NBA Preview - Can the Phoenix Suns win the NBA Finals this season?
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The Phoenix Suns were in striking distance of their fist NBA Championship last season but fell in 6 to the bucks after a 2-0 start. In the regular season, the team had their first 50 win season since the famous 2009-10 team with Steve Nash and Amar’e Stoudemire headlining the starting 5. Going into the playoffs Chris Paul had one of his most productive seasons of his career which was injury free for the most part and the style of the team compared to the team he was with a year prior, the OKC Thunder, he actually had a good team around him that multiple Suns fans thought we could’ve gone far into the playoffs. Unfortunately, it took until June for the media to believe in the Suns and because of this, it was very frustrating to watch honestly every media member except Kendrick Perkins who believed in the team from the start (He’s a cards fan too so they love KP around AZ) and hearing him battle Stephen A and Max on First Take about the Suns was annoying. This meant for an even more fun post-season because the media were slowly and slowly turning towards the suns, first doubting us in our first round series against the Lebron and AD headlined Lakers with multiple players that were supposedly the leagues best role players and then after we beat those Lakers, with an injured CP3 for the first 4 games, the media put all of the win on the fact that AD was hurt, when it was still Lebron James vs Devin Booker in the battle of the stars in the series. We swept the Nuggets in the Semis and they still didn’t acknowledge us as contenders but at least respected the performance, even though people again said that the Nuggets would’ve won if they’d had Jamal Murray which is crazy considering it was a sweep and we made it look easy. They also doubted us going into the series with the LA Clippers even though KAWHI LEONARD WASN’T PLAYING. It was crazy to see multiple ESPN analysts pick the Clippers to win the series and it took us to beat the Clippers in 6 in an awful series that we played terrible in for the media to finally acknowledge us as a serious force. Playing the Bucks in the final was interesting because Giannis and coach Mike Budenholzer had been criticized for choking in high pressure situations in the playoffs so they had a point to prove and the Suns had just underperformed in a series and still won in 6 so these were 2 teams that had been criticized and undermined in the media with points to prove and the series started amazingly for the Suns, going up 2-0 and the whole team flowing perfectly, I’ll be honest I thought it was done at this point and I think that’s a reason that we ended up losing if I’m keeping it real, I think the fans and the players as well as the coaches probably had one foot in the door of the parade bus. The bucks fought back resiliently and the Suns fanbase was intense and depressing for the 2 or 3 weeks but after that, we started to realise that there were so many positives from that season that there was no point lingering on the loss in the biggest games in Basketball. The offseason was here and free agency and the draft were right around the corner. We gave away our 29th pick in the draft and we got Landry Shamet to bolster our bench and made it arguably the best bench in the NBA. The most important piece of the offseason is that we signed Chris Paul to a 4 year contract to stay with the Suns, and whilst a lot of fans were confused by the amount of years considering Chris’ age, it almost certainly means he’s going to retire in Phoenix and take up a coaching position here when he’s done playing. This is massive for the future of the team but it also is good for the team in the present because Chris had an amazing year last season and whilst his finals performance was underwhelming, he played with torn ligaments in his hand and had them surgically fixed over the summer. Who knows what would’ve happened had CP been healthy.
NBA Preview - Can the Phoenix Suns win the NBA Finals this season?
NBA Preview - Can the Phoenix Suns win the…
NBA Preview - Can the Phoenix Suns win the NBA Finals this season?
The Phoenix Suns were in striking distance of their fist NBA Championship last season but fell in 6 to the bucks after a 2-0 start. In the regular season, the team had their first 50 win season since the famous 2009-10 team with Steve Nash and Amar’e Stoudemire headlining the starting 5. Going into the playoffs Chris Paul had one of his most productive seasons of his career which was injury free for the most part and the style of the team compared to the team he was with a year prior, the OKC Thunder, he actually had a good team around him that multiple Suns fans thought we could’ve gone far into the playoffs. Unfortunately, it took until June for the media to believe in the Suns and because of this, it was very frustrating to watch honestly every media member except Kendrick Perkins who believed in the team from the start (He’s a cards fan too so they love KP around AZ) and hearing him battle Stephen A and Max on First Take about the Suns was annoying. This meant for an even more fun post-season because the media were slowly and slowly turning towards the suns, first doubting us in our first round series against the Lebron and AD headlined Lakers with multiple players that were supposedly the leagues best role players and then after we beat those Lakers, with an injured CP3 for the first 4 games, the media put all of the win on the fact that AD was hurt, when it was still Lebron James vs Devin Booker in the battle of the stars in the series. We swept the Nuggets in the Semis and they still didn’t acknowledge us as contenders but at least respected the performance, even though people again said that the Nuggets would’ve won if they’d had Jamal Murray which is crazy considering it was a sweep and we made it look easy. They also doubted us going into the series with the LA Clippers even though KAWHI LEONARD WASN’T PLAYING. It was crazy to see multiple ESPN analysts pick the Clippers to win the series and it took us to beat the Clippers in 6 in an awful series that we played terrible in for the media to finally acknowledge us as a serious force. Playing the Bucks in the final was interesting because Giannis and coach Mike Budenholzer had been criticized for choking in high pressure situations in the playoffs so they had a point to prove and the Suns had just underperformed in a series and still won in 6 so these were 2 teams that had been criticized and undermined in the media with points to prove and the series started amazingly for the Suns, going up 2-0 and the whole team flowing perfectly, I’ll be honest I thought it was done at this point and I think that’s a reason that we ended up losing if I’m keeping it real, I think the fans and the players as well as the coaches probably had one foot in the door of the parade bus. The bucks fought back resiliently and the Suns fanbase was intense and depressing for the 2 or 3 weeks but after that, we started to realise that there were so many positives from that season that there was no point lingering on the loss in the biggest games in Basketball. The offseason was here and free agency and the draft were right around the corner. We gave away our 29th pick in the draft and we got Landry Shamet to bolster our bench and made it arguably the best bench in the NBA. The most important piece of the offseason is that we signed Chris Paul to a 4 year contract to stay with the Suns, and whilst a lot of fans were confused by the amount of years considering Chris’ age, it almost certainly means he’s going to retire in Phoenix and take up a coaching position here when he’s done playing. This is massive for the future of the team but it also is good for the team in the present because Chris had an amazing year last season and whilst his finals performance was underwhelming, he played with torn ligaments in his hand and had them surgically fixed over the summer. Who knows what would’ve happened had CP been healthy.