Why the 2024 Phoenix Suns Failure was Inevitable

Why the 2024 Phoenix Suns Failure was Inevitable

the 2024 Phoenix Suns have gone out sad a trio consisting of Kevin Durant Devin Booker and Bradley Beal got swept by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round three of the top scorers in the league and they couldn’t win one playoff game not even one I want to say that the Phoenix Suns deserve this and that their demise was inevitable and guess what I am going to say it the Phoenix Suns deserved this and their demise was inevitable and their demise started when they traded for Kevin Durant in 2023 when KD got traded from the Brooklyn Nets to the Suns to no one’s surprise it sent the league into a frenzy from this trade alone the Suns went from being one of the favorites to Def favorite to make it out the West unfortunately once Katie got to the Suns he would only play three games before suffering a left ankle sprain during a pregame warm-up against the OKC Thunder after missing 10 games Katie returned but only got to play another five regular season games before the playoffs this might look bad and that’s because it is your team’s best player only getting eight regular season games to gel with his teammates before the playoffs isn’t the best of circumstances but the sun’s Championship aspirations were still at an all-time high as in those eight games with KD they didn’t lose a single game KD even averaged 55 40 90 shooting splits that regular season becoming the first NBA player to do so in the first round of the playoffs the Suns got past the Los Angeles Clippers relatively quickly but once they got to the second round they will get stomped on by another fat white European for the second year in a row besides Games 1 and four ktie went from being an elite scorer in the regular season to a shot chucker especially in game two when he went 2 for2 from the three-point line despite the Nuggets defensive efforts mostly being put on Booker Katie was also a turnover monster averaging 4.6 turnovers a game however even with KD’s faults I can’t put all of the blame on KD because Chris Paul got injured in game two but more importantly DeAndre Aon was essentially playing for the nuggets with his low effort on both sides of the floor with Aon being a complete non-factor KY had to be the team’s defensive anchor and primary rebounder The only positive aspect of this series is that the Suns happened to be the only team to at least win two games against the nuggets in the 2023 playoffs and Chris Paul was 2 years sober so then you’re probably wondering where I’m going with this since I haven’t said anything devastatingly terrible about KD you might want to cover your ears if you’re a KD hater but I don’t think KD was the problem as easy as it is to blame and Bash KD considering his ring chasing and failures in the playoffs post Warriors the day I call KD a non-impact basketball player is the day I get S to a mental Asylum the trade itself is the real problem and wait just wait I don’t mean the trade package either Mel Bridges cam Johnson and five firstr round picks for a generational Talent seems fair the problem is that the trade for KD set this precedent in the front office where they were more focused on quote unquote big game hunting prioritizing big names over small ones Stars over quality role players after all a top 15 to 20 player in NBA history was joining the team they had to capitalize on that somehow as a result of this trade and the president it set the Suns would have one of the most destructive off seasons of any NBA team instead of building a championship team for the NBA they went on to create one that was designed for NBA 2K the sun’s first move and the one that probably is going to completely over this franchise for the next decade is the trade for Bradley be once again like the KD trade the trade package was not a problem on paper it even looked like the Suns fleece the Washington Wizards the Suns traded away a 37-year-old Chris Paul who had just gotten injured Landry shamut who was just a streaky shooter with a tradable contract a bunch of pick swaps and a handful of second round picks for an Allstar in Bradley Beal realistically speaking all the Suns sent were some second round picks the problem with this trade was Beal’s contract Beal was and still is the only player with a no trade clause on his contract meaning he couldn’t be traded unless he approved the trade there have only been 10 players with no trade Clauses in NBA history and in most cases it serves as a detriment to the team with the team having to either keep the player until the contract expires or trade them for Jack for example the New York Knicks had Carmelo Anthony on a no trade clause and it ended up having to trade their Cornerstone player for Andis caner Doug mcdermit and a second round pick to the OKC Thunder putting the Knicks in a terrible start of their rebuild also be is being paid nearly $50 million yearly making his contract the sixth highest in the league even more than players like Giannis Kawai and Luca be also has a player option worth $57 million in 2027 and there’s no way he won’t take that as by 2027 