Bickley Blast: Suns fans sit in purgatory as Phoenix continues to struggle

Bickley Blast: Suns fans sit in purgatory as Phoenix continues to struggle

And marada boings Arizona Sports the local sports leader bigley blast we all knew Monday night was going to be a funeral I just assumed it would be reserved for the Pack 12 and not the Phoenix Suns now a quick disclaimer today’s blast is not about intellect or

Analysis it’s not what I think it’s what I feel and watching last night’s fourth quarter against the Clippers was about as dark and depressing as any basketball I’ve absorbed in quite some time because even after that game seven lost to Luca even after bending the KNE in AA and the

Nuggets there was still plenty of Hope and belief in the future but after last night I’m not so sure anymore the Suns have no real leaders Devin Booker doesn’t look like he’s having any fun at all their turnover Tendencies scream for a real point guard and they may have

Traded for the wrong wizard Bradley be doesn’t look like a superstar to me rather just one of about 50 really good offensive players in the NBA and finally this coaching staff the one Matt ishia loaded up with high-priced high-profile assistant will color me unimpressed I don’t see range I don’t see adjustments

I don’t see any defensive system or Collective Acumen and on offense I don’t see much movement or any real plays being run but again I’m also in a real bad place very fearful that this team is going to struggle to make the playoffs and a team that has virtually no shot of

Winning at all this year now before last night’s game Clippers head coach tyo said the suns are going to be hell when they finally get it together and I hope he’s right because right now Purgatory is watching an alleged super team perform like the worst fourth quarter

Team in the league and that’s not an opinion folks those are the facts all right today’s bigle blast brought to you by my great friends at Chapman BMW make luck attainable find them online at Chapman bmw.com n we’re all Pros in here we got multiple guys that been in league for

Five plus years so I got to tell them what’s coming next I don’t think I should have to tell them what’s coming or what The Season’s about I think everybody here is experienced to have to know what a flow of a season looks like

And um you know we Cho guys just come to work no matter how you feel no matter what happens what’s on your mind you still got to get up and go to work that that holds true for everybody in here so I think that’s the approach you have as

Individual players that regardless of what happens we still got to go there and be the best we would be every day that’s Kevin Durant after last night’s loss Durant had 30 points and a 27o loss to the Clippers their worst loss in terms of Point differential on the

Season a lot of the same issues that have been playing the Suns throughout this year popped up again defending the three-point shot rebounding blocking out uh all of those things and the fourth quarter was I mean yesterday Beck coming out of the Memphis game The View uh the

The the the point of view on Vinnie’s view was why is there always seemingly one quarter that goes south for the Suns in in these losses that is now the eighth they did they lose the game because of the fourth quarter no were they in the game in the fourth quarter

Yes they got to within seven and then the wheels fell off uh had they played even in the fourth quarter last night they still would have lost that game but it was another quarter another 12 minute period of basketball where whatever the suns were doing just stopped happening and to

Kevin Durant’s point in that sound bite that’s what makes this right now in in in real time puzzling is the amount of Veteran leadership on this team there are a lot of experienced guys I know if they’re leaders well that and that’s the point and I said earlier that you know

Devin Booker’s got to be the guy and that might be a little bit unfair it can’t all fall on the shoulders of he’s not a natural born leader we’ve been through this with Kyler Murray he he’s had to train himself to be a good leader

Yes but you know he also had even know if he’s that yet he had three seasons learning from one of the best leaders that the NBA has ever seen in Chris Paul and I think that is an invaluable experience for a player who is still climbing who is still improving his game

Now Devon Booker is not playing his best basketball right now I we can all agree on that but maybe tap into some of those Chris Paul you know lessons that that were learned and when you reach a point like this and it sounds dire the way we’re talking you would think wow the

Suns are five wins on the year they’re 19 and 18 this is still salvageable but to get to the point where it’s salvageable a lot of hard truths have to be faced by the coaching staff by the players individually by the players collectively and May by the front office

Well and and I was uh I was having a text exchange with a with a longtime Suns fan and it was interesting where this went because we both agreed that that Kevin Durant is in the midst of a very very very excellent individual season the numbers back it up he last

Night like you said looked like it could have been a 40-point game but last night as you watched the game there was a lot of humorous uh smack talk going on between Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook it was really and you could tell Katie was kind of enjoying it and

Whatever there were questions after the game about to KD about Draymond Green and what Draymond said in a podcast about KD and how he was hurt by KD’s comments and then there were questions about James Harden and how things ended poorly in Brooklyn and the contention

Was that as great as Kevin Durant is we all know he’s not a leader it’s not in him he’s a great player he’s not a leader and he’ll freely admit that and he’ll freely admit that but but there’s also a feeling among Suns fans and fair

Or not but there’s a feeling that he’s not ours he’s an he’s a developed brand who has been part of lots of teams and and some have been successful some have been failures but but we’re just another another place on the map for KD I’m not saying it’s accurate but I’m saying that

In in listening to him talk in the and the just the the lack of people standing up and saying this is unacceptable and and I don’t even know what the value of it is but I think fans would love to hear that fans would love to hear that these players are as bummed

Out about this as they happen to be if for nothing else you’re exactly right the fans are frustrated and when you hear this constant H we got to do this we got to do that it still a lot of time left it’s a long season uh the marathon

Is quickly becoming a Sprint it is it is whether you want to face it or not yeah and again I think maybe maybe you and I both place too much important on last night’s game but last yesterday during the show you said that if K comes back

And it’s their big guys against our big guys and both teams are on the second of backto backs and both teams are coming off losses they want to shake off that this is a pretty big game and I felt that way about last night’s game I felt

This is a pretty big game this is sort of a referendum on on what this team can summon against one of the best teams in the west Sun’s record against the best teams in the Pacific not very good and the best teams in the Western Conference

Not very good no and it was across the board too if you want to go big three against big three Clippers major Advantage if you want to go big against big aita zubot completely outplayed Yousef nerkish if you want to go fifth starter against fifth starter Terrence man completely outplayed Grayson Allen

You want to go bench against bench Clippers bench dominated the sun’s bench I mean it was it was you want to go coach against coach tyo dominated Frank vogle from the fact that tyo continues to to trap and Tangle up the big three of the Suns or the big two whoever the

Suns have out they’ve got they’ve got a real solid defensive a plan they’re throwing at Phoenix that’s working and and so this is and maybe it’s the fact that the Clippers have found elevation that that’s adding to my sour mood because this was a team that I thought

Was in our rearview mirror at least temporarily yeah and when the Harden deal went down and people say wow what are you doing you’re going to you’re going to welcome that guy into your mix right and they’ve stayed healthy and it took a little bit of time ball they took

A little bit of time to find their footing but relatively quick compared to what the process is been here in Phoenix yeah and and once again I say this all the time I know that that that sometimes it drives you nuts when I gloss over a

Lot of uh other players in other teams but kawh Leonard man do I love watching that guy play basketball he doesn’t say a word he doesn’t complain about anything he has just got maybe the strongest Pair of Hands you put that basketball and he’s just taken it from

You he just took it from KD last night took it from book He’s he is such a great player thanks for watching Bickley and marada click to see the latest Bley blast and hit the button in the middle to subscribe to Arizona Sports

After the Phoenix Suns’ 27-point loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, Dan Bickley shares his feelings on the team, their struggles and their playoff chances.

Video: Felisa Cárdenas and Jeremy Schnell/Arizona Sports
Photos: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

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