The Phoenix Suns are in championship-or-bust mode for plenty of people around the Valley.
Perhaps as they should be considering the team's push for superstars and offloading nearly every resource possible in a pursuit for a franchise-first title.
Necessary? Sure, and nobody can really fault new owner Mat Ishbia for making swift changes when the previous regime failed to do so.
Yet the Suns have a steep hill to climb, and The Athletic's John Hollinger highlighted them as one of many teams out West set to have a disappointing offseason.
"No team is more all-in than the Suns, who got smoked by a Giannis-less Milwaukee Bucks team on Sunday to fall into a tie for seventh with Dallas. (Ancillary question beyond the scope of today’s piece: How is Doc Rivers so good when his team is short-handed and so meh the rest of the time?)" wrote Hollinger.
"The Suns have traded every pick and swap they can — some of them twice — and will be blocked from doing much of anything with their roster in the offseason beyond re-signing Royce O’Neale due to the second-apron constraints in the new CBA.
"The point of doing all that wasn’t to be pleasantly above average, with the league’s 11th-best net rating. Sure, they’ve had some injuries, but Kevin Durant and Devin Booker have only missed 21 games combined — pretty good given their recent history. The issue is that the supporting cast just isn’t good enough, especially if Durant can’t summon the 2021 playoffs Holy Terror version of himself any longer.
"Yes, the peak version of this team still scares people, and you can still talk yourself into upside scenarios (snag the No. 6 seed, face a wounded Minnesota team in the first round, profit?), but the Suns’ best player is 35 years old, they’re in hock on draft picks through 2030 and they owe a declining Bradley Beal $57 million in 2026-27. The best year from this team was supposed to be this one."
Hollinger highlights plenty of valid points, and perhaps the Suns knew things would take time to gel on and off the court after such massive changes - something that was only further pushed back by injuries.
Championship teams indeed take time to mold - rarely has a squad like Phoenix been thrown together with a parade that followed suit.
Perhaps next season was always the ultimate goal for the Suns. Though even if that were true, that doesn't mean the upcoming offseason won't be tough in numerous ways if the team doesn't manage to win it all.
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