The Phoenix Suns were once atop the NBA. They made the NBA Finals after years of careful team building. They had a superstar player in Devin Booker, an MVP candidate in Chris Paul, and first overall pick in DeAndre Ayton, and a great bench unit. Everything looked sunny down in Phoenix, but in reality, a nightmarish downward spiral has just begun for the Suns. The current look of the Suns would be unfathomable back in 2021. Let’s have a look back on the last few years of Suns history and what went wrong to have them in their current position.
After a loss in the 2021 NBA Finals, the Susns looked to come back with a vengeance. During the offseason, they re-signed Chris Paul and a few others to keep their existing talent. They entered the season with an 18 game win streak, the tenth highest win streak ever recorded in the NBA. In fact, it took them a 34 day span to lose a game, meaning they never lost during the entire month of November. The Suns looked like the clear favorite to win the championship. Come playoff time, the Suns had secured the first seed in the western conference. They beat the young New Orleans Pelicans in the first round in six games, but they had no idea what was coming to them in the next round.
The Dallas Mavericks looked like a formidable team, but nothing compared to the juggernauts that the Phoenix Suns were. The Suns thought the Mavs would be another push over on their way to the championship. They easily won the first two games of the series at home, but lost on the road in Dallas. The series was tied at two games a piece, and the Suns just had to win at home to secure the victory. They did win at home in Game 5, but Game 7 was a whole other story. The catastrophic beatdown the Suns faced in Game 7 will go down in history as one of the most embarrassing losses in all of sports. They lost 123-90 on their home court to end their season. They became the laughing stock of the NBA after all the hype about them pre-playoffs.
The Suns had a sour taste in their mouth following their loss to the Mavericks in the 2022 playoffs. Tension among players and coaches over what went wrong spilled over into the 2022-23 season. They made it to the trade deadline while holding on to the fourth seed in the West. The Suns felt the roster was not good enough to really contend for a championship, so they made one of the most shocking moves in NBA history. The Suns acquired Kevin Durant, a multiple time champion and MVP, in a 4 team blockbuster deal. The Suns traded Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, and five first-round picks. The Bucks and Pacers also made some minor moves in the trade. This trade sent shockwaves throughout the league. The sky was the limit for a team with finals experience adding a top ten player in the league. Once in the playoffs, they steamrolled past the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round and matched up with the Denver Nuggets in round two. The Nuggets were the first seed with 2x MVP Nikola Jokic. The Suns tried to stop the Nuggets, but Jokic had an all-time performance to beat the Suns in six games.
The sting of failure set on the Suns once again. DeAndre Ayton, the Suns’ star center, drew blame from fans for his poor attitude following losses and his lack of effort in big games. Ayton became upset at his coaches for calling out his behavior and locker room drama began to take focus away from what really mattered, winning basketball games. Ayton was the next player on the chopping block for Phoenix and they patiently waited for another star to be available. In the 2023 offseason, Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers became fed up with the organization and requested a trade. He was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks, but the Suns also got in on this deal. They traded Ayton to Portland to get their center, Jusuf Nurkic. This deal got rid of their problematic player, but the Suns seeked more out of this offseason.
Bradley Beal of the Washington Wizards was dealt to the Suns in the three-team deal. The Suns received Beal, Jordan Goodwin, and Isaiah Todd in return for Chris Paul, Landry Shamat, four first round picks, and six second round picks. This trade stunned fans around the league. The Suns bargained their entire future to get an aging Bradley Beal. The Suns would have to win at least one championship to make this trade even remotely sensible. No player is ever worth that kind of compensation, so everything was riding on the 2023-24 NBA season. The team was good, but not great. They had good stretches of games, but only managed to end up as a sixth seed. The panic had already set in for the Suns right before they got demolished by the Minnesota Timberwolves in just the first round of the playoffs.. They got swept by the T-Wolves in an embarrassing fashion. That moment there is when the Suns entered a living nightmare.
As of now, the Suns are barely scraping the play-in, and nobody is happy. Their players are under constant scrutiny and the organization has no draft leverage to improve the roster. Their future is entirely held by the Washington Wizards and Houston Rockets. The Suns face the choice of trading all their players for mediocre returns, or fight a losing battle to try to contend. The future looks bleak in Phoenix and it seems to only be getting worse.
