A note from Phoenix, where your correspondent from the West Valley has been following the local cagers for sixteen mediocre years. After a new regime took the reigns early in 2023, there was a new hope the Suns might leave that those disappointing seasons behind. Unfortunately the excitement soon turned to puzzlement, then to disappointment, and finally to disdain, watching the Suns get swept out of the first round of the NBA playoffs.
I won’t go into the seamy undercurrents that made this team pretty much uncoachable. I won’t name the diva who scores, but can’t be bothered to defend anyone, and reportedly hadn’t said a word to his coach in weeks. That’s “stuff” that is probably true, but certainly irrelevant. If we could resurrect the great Red Auerbach, even he couldn’t coach this team to anywhere near a championship.
This is a team built by a too-rich basketball-ignoramus. You don’t become a basketball savant by riding the bench at Michigan State. A walk-on, Ishbia averaged six-tenths of a point and three-tenths of a rebound in 115 total minutes over 48 games. If Suns GM James Jones--someone who should know better--had a hand in building this team he should have been gone before Vogel.
The fact is that the Suns will likely never get out of the playoffs with this team. What do I know? Not much, other than I know a train wreck when I see it, and I recognize the truth when I hear it. In this case that truth came from an anonymous NBA scout.
"They are poorly constructed," the scout said following their 4-0 sweep at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
"Where is their bench? Where is their rim-protecting, shot-blocking big as a starter or off the bench? Where is a decision-making point guard as a starter or off the bench? Where is their 6'7" defensive wing? Where is a power forward who plays with size and physicality, since KD doesn't want to play the 4? Where is their size? They are too small. All of that is essential to a winning franchise with championship aspirations."
Where from here? Probably nowhere. Bringing it back will likely get the same result, regardless of who is coaching. Tearing it down with the NBA’s spending cap and trade rules, the team’s player contracts, and poor or no 1st round draft picks over the next six years, is pretty much out of the question in the near term. So, Suns fans, get ready to watch the overpriced divas and cheap scrubs struggle to make the playoffs only to get quickly booted for at least the next half-decade.
