I Was Wrong About the Phoenix Suns…

I Was Wrong About the Phoenix Suns…

hand up. I was wrong about the Phoenix Suns here in the 2026 NBA season. I don’t know if Phoenix is going to be a top six seed. I don’t even know if they’re going to make the playoffs this year. But I will say I was heavy on their under going into this year. I predicted them to win about 30-ish games, 32 games, and lose close to 50 or maybe even more 50 games. And so far this year, they’ve been one of the more impressive teams to me when I was doing my evaluations in the offseason going into this regular season because of how hard they have fought on defense and how creative they’ve been on offense with kind of a decent amount of limitations in Phoenix. And I think there’s a bunch of different people that you can give credit to so far for Phoenix. And like I said, I like I don’t even know if this team is going to be a top six seed. When we break down the Western Conference, I still like a ton of teams maybe ahead of Phoenix. Like right now they’re around the six seed in the West, right? Like I like OKC more at the end of the day. Denver, yes, I think the Lakers are still going to win more games than Phoenix this year just with the star power they’ve had and even the injuries the Lakers have had and being off to a 12-4 record. Houston’s going to be better. San Antonio, it really just depends on the health of this team. Like Castle, Harper, and obviously WBY have missed time this year. I think Minnesota will probably be better than Phoenix at the end of the day. So those are six teams right there. So we have the playing teams. I think Golden State’s going to end up being better. I mean, that’s where Phoenix can be, right? Like, Phoenix can most definitely be better than Portland this year. They could be better than the Clippers. The Clippers are freaking 5-2 at the moment. I think they could be better than the Mavericks, the Pelicans. Those teams I thought could be better than Phoenix going into this year. I like the Pelicans. I like the Kings more than Phoenix at one point. I don’t think the Kings are going to be as bad as like a 5-13 record shows. I don’t think the Pelicans are going to be as bad as a 3 and 15 record or the Mavericks as bad as a 5-14 record. These teams have gone off to bad starts, have played some really tough competition, and have had some injuries. But Phoenix is off to an 11-7 start. They were actually top 10 in offensive rating, defensive rating, and net rating before getting blown out to the Houston Rockets on Monday night, which is kind of a shame, too, because Kevin Durant missed that game. So, do we thought maybe or at least I thought that there was a chance that they could have ended up maybe pulling off a quote unquote upset. I don’t know what like the spread was going into that game, but yeah, they ended up losing 11492 at home. Amen Thompson looked like the best player on the floor in that game. It wasn’t even like the most effective Shangon game or at least like the most star-studded Shangon game, but he still was effective out there, I should say. Aaron Holidayiday stepped up for the Houston Rockets. Um Devin Booker struggled against Yeah. And Thompson who’s one of the best defenders in the NBA. Dylan Brooks was somebody that stood out for this team. But yeah, Phoenix has had to play a bunch of different guys this year. And I think why they’ve been impressive so far is just the creativity and just kind of the breath of fresh air that Jordan A has provided this team over the last few years. They’ve gone like experienced head coach, right? Like Monty Williams is a head coach for a while. Then they end up going right after Monty Williams, I believe, to Frank Vogle. And then you have Mike Boonhozer as your head coach kind of going forward. And it never really worked out with Kevin Durant. you make that big splash in the 2023 regular season when Matt Ishbia had just becomes the new like majority owner of the roster. They would go on to lose in round number two, I believe, to the to the Nuggets, right? Yeah, they lost to the Nuggets. Nuggets won it all that year. 2024, this team gets swept in round number one by Minnesota after trading for Battlefield in the offseason. We all know how disastrous those moves were. 2025 season, they don’t even make the playing tournament after getting off to such a good start with Kevin Durant last year. They make a crazy move by like just trying to dump uh Yousef Nerkage’s salary to uh Charlotte, which also kind of gave up another pick in that deal as well. Uh they traded a 2031 unprotected first round pick for three like C-tier level picks on the surface level to Utah. So now this team doesn’t even own their 2031 first round pick. though this team for pretty much the next 6 years has no reason to tank unless they’re trading Devin Booker to Phoenix or just sending Booker or assets to a team that owns their draft capital. Yeah, there’s no reason for this team to try to be bad going forward. So, you knew that they were going to try to I guess bring in a different change of scenery, right? Like more a athletes basically. This team was not flying around at all last year. It was a lot of like Heliocentric basketball, Kevin Durant isolations. Booker maybe not getting as many isolations as he should have. And then you have Bradley Beal who’s making 30% of your team’s cap space to not really be a great offball player, not really to be a great help defender or on ball