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.
