Suns fans, how's it going?

[CP3nthusiast]

You don't own any of your first round picks for the next seven years. Your championship hopes rest solely on Devin Booker and a 35 year old KD making it past a gauntlet of superteams led by the likes of Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kawhi Leonard, Luka Doncic, SGA, Joel Embiid, Jayson Tatum, LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Anthony Edwards. Your starting and closing lineup hasn't played more than 266 minutes together all season. Your best perimeter defender is Josh Okogie (who's unplayable) and your best big man defender is Jusuf Nurkic (who sucks). More than 90% of your cap space is tied up by three guys, two of whom haven't played more than 60 games in a season since 2018-19 and one of whom has already played nearly 1800 minutes this season. You have zero lucrative trade assets outside of those three.

How are you all not constantly freaking out? You've made all the moves you could've possibly made and yet you're not even the consensus second or third favorite to make it out of your conference. You're ONE game ahead of the 7th seed. KD goes out for 2 weeks and you'll be duking it out with the Lakers or the Warriors for a playoff spot.

There are no more excuses to make. It's championship or bust from hereon in. Every year you don't win is a year KD gets closer to 40 and Booker gets closer to making an SOS call to Leon Rose. And if that happens sooner rather than later, you'll be faced with the prospect of having to suffer through multiple 20 win seasons with no discernible way out because you won't own any of your first round picks for the rest of the decade. My dumbass team also insists on squandering their draft capital to surround their 22 year old franchise player who can't dribble with C-level talent but at least they're not expected to win a championship. There is no such respite for your team.

Be totally honest, if you could go back to last year's trade deadline and possess Mat Ishbia's body for the day, would you veto the KD trade? Would you not have rather kept Bridges and let him blossom into the player that he is today and instead traded Cam Johnson and two of those picks for Siakam? Retain some flexibility and give yourself an out if all goes wrong?

[SlovenianDragon]

Im aight.

[BigGargamel]

I don't know if OP has noticed, but Bridges really hasn't been that great this year. It's clear he's a sidekick and no one to build around. Nothing wrong with that, but the Suns are going for it, and having Durant gives them a MUCH BETTER chance than Bridges.

Almost all of the true contenders have given up control of all their picks, have no cap space, no young guys and a top heavy roster. Lakers, Bucks, Sixers, Suns, Nuggets. In the same boat. Only one of those teams can win it all. It's just the way it is.

[WolfAddict]

I can only assume a Suns player/fan kicked your dog or something...

[SlovenianDragon]

I can only assume a Suns player/fan kicked your dog or something...

OP is beef stew...

[KdoubleDees23]

As a suns fan, I’m sorry I banged this guys wife. I am sincerely sorry

[SlovenianDragon]

As a suns fan, I’m sorry I banged this guys wife. I am sincerely sorry

So ur Eubanks?

Everything makes sense now...

[Wargreymon]

Well at least the Suns are in the playoffs. Raps fans, how's it going?

[CP3nthusiast]

I don't know if OP has noticed, but Bridges really hasn't been that great this year. It's clear he's a sidekick and no one to build around. Nothing wrong with that, but the Suns are going for it, and having Durant gives them a MUCH BETTER chance than Bridges.

Almost all of the true contenders have given up control of all their picks, have no cap space, no young guys and a top heavy roster. Lakers, Bucks, Sixers, Suns, Nuggets. In the same boat. Only one of those teams can win it all. It's just the way it is.

Yes, that's exactly what Booker needs. A sidekick who isn't 8 years older than him and is on a much more team-friendly contract.

The Lakers only owe a swap and a top 4 protected first over the next 7 years. Sixers owe only two protected firsts and also have two future Clippers firsts plus a swap. Nuggets also only owe two lightly protected future firsts. The Bucks are the only comparable team but, 1) they've already won a championship and 2) they have Giannis, who is 6 years younger than KD and quite a bit better, and are also in a considerably weaker conference.

Booker and KD are undeniably both superstars but where do they rank among the best players in the league? Giannis, Jokic, Embiid, Luka, Curry, SGA and Kawhi are all clearly better. Which puts them in the Tatum, LeBron, AD, Morant, Mitchell, Brunson, Edwards tier. Only one of these guys is on a serious contender and that's mostly because of how talented the team is around him. The Suns don't have that same depth. I think it's fair to worry.

[SweaterBae]

The Suns are totally screwed and going nowhere near a championship, but that's about 80% of NBA teams. At least they are going to win a bunch of games and be fun to watch, unlike most of the rest of the 80%.

[Blame Rasho]

2.7 out of 10 for a gloat thread… seen better. Honestly, the timing is pretty bad too… revised to 2.375 out of 10.

[CP3nthusiast]

I can only assume a Suns player/fan kicked your dog or something...

I'm not a hater. Just think it's not discussed enough how badly this could go for them if things don't shake out just right.