defender, passer, like just a fine enough score, right? And that’s just not what this team needed. If you have like all world defenders, all world passers, offball players, just such smart complimentary pieces around Bradley Beal as your third option, then you can make it work. They couldn’t make it work. So, they trade away Kevin Durant to Houston in the offseason. And I actually thought this team objectively got better. Like, I thought on paper this team was deeper. They were going to be better defensively. And as long as Booker could stay healthy, they should be more competitive than they were last year. But all like throughout the offseason, you’re talking about how loaded the Western Conference is. And it’s like, oh, I like the Pelicans more. I like the Kings more. Right now, those are looking like dumb takes. And that’s why I said at the start of this video, I hand up. I was wrong about this team. Devin Booker, who is like commanding obviously that number one workload, is averaging 26 points this year. He’s shooting around 33% from three, 47% from the field. He’s getting to the line about eight times a night. He’s averaging seven assists, four rebounds, but it’s being that number one option that basically they need him to be. Devin Booker gets injured this year, this offense is going to crater, but as long as he can stay healthy, this team can flow through Devin Booker. And we’ll get to why I think I like Deon Booker a little bit more this year, cuz he’s not been the point guard like he’s been in years past. Dylan Brooks missed a little bit of time to start off the year. He’s given them really good moments this year. He’s averaging 22 points, basically being in the Jaylen Green role uh that we all thought Green was going to be in before he ended up getting that hamstring injury. Like Dylan Brooks has had some really good three-point shooting nights. I know it didn’t result in a close game against Houston, but he was really good offensively against that team. And Dylan Brooks gives a And last year, this team did not have a lot of players that gave a I know Dylan Brooks can get annoying. I know he can get like under a lot of people’s skin. He’s probably somebody that’s like maybe fun to play with, but when you’re playing against you’re going to hate the dude. Like your Draymond Greens of the world, your Marcus Smarts of the world, those guys. But this is exactly what Phoenix needed. This is what a team that doesn’t have a draft pick needs where you can raise your bottom line going into the year and Dylan Brooks can make winning plays. I thought I mean he could still be a premier trade piece at the deadline. Like if the Suns actually made Dylan Brooks available, I think they could fetch a great return and he’s only helped his trade value this year. But it goes back to like Phoenix doesn’t own their draft capital. I know you can maybe get some draft capital for Dylan Brooks, but you’re probably not getting a pick safe enough to lose a couple more games because Dylan Brooks will be responsible for a couple wins this year for Phoenix when it’s all said and done. Now, Grayson Allen has also been a big reason why this team is good. Unfortunately, he did recently get hurt. I believe it was a quad injury. Uh yeah, it was a quad injury and he was somebody that could have been in the most improved player conversation. Allen before the injury was averaging 18 points, four assists, three rebounds a night. He was starting every single game basically being that Jaylen Green replacement at that two guard spot or three um spot in the lineup. And he was shooting about 47% from the field. He’s shooting 45% from three on about nine attempts a night. He was even getting to the free throw line like a decent amount as well, like about two and a half, three times a night, which you will definitely take. like Allen was the best three-point shooter in the NBA like objectively when you look at three-point percentage two years ago and he’s giving it on great volume. Another guy where it’s like I I didn’t like the extension when it happened cuz I thought there were some flaws in Allen’s game. But the fact that we could see him scale up a little bit because he was never going to have this workload with Beal, Katie, and Booker. But now that like Green, KD, and Beal are gone, he’s stepping up to the occasion. He’s stepping up with the increase in workload and usage, which is fantastic what Phoenix needs going forward. I think Allen could be like a sell high candidate when it’s all said and done just because hey the fact like I don’t think anybody was giving you a first round pick or a first rounder a young player for Grayson Allen like last off season. This is the time where you sell high but then at the end of the day it’s like Matt they can make the playoffs this year. they can have a hardfought playing tournament and get to the playoffs at the seventh or 18 and give their first round pick to it could end up going to Memphis Charlotte, one of those teams, the 17th pick in the draft, which you could definitely stomach then maybe what we thought this year could have been a top five pick because this pick, the Suns 2026 first round pick was the main asset that Memphis got in the Desmond Bane trade. This was the most premier asset on paper back on I think he was trading on Father’s Day when Bane got sent from Memphis to Orlando because they could get potentially two top 10 picks. Memphis could have had their first