How the Suns went from the edge of a title to... this

Let’s go back to 2020 and the NBA bubble.  Remember when the Phoenix Suns went 8-0 in the bubble?  Since that point there are not many teams who have been on a rollercoaster like the Suns have.  The Finals, plenty of huge trades and 4 coaches later, the Suns have a weird group of players.  As a result, the question has to be asked; how did Phoenix end up here?

The bubble Suns were a moment in time.  They went an astounding 8-0 led by Devin Booker and company.  Booker was outstanding during the 8 ‘seeding games’ when he averaged 30.5 points, 6.0 assists and 4.9 rebounds per game, including hitting one of the craziest game winners you will see.  That was a really fun run for the Suns and their fans because they had been really awful over the past handful of seasons before that point going 87-241 over the previous 4 seasons (2015-19).  That was a fun team who showed some real promise so that offseason, the Suns made 2 big moves to make them a threat in the Western Conference.

The Suns went into the 2020 offseason needing a point guard, Ricky Rubio was on the roster and he averaged 13 points and 8 assists but Phoenix wanted an upgrade.  As a result, they acquired Chris Paul from the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Rubio, Kelly Oubre Jr., Ty Jerome and a 2022 first round pick.  Phoenix also signed forward Jae Crowder to a 3-year deal as a free agent after he played a key role in getting the Miami Heat to the 2020 Finals.  In the draft that year they selected Jalen Smith.  Smith did not make much of an impact in his short time as a Sun before being traded, what is brutal about this pick is that they passed on Tyrese Haliburton.  Haliburton would likely have Phoenix in a better place than they are now if he was on the team.

The 2021 Suns went into the 2020-21 season with +4000 odds to win the title with an over/under of 38.5 wins for the shortened 72 game season.  The Suns would crush that over/under winning 51 games, going into the Western Conference Playoffs as the 2nd seed.  Booker led the way with his scoring, averaging 25.6 points per game along with 4.3 assists and 4.2 rebounds.  Yet, many, including myself, believe Paul was the best player on that team, especially in the playoffs.  During the regular season, Paul averaged 16.4 points and 8.9 assists per game, finishing 5th in MVP voting and making All-NBA 2nd team.  Phoenix’s first round opponent was the defending champion Lakers.  After falling down 2 games to 1, Phoenix stormed right back into the series winning the next 3 games in a row to end the Lakers dream of back to back.  In the 2nd round, the Suns took on the Denver Nuggets, who were without their star point guard Jamal Murray.  The Suns took care of the Nuggets quickly, sweeping the Nuggets, which led to an all-time internet moment with the ‘Suns in 4’ guy.  Phoenix was on to the Western Conference Finals to take on the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Clippers were down their best player in Kawhi Leonard, who looked like he was set to run back his 2019 run early in the playoffs.  However, Los Angeles still played the Suns tough.  After the Suns took game 1, game 2 was an instant classic.  That came down to a tip-in  by Deandre Ayton off of an inbound that would become known as the ‘Valley-Oop.’  Phoenix went up 2-0 and the teams split the rest of the series as the Suns advanced to their first Finals since 1993, where they took on the Milwaukee Bucks.  I picked the Suns to win the series.  If you remember, Giannis Antetokounmpo was hurt going into that series but he did not miss a game.  Through the first 2 games, it didn’t matter that Antetokounmpo was on the court, as the Suns won both games by double digits.  Then, as the series flipped back to Milwaukee, the series momentum flipped as well.  The Bucks won game 3 by 20 and game 4 by 6 after one of the greatest blocks you will see by Giannis.  Game 5 was defined by a Jrue Holiday steal into a lob to Antetokounmpo and a three point play to bury the Suns in that one.  Antetokounmpo saved his finest moment for game 6, where he scored 50 points in the closeout game, clinching the first Bucks title in 50 years and ending the Suns dream.

The Suns didn’t make a ton of roster adjustments that summer aside from signing JaVale McGee.  The 2021-22 Suns had an awesome regular season going 64-18.  After starting the season 1-3, the Suns had a dominant November winning every game they played in the month as a part of an 18 game winning streak.  They were a great team that went into the playoffs with high expectations.  After a first round series that was a bit tougher than it likely needed to be against a 36 win Pelicans team without their best player, the Suns would face the Dallas Mavericks in round 2.  After the Suns won the first 2 games at home, the Mavericks answered back winning their home games to tie the series.  Game 5 was a beatdown, the Suns won the game by 30 points behind 28 points and 7 rebounds from Booker and 20 points and 9 rebounds from Ayton.  After Dallas won game 6 to force game 7 back in Phoenix, the wheels fell off for the Suns.  They were down 30 at halftime with just 27 points, they fell down by as many as 45 in the 2nd half, eventually losing the game by 33 points.  It was an all-time embarrassing way for a team to go out in the playoffs after a 64 win season.  It also marked the beginning of the end of the Suns championship window.

That summer, Kevin Durant requested a trade from the Brooklyn Nets and he had one destination in mind, Phoenix.  Although there was no deal done that summer, the seeds had been planted for a deal to be done down the line.  This was also the summer of the Deandre Ayton restricted free agency.  Ayton and the Suns didn’t reach a contract extension the previous summer so Ayton was a restricted free agent.  He signed a 4-year max offer sheet with the Pacers that the Suns did match.  Ayton was back but there was tension between the two parties as the season began.

