The Suns are careening toward disaster

Phoenix is out of the play-in. It's not just injuries that have been a problem.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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Not at Home (An Interior of the Artist’s House); Eastman Johnson; 1873

The Phoenix Suns were supposed to be a championship contender. They pushed the eventually crowned Denver Nuggets to six games last spring, and then added a new head coach (the well-respected Frank Vogel), a new third banana (Bradley Beal) and that ever-important ingredient: time. Beal has been injured most of the season, and Devin Booker and Kevin Durant have missed windows here and there too. But none of that adds up to where the Suns sit now.

Phoenix is out of the play-in: No. 11 in a 15-team conference, a half-game behind the Warriors for No. 10, a game below .500 at 14-15 and riding a 3-game losing streak. They are 3-9 in their last 12 games, a stretch in which Booker has missed only one game and Durant has missed just two games (one of them a win). Jusuf Nurkic has been banged up; his absence in addition to that of Beal has highlighted Phoenix’s depth issues. It turns out that faring surprisingly well in the minimum contract market does not actually build depth.

This is an obvious and absolute nightmare. The Suns, a couple years removed from their first Finals appearance since the early ‘90s, pushed in a remarkable share of their chips for Kevin Durant. A few months later, they pushed in every remaining chip for Bradley Beal and Jusuf Nurkic (which can also be described as pushing in their remaining chips to get out of the Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton business).

The Suns do not control any of their own first-round picks until 2031. In related news, the Suns are barred under league rules for trading the rights to their 2031 first-round draft pick. In even years, the Suns owe out swap rights — so Phoenix would still have a pick, but if it’s a really good pick, they could lose it in favor of a Nets, Grizzlies or Wizards pick. So there’s no upside to failure here. No real chance of tripping into another star.

Phoenix is No. 16 in offense and No. 19 in defense, and looks every bit of both. Luka Doncic gives almost every opponent The Business. He has a tendency to give the Suns some Extra Business. The service is warm and the prices are fair: he’d eat here every day if he could.

There’s just some laughable defense in there. Sometimes, the Suns are confused or lazy. Sometimes, Luka looks up and he’s being doubled by Drew Eubanks and Grayson Allen but they’ve give him a gap that he can just … drive through to the rim. Sometimes Grant Williams sets a screen for Luka to free him from Josh Okogie but no one is guarding Williams so it becomes … an open three for Luka Doncic.

A lot of that is Luka’s superb vision and recognition and ability to score and pass. But the Suns aren’t exactly making it hard.

And so, as you would expect for the stars who expected to compete for a championship but instead finding themselves getting destroyed by Luka again, even in a close game, tensions burble.

Here’s Booker taking exception to Chimezie Metu’s decision not to run back on defense after turning the ball over.

Here’s Booker getting into it with Grant Williams, who is a top-tier “get into it” guy in the NBA.

Sometimes guys like Grant Williams write checks they can’t cash. Sometimes they smell blood.

Woj told a national audience that people in Phoenix are sensing Durant’s frustration. The franchise knows it’s a bit stuck with this group. No more young players to flip. No more draft picks or pick swaps to move. No more veterans with trade value. Unless you’re truly gutted and you start considering Booker’s future — which you absolutely cannot do at this point — there’s nowhere to go but through it.

The Suns will be better this season. They were pretty darn good before this 12-game stretch — in fact, they had won seven in a row against mixed competition. Durant’s number are pretty spectacular, and Booker has looked great most of the time. But even when Phoenix gets back on track, the signs are everywhere that this collection just might not be good enough.

Beal is going to have to be great when he comes back (again) to convince anyone otherwise.