who I was as a person and and taught me to kind of never take my foot off the gas and make sure that I'm always in the gym and knowing that there's someone behind me who's always you know he's always trying to get out in front so yeah definitely definitely not one of those guys who has a list there are certain people that I look forward to playing and making sure that I can prove a point against them because I know that helps me long term so yeah it's it was a long road to get here and I'm really pumped to be here and have done a job this post season to be able to solidify myself a little bit but I attribute a lot of that to kind of what I had to go through for those three years and two years in Europe and then year back and I'm going to strive there to be able to get here and yeah it's pretty cool to think about pretty cool to think about Jock we appreciate the time early in the morning and I know you have a really fun day ahead of you to get at your passport what do you call your haircut before we let you go what do you call it sexy I don't know nice that's all I was looking for thank you so much have a great off season we'll see you next season shams we'll see you tomorrow too far and when we come back it's Chandler it's Eddie it's me probably going to change your life when running back returns