Suns Ripped in NBA Season Grades

Several outlets agreed about just how bad the Phoenix Suns' 2024-25 season was.

Despite having the highest payroll in NBA history led by Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, the Suns finished 36-46 and missed the playoffs for the first time since the 2019-20 season. Phoenix is going to undergo a lot of change after such a disastrous season and already started by firing first-year coach Mike Budenholzer.

Here's how different writers graded the Suns season:

ESPN: F

The Suns were one of two teams to receive an F by ESPN with the other one being the Philadelphia 76ers.

This is what ESPN's Kevin Pelton wrote about the Suns:

"At least the 76ers can point to injuries as an explanation for their lost season. Phoenix wasn’t good even at full strength, going 19-18 with a negative point differential in the 37 games Bradley Beal, Devin Booker and Kevin Durant played together. Coach Mike Budenholzer proved incapable of reaching his stars and lost his job after one season, and the Suns’ ill-fated attempt to add Jimmy Butler via trade alienated Beal and Durant. Solid debuts for rookies Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro couldn’t salvage a failed season."

CBS Sports: F

The Dallas Mavericks and 76ers were also given Fs by CBS Sports.

CBS Sports' Sam Quinn wrote on Phoenix:

"The Suns -- who fired Mike Budenholzer on Monday and will hire their fourth coach in four seasons in the coming weeks -- are lucky to avoid an "F-" after the debacle of a season they just endured. Many of the bad grades you'll see here boiled down to circumstances. A team got hurt. A team made a bad trade. A team changed coaches during the season. None of that really applies to Phoenix. This is the team the Suns wanted. It just wasn't very good.

"The Suns finished the season with a bottom-five defense. That was, at least, a somewhat predictable outcome when they failed to meaningfully address the center position last offseason and bet their perimeter defense on a rookie in Ryan Dunn. That they have now failed to finish higher than 10th in offense in consecutive seasons with three max-salary scorers on their roster is one of the great roster-building failures in recent memory. The Suns gathered a lot of redundant talent and were shocked to learn that there is more to the game of basketball than the ability to make tough shots. Hopefully they'll learn their lesson when they inevitably retool the roster this summer."

Bleacher Report: F-

The Suns were the only team to get an F- by Bleacher Report.

B/R's Dan Favale wrote before Budenholzer's firing:

"Finishing outside the West's top 10 while having zero control over your own first-rounders through 2031 is failure of the highest order. It is, somehow, made even worse knowing what's to come.

"Kevin Durant is good as gone. Bradley Beal still has a no-trade clause. Head coach Mike Budenholzer seems like a one-and-done candidate relative to how this season played out, particularly on the defensive end, and the under-utilization of rookies Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro.

"Suns team governor Mat Ishbia is determined to win and seems unfazed by second-apron expenses and restrictions. This is sort of admirable, until you realize it's the same mindset that led Phoenix here, to basketball purgatory—its own special kind of hell that may force the team to move on from Booker himself."