The season started with a hot start of 7-2 but teetered off and by the middle of January, the Suns were just 21-24.  They then went on a stretch of 9-2, headlined by Mikal Bridges who averaged 23.2 points, 4.5 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game as Phoenix turned their season around.  Bridges was a key piece to their 2021 Finals team as a high level 3&D player but his game was clearly taking a leap.  There was also a change in ownership happening as Robert Sarver was handing the team off to Mat Ishbia.  Ishbia was ready to go big game hunting and when the Brooklyn Nets traded Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks, he struck, finally landing Durant.  The team sent Bridges, Cam Johnson, 4 first round picks and 1 pick swap to Brooklyn in a 4 team deal that saw Jae Crowder also leave the Suns to head to the Bucks, Crowder hadn’t played that season due to a holdout as he wanted a new contract.  The Suns had gone all-in, after a disappointing ending to the 2022 season.

One thing that I feel is important to point out is that the 2nd apron did not exist when the Suns traded for Durant.  Teams likely knew it was coming but the new CBA had yet to be agreed upon, the 2nd apron was the main new feature of the CBA.  It is likely that people within the Suns knew that the 2nd apron was coming but I wonder if they had known fully what it was would they still make the trade.  They did double down with a later trade.

Durant only played 8 regular season games that year but once the Suns got to the playoffs they were supposed to be ready to go.  The first round they faced off against the Clippers.  After a monster game 1 from Kawhi Leonard led to a Clippers win, Leonard got hurt after game 2 and missed the last 3 games of the series, all Phoenix wins and the Suns knocked the Clippers out in 5 games.   They then took on the Nuggets in round 2.  After losing the first 2 games by double digits, Phoenix bounced back and won their home games.  They got smoked in Denver and then had another terrible elimination home loss, where they trailed by 30 at halftime and lost by 25.  It was time to make another big trade, one that would go on to haunt Suns fans.

The first thing the Suns did that summer was fire Monty Williams, who led the Suns to the 2021 Finals, he was replaced by Frank Vogel.  The Suns then doubled down with this group by trading for Bradley Beal, who the Wizards wanted off of due to his supermax contract and no-trade clause.  They sent Chris Paul (who was re-routed to the Warriors), Landry Shamet, 2026, 2028 and 2030 pick swaps and a bunch of 2nd round picks.  The Suns took on the remaining 4-years of Beal’s 5yr/$251 million supermax and his no-trade clause.  The Suns then traded Deandre Ayton and Toumani Camara (a really crippling part of this because they drafted Camara and he has become really good for Portland) for Jusuf Nurkic, Nassir Little and Grayson Allen as a part of the Damian Lillard trade to the Bucks.  It was the end of an era for Suns fans.  Paul, Bridges, Johnson, Ayton and Crowder all played huge parts of a team that came so close to winning the title and they blew it all up to build a big 3 that failed epically.

  The 2023-24 season started off good for the Suns as they started off 11-6, before dropping 9 of their next 12 games to fall to 14-15.  They then got hot before the All-Star break, going 19-7 to make their record 33-22.  At the trade deadline, Phoenix traded for Royce O’Neale and signed Grayson Allen to a 4yr/$70 million extension.  The Suns closed out the season at 49-33, which was good enough for 6th in the Western Conference.  Not quite what everyone expected but a good record and the Suns were playing the Minnesota Timberwolves in round 1, a team that they had swept during the regular season.  Unfortunately for the Suns, regular season records do not always translate in the playoffs and Phoenix was swept by Minnesota.  As a result, the team fired Vogel and replaced him with Mike Budenholzer, who coached the Milwaukee team that beat the Suns in the Finals. 

If the 2023-24 season was a failure for the Suns, the 2024-25 season is one of the biggest disasters in NBA history.  The team went out and added 2 point guards to try and lighten the load on Devin Booker as a playmaker, signing Tyus Jones and Monte Morris.  The Suns went into the regular season with the hope that it would go better with a new coach and upgrades around the margins.  It did not.  The Suns spent all of December and January in trade rumors for Jimmy Butler before he was traded to Golden State.  They nearly even traded Durant to the Warriors and got Butler from the Heat in a deal that would have restocked a lot of future picks.  They also traded their unprotected 2031 pick to the Jazz for 3 picks that will likely be late in the draft.  They did play basketball as they finished 36-46, 11th in the Western Conference, missing the Play-In Tournament.

This summer, the Suns blew up their big 3, trading Kevin Durant to the Rockets and buying out Bradley Beal, leaving a weird mis-mash of players that who knows what they will be.  Bud is gone, as you likely know, and Jordan Ott takes over.  Led by Devin Booker, the Suns will look to get big things out of Jalen Green and Mark Williams, both players who were recently top 15 picks, Green was 2nd overall.  We will see how good this team is.  I don’t expect them to be competing for much more than a play-in spot in the Western Conference. It is a really crazy story, however, how the Suns went from the 8-0 bubble run to the door step of the title to now just stuck in closer to the bottom of the Western Conference than the top without their picks.