Do Suns have what’s needed to win title?
No excuses.
The Phoenix Suns should win an NBA championship this season.
If they don’t, this will be the most heartbreaking, painful and agonizing ending to a year the Suns have ever experienced.
They set the franchise record for victories (64-18) and road wins (32-9) in a single regular season.
They won a franchise-best 18 games in a row after an 1-3 start and later had a stretch of 19 victories out of 20 games. No excuses.
“I felt last year the only thing we didn’t have was experience,” Suns backup point guard Cameron Payne said. “And now we do, one through 15. So just ready to get started.”
The Suns open the playoffs Sunday with the NBA’s best record as they secured the No. 1 overall seed with eight games remaining in the regular season.
They’re the only team to win at least 60 games this year.
They finished eight games ahead of the next closest team, Memphis (5626).
They finished the regular season with an NBA-record 47-0 mark when leading after three quarters.
No excuses.
“We’ve just got to take it one day at a time,” Suns 12-time All-Star Chris Paul said. “One day at a time. We talked about it took us a whole year to get back to this point. So now, I think the question is what are we going to do with this opportunity?”
Their head coach, Monty Williams, was just named NBCA Coach of the Year a second straight season and is one of the favorites to the NBA version of that award as voted by the media.
Their franchise player, Devin Booker, is an MVP candidate who will mostly likely make All-NBA for the first time, in his seventh NBA season.
Their leader, Paul, has come back from missing 15 games with a fractured right thumb on his shooting hand. The Suns went 11-4 in those games. They’re at full strength. Only Dario Saric is out, but he hasn’t played all season after suffering a torn right ACL in Game 1 of last year’s finals.
No excuses.
“I think there’s a whole other level we can tap into,” Booker said.
The Suns finished the regular season first in the NBA in field goal percentage at 48.5%.
They’re third in defensive rating and fifth in offensive rating. No team in the league finished in the top five of both categories.
They have arguably the NBA’s best perimeter defender in Mikal Bridges, who is a top candidate for Defensive Player of the Year.
They have a big man in Deandre Ayton who is averaging a double-double of 17.2 points and 10.2 rebounds and rose to the occasion in last year’s playoffs – and have quality depth behind him with JaVale McGee and Bismack Biyombo. No excuses.
“The coaching staff has done a tremendous job keeping guys ready, having everybody ready for each and every night, and everybody understands their job and does their job to the best of their abilities,” Biyombo said.
The Suns have eight players shooting at least 35% from 3 when you average up Jae Crowder’s 34.8%.
Cam Johnson is fourth in the league in 3-point shooting percentage at 42.5%.
They have depth at the guard position with Payne, Landry Shamet, Aaron Holiday and Elfrid Payton.
Even rookie Ish Wainright, who spent three seasons overseas and signed a deal with the Buffalo Bills after playing one season of football at Baylor, can score 20 in a quarter as he did against the Clippers in a spirited comeback.
Their only two-way player, rookie Iffe Lundberg from Denmark, has years of pro experience playing overseas.
No excuses.
“I dreamed about playing in the playoffs, I dreamed about the finals, I dreamed about a championship,” Wainright said. “I dreamed about playing in the NBA, especially for one of the greatest teams in Suns history, the number one team in the world.”
The Grizzlies are young, talented, but lack deep playoff experience.
The Warriors and Mavericks may be without their superstars Stephen Curry (foot) and Luka Doncic (calf ) to start the playoffs.
The Jazz can’t hold a lead to save their lives while the Nuggets are still without Jamal Murray (knee) and Michael Porter Jr. (back).
The Timberwolves are just as young and talented as the Grizzlies, but have even less playoff experience as a group. No excuses.
“They have the roster, the IQ and cohesion and then they have a coach who has done a tremendous job,” said Nets coach Steve Nash, who won back-toback MVPs (2005, 2006) with the Suns.
The Clippers are still without Kawhi Leonard (knee), who hasn’t played all season.
If Los Angeles somehow comes up short in the play-in, the Suns will open the postseason against either the Pelicans or Spurs.
New Orleans and San Antonio are both sub .500 teams.
“Suns in 4. Suns in 4.”
Whoever comes out of the brutal East may be too worn down to match the Suns in the finals, but regardless of whether all the playoffs teams were healthy or not, Phoenix has the most complete squad from top to bottom to beat them all.
No excuses.
“We’ve got some good momentum going into the postseason,” Crowder said.
Their team chemistry is crazy tight. They’ve got homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs with a city that’s riding and dying with them.
The Suns have 26 consecutive sellouts at Footprint Center going into the playoffs.
“We here, man, and seeing all the fans and the community just so happy, just so supportive, all that helps,” Ayton said.
They have playoff experience from reaching the finals last year.
They’re on a mission from squandering a 2-0 series lead to the Milwaukee Bucks in losing the finals in six games.
They’ve been on a mission to finish what they started last season and bring home the city’s first NBA championship.
As Charles Barkley said, there is only one more thing left to do.
“Now they’ve just got to finish the journey and go ahead and win this thing,” he said.
No excuses.