The Phoenix Suns are closer to a historic run to the playoffs
The Phoenix Suns entered the NBA’s restart in Orlando as one of the most overlooked teams in the league. To be fair, that’s because entering the restart no one expected them to play any factor much less be in the running to steal the 8th and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Led by head coach Monty Williams, budding superstar Devin Booker, and the myriad of young, promising talent on the roster (headlined by Deandre Ayton and Mikal Bridges), the Suns have been the biggest surprise of the NBA’s restart thus far.
The Suns are the only undefeated team in the bubble, sitting at 6-0 with two seeding games remaining. They’re also a half-game back of the 9th seed and one game back of the 8th seed in the Western Conference.
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An incredible offense that is Spurs-like under Williams with emphasis on the “0.5 Principles” of quick decision-making, the Suns has come into the bubble unleashing a bevy of outside shots which has given them the second-best offensive rating in the league since games resumed.
Phoenix has shown that they want to make the playoffs. After years of rebuilding since the departure of Steve Nash, the Suns want to finally be able to get back to being a consistent playoff threat in the Western Conference. They want this season to be the start of a leap forward with the Booker-Ayton duo.
They’re close to doing it too. They’ll need some help over the course of the last few games in the bubble, but even if Phoenix finished with a perfect 8-0 bubble record, there’s a chance they could be left out of the play-in tournament.
The Suns’ path to the play-in tournament
In order to give themselves the best chance of making the play-in tournament the Suns need to win their final two games. Those games are against the Philadelphia 76ers and the Dallas Mavericks which before seemed like hard games to win but now maybe not as much.
Starting with Philadelphia, the 76ers have been a bit of a mess all season. Poor spacing and chemistry issues made them weaker than the Eastern Conference powerhouse they were expected to be. Now with Ben Simmons gone for the rest of the season and the potential that Joel Embiid will sit out to rest his ankle, the Suns could be lucky against yet another undermanned team.
If Embiid does play it obviously will make the game tougher but really his status is a non-factor, it comes to down to one real match-up that could give the Suns the edge. That is the team’s 3-point shooting against the 76ers awful defense in Orlando.
The Suns were one of the best 3-point shooting teams all season this year, and their hot shooting followed the team to Orlando. The Suns have been the fourth-best 3-point shooting team (percentage-wise) in the bubble.
If Philadelphia fails again to set their defense early then the Suns will have an avenue to get hot. A hot-shooting Suns team in rhythm from downtown would be death for the 76ers because they simply lack the ideal spacing and consistent shooting to keep up with an attack like that.
Against the Mavs, that’s where things will get tough for Phoenix. The Dallas Mavericks have two superstars in Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis, if that duo plays the final seeding game at all then the Suns are going to have win a competitive shootout yet again.
With all the energy the Suns have exerted to this playoff push, a fast-paced shootout might just be the last thing they want and the Doncic-Porzingis duo will be tough to contain. Luckily, if it is the last seeding game and the Mavericks are locked into that 7th seed, maybe the team rests their star players.
A chance at facing two depleted teams and utilizing hot shooting is the way the Suns are going to make because even if they win out they’re going to need some help from Portland, San Antonio, and Memphis to make it into the play-in.
What could their bubble success lead to?
Seeing this Suns team heat up in Orlando and play outstanding basketball could lead to some major events beyond Phoenix. Sure if the Suns are good enough to make it into the playoffs it will do a lot for the organization moving forward, but there’s potential for the league as well.
The play-in concept has made a real battle for the 8th seed which has become must-see TV nationwide. Teams like the Suns but also the Spurs, Trail Blazers, Grizzlies, and Pelicans all had chances coming in and played competitive games throughout their time in the bubble.
The play-in element gave the league something that was akin to March Madness where surprising teams can get going, and anything can happen. Surely, Adam Silver is watching this and specifically this Suns team and thinking how exciting this could be for the league on a yearly basis.
Giving more teams the opportunity to make the playoffs with this play-in could also be something that fixes one of the major issues Adam Silver has been trying to clamp down on during his tenure as commissioner which is tanking. With slimmer lottery odds and a play-in tournament, more teams could be incentivized to compete which is what the league wants.
It’s way to soon tell what the future of this 8-9 seed play-in tournament holds but it has been one of the most enthralling stretches of basketball games ever played. Let’s see if the Suns can win-out and really turn it all on its head.