Suns locked in their own maze
Bradley Beal’s arrival to the Suns seemed, at first glance, to be big news in the Arizona desert. Management even moved to upgrade the team’s second unit, which appears deeper than last season.
However, sometimes what seems like reality is a mirage.
Phoenix has put itself in a must-win situation following a new collective bargaining agreement that puts them in a bind. Strictly financially, we’re talking about the third most profligate franchise in the NBA behind the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors. With a salary cap for this season of $165,294,000, the Suns have a payroll of $190,819,043, which puts them over the luxury tax and without much wiggle room.
The big challenge is not in the Big Three, but in DeAndre Ayton: he will collect $32.5 million and still have $100 million left to collect heading into the 2025-26 season.
Athletically speaking, nothing the Suns have done puts them in a position to compete against, say, the reigning NBA champions, the Denver Nuggets. Who is going to defend, for example, Nikola Jokic? All the load on the perimeter and Ayton alone in the paint to control giants. And on the other side, he will start praying from now on to see if any ball can fall into his hands.
Let’s tell it like it is: the Big Three’s last experiments with outside players were not too auspicious to say the least, especially when it comes to three scorers playing with the ball in their hands. How to split the shots between Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Beal? Have they already reached an agreement with the NBA to play with three balls per offense? This is going to take time. And that patience is not a good companion with the need to win as it exists in the Footprint Center offices.
Let’s think about similar experiences. I’ll go to a great one: Kyrie Irving, James Harden and Kevin Durant at Brooklyn Nets. If that wasn’t enough, I can say Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Kawhi Leonard on the Clippers. There are many more examples, but it’s always much ado about nothing. It’s basically star players doing a little bit of the same thing.
The balance of teams gets out of balance sooner or later.
Phoenix, moreover, unraveled the mental scheme they had. The structure that thought and gave it identity. Gone were Monty Williams on the bench and Chris Paul on the court. In terms of leadership, the Suns knew how to be something, like it or not. Now they will be an unknown quantity because everything we will see next season will be new.
In addition to Paul, the Suns did without Torey Craig. They brought in Keita Bates-Diop, Drew Eubanks, Yuta Watanabe, Damion Lee, Eric Gordon and possibly Bol Bol. We don’t know if it will be better or worse, we just know the outlook will be quite different.
Now, let’s touch on a topic that is not minor: health. Durant is 34 years old, but after his very tough Achilles tendon injury in 2019, his condition has always been under control. That is, the constant monitoring in a physicist of his nature is a fact. He is not one more: we are talking about one of the best scorers in the history of basketball. And the other conundrum is Ayton: if he catches a cold – it happened last season, he played 67 of 82 games – the Suns have no way to fill that void near the boards. It’s a team too deep on the outside, too thin on the inside.
The big three figure to be viral and seductive, but chemistry is a problem here. Is this Durant’s team? Is this Booker’s team? Will Beal, a voracious scorer, know how to step back and let the rest of the team shine? From strengths to weaknesses is only a couple of frustrations away.
Adding individuals does not guarantee success. Building a team requires foremen, but much more hard workers.
In short, all that glitters is not gold.
In the land of 360 days of sunshine a year, they know very well what we are talking about.