he’ll already be in his mid-30s the final in the coffin is that Beal’s $50 million yearly contract combined with Bookers Durant and aons amounted to $150 million limiting the players they can sign in free agency to minimum contract players as a result the Suns gambled their future and instantly put themselves in a Do or Die situation once they traded for bu the Suns had to ensure that whoever they traded for during the rest of the off season had to complement the trio but it was obvious that wouldn’t happen the only other tradable asset was Aon but he tanked his value after his performance of 2023 playoffs and there was no way you were trading KD after half a season or your franchise star you also can’t put much trust in the Suns front office considering they thought trading for Beal another player with the exact same archetype as Kevin Durant and Devin Booker instead of an aggressive Center a three and D Wing a pass first point guard or a stronger bench was the best and most appropriate option of the championship winning teams that built a big three I can’t think of a single big three where the player skill sets didn’t mesh well the Golden State Warriors had Stephen Curry Klay Thompson and Draymond Green the Milwaukee Bucks had Giannis Chris Middleton and Drew holiday and the Toronto Raptors had Kawai Pascal cakam and Kyle Lowry even if the Suns didn’t trade for be and instead traded for a player with a skill set that was better suited alongside K and Booker they would still probably be bringing in a ton of money and as a result as said previously limiting their free agent talent pool to minimum contract players who are typically not that impactful and again I can’t think of a championship team that didn’t have good role players the Denver Nuggets were basically comprised of elite role players with them having Jamal Murray Aaron Gordon Michael Porter Jr Casey p and Bruce Brown the Toronto Raptors had Sergio baka marasol Fred Van vet and Danny Green and the Golden State Warriors had Andrew Wiggins Jordan P Kevon Looney and uto Porter what makes this trade make the Suns front office look even worse is that they had the formula for a championship winning team in the 2021 regular season they made it all the way to the finals for the first time since 1993 and even though they didn’t win it showed the Suns front office that they didn’t need a big three every player around Devon Booker complimented his play style and the team was deep enough that you could rely on the ninth man to contribute meaningful minutes in the next season the Suns ran up back with an even deeper bench and finished the regular season as the first seed with 64 wins the most INF franchise history to be fair though they were embarrassed by Luca and Jaylen Brunson in the second round even though neither team won a championship it showed that the Suns just needed to make a few more Minor Adjustments but then Matt ish came in and decided to mess up an already successful roster Devin Booker is the only player from the 2022 Suns who still on the 2024 suns in 2 years ishbia flipped the team upside down for the worst to end the section about the Bradley Bill trade and to continue shaming the Suns front office what really makes them look like idiots is that just two seasons prior that Los Angeles Lakers did the exact same thing and became the laughing stock of the NBA the Lakers gave up key rotation players on a team that had just won the championship two years prior for Russell Westbrook who coincidentally was also an agent Guard from the Washington Wizards on a huge contract whose skill set didn’t add to LeBron James or Anthony Davis’s play style even though the Lakers would only win 33 games in the season they had Westbrook at least he was in the second to last year of his contract and didn’t have a no trade clause attached to his contract making him somewhat easier to trade away Bradley be’s contract is basically untradeable and has the Suns in a Cho code for the next three seasons and at least Westbrook was healthy when the Lakers traded for him Beal was constantly injured the year before he was traded to the Suns looking back at it now the Suns would have been better off keeping a just injured 37-year-old Chris Paul over Bradley Beal with that being said the rest of the moves the Suns made were nothing to be excited about and were inevitably going to be terrible however since I have been on the sun’s front office I’ll first complement the moves that I thought were good on February 9th 2024 the suns were trade away four different players and three second round picks for Royce O’Neal at first glance that seems excessive but the four players were shamei metu Jordan Goodwin Utah Watanabe and kada bat di who were all minimum contract players that weren’t contributing to the team whatsoever so realistically basically the Suns just traded three second round picks for a reliable two-way player who ended up being the primary perimeter Defender for the team besides Russ O’Neal the bbow signing has proven to be a decent pickup for the Suns bbow has been a much better shooter this season shooting 62% from the field and 42% from the three since he isn’t