Are the Phoenix Suns a good basketball team?
That has been the question pinballing around in my brain over this All-Star break, and it is a tough question to answer. Compared to the expectations coming into this season, the Suns have more than surpassed their preseason projected win total from most sportsbooks. They are 32-23 and seventh in a competitive Western Conference. Of course, they are a “good” team, and you might be pounding the keyboard and typing in all caps, responding that I am an idiot, which is true.
The talk of the NBA this week is about tanking and how many teams are actively trying to lose basketball games for the rest of the season. The Suns, if they had a first-round draft pick this year, might be in that group as well. But with no draft pick and enough veterans who know how to play, the Suns have been a surprise team in the NBA. This new group of Suns has established an identity, a brand, a soul to how they play on the basketball court. The Suns have a winning culture again, one that did not exist while Kevin Durant and his many burner accounts were posting up in the locker room. So no matter how good this team ends up being, getting the stink of the last few seasons as far in the rearview mirror as possible is the best possible outcome to this season.
However, is this Phoenix Suns’ success fool’s gold? Is Phoenix now a piece or two away from contending for a championship? I do not think so, and as much as I would like to trick myself, the ceiling for this Suns team is taking a top-four seed in the West to six games in the first round. Perhaps the Suns get a stroke of injury luck and maybe advance to the second round.
That is it though.
There is still a sizeable gap between this Suns team and the upper echelon of competing for a championship, and the Suns do not have the assets to improve this roster significantly. Could a healthy Jalen Green elevate Phoenix to a higher level of team before the season’s over? I am leaving that door open, but not expecting his return to raise the Suns’ ceiling enough for it to matter.
The fact is that right now the Suns are in a Western Conference where the bottom five teams are openly tanking in what is supposed to be one of the most talented draft classes ever. Meanwhile, the Suns’ Top-10 pick from a year ago has yet to play a critical rotation minute of NBA basketball so far…all the Suns had to do this season to make the Play-In Tournament this season was try to win games, because the bottom five teams are actively trying to lose a lot of ball games. On top of those five tanking teams, the Clippers traded away two of their best three players at the deadline, and the Trail Blazers head coach to start the season is involved in a gambling investigation. Portland has Damian Lillard returning from injury on the bench, and is full of young, talented players who have not quite put it all together to play winning basketball. The Warriors suffered a devastating injury to Jimmy Butler and have battled injuries all season long.
Someone had to be the seventh team in the West, and the Suns are that team. Is it a product of the Suns being good or being in a good circumstance?
Now I want the Suns to dispel my theory by coming out of the All-Star break and dominating for the rest of the season. They have one of the toughest schedules left in the NBA, so they will get the chance to. I hope I am wrong and that this team is just the start to new, exciting five-year run of Suns basketball, but I’m not sure.