Boy, this has been stuck in my mind for a couple weeks now. It's a feeling of malaise and underachieving. The same ol' song and dance for a cursed franchise right now. For the third straight season, the title-contending Phoenix Suns exited the playoffs in another humiliating home loss. This time, the Minnesota Timberwolves made damn sure that Phoenix's NBA team wouldn't be able to reach the pinnacle. I'm not going to make the "Paxson for three!" reference this time since you are probably tired of it as much as I am. Once again, the Suns were talked about as the team who would hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy after last season. Unfortunately, the hardware is headed elsewhere.
After the firing of Monty Williams, owner Mat Ishiba and GM James Jones needed to bring in a head coach to evaluate the club to reach that pinnacle. They chose Frank Vogel over the ever-popular Mike Budenholzer. I thought it was a good hire, considering that Vogel's a championship-winning coach. So, is Budenholzer and he's from this state. Anyway, they decided to make a Father's Day trade to bring Bradley Beal to the Valley, thus shipping Chris Paul out. Clearly, Paul's failure to stay healthy was getting on the organization's nerves. Jones and Ishiba pulled off another huge trade to send the utter disappointment of Deandre Ayton to Portland in a three-way deal that brought Jusuf Nurkic and Grayson Allen here....oh, and Damian Lillard went to Milwaukee also. Phoenix was thinking of that championship glory.
(Side note: This was also the first season that the Suns would be broadcast on Arizona's Family. For those who are confused, Arizona's Family is a combination of two local channels, TV3 and CBS 5, as they merged into a GIANT entity. No, not really.)
Right off the bat, everything looked off, like REALLY off. The Suns were good, but not title contending great. Vogel seemed to be in a situation where the philosophy wasn't meshing with the team he wanted to coach. That is a big under-statement. Devin Booker and Kevin Durant were great, but again, Vogel is a hard ass who preaches defense and players going all out. Aaaaannnddd, once Bradley Beal came to Phoenix, he resembled a bag of ice here. When you drop it, the bag will break easily and melt. That was Beal's body in a Phoenix Suns' uniform. Nurkic and Allen were instant contributors to the club. Jusuf provided an inside presence that they wished Ayton provided during his last two years here. Allen became a fan favorite due to his hustle and three-point prowess, which earned him an extension and well deserved. Other than that, Phoenix finished with the #6 seed.
You would think that facing a young T-Wolves team, the Suns could outlast them, and this would a learning experience. Oh, hell no, Minnesota decided to punch Phoenix like Rudy Knuckles did to Kyle Anderson on the sideline and Jaden McDaniels to that wall. This wasn't even close. The Suns were swept and became a joke on YouTube. Seriously, look at the videos on this franchise after the defeat, the super team that failed or the hype that wasn't. Another year of looking at the horizon and pondering what could have been or what could be.
Right after the sweep, Ishiba held a press conference, and apparently, went to the Tony Khan School of Great, because that's what he said, and that quote, "The house is not on fire." He also stated the team needs a point guard. Did you really need to have a press conference to tell people that you needed a point guard? It's like you tried to put superstars on a team with no real roles. You decided to be cute, am I right? A short time after this, the organization decided that Vogel wasn't in their long-term plans and fired him. Take a guess at who they hired? Mike Budenholzer. This is a situation that the Suns knew they were going to get either backlash or praise for, because, say it with me now, IT SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED LAST YEAR!
So, the Phoenix Suns head into another off-season with hype on the horizon and uncertainty. For fans of the team, they want that hype to turn into a glorious ending with the NBA championship. It could happen......right?
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