What Exactly Went Wrong For the Phoenix Suns This Season?

From trades for Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal to a new head coach and many injuries, the Phoenix Suns had a ton of challenges this season. What was the biggest issue?
Brendon Kleen of @justbasketballfans is joined by Brandon Dueñas of Bright Side of the Sun to debate the primary problem in Phoenix and how the Suns can address it this offseason.
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#PhoenixSuns #KevinDurant #DevinBooker #NBA #BradleyBeal

[@JN-hq7ih]

Us suns fans thought we hit the jackpot going into the playoffs getting the twolves as the first round matchup… somehow we ended up facing the best team in the playoffs

[@TheSergio1021]

The Suns curse continues

[@JN-hq7ih]

@@TheSergio1021 if we had the nuggets instead or any other team in the first round we might have had a shot or at the very least not get swept

[@mewchuking8639]

You'd def beat the clippers or pels lol. Anyone else idk

[@frankiebflat5728]

Suns better do something big after looking at the Timberwolves

[@codejjm]

As I watch the Nuggets get handled by the Timberwolves I’m starting to think the Suns just ran into a defensive juggernaut

[@dymtheartist3502]

Yea unfortunately no Point guard really killed the suns offense

[@xavierb9061]

@@dymtheartist3502 yea conley reason wolves winning n suns lost

[@donnie876]

@@dymtheartist3502nuggets got a point guard and they can’t even break 80 points

[@dymtheartist3502]

@@donnie876 Thts cuz all they have is Jamal n jokic suns have 3 great scorers if they had a PG bringin the ball up KD book n Beal cud play off ball n jus get to they spots they wnt the ball at n work from there

[@Brian_Soloman]

two things can be true

[@35God7]

From the first days I observed Nurkic flop on layups I knew we made a mistake. He kept doing it whole season and I ignored it cause Allen was making up for it with his 3 pointers. Allen getting torched by Conley for first two games and Nurkic couldn’t even get rebounds which meant we had no chance.

[@globoytrent6225]

Hope Kd requests a trade 🙏🏾

[@ronaldwilliams215]

I just saw a stat that said the suns averaged 9.5 threes made per playoff game. That's only 27 to 30 points. They working harder not smarter for their buckets. They have the shooters.

[@antoinemims3952]

Yall didn't let BolBol play thats why yall lost

[@ronaldwilliams215]

Suns need to put up more 3s. They have the shooters for it. That mid game approach in the playoffs not it anymore.

[@MsNicholsLiz]

Can you talk about Jock Landale as a shooting big man??

[@JN-hq7ih]

I’m still beyond shook that a historically bad franchise in the Timberwolves could potentially win a title before the suns

[@Valleypros1]

They took the suns blueprint from the 21 suns finals team but made it better

[@marcr196]

Let them actually win one first, Suns looked really good in 2021 too.

[@marcr196]

If the Suns hadn’t done the Ayton trade they would have 4 players that would put them in the 2nd tax apron by themselves, all under contract through 2026. They’d be in an even worse spot, flexibility wise. It was a good trade.

[@philipedwards6222]

It's time to part ways with Vogel. It doesn't matter what players we got during last off season. Only one player played well for Vogel and that was Grayson Allen. A good coach can get multiple guys to play well frank doesn't have that ability. If the Suns want to win they'll part ways with him.

[@connerwarren13]

How can ishbia look at this team and think suddenly they are going to win a championship next season? Face it you failed. Trade your best players for draft capital, fire james jones, get a young developmental coach and reset. No chance they could get a player like cooper flag with the picks they dont have but might as well start trying. 5 to 10 years they could have a strong young core again.

[@Alejochavez918]

Booker ayton cp3 blown out by 30 booker kd cp3 blown out by 30 both times at halftime AT home.. how does that play out to a 10 times out of 10 trade?

[@user-px7wy4bg7u]

When grayson allen was the prize of the trade and he got injured after 1 game, the basketball gods were sending the suns a message, just admit it the trade was bad, maybe only when admitting that the suns and fans did ayton wrong the basketball gods will finally forgive us and leave us alone.

[@2cents250]

what is ayton doing now? still lackluster.

[@marcr196]

We would have 4 players under contract through 2026 that would put the team in to the 2nd apron. Even less flexible, and Ayton isn’t making a big enough difference that half of your playoff rotation could be minimum contracts

[@user-px7wy4bg7u]

@@2cents250 have you checked his stats, he was averaging 25-10 after all star break, he was playing with rookies and scrubs and still have better numbers than nurkic, and this is his worst season. LOL with the spacing created by big 3 nurkic should be feasting but instead bricking layups left and right. just admit suns ruined their championship chance by giving up a defensive anchor with finishing abilities, jesus christ, in the 2021 clippers dominated gobert while ayton dominated the clippers in the playoffs, arguably our best player during the run. his true shooting percentage was 60%+, he allowed booker and cp shoot so many mid range shots and suns still win by compensating book/cp low efficiency scoring with his high efficiency. Same question, how many playoffs win booker has had without ayton, zero. Playoffs ayton used to be a thing.

[@jeffchronister4092]

Whose responsibility is it to handle trades, manage picks and assemble a roster that can compete and win a title? This is a james jones problem and he hs refused to deal with it. He had one objective, make the suns a legitimate title contender . He failed. He's been failing for the past seven seasons in this and player development. He needs to strengthen every aspect of the team and organization. If he can't or won't he doesn't belong here in this role. Running it back with this same roster isn't going to cut it. The fans were promised more and fed lies. Now they are trying to sell us n the exact same narrative for next season. No more, fans are sick of it.

[@fredbarnes196]

First the Suns get hammered by the new league salary limitations, then the league stops calling fouls. The result is a team constructed for a different era

[@cartier3146]

Damn I didn't even think about the lack of foul calls

[@fredbarnes196]

@@cartier3146 suddenly Minnesota is the new powerhouse, crushing the Suns and the Nuggets

[@cartier3146]

@@fredbarnes196 damn near every team that Knocks kd out the playoffs go on to win it all it wouldn't surprise me

[@michaelevans-im5fv]

50 million 4 beal lmao

[@donnie876]

Either him or nothing

[@user-px7wy4bg7u]

No, kyrie should be the one to get especially what a bargain he was and him being a point guard a perfect replacement of cp3. Kyrie was and still is in his prime while you have to admit kd doesn’t have much time left. Also, looking back how easy nuggets’ path to the championship was, suns with kyrie/booker/mikal/johnson/ayton would have a much better chance beating nuggets than kd/book/ayton and no one else

[@2cents250]

booker is too much of a ball hog to let kyrie shine. kyrie is a closer but book wants all the glory. he constantly looks off kd even when he is hot and a better scorer than dev.

[@marcr196]

@@2cents250 your boy KD averaged the most shots in the series, he has said he doesn’t like shooting more than 20 shots a game. You’re banging your head against a wall if that’s what you want but your favorite player doesn’t. Also Kyrie is playing with one of the highest career usg% players ever. And he played with LeBron, who always has the ball in his hands, so he’s used to it.

[@ssaiyan4m]

OMG! The answer is simple and it's that yall have no depth. It's not that complicated.

[@michaelevans-im5fv]

let 50 million dollar. divas run the show and see what happens lmao

[@Santana953]

I guess the Denver is now the worst team ever