For the first time in two seasons, the Phoenix Suns don’t have a certain and set expectation for what needs to happen this season.
As unexciting as that sounds, it means the Suns have a lot of opportunity to grow as a team and as a franchise in hopes of establishing a winning culture once again. Other media outlets, such as Bleacher Report, are already setting the expectation that the Phoenix Suns will be a 26-win team. In reality, I think this team has a chance to be something special, and with as wide
open as the NBA is, anything is bound to happen in today’s game.
The Phoenix Suns traded Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal and added some youth and some guys that could be future contributors to a championship roster. Having a guy like Dillon Brooks is going to be key for setting a culture and expectation of playing defense, hustling, and making the other team work every second of the game.
Today’s modern NBA is not solely focused on how many superstars you can add to a roster and hope it works out. It’s more centrally focused on youth and athletic guys. I can say that Oklahoma City has perfected that over the past couple of seasons when building its championship roster.
The Suns already added to that curriculum last season with Ryan Dunn; they also drafted guys like Khaman Maluach and Rasheer Flemmin. I don’t have a floor or a ceiling set for the Phoenix Suns, but I do believe if this team gets going, they could be something special, and that can be said for a lot of teams in the NBA.
With Devin Booker finally having the franchise in his hands and being the vet guy to lead this team to the next level, he has a great supporting cast of veterans, such as Royce O’Neale and Dillon Brooks, to help mentor and set expectations for the future.
If I were to make a comparison of this year’s Suns team to a team in the NBA last season, I would say this team is very close to the Houston Rockets. I draw this comparison with the young and athletic talent and where the Rockets fell last season. I could see the Suns being in the same position this season. The only difference between the two teams is that the Suns have an actual superstar-caliber player in Devin Booker.
If the Suns do end up being in a position to make the playoffs, I’m not sure how far that team could go because, like I said, the NBA is a very open competition-wise. If the Suns get hot at the right moment going into the playoffs, who’s to say what could happen, but to be transparent, the lack of playoff experience will hurt the Suns significantly.
Now it’s up to the Phoenix Suns to see where they fall this season and build off of it going into next season.
