The 7 Seconds or Less Suns | The Best NBA Teams To Never Win A Title

The 7 Seconds or Less Suns | The Best NBA Teams To Never Win A Title

So the Phoenix Suns right now are one of the bigger surprises in the NBA despite losing Katie this offseason. You know, they’re playing well. They’re still in the playoff picture. They’re six at the time of this recording. So, you know, they’re having a pretty good year, but say we’re going to look back on the mid 2000s where they were arguably the best team in the NBA. You had Mike Danton cooking things up. Steve Nash running the offense perfectly. Amari was the rim runner, Shawn Marion. It was a beautiful offense. And you know it’s famous for being 7 seconds or less. Before we start talking about Steve Nash’s Phoenix Suns, if you haven’t already, make sure this video a like, give us a subscribe, and hit that notification bell so you never miss out on one of our videos. So Phoenix in the early 2000s was in that very unenviable spot in the NBA. You know, the dreaded good but not great tier. You know, they had made the finals in 93 with Charles Barkley where they eventually fell to the Bulls and Michael Jordan thanks to that gamewinner by John Paxton in game six. And even after trading Barkley, you know, a few years later, they remained a competitive team in the Western Conference, still made the playoffs. Probably could have even returned to contender status had Antonio Mcdice not gone back to Denver at the end of the 1998 season for some reason. But they traded away Jason Kidd in the 2001 offseason for Stefon Marberry. and they regressed, missing the playoffs for the first time since 1988, breaking a 12-ear streak. Got back in the playoffs in 03 behind Marberry, Shawn Marion, and rookie of the Amari Starttomire, but they were bounced in the first round by San Antonio. And the next year, they started poorly and decided to empty out at mid-season. In January, they traded Penny Hardway and Stefan Marberry to New York in exchange for Antonio Mcdice, Charlie Ward, Howard Eley, and two first round picks. And then about a month and a half later sent Tom Goolotta and the two picks they got from the previous trade to Utah for basically nothing. It was basically a salary dump. Uh, by the way, one of those picks was a 2010 first round pick that ended up becoming Gordon Hayward. So, okay. So, you know, it’s not only nowadays where people are like, “Oh, you know, you’re trading for eighth graders.” You know, they were doing it back in the day. You know, I don’t know how old Gordo was in like 2003, but the Jazz got that pick for him seven years ahead of time, right? I mean, Marberry was flashy, but it just wasn’t a winning player. Penny was old and injuryprone, and the same with Googlata. and they weren’t going anywhere, so they just decided to start over, let their young guys, you know, have more of the spotlight. Basically, the exact opposite of what the Knicks did around this time, but, you know, we’ll talk about that in a video down the line. The openings in the lineup allowed Leandro Barbosa to start a bunch of games in the second half of the season. And the big story of this season for the Suns was the emergence of Joe Johnson. They had acquired him midway through his rookie season, 2002. He’d been in and out of the starting lineup the prior two seasons, averaging right around like 10 points a game, but this was his breakout season. He started 77 games averaging 16.7 points a night and really established himself as the third pillar for this Suns team along with Amari and Shawn Marion. The Suns are still bad though. They only won 29 games, second worst record in the West. But this leads us to the 04 off season where everything changed for the Suns. First, Mike Danton’s retained as head coach. He’d replaced Frank Johnson the prior season. He was given the vote of confidence. Second, they did completely bungle the 2005 NBA draft. Yeah, they did. They picked Lil Dang seventh, which, you know, solid pick, twotime allstar, you know, good defensive player, but they sent him to Chicago in exchange for Jackson Roman in a 2005 first round pick. But, you know, that pick ended up being Nate Robinson. So, you know, a decent, you know, rotation player except they traded him before he ever suited up. By the way, this was be the thing that they did like on the rag. Like, this is not the first future all-star they drafted in this era and then traded before he ever suited up for them. Yeah. I think some of it’s just dumb mistakes. Other was Robert Sarver was famously cheap and just didn’t want to play payers, traded picks for cash. Just overall was kind of a shitty owner. Yeah. So, big missed opportunity there, but they made up for it with their big free agency moves. They reacquired Steve Nash in free agency, signed him to a six-year, $65.6 million contract. Nash, remember, had started his career in Phoenix, but he had established himself as an all-star in Dallas. And he was reluctant to leave the Mavericks, even going to Mark Cuban when he got the Suns offer and asking if he would match the offer that the Suns had given him. And in a move that Cuban would later admit was the biggest mistake of his career, he didn’t match it. So, the Suns land Nash and in addition, they signed sharpshooter Quinton Richardson