dribbling as much also because of how lengthy he is he can naturally help contest shots and disrupt passing Lanes the biggest problem is that bllb is too slow to play the four but too weak to play the five now getting into this somewhat bad don’t freak out Suns fans but we’re going to start with the DeAndre Aton trade Aon performed so terribly in the 2023 playoffs that jock landale was starting over him and it didn’t help that his relationship with everyone on the Suns was non-existent so aan being shredded away was unavoidable but getting a good package back was going to be difficult considering how low his value was in the end on September 7th 2023 DeAndre Eton and Tani Kamara would end up getting treaded away for yusf nurkic nir little and Grayson Allen first off let’s start with nurkic nurkic is a deceptively good player after all he’s averaged or nearly averaged a double double throughout the past eight regular seasons however when it comes to the playoffs he becomes a defensive liability is extremely passive on offense and just dissolves into the role of being a rebound founder and screener which to be fair the Suns needed then there’s nir little he’s a good perimeter Defender and also a decent rebounder he could have had the potential to be the son’s Josh Hart but little is just way too injury-prone and unfortunately his offensive and defensive production don’t outweigh his injuries throughout his first five seasons in the NBA the most games he’s played in a season is 54 the Saving Grace of this trade however is Grayson Allen Allen has the 10th most votes for most improved player but I honestly think he deserves more because on some nights he was the son’s third best option Allen shot 46% from the three-point line on six three-point attempts a game leading the league in three-point percentage also Allen has probably been the team’s second best perimeter Defender and it’s like watching a miniature version of prime Klay Thompson finally something I honestly didn’t expect at all is how good Tani Kamar would be if Kamar weren’t a part of the trade I’d say that this would have been a good Suns trade but I can’t fault the Suns for not thinking too much about the 52nd pick in the draft Kamar has been a lock down Defender for the Trailblazers and is what little and bit de up were supposed to be also if the Suns fail at winning a championship and from what we know so far it seems like a high possibility at least they could have had a younger player in kamaro to rebuild with as for the rest of the moves they were were all pretty terrible signing Eric Gorden was just bringing in a diet version of Bradley Beal even though they didn’t need more scoring and of all the players you could have resigned resigning Josh aogi was probably the worst option aogi is a good Defender but in a similar vein as nir little ao’s defense doesn’t make up for his non-existent offensive production the suns were much better off resigning Tory Craig instead although signing met to Watanabe baits the up and trading for Goodwin led to Royce O’Neal that’s four roster spots that could have gone to players that were better fit for the team or at the least were rotation players and added depth to the team the best minimum contract players the Suns could have signed that would have been good fits and actual rotation players were Derek Rose Patrick Beverly Kelly UB Jr Dennis Smith Jr cam reddish Derek Jones Jr justice Winslow Omar y7 and Thomas Bryant however the most egregious offseason move was that the Suns completely ignored the point guard position forcing Devon Booker and Bradley Beal to share playmaking duties if the Suns had literally any point guard it would have opened up the floor and alleviated so much stress from Booker and Beal instead the Suns traded away Cameron pay for a second round pick and according to Frank vogle the Suns front office declined to add a point guard to the roster even though vogle insisted on having one because a point guard would apparently take the ball away from the big three it’s like the sun front office heard that positionist basketball is a thing now so they decided that a point guard was unnecessary speaking of vogle although I don’t think he was a terrible coach for the Suns he wasn’t the correct fit his rotations were sometimes awful and a defensive-minded coach for a team filled with scorers seems counterintuitive with three of the best scorers in the league the sun’s front office should have capitalized on that and elevated it by hiring an offensive-minded coach like Mike de Anton in one off season the Suns created one of the worst constructed teams ever it’s like Matt ishbia and James Jones secretly hate Devin Booker and KD and they’re playing this extremely elaborate prank on them as for the regular season although the Suns would finish the season 49 to 33 the team looked lost in every other game you have two players who are generational talents for their scoring but now one of them is forced to be a playmaker and the other has to put more priority on getting rebounds and being a defensive anchor this should be obvious but having your star Talent do things that didn’t make them stars in