[CP3nthusiast]

The Suns are totally screwed and going nowhere near a championship, but that's about 80% of NBA teams. At least they are going to win a bunch of games and be fun to watch, unlike most of the rest of the 80%.

Yeah except those teams are in control of their future. I don't think people realize how disastrous it could be for a team if they suck for multiple years and don't own their picks. The Nets had to fight hard to become relevant again after the KG trade and they only traded away 3 firsts.

[SlovenianDragon]

So ive read ops comments and he is mistaken about this suns team... We are the only team last year to put up a fight against Denver and take 2 games off them mainly on the back of Booker going super saiyan... But the team is much better now... Additions like Nurk, allen, EG, and Oneale... The team is deep and just need to be healthy to beat anyone... Op says its championship or bust and thats true...Butthats a good place to be... We have our eyes on the prize and not just trying to be some playoff treadmill team... If and when this all comes to an end and we have nothing to show for it atleast we tried....Go Suns!

[SweaterBae]

The Suns are totally screwed and going nowhere near a championship, but that's about 80% of NBA teams. At least they are going to win a bunch of games and be fun to watch, unlike most of the rest of the 80%.

Yeah except those teams are in control of their future. I don't think people realize how disastrous it could be for a team if they suck for multiple years and don't own their picks. The Nets had to fight hard to become relevant again after the KG trade and they only traded away 3 firsts.

What is control? Small market teams can't get free agents, and when they draft well but don't win(because they can't get free agents) their best players leave in free agency. My point is that suggesting Portland, for example, is in a better place than Phoenix, is nonsense. This is a league of haves and have-nots. At least Phoenix is in the upper tier of the have-nots. The league is incredibly top heavy.

[Blonde]

What a weird post lol. Kind of felt uncomfortable reading that, like it was meant for this poor guy’s diary. To answer the question, it’s going fine. Definitely happy to have KD, and thrilled to have moved off a broken down & useless CP3 for an upgrade in Beal. If they don’t win that’s disappointing but fine, only 1/30 teams wins each year but I’m happy they’re going for it in Booker’s prime. They’ll also be able to add a player in the draft this year which will be nice (since they own their pick every other year and all the teams they have swap rights with are ass right now).

[Mr Puddles]

This feels an awful lot like that thread made about the Suns a couple of years ago, when they ended up going to the finals.

Let's see if OP will delete his post too, like the creator of that thread did after it got bumped.

[Purple_Hero]

They're fine. KD is still better than any options you listed (Bridges and Siakim). Stars win championships, and IMO it's better to gamble on an established talent than to wait on the chance of the players you drafted developing into high-quality players.

The Clippers, Celtics, and Mavs all have championship aspirations dependent on injury-prone players. The Warriors are no longer a super team, and Rudy Gobert, the defense anchor of the Wolves could be a liability in late-game situations for the Wolves.

Also, the first-round picks may have been useless if they kept the players they had because they may have been too good to get a lottery pick.

[hauntedcomputer]

Better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.

Draft picks seven years from now when global temperature is up two degrees are pretty meaningless.

[Calvin Klein]

You don't own any of your first round picks for the next seven years. Your championship hopes rest solely on Devin Booker and a 35 year old KD making it past a gauntlet of superteams led by the likes of Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kawhi Leonard, Luka Doncic, SGA, Joel Embiid, Jayson Tatum, LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Anthony Edwards. Your starting and closing lineup hasn't played more than 266 minutes together all season. Your best perimeter defender is Josh Okogie (who's unplayable) and your best big man defender is Jusuf Nurkic (who sucks). More than 90% of your cap space is tied up by three guys, two of whom haven't played more than 60 games in a season since 2018-19 and one of whom has already played nearly 1800 minutes this season. You have zero lucrative trade assets outside of those three.

How are you all not constantly freaking out? You've made all the moves you could've possibly made and yet you're not even the consensus second or third favorite to make it out of your conference. You're ONE game ahead of the 7th seed. KD goes out for 2 weeks and you'll be duking it out with the Lakers or the Warriors for a playoff spot.

There are no more excuses to make. It's championship or bust from hereon in. Every year you don't win is a year KD gets closer to 40 and Booker gets closer to making an SOS call to Leon Rose. And if that happens sooner rather than later, you'll be faced with the prospect of having to suffer through multiple 20 win seasons with no discernible way out because you won't own any of your first round picks for the rest of the decade. My dumbass team also insists on squandering their draft capital to surround their 22 year old franchise player who can't dribble with C-level talent but at least they're not expected to win a championship. There is no such respite for your team.

Be totally honest, if you could go back to last year's trade deadline and possess Mat Ishbia's body for the day, would you veto the KD trade? Would you not have rather kept Bridges and let him blossom into the player that he is today and instead traded Cam Johnson and two of those picks for Siakam? Retain some flexibility and give yourself an out if all goes wrong?