How The Suns Built The Worst Superteam Ever

Andy Hoops

When the Phoenix Suns acquired Kevin Durant, and later on - Bradley Beal....the expectation is to win the championship right away. With a roster of 3 players making over 50 million a year, they've severely handicapped themselves, and it was apparent as they got swept by a superior team. This is how the Suns built the NBA's worst superteam.  I make all kinds of NBA videos which include analysis, player stories, countdowns, and mysteries. Make sure to leave a like and subscribe if you enjoyed this video!  ► X (Twitter): @AndyHoopsYT ► TikTok: @AndyHoopsYT ► Music:  Music: Bay Breeze by FortyThr33 is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Support by RFM - NCM:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q_nZXa6a2g  Floating Cities by Kevin MacLeod Super Power Cool Dude by Kevin MacLeod  Available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. Find all of his songs and download them for free here: http://incompetech.com  ► Sources: Stats and box-scores from Basketball-Reference.com, NBA.com, Statmuse.com, PBPstats.com  #nba #suns #nbaplayoffs

Transcript

00:00I mean, saying it respectfully, I don't know how teams are going to guard us.

00:07I've never been swept a day in my life, so I'm...

00:11I can't, I'll be damned if that happens.

00:14Prior to the playoffs, if somebody asked you the question,

00:17which lower seed playoff team from 6-8 has the best chance to upset their opponent?

00:22Now, the regular season isn't all that matters,

00:25but the Suns beat them in all three games they played.

00:28Two of those were 20-point victories.

00:31You add on the narrative that Rudy Gobert struggles to defend the pick-and-roll,

00:36so theoretically the Suns should kill him with their talent.

00:39Well, it turns out it was all complete nonsense.

00:43The Phoenix Suns had such high expectations,

00:47so high, in fact, that they had the third highest odds to win the championship at the start of the

00:52season,

00:52right behind the Nuggets and Celtics.

00:54So what exactly went wrong?

00:56A team with this many talented scorers got stifled and swept by the NBA's best defense.

01:02A team with championship aspirations with an urgency to win right now,

01:07because they don't have a single first-round pick from 2024 to 2030.

01:12How's it going, folks?

01:13My name's Andy,

01:13and here's how the highly overestimated Phoenix Suns got embarrassed,

01:17and turned out to be the worst super team in recent years.

01:22To give you an idea of how poorly constructed the roster is,

01:26you gotta first look at their big men rotation.

01:29The Suns lost the rebounding battle, severely.

01:32They got out-rebounded by an average of 14 per game,

01:35and this is largely due to the Suns' bigs being atrocious.

01:39Now, the Suns weren't even a bad rebounding team in the regular season,

01:43but when the playoffs roll around,

01:45Yusuf Nurkic forgot how to box out and always underperforms.

01:49His backup, Drew Eubanks, averaged a whopping one rebound per game.

01:54That's straight-up embarrassing.

01:56The fact that the Suns' best option at center was Kevin Durant says all you need to know.

02:02If you're forced to play Kevin Durant at center because your bigs are shaking in fear,

02:07you've lost this series before it even began.

02:10But let's rewind a bit.

02:14When the Phoenix Suns first acquired Kevin Durant,

02:17this comment by Anthony Edwards went viral.

02:32It was hilarious, because it's almost like Edwards really believed

02:37Jaden McDaniels was in the same stratosphere as Kevin Durant.

02:41However, this series Between the Suns and Wolves

02:44shed some light on who Jaden McDaniels truly is.

02:47Because I'd wager most folks outside of Minnesota

02:50have never seen him play before the playoffs.

02:53While Gobert is the team's most important defender,

02:57McDaniels is the glue that holds the entire Wolves defense together.

03:01The Wolves rank number one in the entire league in defensive rating, by far.

03:05And what makes the Wolves defense so suffocating is their length on the wings.

03:10While the Suns have some of the NBA's most premier scoring threats at the wings,

03:14the Wolves counter that with incredible defensive players at the same positions.

03:19Per NBA.com, the Suns took the fewest open threes out of any playoff team.

03:25Only about eight threes per game were open.

03:27Despite all the scoring talent of the Suns,

03:30they had trouble creating separation and getting open.

03:33If you look at the way they're scoring,

03:35every single shot is so difficult.

03:37When you take shots like this,

03:48or this,

03:54or this,

04:02or this,

04:10Over the course of the entire game,

04:13you're bound to get tired and run out of gas.

04:16The Wolves defense is beautiful to watch.

04:19It's like they all move in one motion,

04:21all attached on a single string.

04:23This is where the Wolves won the series.

04:26Many of their defensive specialists do not have to carry a heavy load on offense,

04:31so they can focus all their energy on slowing them down.

04:34Not only do they put tremendous pressure on the ball,

04:37their length is so bothersome in every passing lane.

04:40Every little mistake gets punished by a turnover.

04:48The injury to Grayson Allen was a much, much bigger deal than advertised.

04:52He was the best three-point shooter in the entire season,

04:55and he'd certainly provide a bit more breathing space for their stars.

04:59However, their issues with depth go much further than just him.

05:04Compared to the Timberwolves or every other playoff team,

05:07the Suns are a very shallow team.