rounder this year which probably going to be in the top 10, top 12 and Phoenix’s first rounder which we thought that the absolute four for Phoenix could be a bottom three pick in the draft kind of when this trade ended up happening. Like I said Jaylen Green has not really been around this year. He had a nice like debut game against the LA Clippers. They won that game, but he unfortunately suffered a hamstring injury, which those can linger. You want to be a little bit more cautious with those. And Green is like going to miss more time this year than he did in all four years in Houston combined. He’s been one of the more available players in the NBA, which is a shame because I think this team could be even better. I think Green was really going to benefit from the change of scenery. So, we’ll see what happens with him going forward. There’s just a lot of fun players on this team that I’ve enjoyed this year like Mark Williams still by far from a perfect big man in this league as a perfect uh rim protector, but this is the athlete, the rim uh the rebounder and just the overall big man that could run the floor, catch loops that Phoenix needed. DeAndre Aiden towards the end of the Suns days was not it for them specifically. Yousef Nerkach was not it. Like I sometimes it’s tough to like know when a player is kind of cooked in this league. I knew Nerkach was cooked like in his last year in Portland. It was not good and the fact that they traded away DeAndre Aid, it was just not a good move whatsoever. At least they were able to get Grayson Allen in that three-team trade with like Milwaukee but was not the move. Mark Williams though this year restricted free agent at the end of the year from the 2022 draft. 12 points, eight rebounds, has had a nice connection with Deon Booker so far this year. And I think it’s just having that good rebounder, that good athlete down low, which is making Deon Booker’s life a little bit easier in the half court. It’s giving Jordan a flexible option to have in that front court. One of the more fun players this year. I mentioned Grayson Allen could have been in the most improved player conversation. Colin Gillespie. Yeah, the former Villanova Wildcat Colin Gillespie. He was undrafted. He won a Did he win a national title? No, he didn’t win a national title, I don’t think. But he went to the final four with Nova in like that 2020 two season when it was like UNCC, Kansas, Nova, and Duke. They ended up losing to Kansas in the final four. Dude, Gillespie like still struggles a little bit at the rim. is a small guard out there, but he is a feisty defender. He’s going to give you 100% effort. And like I said, Suns need guys that give a And he was a solid player in Denver. And he’s making himself definitely have a nice role here in Phoenix. 11 and a half points, five assists, four rebounds, 41% on threes on about six attempts a night. He’s came off the bench for Phoenix this year. He could definitely be in the six man of the year conversation. and him having this more on ball workload, bringing up the ball, allowing Devin Booker to get to his spots in the sets and work off screens where Booker doesn’t have to just flat out be a straight isolation guy from the top or just spam high pick and roll high pick and roll that we saw so many times last year has given Jordan a weapon in this Phoenix Suns half court offense. I thought this offense could have been bottom five this year. I did not think it was going to be good. I thought their defense could have had potential, but this offense has been so impressive this year because guys are knocking down their shots. They have way more depth than they did last year. Like I’m going to pull up what they had last year basically. And it was like some of these names that we had to see. 20 different guys played last year. Vili Misich, Damen Lee, Tai Tai Washington, Monte Morris, like Josh Kogi was fine for them but only appeared in 25 games. Like Cody Martin, you’re throwing out Oso Agadoro like a second round pick. Ryan Dunn like a rookie. It’s so tough the minutes he got. Mason Plumbley played 74 games for this team. Taius Jones, fine offensive player, but not going to give you what you want defensively. Magic fans kind of learning that this year over in Orlando. Jordan Goodwin can kind of like explode for a nice offensive night here and there. Ryan Dunn, I should like mention as well, just another great athlete, giving them a stopper defender, a great elite post defender. I raved about like on Twitter a lot when they kind of like shut down Wemby in a game a couple weeks ago and just sending doubles, allowing Ryan Dunn to use his athleticism, his quick decision-making as a defensive player um on display and allowing him being like just more like a free safety out there. He can kind of just fly around. He’s a great weak side help defender. Royce O’Neal is knocking down his three-point shots this year. Igodoro has struggled a little bit, but he was a second round pick in a weak draft. Like it gives you another option with Nick Richards out there as well. Like both those guys, I don’t know. Nick Richards is like a like they’re both maybe long-term number three centers on a good roster in the league, but just having them gives them another weapon. We haven’t really even seen the rookie class that much this year. Like Rashir Fleming hasn’t really had consistent playing time. Neither Kobe Brea, neither Kaman Maui watch, who was a project and I expect