A quick look at the Phoenix Suns free agent targets helps shine a light on their best path back to the NBA Finals.
Do not, for a single second, buy into any idea that the Phoenix Suns season was a failure because they failed to win the NBA Finals.
As our NBA guru and resident Suns fan Gerald Bourguet wrote after Game 6:
“Teams just don’t reach the Finals when four of their top-seven rotation players have never appeared in a playoff game before.
The Phoenix Suns did.”
Less than a year ago the Suns were piquing our curisosity by going 8-0 in the bubble, and in just 11 months they owned a 2-0 series lead in the NBA Finals.
The Lakers and LeBron James were balled up and tossed into the trash can, the Nuggets never stood a chance, and the Clippers got flattened in two games without Chris Paul playing. That’s what it was like going up agaisnt the Suns in the NBA Playoffs this year, and that’s why when they were up in the Finals it appeared as though the stars had aligned.
There was nothing lucky about the Suns this season, though. Like Santa once said, it’s sort of a cosmic gumbo and the ingredients to get back to the NBA Finals are right in front of everyone.
Phoenix Suns free agent targets: 3 moves to avenge NBA Finals loss
3. Extend Deandre Ayton and Mikal Bridges
A lot was said about Devin Booker shedding the “empty stats” label this season, but a similar thing happened to Deandre Ayton.
Flip of a switch is the best way to describe the narrative about Ayton changing, as he went from a draft bust to a guy who was instrumental in getting the Suns through the Western Conference Finals.
Mikal Bridges also came into his own during the Suns postseason run, but both he and Ayton contributed all season long to the success Phoenix experienced. The spotlight of the playoffs simply amplified the importance, and showed a basketball public that had largely igonred the Suns that there was a dynamic duo being forged in the desert.
The Suns have a superstar guard in Devin Booker and a veteran leader in Chris Paul, but Ayton and Bridges are key pieces of the Suns core moving forward. If getting back to not just one but many NBA Finals the course of the core’s prime is the goal, the front office needs to