05:10It makes sense,

05:11when you have three players that take up literally the entire salary cap,

05:14there's very little room to add good role players.

05:17The Suns always knew this was their biggest dilemma,

05:21and credit to them,

05:22they tried to make some moves at the deadline to improve their team.

05:26Specifically,

05:26the acquisition of Royce O'Neal was very important to their team's success

05:30in the latter half of the season.

05:33Unfortunately,

05:33it wasn't nearly enough.

05:35In the playoffs,

05:36they were forced to run the devastating bench rotation

05:39of Drew Eubanks,

05:41Josh Okoge,

05:42and a washed-up Eric Gordon.

05:44Would these guys even get minutes on any other playoff team?

05:48I doubt it.

05:49But to make sure,

05:51I went through every playoff team in the Western Conference,

05:53and took a look at their bench rotation.

05:56To save you some time,

05:58there's no other team that would give these three guys any minutes,

06:01not even the Lakers.

06:03They wouldn't even play these guys.

06:05To add on,

06:06like I mentioned earlier,

06:07they don't have any first-round picks until 2031,

06:11so they can't even rely on the draft

06:13to get players who can add to their depth.

06:15Regardless,

06:16the problem with their depth

06:17is not nearly as bad as the fact that

06:19they have no point guard.

06:21As good as Devin Booker is,

06:23he's a playmaker

06:24who's good at creating shots for himself.

06:27But in terms of setting up the offense,

06:30throwing the ball to the right spots,

06:32he's not always accurate.

06:34Combined with an insane amount of defensive pressure,

06:37it was difficult for the Suns

06:39to even set their offense correctly.

06:41The point guard role should never be taken for granted,

06:44and not all shooting guards can slot in

06:46as a point guard like James Harden.

06:49There's a stat called potential assists.

06:52It means any pass to a teammate

06:54who shoots within one dribble of receiving the ball.

06:57In the past several years,

06:58the Suns were always near the top of the league

07:00in potential assists,

07:02averaging around 50 per game.

07:03In the 2023-24 season, however,

07:07without a dedicated point guard,

07:09that has dropped to 44.6.

07:11It signifies an increased number of difficult shots

07:15this team takes.

07:16Their stars also happen to enjoy

07:18taking difficult shots.

07:20Can it work in the regular season?

07:22Sure, they have enough talent to get by.

07:25Can it work in the playoffs

07:27against the best defense in the entire league?

07:29Mmm, unlikely.

07:34Remember when the Brooklyn Nets

07:36gave up all their picks

07:37to acquire the corpse of Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett?

07:40Well, this Suns roster is younger than that,

07:43but not by much.

07:44And their main guys, besides Durant,

07:46are not that old.

07:48What is similar is,

07:50like the old Brooklyn Nets back then,

07:52the Suns' ability to draft and develop

07:54young players is non-existent.

07:56With no first-round picks in the foreseeable future,

07:59and with no young,

08:01high-potential talent currently on this team,

08:03they've put themselves in an unforgivable situation.

08:06They went all-in on a super team

08:08that doesn't look like they're close to contending.

08:11Right after the trade for Bradley Beal,

08:13there were skeptics who believed

08:15that this team was way too shallow.

08:17Their skill sets overlapped,

08:19and it was just not the right way to build a roster.

08:22On the bright side,

08:23unlike the disastrous position the Nets were in,

08:26the Suns have some wiggle room.

08:28For example,

08:30both Booker and Durant are making a ton of money,

08:32yet they still have the possibility of getting traded,

08:35just because they're still fantastic players.

08:38Durant will make 50 million a year

08:40until he hits free agency in 2026.

08:44Now, that is a lot,

08:46but there are teams out there willing to take a gamble.

08:49He's Kevin Durant, after all.

08:52Even if he's not as good as he once was,

08:54he's still an elite scorer.

08:57The real burden is Bradley Beal.

09:0050 million for Durant?

09:01Eh, you can justify that.

09:03He will sell out arenas wherever he goes.

09:0650 million for Booker?

09:07Sure, he's your franchise player

09:09in the middle of his prime.

09:11But 50 million for Beal?

09:13Well, uh...

09:14In addition to his no-trade clause,

09:16he is the true culprit in holding this team back.

09:20Beal's talent clearly does not reflect his salary,

09:23and he's near impossible to move.

09:25Down the road,

09:26we'll probably be comparing Beal's contract

09:28to that of Tobias Harris.

09:30The Sixers spent five years paying Tobias

09:33close to 40 million a year

09:35to be a glorified role player.

09:37Beal, while he is a former All-Star,

09:40on a team like this,

09:41he's been basically regressed

09:43into a role player.

09:45This era of the Phoenix Suns

09:47will go down in history

09:49as a colossal failure.

09:50The worst assembled super team

09:52in modern history.

09:54Right from the start,

09:55there were doubts,

09:56and they've proven to be true.

09:58What does the future hold

10:00for this franchise?

10:01Thank you all so much for watching,

10:03I hope you all enjoyed the video.

10:05Let me know your thoughts

10:06in the comment section.

10:08And of course,

10:09as always,

10:10I'll see you next time.

10:11Peace.

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