to a six-year $43.5 million contract. So, some big offseason moves. You know, you add an all-star point guard to a solid core of young players. And the Suns were expected to be better, probably get back in the playoff mix, but still probably be, you know, middle of the pack. I tried finding like preseason odds or predictions, but, you know, this is the mid2000s, so the internet barely existed at that time. But basketball reference had their win total overunder at 44 a 12. Well, the Suns in the 0405 season smashed even the most optimistic expectations. I mean, Nash was the perfect guy to run Mike Danton’s fast-paced offensive system. You know, the 7 seconds or less. Amari continued his development. and he upped his scoring to 26 points per game. Made the All-Star team even got some MVP votes. Shawn Marion got back in the All-Star team. Joe Johnson had another productive season. Quinton Richardson led the league in threes made with, get this, 2.9 makes a game. He’d be 19th in today’s NBA. Tied with like Miles Bridges and Trey Murphy. Oh my god. At mid-season, they also added Jim Jackson, who would go on to get six man of the year votes. And the Suns won 31 of their first 35 games before just a bizarre six-game mid-season losing streak. I mean, to be fair, Nash did sit out three of those games, but still just really bizarre. Like, imagine, you know, if the Thunder just lost six in a row. Yeah, randomly lost six games in a row, but they did recover going 31- 10 the rest of the season. Finished the year with 62 wins, the best record in the NBA. It tied a Suns franchise record that stood until 2022. Nash won the 2005 MVP, which Shaq is still salty about, averaging 15.5 points, but led the league with 11.5 assists per game. Mike Danton’s coach of the year, and the Suns offense overall was just borderline unstoppable. They lead the league in scoring, offensive rating, pace, three-point shooting, defensive rebounding, and were third in assists. Now, their defense simultaneously not super good. They were 17th in defensive rating, and they were dead last in opponents points per game. Yeah, that’s not great. Yeah, but overall I mean that’s kind of the whole point. Like it was just we’re going to score more points than you. We’re going to push the pace. We might end up with, you know, like back then it was probably like 115 points and you’re going to get like 103 but we’re still going to win the game. Yeah. You’re going to eat, we’re just going to eat more. Exactly. Those 62 wins were the best record in the NBA like we said and that secured them a first round match up with the Grizzlies who they swept and that led them to a second round matchup with Steve Nash’s former team, the Dallas Mavericks in round two. Suns and Mavs split the first four games of this series with both teams winning a game at home and on the road. Suns had a chance to take a 3-1 lead, but dropped game four despite 48 points on 20 of 28 shooting by Nash. They responded and won game five thanks to a 33 point, 18 rebound double double from Amari and a 34, 12 assist, 13 rebound triple double by Nash and then won game six on the road in Dallas thanks to 38 and 16 from Shawn Marion. and Nash with just another masterpiece. This time 39 points, 12 assists, nine boards, including a clutch three to send the game to OT where the Suns prevailed 130 126. And this three-game run by Nash, games four through six. One of the best three-game runs you’ll see from any player. It was the three highest scoring games of his playoff career, back to back to back. And overall, he averaged 40.3 points, 9.7 assists, nine rebounds per game, all on 60% shooting from the field, and 56% shooting from three. So, you know, to anyone who said he didn’t earn the MVP because he didn’t have the stats, I mean, those are some MVP stats right there. I mean, that’s the thing with Nash, like, not to say he was an alltime or even elite scorer, but the thing to keep in mind was he could score. He just set up his teammates before doing that. And this was an era where your point guard wasn’t a scoring player. He was the guy to set players up. So Nash could definitely score in those games. 100% proved it. In the conference finals though, awaited Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs. And despite Nash continuing his strong play and Amari honestly playing out of his mind this series averaged 37 points per game in this series, the Suns were no match for the Spurs. I mean, specifically, they had just terrible fourth quarters in this series. Couldn’t close games. They led both games one and two heading into the fourth, but they surrendered 43 in the fourth of game one and 31 in the fourth of game two and dropped both games on their home floor. They lost game three in fairly convincing fashion even though they kept the series alive with a game four win. The Spurs eliminated Phoenix in game five behind 31 and 15 from Duncan. So, a disappointing result to end that way, but still just an insanely successful season. one of the best turnarounds in NBA history. One year turnarounds at least. Yeah. Just a team that came out of nowhere and was immediately a legit contender. After 2005 though, I mean, just the the few years after that season were just marred with, you know, bad luck and some poor roster