The Ringer’s Bill Simmons and Rob Mahoney break down why the Phoenix Suns lost in the series against the Denver Nuggets and what they should do moving forward.
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39 Comments
Booker is having a couple wildly good series…..put it in his HOF speech…make sure Bad Bunny gets a bit of cred during the announcement tho lol
Any one looking at Durants career since leaving the warriors objectively can say his teammates have failed him. Hopefully the suns put a strong team around him and book
I don’t know why the media kept saying the KD experiment would work
Did he really just say that the price for Durant was Mikael Bridges and four first round pics including a swap?
The suns were in dog fights with a russ & Norman Powell backcourt what y’all expect
Wtf the Suns had the option to trade Ayton for Sabonis with the Pacers. Lol Robert Sarver and Suns GM are morons.
That last statement is an indictment on your knowledge of the western conference and the skill of devin booker. Yes, the suns need to do a tooooon this offseason. But only 4 teams in each conference make the 2nd round. No matter what moves are made, the suns have Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. As shown this year, those two are enough to take a couple games from the 1 seed in the second round. ANY reinforcements(which we know are coming, heads gonna roll after this embarrassing showing for the 2nd year in a row) are a boost from where the suns are at now. To not put the suns in your top 5 of the western conference next year is saying they WILL be eliminated in the first round, or worse yet not make the postseason. Kevin Durant makes the postseason. Kevin Durant next to Devin Booker makes the 2nd round. That's top 4 bare minimum, non-negotiable. It's up to the FO and HC to construct what gets to round 3 and beyond, and it happens this summer.
These dudes who give KD passes criticize lebron unlike anyone else
01:00 Thank you. Brilliant. Ayton big problem though
Suns should go get Jerami Grant and a good young PG
He gets the most passes lol mfs knew the bench was weak! Y’all knew cp3 is injury prone & you knew Ayton was weak but yet y’all still picked them
I really thought TJ Warren would have been a boost off the bench for the Suns, but he never did much. Not a fan of giving up half a team for a superstar.
AbominAyton didn't even try Jocik embarrassed him. Monty has lost control.
KD is a all time playoff underachiever without Steph
Imagine if suns drafted luka instead of ayton
You should never carry a super heavy load. There are ways to relieve yourself. 🌭
The Suns will come back next year and play basketball. If they become a baseball team I’ll be surprised
Booger and Durant is amazing, but you need 3 more players bro
I disagree with Bill Simmons. Durant is old as the Achilles surgery took two years off his career. He's more like 37 in basketball age even though he's 34.
LOL these KD apologists kill me. You guys act like this is the first time KD melted down like this in playoffs. Y'all forgot last season already?? How did he play vs celtics?? That was the first round! Was he just tired in that first round sweep too? Lol not hard to spot the downward trend here
KD is in perfectly fine physical health to play 44 minutes a game. He is weak minded.
Its not just the fact that the suns got absolutely stomped in this game 6. What makes it worse is you had cam payne going OFF dude could not miss a damn shot he was solo keeping the suns in the game! All while KD and booker were bricking their shots lol
It seems like the only big star trade that has panned out over the last few years was Anthony Davis to LA.
Kevin Durant excuses on a Simmons podcast, what a fucking surprise! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Can’t make excuses for Booker. The guy plays no defense at all, so putting up a trash performance in an elimination game (again) is just inexcusable.
KD also underperformed but you can also see how limited his mobility has been since his injury so I kinda give him a break on that. Book is 26 and he can’t really do much unless he gets an easy look.
what if it was ayton they traded kd for?
Rozier and mark Williams for ayton
Raptors Ayton
Suns Poetl, Thad Young, and this years 1st rd pick
Seriously, who didn't see this coming? No way was the Suns going to be the Nuggets
I was patiently waiting for this video. KD looked a little washed up, Booker couldn't carry the team by himself and cp3 and ayton about to be up out of there
Thank you Rob for saying that this team wasn't gonna win anything with Bridges and Johnson either. Believe me…Suns fans DID NOT want to give up Bridges but Brooklyn rightfully didn't want Ayton. You make the move and try to build around two superstars and hope they stay healthy. Trade Ayton for parts to get his contract off the books and his attitude away from this team and get a bunch of defensive pieces around Booker and Durant. That's what Denver, Miami, Boston, Philly, and the Lakers did
I think once people come out of the prisoner of the moment phase, we would realize that it was just not realistic to expect a team to make a run toward the championship acquiring a guy 2 months before the end of the season, and depleting there depth as a result. Once they have an off-season of signing and acquiring, a training camp and more experience of playing together and finding out what their best identity is on the court, then we may see what this team could be at their best. But I think going forward, Devin Booker has to be the main guy. I know Kevin Durant is the bigger name and is the all-time greater player by far, but in 2023 he’s gonna be 35 and going into his 17th season. Devin Booker is in his prime now. They’re only gonna go as far as he’s able to take them.
The Suns need a MAJOR revamp, something like what the Lakers did at the deadline, before being anywhere close to real contenders, regardless of how good KD and Book are next season.
People are falling all ovee themselves to make excuses for KD. Lebron woukd never get these excuses. He gets killed whenever he loses. Simmons says "are we better than this?" Not when it comes to Lebron, i keep hearing how KD is the best player in the world to a lot of people yet he ALWAYS skates on the blame. Its always someone else's fault or theres always excuses. Basketball media are a bunch of cornballs.
Imagine if this was lebron how bill would cover it
The writing was on the wall for Phoenix when they blew it last off season, in historic embarrassing fashion. Then they extended Aayton and traded all their young talent away for an aging star to go next to an aging star. They only compounded their problems by giving away their future for dinosaurs and hoped they would be somehow 25 again. They're fucked.
Darvin Ham called Joker Monster of Rocky Mountains 😂 Embiid is more of a monster of Loch Ness, invisible, never shows up, doesnt exist 😂 we know who the real mvp
Phx just didn’t have time to figure things. They’ll be fine next season
KD and Booker were both worn down. I agree with Bill this was not sustainable too many minutes. Hopefully they can get some vet minimum help for them next year. KD cant be asked to play this much next season. You will need a back up that can eat some minutes for both him and Book.