to see him more in the second half, but Phoenix, they don’t want to give Orlando or they don’t want to give Memphis, excuse me, or Charlotte a good draft pick. So if Igodaro and Richards are going to be better than Maui Watch, they’re going to play over Maui Watch at least in the rookie year. that is fine going forward. Like maybe they didn’t really hit on the Nigel Hayes Davis signing. He’s probably been maybe the most disappointing player there. But hey, Jordan Goodwin looks like a really good pickup. Mark Williams looks like a great trade for this team who’s kind of involved in that um Yousef Nerk trade at the end of the day because they were able to get like the 29th pick in this draft. It’s still extremely risky to trade away your 2031 first for where this team is headed right now. But hey, you got Mark Williams at the end of the day, which at least gives you an asset to show, not like a raw rookie that you could have taken at 29. And we know Charlotte ended up with Liam McNeely there. So, the Suns are going to be an interesting team to watch this year, like what Brian Gregory is going to do at the deadline. I hope we get to see a decent amount of Jaylen Green before the deadline as well, just because I think he can really unlock this offense a little bit more, take a little bit of a workload off of Devin Booker. And I would love to see this team at full strength. Like, it stinks that uh Brooks missed time at the beginning of the year, never really got to play with Jaylen Green. Um, and then like Grayson Allen recently gets hurt. So, we’ll see how this team ends up looking going forward. I mean, they have a lot of invested into Devin Booker who got that very nice extension in the offseason. He’ll be making close to $70 million a year in 2030. Jaylen Green, Modern NBA, like is not under a bad contract. That new extension kicks in. Dylan Brooks is under a great contract and that’s why I said he could potentially be moved at the deadline. I mean, Allen’s contract’s looking a little bit better. Like, that’s why like Allen’s contract and O’Neal’s contract, like they can get a little bit scary. So, I wonder if they would sell high. Like, I would definitely look to sell high on maybe like Royce O’Neal if you can just to get out of that long-term money where Phoenix can have a little bit more cap flexibility going forward. I know they were rumored or linked to like Jonathan Kaminga in the offseason. I don’t know if that’s going to materialize in January. Yeah, if I’m moving like Royce O’Neal and Nick Richards and like second rounders for Kaminga, I would think about that. Like Grayson Allen for Kaminga maybe. Like the thought of that even happening in the offseason was like not even realistic. So, you could think about that. And I don’t know if I would really move Dylan Brooks for Jonathan Kaminga for what this team is building right now cuz yeah, like over the next few years, they’re not going to have like too much cap space going forward. Um, and with the side cap going up though, it gives them a little bit more flexibility. It’s just the draft uh pick situation, which is just so bleak. Like 2026, like I said, it’s either going to go to like Memphis or Charlotte and swaps. 2027 it goes to Houston. That’s why you probably saw so many Dylan or uh Devin Booker trade rumors to Houston in the offseason. uh 2028 this is going to go to basically Brooklyn in a type of swap that could eventually happen if as long as like Brooklyn gets Phillies picks it’s weird it gets weird in 2028 2029 it’s going to go to Houston um or Brooklyn it’s another favorable swap 2030 um basically another swap from the Bradley Be trade and then 2031 outright to Utah 2032 right now it’s frozen because they were a repeat offender in the second apron but they’ll get out of that that pick will be unfrozen so not until 2032 They don’t own direction of their first round pick, which is scary. That is always going to be scary. The odds of them giving up a top 10 pick between now and 2032 is probably higher than we think. But if we’re just looking at the 2026 season in a vacuum, the Suns have impressed me a ton this year. They’ve been one of the better defensive teams. They’ve been a good enough offensive team to keep this team kind of alive right now, and they’re ranked 12th in net rating. So, I wanted to make this video over the weekend um after they ended up beating the San Antonio Spurs and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Obviously fantastic comeback, but I was away in Vegas. Uh I went to a Tik Tok event. I went to the Raiders game on Sunday. Well, I went there for like a Tik Tok event. It was like F1 and then I parlayed that into like a little bit of a trip with my fiance. Went to the Raiders game on Sunday. Got to see Shador’s debut first start. And then on Monday, I got to go to some of the players hour games. So, I got to see like Native A up close in person, Kayen Anthony, all the Houston prospects as well, Marcus Burton at uh Notre Dame, uh Kansas. Floyd Bedonga is probably the most intriguing guy right now because Darren Peterson was unfortunately out. So, I hope you guys did enjoy this video about the Phoenix Suns. Let me know if there’s a team you want me to talk about down below. Give me your thoughts on the Phoenix Suns down below. Did you expect this? Are they exceeding your expectations? Let me know. Catch you guys in the next one. Peace.

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