the first place isn’t the best idea it also doesn’t help that the player you brought in to handle the ball was injured for a third of the regular season for the entirety of the regular season the Phoenix Suns only had five players that could consistently rely on Devin Booker Kevin Durant Royce O’Neal Grayson Allen and youf Nur AG so when they got to the playoffs and went up against the Minnesota Timberwolves it wasn’t surprising that they would lose as badly as they did first this is just unlucky but Grayson Allen re-aggravated his ankle injury in game two which took him out for the rest of the series in addition nurkic was basically a non-factor on defense and offense and as good of a rebounder as he is when the team’s opposing bigs are Carl Anthony towns and Rudy goar you’re not getting that many rebounds so the suns were now just down to three consistently reliable players the only way that these Suns could have won is if Kevin Durant and Devon Booker combined for 80 points a game which honestly could have been possible if it weren’t for the lack of depth and lack of shot creation since no one else on the Suns did Jack the Timberwolves only had to focus their defensive efforts on KD and Booker also ktie and Booker had to prioritize putting more effort into playmaking rebounding and defending than usual because again no one else on the Suns did Jack as a result KD and book only averaged 16 field goal attempts a game this is the least amount of field goal attempts both ktie and Booker have had in their playoff careers they should at the least be attempting 20 field goals a game during the series when Booker Durant and Beal were on the floor they had a plus minus ofus 51 the worst of any Trio this postseason the future of the Phoenix Suns looks looks extremely dim they have zero first round picks from 2025 to 2030 and zero second round picks from 2024 to 2030 not only that but for the 2025 NBA season The Big Three will take up $150 million and that’s not taking into account nurkic’s contract which will be worth $18 million in 2025 and the fact that the son signed Grayson Allen to a contract extension worth $70 million over the next four seasons all that is to say that the suns are once again going into the off season most likely signing minimum contract players so instead of focusing on who they can sign they should see what they can trade for the sun’s main priorities should be the trade for a starting point guard and players that add more depth and compliment Booker play style they could also trade for picks and young players and officially start their rebuild but I doubt that will happen of the players who have the only tradable assets are probably Kevin Durant an Yousef nurkic and S little and the 22nd pick in the 2024 draft that’s it you could also include Grayson Allen but I have a feeling he’s staying after that extension pre playoffs there could have still been a chance the Suns could have shed B but after having one of the worst performances in an elimination game there’s no chance anyone is taking him and as for Booker I have no doubts that he’s staying starting with KD the best possible trade the Suns could make is is to trade him to the Atlanta Hawks for dejonte Murray Clint capella Kobe buffkin and a 2030 first round pick the trade that’s less likely to happen is KD is sent back to the Warriors for Andrew Wiggins Gary pton Kevon Looney and pron Pinsky as for a nurkic trade the only trade I could think of is pairing nkit with nir little or whoever the 22nd pick is to the Wizards for tus Jones or to the Trailblazers for Malcolm brogon or to the Brooklyn Nets in a sign and trade for Nicholas Claxton finally it’s time to fire Frank Fogle sure he’s a championship coach and has improved the defense of the team but considering the fact that in a regular season loss against the Los Angeles Clippers the players laughed and rolled their eyes at Fogle for getting angry I have a feeling that he’s lost the respect of the players the sun should keep their eyes out on Mike de anony Tyron Lou Mike benen holer and Kenny Atkinson as long as the Suns don’t come back with the exact same starting five it’s a win if they do sorry to break it to you Suns fans you aren’t winning a championship anytime soon [Music]

After signing Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal, the 2024 Phoenix Suns seemed like Championship Favorites, but in the First Round against the Minnesota Timberwolves, they would get SWEPT.

You would think that a team with THREE of the TOP PLAYERS in the NBA would put up a fight, but when you’re BIG THREE are the EXACT SAME archetype (i.e., scorers) and make so much money that signing any significant role players becomes impossible, it’s no surprise the Suns failed as badly as they did.

#phoenixsuns #kevindurant #bradleybeal #devinbooker #frankvogel

0:00 – Introduction
0:32 – Here Comes Kevin Durant
3:51 – Bradley Beal & His Terrible Contract
5:51 – The Ingredients to Win
7:35 – The Phoenix Suns’ Front Office Aren’t Very Smart…
9:54 – Judging the Other Off-Season Moves
15:45 – Regular Season Failures
16:36 – Devoured by the Minnesota Timberwolves
17:57 – The Future is Looking Grim