Phoenix Suns Team Review

 

2021-22 Finish: 13-69

 

Season Highlight:

The Suns had a tough year on the court. 13 wins is not where any team wants to be, but it was an expected result overall after the direction Laddas decided to take the team. The highlight for the Suns would have to be seeing the teams direction taking shape and staying the course. Guys like Bol Bol showed development and remained on a roster. He brought in Poku for more length and size. Wendell Carter stayed healthy finally. McDaniels is a find and Bey while he didn�t translate, is a genuine player. There�s a lot to like about what this team is and where it is going!

 

Season Lowlight:

You mean other than winning only 13 games? Other than that, I�m not sure there�s a clear lowlight. They made a lot of moves. They stuck to a direction. They made really solid trades. Nearly all guys, particularly the ones that stuck, showed development and they left the year with a lottery pick. I suppose, the way the lottery balls fell would be a lowlight as they suffered through 13 wins only, to get the 6^th pick.

 

Best Trade:

Suns send: Cole Anthony
Suns get: Anfernee Simons

Sometimes it�s the most simple of trades that are best. It also means sometimes you�re scratching your head as to how it came about, but not in this case. The Suns got the guy who looks a lot more like a genuine star and has a place in the league in Simons, but it was due to Detroit not wanting to pay to keep him, and opting for the less talented guy on the rookie deal. Good news for the Suns who have cap to burn.

 

Worst Trade:

Suns send: JaeSean Tate, Tre Mann and KZ Okpala
Suns get: Darius Bazley, 2023 SA 2^nd round pick, 2024 SA 2^nd round pick and 2025 Portland 2^nd round pick

Some trades you just know are done because of a belief in a guy, and this one is one of those. Bazley was meant to be a break out guy and is one of Laddas� favourites, but Baz and 3x picks 58+ for Tate who was already a genuine 2way wing, Mann who was a slider with nice upside and Okpala who hasn�t found a full grove yet, but was a starter on opening night the other week, looks increasingly head scratching, and Baz is now moved on anyway for a late 1^st.

 

Other Notable Trades:

Suns send: Aaron Gordon and 2024 Chicago 2^nd round pick
Suns get: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Washington 2025 1^st round pick

Nice return for Gordon who continues to befuddle with how he gets paid so much.

 

Suns send: DeMar DeRozan, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Washington 2025 1^st round pick
Suns get: Wendell Carter Jr, Luke Kennard and Danilo Gallinari

The old S&T is a tricky one to navigate. They started with Brogdon for DDR, and it ended in this which was a solid swing.

 

Suns send: Lonzo Ball, Naz Reid, Lonnie Waker, 2024 SA 2^nd round pick and 2025 Portland 2^nd round pick
Suns get: Saddiq Bey, Thomas Bryant and Josh Okogie

Another one that started somewhere, and then developed, as they first had Ball, then Capela, who they moved for Val, who they then moved for Bey, but it all rounds down to Bey for Ball, Reid, walker and picks in the end.

 

Suns send: Isaiah Hartenstein
Suns get: Austin Reaves

Big for small. UFA for locked in.

 

Suns send: Coby White
Suns get: Cam Reddish

Not that White is particularly special, but reddish has shown a whole lot of sweet FA, which probably would have put this as �worst trade� if it wasn�t that they then somehow found a sucker to give them multiple picks for him?

 

Suns send: Josh Christopher, Luke Kennard and Danilo Gallinari
Suns get: Gordon Hayward and Aleksej Pokusevski

They found a team needing to split the big cash of hayward and landed their long guy in Poku too, but it did cost Christopher who hasn�t made the splash expected this year just yet, but he looks like one to watch for the future.

 

Suns send: Joe Harris and cash
Suns get: Devonte Graham and Gorgui Dieng

Solid swing for Harris who may never properly translate with his athletic short comings.

 

Free Agency:

The Suns are not FA players this year at all, despite the real potential they may have had to create space under the cap if they saw fit. They opted to instead load up on guaranteed deals and rookies, as well as RFAs, which is the smart play with such a poor record and so their FA will be simply about bringing back the team as it stands.

Anfernee Simons � RFA, big payday coming and more than happy to oblige.

Wendell carter Jr � RFA, and guaranteed return. This deal was known a full year ago but couldn�t be signed ahead of time due to the trade block that would have occurred. It�s allowing a S&T to occur now though.

Bol Bol � RFA, Bol is still around and was still worth guaranteeing, and now he�s on a super sweet deal for what he�s now producing in the NBA as a starter with infinite length.

 

Star:

Anfernee Simons

Simons is set to be easily the highest paid guy on the team this coming season and he�s the one that is going to have the rock in his hands. Last year, he was their top scorer of the remaining roster, with only 4 games of Gordon Hayward and the man he was swapped for having a higher scoring number per game on the season than him at 14ppg. That number should jump massively this year with updated ratings and tendencies and opportunity, and he could well be the most improved player if Simons plays like he can in the NBA.

 

Flop:

Saddiq Bey

Look, this is a completely pre-cursory side swipe if he actually gets ratings to suit who he actually is this year, but after being the end result of the Ball/Capela/Val+Lonnie multi month conundrum and then to put up 6.5 points on 31/28/85 shooting in 82 games, 70 starts and 28.5 minutes a game, it�s hard not to call him a flop on the year. That doesn�t mean a thing going forward, but for last year, he was a flop.

 

Draft Grades:

#6 � Shaedon Sharpe
#26 � Caleb Houstan
#36 �David Roddy

The Suns were pretty sad that they didn�t crack the top 5, let alone top 2, but in true Laddas fashion he went straight to work with what he had and didn�t bother worrying about it. Sharpe became his man at 6 and he never waivered. I gave this an A grade at the time due to the massive upside swing that came with an equal bust opportunity, but already it�s starting to look like a 75/25 split rather than the possible 50/50 I was viewing at the time of that grade.

Houstan was part of the agreed upon Hayward deal I believe, and was a bit of a swing for the fences for Laddas swayed probably by some nice shooting in Summer League as he wasn�t then, and I believe still wasn�t the best guy on the board at the time and may have actually fallen further behind more people since the time of drafting too, which I gave a B at the time.

Roddy however, could easily have been swapped positions with Houstan and suddenly you�re thinking A grades all round. As it stands, Roddy at 36 is an A+ no matter what I gave it at the time of original writing. Every hurdle he�s been given thus far he has cleared with ease and he looks like a legit guy with a legit long career ahead of him, showing why he was an NBA 1^st round pick despite being a faller here.

 

The Future:

The Suns are going to be better this year than last if you ask me when you see the balanced young line up they have and the expected development and ratings increases to some of the key guys. They may regret moving out Wendell Carter Jr pretty quickly, though I don�t know the exact deal in place, and maybe they will replace that big man hole he leaves. Simons, Bey and McDaniels should all be better. Bol too, and he�s likely to start. Gordon if he�s on the team and playing will get results and their rookies look like hits too. Half this roster could be gone by trade deadline, though that seems less likely now than in the past.

C: Wendell Carter Jr/Bol Bol/Marko Simonovic
PF: Jaden McDaniels/Aleksej Pokusevski/Dario Saric
SF: Nassir Little/Talen Horton-Tucker/Caleb Houstan
SG: Eric Gordon/Shaedon Sharpe/David Roddy
PG: Anfernee Simons/Killian Hayes/Jaylen Nowell