Where did it all go wrong for the Phoenix Suns?
As the NBA regular season winds down, John Gambadoro and guest host Kellan Olson try to pinpoint the moment it all went wrong for the Phoenix Suns this season.
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22 Comments
The team thought KD,Book, and Beal with Bud were a sure-fire championship contender, and they could just follow. The rest of the team waited for Bud and Big3 to lead. Never happened. Bud especially showed No leadership.
Hey fellas, 1. GM has to have more of a say over personnel 2. HC have to remain in place, after Monty 3. Ayton had no one watching his back except for Saric 4. Crowder refuse to play underneath 5. Chris Paul was too controlling 6. Trade for KD and losing Bridges and Cam Johnson 7. Hiring and firing of Vogel 8. Trade of Ayton for Nuric 9. Trade for Beal 10. Trade of Nuric 11. Signing of Ty Jones 12. Too many shooters on the floor at one time 13. Lack of individual or team defense 14. Lack of muscle underneath
I know there are people who didn't like him and felt we should of taken doncic, but we have been waiting over 50 years to get the number 1 pick and get the chance to draft a franchise center.
Ayton was a hometown kid that played locally and was touted as potentially the next david robinson. That was pretty hard to pass up.
Also his numbers were getting better every year and it usually takes big men 3 to five seasons to reach their potential. Ayton wasn't really given the chance.
Mat Ishbia and Josh Bartelstein
It seems to me that they got good players. The coach is suspect to me. Maybe he needs more time? Don't know.
It went wrong with the Phoenix sports media constantly looking the other way with Durant and Beals horrible attitudes and not calling it out
It went wrong when Ishbia came in and tried to fix a team that didn’t need any fixing. He saw KD unhappy in Brooklyn and gave up two fan favorites in an attempt to win immediately.. that didn’t happen. Then he traded another fan favorite in Chris Paul for a broken shiny toy in Beal and gave him of all people an NTC.
Personally I never liked the KD trade, or Nurkic, or Beal….It was a colossal f up. They broke this team, and for me it's ALL on Ishbia. The guy screwed this team up period.
It went wrong when the front office didn’t make things right with Jae crowder cause if you do make things right with him you don’t have to trade him with the twins when they trade for KD now because he’s playing …then they traded for Beal …smh and the rest is history .
It all went downhill during the series with the pelicans. They did not look like the over 60 win team that we saw in the regular season and the loss to Dallas in game 7 sent the team into a spiral of bad choices
The Footprint Center
the second they fired Monte n traded Bridges it was over
When they traded cp3 it was a wrap
This all goes back to the trade that brought Kevin Durant to Phoenix for Mikal Bridges.
Now the Knicks are going into the playoffs as the #3 seed in the East and Phoenix is going home…
1). The issue started when they traded for KD. It was overpay. It gutted their roster. KD also realises this.
2). Then, Devin Armani Booker never took the leap we expected him to take. In fact this year he regressed. He has never been 1A even though the offense ran through him. Recipe for disaster.
3). Beal trade. Nurkic trade.
4). Coach Bud being an ass.
beal is such an ass
They decided to blow up the youth on the team for vets. The rest is history.
phx suns are missing a culture was known for having young stars that played defense and team basketball nowadays all you see is book saying “gimmie gimmie” aint no “I” in team
Where ever KD goes failure follows, GSW were an outlier because he had Curry and Klay with him.
The difference between GS Warriors KD and Suns KD is that KD was younger I believe 27 years old at that time and his contract with OKC was over so he signed with GSW. GS didn’t have to break up their core players to sign him. They just retooled their roster with role players that actually understood their roles on the team. With PHX, KD requested a trade out of Brooklyn which messed up the whole Suns roster. They gave up important players like Bridges, Cam Johnson and Jae Crowder. Not to mention all those picks (4 FRPS) and the GM and owner then doubled down by getting another max player in Beal instead of spending towards improving the roster with important role players.
The only people this FO should have traded was Ayton and Chris Paul. I know that people kept saying Ayton had no trade value but a team like Indiana Pacers were willing to sign him. And look at Chris Paul, he is valuable to a team like the Spurs that needed a knowledgeable veteran to guide/lead their young roster. May be this is what the FO informed the fanbase but they certainly were not patient to find the best possible trade option. It is like they always put their head in one basket instead of exploring all the options possible. I am sure they could have flipped Cp3 for some second round picks may be two at least and a role player. They could also have gotten 2 FRPS for DA and another player that has potential. I am sorry but the entire FO and GM are awful.
It went wrong when the FO gave up on their championship contending core one year after making it to the finals.
It started when we drafted sticks instead of Tyrese halliburton. Then we traded away. Chris Paul. I'm fine with getting Kevin Durant, Kevin Durant and Devin Booker together would have been amazing, giving up Bridges hurt a lot. Trading deandre ayton wasn't a big deal, he was soft. The only team he really plays hard against is the Phoenix Suns. If he played that hard against everyone, he'd still be a phoenix Sun.
But not getting Tyrese halliburton to have him learn under Chris. Paul was the biggest mistake in franchise history. Could you imagine what kind of team we would have right now if our starters were Tyrese halliburton, Devin Booker, Ryan Dunn, And Oso?