choices. I mean, 2005 offseason especially was bad for Phoenix. They were dealt two major blows. One was kind of their fault and one really wasn’t. First one, they lost Joe Johnson in free agency. I Joe had expressed a desire to leave Phoenix. He wanted a bigger role with the Atlanta Hawks. But the Suns really shot themselves in the foot. They really kind of blew up any chance they had to bring him back with their initial offers, which Joe was so pissed about. He thought they were so far below his market value that when he eventually signed the offer sheet with Atlanta, he specifically requested the Suns not match it. And you know, it got to the point where the Suns eventually signed and traded him to Atlanta for Boris Dow and two first round picks. So, you know, you get something back for him. And Boris Dia, to be fair, was great for the Suns, but you do lose a young talented score. And then the second one, which wasn’t really their fault. In the preseason, Amari under goes microfarracture surgery to repair some knee cartilage damage. Rehab dragged on a little longer than they expected. And when Amari came back, he only played three games before eventually missing the rest of the season and the entire playoffs due to knee issues. So, you know, at this point, you got to replace basically like 40 points worth of scoring between Amari and ISO Joe. So, others had to step up. John Marion averaged 20 plus. Nash averaged a career-high in points per game. Raja Bell, Boris, Alandro Barbosa, and Tim Thomas all stepped up and average double- digit scoring. And Eddie House and James Jones provided some shooting off the bench. Even without Joe and Amari, the Suns still had the best offense in the NBA. Won 54 games. That was good enough to get the second seed in the West and get Nash’s second consecutive MVP award. Boris Dia also picked up the most improved player award. faced the seven-seated Lakers in round one and despite falling down 3-1 thanks to that iconic, you know, Kobe Bryant fadeaway buzzer beater, won the series in seven, held off a 50 burger from Kobe in game six to win that game and eventually win game seven at home. Fended off the pesky LA Clippers again in seven in the second round and at this point kind of caught a huge break because of the way like the NBA playoff seating worked back in the day. Yeah, back then the top three seeds went to the division winners and the Dallas Mavericks and Spurs, despite both winning 60 games, were in the same division. So, the Spurs got the first seed and the Mavericks got the four seed, so they had to play each other in the second round. The Mavericks would end up knocking out the Spurs in seven games. So, all the Suns had to do was beat Dallas, a team they had beat in the playoffs the year prior. Of course, they did have Amari for that series, and they big difference. Big difference. The Suns won game one on the road behind Boris D. I’ll give you a 34 in Dallas. I said earlier he was good for them. He He honestly was, but they lost four of their next five and were undone just like the Spurs series the year prior by fourth quarter collapses in games two, five, and six. Another disappointing season, I guess, just the way it ends with the fourth quarter collapses. But considering the Amari injury, honestly, still an incredible year because, you know, you’re down your second best player, you’re down your big and Amari and you’re two wins from the finals. Yeah, absolutely insane that they did all that. But surely, you know, 2007, you’re getting Amari back. That was going to be the Suns year. They returned most of the core, although they did draft a future allstar and once again traded him away. They picked Rajan Rondo late in the first round and then sent him to boss. God, could you imagine if they had kept him? Like, it honestly could have been like the perfect bridge from like, you know, the the Nash era to like the new era cuz Rondo was amazing just in Boston as a distributor and whatnot. Maybe it could have been even better having learned under Steve Nash. Yeah, honestly. Aside from that blunder though, I mean, this Suns team was honestly just as good as they were in 2005. Maybe even better. I mean, they had the top offense in the NBA still. Two separate winning streaks of 15 and 17. Nash barely missed out on a third straight MVP, but both he and Amari made first team all NBA. Raja Bell was first team all defense. Marian Nash and Amari all were all stars. Leandro Barbosa was the sixth man of the year. I mean, this team was just swimming in awards near the end of the season. And again, in the playoffs, you catch a massive break from the other side of the bracket when the eight-seated Warriors knocked off the 67 win Mavericks in round one. So, you beat the Lakers for the second straight year in the first round and you’re staring down the Spurs again. So, all you got to do, get past San Antonio. I know it’s easier said than done, but get past San Antonio and you get either Utah or Golden State in the conference finals, who you would have been massive favorites against. Well, you split the first four games with the Spurs. Potentially could have won game one if not for Steve Nash having to sit with that just gnarly nose injury. I mean, we we watched it back before we started this recording. That