Phoenix Suns
The 2021-22 Phoenix Suns can be defined by winning the most games by any team in the NBA this season, but then losing to the Dallas Mavericks in the second round, getting absolutely obliterated in Game 7 at home in the most embarrassing fashion.
What did we learn?
The Suns were a regular-season juggernaut.
64 wins, a Suns franchise record.
#1 in net rating. #5 in offensive efficiency and #3 in defensive efficiency.
A franchise-record 18-game winning streak that included No Loss November. There was another insane stretch of winning 22 out of 24 games from Jan. 2 to Feb. 24.
The Suns record of 32-9 on the road was better than any other team’s home record.
Those were all the historical markings of not only a bonafide championship contender, but a championship favorite.
Chris Paul ran the Phoenix offense with Point God ease, orchestrating the show while Devin Booker continued to handle the heavy-lifting scoring duty. CP led the Suns in scoring just three games all season compared to Booker’s 50. But CP led the Suns in assists in 58 out of the 65 games he played, #1 in the NBA in assists per game at 10.8, his highest mark since the 2008-09 season when he was 23 years old on the New Orleans Hornets.
Book continued to cook, averaging 26.8 points a night, good for top 12 in the league and slightly a new career high. Booker had 13 games of 35+ points, and the Suns had a record of 17-2 when he scored 32 or more.
Chris Paul was top-5 in total steals for the second time in the last three years. This was actually the lowest usage rate of CP’s entire career. He even got his injury out of the way early this time, a fractured thumb in mid-February that caused him to miss a month.
The Suns kept winning without CP3. Book averaged 7 assists per game in the 11 games he played that CP missed after the All-Star Break. Other Suns stepped up, too.
Mikal Bridges remained the stupendous defensive ace that he is and the NBA’s resident IRON MAN. Bridges hasn’t missed a game… EVER in his four-year career. Bridges has played 309 straight regular season games. (And he never missed a game back in college, either. No clue how that’s not talked about a whole lot more. We have a modern day A.C. Green right here!)
Cam Johnson (T-Shirt All-Star!) really took his game up a level. Johnson was a 3-point marksman, shooting 42.5 percent from 3 on 5.9 attempts per game. He was so good off the bench that he finished third in Sixth Man of the Year voting. All told, Cam Johnson played way better all year than Jae Crowder, who fell off this season.
Deandre Ayton played for a pay day, averaging 17 and 10 with a pleasant 63 percent field-goal percentage, but he did miss 24 games.
We wondered how much JaVale McGee would have left in the tank in his 14th season, but we have to tip our caps to JaVale who stepped up into the starting role when Ayton missed time. JaVale did exactly what the Suns needed him to do: Rim-run, protect the cup, and sprinkle in some sky hooks.
Bismack Biyombo was picked up off the street at the beginning of January, and he put in some good work as well. Chris Paul can work wonders with almost any big man.
The Suns best attribute was their crunch-time mastery. Phoenix blew the roof off the doors of the rest of the NBA in every crunch-time statistic. With the game on the line, that’s when the Suns shined the brightest.
But the Suns system broke down and fell apart in the second round against Dallas. Phoenix hunted Luka relentlessly, so the Mavs did the same to Chris Paul, getting him all out of sorts and into foul trouble early and often. In the last five games of the series, CP had only 25 assists to a whopping 18 turnovers.
In that fateful Game 7 at home, the Mavs 3-bombed the Suns to death and Luka ripped their hearts out with step-back daggers in the 2nd quarter to get Dallas up by 30. Luka had the same amount of points as the Suns at halftime as he laughed, smiled and snarled this 64-win Suns season down the drain.
It was another playoff blemish added to Chris Paul’s resume. Another 2-0 series lead blown. Another lost Game 7.
We will not waver from the stance that the regular season matters, but the 2021-22 Phoenix Suns will forever be a cautionary tale, joining the 2020-21 Utah Jazz, the 2019-20 Milwaukee Bucks and many before them. Anything can happen in a 7-game series. Especially against The Don.
Even worse is that noted el cheapo owner Robert Sarver is now less likely than ever to pay Ayton to keep this team together. Ayton seems as good as gone.
Success in the NBA can be so fleeting.
Let’s not forget that the Suns rise to the top was almost as sudden as this precipitous plummet.
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Additional Notes
Dealing with injuries, Cam Payne was not on par with 2020-21 Cam Payne, but he did average a career high in assists. Cam Payne did NOT score 29 points in the playoffs again. In fact, he scored three points or less in seven out of 13 playoff games this postseason.
Landry Shamet appeared useful off the bench at times in spurts, but the Shamster had the worst shooting season of his career. His field-goal percentage of 39.4 on the season is just rancid.
The Suns completely gave up on Jalen Smith, sending him to Indiana (with a second-round pick) for old boy Torrey Craig. Phoenix totally fucked up that pick with Haliburton, Maxey and Bane all on the board.
Even the 64-win Suns had some WHO HE!? characters show up this season: Gabriel Lundberg, M.J. Walker, Paris Bass and Emmanuel Terry. We became familiar with Ish Wainright, however. He’s difficult to miss.
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Did our preseason Over/Under prediction hit?
This one won’t be popular. Sorry, Book. Under 51.5 wins.
Suns 2021-22 record: (64-18)
This one was so far off. Yet it does feel validated in the end.
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What’s Next?
What did the Suns do on draft night? Absolutely nothing. Literally not one damn thing.
The full max for Deandre Ayton is five years and $177 million while the Suns have not paid the luxury tax since 2009-10. Cam Johnson is also rookie-extension eligible, and the Suns have five open roster spots.
Dario Saric missed the entire season after his torn ACL in last year’s playoffs. Perhaps the Suns already have Ayton’s replacement on the roster.
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