After a down year and a ton of turnover in both the front office and roster, Phoenix Suns fans are predicting the team will once again finish in the bottom half of the standings in the Pacific Division,
but not last again.
I’m not surprised that fans think that the team will finish fourth. With the dull offseason the Sacramento Kings had and the lack of optimism around the team’s roster construction, while I can’t confirm people put the Valley fourth because they project the Kings to have a down year, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was why. What does surprise me however is that more than a quarter of voters think the team will finish in third, meaning they would finish ahead of one of the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers or Los Angeles Clippers.
The three squads beefed up their depth without losing many of their main rotation pieces after all either winning at least 50 games or advancing to the second round last season. While LeBron James is expected to miss the start of the season, Luka Dončić is slated to play his first full season with the purple and gold, Jimmy Butler will have his first full year in the Bay and Kawhi Leonard is expected to be healthy to start the year for the Clips. All three of them have significantly shorter odds to win the division, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.
With more fans voting for the Suns to finish third than fifth, it appears that fans believe the team’s offseason moves will help them win games right away, or that they don’t believe in the rest of the division to have a strong year like they did last season.
For the Suns to surprise people and not finish last in the division, as what they’re projected to do by many outlets, someone alongside Devin Booker will have to step up as a primary scorer, and Mark Williams and the team’s bigs need to be playmakers on both ends of the floor.
While I expect both the Suns and Kings to be battling for the fourth spots in the division, it will interesting to see who will take the top spot in the division. The two LA team’s and the Warriors are expected to all have strong seasons, but to be a tier below the Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets and the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder as title contenders. With Kevin Durant traded and Bradley Beal gone, the Valley is not considered by many one of the top team’s in their division for the first time in a long time.
Who do you think will win the Pacific Division?