cut is crazy. And it just it keeps bleeding. I was just wondering I said at one point I was like just take him to the back and just wrap his head in duct tape like just mummify him like only his eyes are still poking out like so he can still see and whatnot but like they kept trying to put him out on the court and just his nose just you kept see was just leaking blood. Yeah, that’s the other thing about Steve Nash. That dude was a tough because he wanted to keep playing. He just literally couldn’t because he was bleeding and you’re not allowed to, you know, be playing while you’re gushing blood. My ass would have like just curled up in the fetal position and like cried my eyes out if I had a cut that big. Yeah. But despite winning game four on the road in San Antonio, that would be the turning point for the Suns. They had rallied back from an 11-point deficit in the fourth. This time they’re coming back in the fourth. Led 197 with 24 seconds left. The shot clock is off. So the Spurs have to foul. Robert Ary then hip check Steve Nash into the scorers table. Ary was ejected obviously for the foul and the Suns did go on to win the game, but the next day the NBA announced not only would Ary be suspended for two games, but Amari and Boris Dia were also both suspended one game for leaving the bench during the altercation. The Suns understandably were livid. I can’t imagine being a Suns fan. I would be, you know, storming the NBA headquarters at this point. This is insane because, you know, Aie started the whole incident and I know the rule is the rule. This was shortly after, you know, Malice of the Palace. Other there was the Knicks and Nuggets, bro. Like, both were still both were still fresh in the minds of like the NBA. Yeah. And they’re not allowed to leave the bench. But the Suns also pointed to Bruce Bowen and Tim Duncan, who they thought were guilty of the same crime during an altercation the second quarter. But regardless, with Amar and Dao out, they dropped game five at home despite leading by as much as 16 early in the game. But the Spurs held on to win game five and eventually closed them out in game six on their home court. So, I mean, really, I think this was the even bigger missed opportunity because, you know, you beat that Spurs team, you’re now on to the conference finals where you would have played Utah because Utah made the conference finals, beat the Warriors. You were going to beat the Jazz. I don’t care. I’ll say it. And then in the finals, you were beating Cleveland. You were beating Cleveland. I mean, that was the Cleveland team that really had no business being in the finals. It was just LeBron dragged them to the finals. Maybe the Cavs win a game or two where the Spurs swept them, but you would have won the title this year, but because of, you know, really the suspension, I think you could point to that. They lost the series and they Suns to this day still don’t have a ring. Yeah. And honestly, I I think the NBA has learned from this series. Like guys generally won’t get suspended for coming off the bench unless they like, you know, fully sprint on to the court if like an altercation is going on and like get involved. Like I get it. You don’t want Brawls, right? You don’t want Miles of the Palace Part Two. You don’t want none of that. But like those are human beings and if you’re like a guy out there on the bench and you see your MVP, your best player just take an obvious dirty hip check at the end of the game. Yeah. You’re going to react. Like I I don’t care who you are. I don’t care what kind of emotional restraint you have. You’re going to react cuz it looks like Robert Ory took a cheap shot at Nash. And we already saw earlier in the season Nash having to miss time because of an injury. Now that one was unintentionally kind of just bonked heads with Tony Parker, but Suns lost that game. And now if you’re a Suns player, you got to be like, “Well, what the Robert?” Like, “What are you doing?” Right? Yeah. The Suns still plan to run it back with base of the same core in the ’08 season cuz why would you not? They also added Grant Hill over the off season, but you know, kept the main core of Nash, Amari, and Marian. And just like the season prior, they were excellent to start the season. They were 34-4 by February 6. It was second best record in the NBA, only trailing the Boston Celtics. But on February 6th, that’s when they decide to make a massive trade, both literally and figuratively, when they brought in Shaq, sending out Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks. We already have a video on this if you want a more in-depth breakdown, but needless to say, like we said in that video, it was oil and water. Like, it didn’t fit whatsoever. Really made no sense at the time, and it just didn’t age well in hindsight. They still had one of the best offenses in the NBA and more importantly they still pushed the pace like crazy. But now they had this 35year-old old Shaq which this is getting to the point where he was you know struggling to get up and down the court and move well. Like it just didn’t make sense to bring in a guy who was like you know dump it down to the low post big man slow pace playing the half court when they were known for being a fast break heavy paced offensive team. It it just made no sense. Yeah. I mean, I know they wanted him because they struggled to stop Duncan in the playoffs, but like even that logic was flawed because Shaq even in his prime was never like, you know, a defensive stopper. And certainly by this point, he was not a good defender at all. It’s part of the reason the Heat traded him, right? Like they they needed like a a Tyson Chandler or like a Na Marcus Ci Marcus Cami would have been awesome for them. KG would have been the ideal fit and they they tried to trade for him the season prior, but you know, a four team trade fell through at the last second because the Celtics wouldn’t give Shawn Marion a max contract. So, man, KG on that team with Amari front court. Like KG might have been the only guy that could have made these teams actually like competent on defense. Suns are still decent with Shaq. They went 21 and 13 their last 34 games of the season. But they did fall down the standings, ended up as the six seed even though they were only two games behind the top-seated Lakers cuz this is the 2008 Western Conference and it was just bunched up. Man, again got San Antonio in the first round, but this time they fell to the Spurs four games to one. Had a chance to win game one in San Antonio, but Tim Duncan sends the game to overtime with a three-pointer of all things and the Spurs eventually win in double OT. They fall down 3-0 and even though they stave off elimination with a game four win following game five with, you know, another predictable fourth quarter collapse. Shaq put up decent numbers against Duncan, but the Spurs really limited his effectiveness by deploying the hacker Shack and Shaq couldn’t make him pay. He made only 50% of his free throws. And that was pretty much the end of the 7 seconds or less era for the Phoenix Suns. I mean, Danton left in the 08 offseason, become coach of the Knicks. Suns missed the playoffs entirely in 2009. They traded Shackway in the 09 offseason, and that kind of got them back a little bit to their old ways. They still weren’t quite pushing the pace like they used to, but still they won 54 games, made it back to the Western Conference Finals, but this time fell to the Lakers. And that offseason, Amari leaves to join Danton New York, and two years later, they fully commit to the rebuild when they trade Nash to the Lakers. This era of Suns basketball, though, to me, it’s a revolutionary team. I know most people credit Steph and the Warriors with starting, you know, the three-point, you know, small ball craze. To me, they popularized it. This Suns team is the one that started it. Yeah, I completely agree. like yeah the Warriors I would even say like yeah perfected it and this Suns team like brought it into the NBA. They walked so the Warriors could run. Yeah, it was an era where you know it was size, it was defense. This was still an era where people talked about the NBA and they said you know you need a dominant big man to win championships like that was can you win as a jump shooting team? Yeah, that was the Charles Barkley line. And you know, three-point shots were almost seen as like a gimmick, like not reliable, like you were saying. And the Suns team said, “Fuck all that. We’re going to play fastpac. We’re going to play shooting and we’re going to win a lot of games doing it. The only downside, the only downfall of this team really was the defense. Like they were always at best like an average defensive team.” Yeah, they had just committed a little bit more. They had good defenders. I mean, Raja Bell first team all defense. Yeah, Shawn Marion was a great defender as well, but it just never quite was there. And just the Suns overall, I mean, we’ve talked about them, the 1993 team, we’ve talked about, you know, the 2021 team prior. Like, it’s crazy. This franchise has never won a championship because they’ve had so many great teams and have come close so many times. Yeah. And I mean, this team, you know, they never won a title, obviously, never even made an NBA Finals, but man, they gave the Spurs and the Mavericks some really competitive playoff series. And honestly, like if just one or two things break differently for them, you know, if if they’re able to resign Joe Johnson or if Steve Nash’s nose doesn’t bleed quite as much or if, you know, Amari and Dow don’t get suspended or if Duncan just gets suspended, you know, it’s it’s an era where you can look back and be like, man, they really caught some unlucky breaks and if one if one thing had gone differently from them, you know, maybe we’re having a whole different conversation about them today. That’s the video, guys. What did you think of the 7 seconds or less Suns? Love to hear what you have to say in the comments down below. If you enjoyed the video, consider leaving a like as it really does help us out. And while you’re here, why not check out some other videos as well? And don’t forget to subscribe to Synthetic Sports.

In the mid 2000s the Phoenix Suns were arguably the most exciting team in the NBA. After adding All Star Steve Nash, the Suns went from a doormat in the Western Conference to one of the best teams in the entire NBA. Yet despite all their regular season success, they never quite got over the hump…

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