Predicting the Phoenix Suns in 2019-20 vs the Northwest Division
By Adam Maynes
Phoenix Suns General Manager James Jones appears to have built a team that will have a winning record vs the Eastern Conference. Can they do the same against the Northwest Division in the West?
James Jones has been building something this summer, tearing down the Suns from the Ryan McDonough era and rebuilding it like the proverbial ashes of a Phoenix.
Surrounding his young core of Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton, Kelly Oubre, and Mikal Bridges with new and playoff-experienced veterans Ricky Rubio, Dario Saric, and Aron Baynes, this new roster is completely different from the ones that only won 87 games over the past four years.
With the help of all of the recent and dramatic player movement around the league – in particular, those players who have moved from the Eastern Conference to the West – the Suns should have a team that can finish with an above-.500 record in the Eastern Conference for the first time in 2014-15.
That said, Phoenix has not had a winning record against the Western Conference since the 2013-14 season when they finished with a surprising 49-33 record overall and a 28-24 against their Western counterparts.
In order to potentially reach either of those records and have a chance at even sniffing the playoffs, they will need to find some wins in the West, particularly against what is arguably the weakest Western Division, the Northwest – and that’s saying something because it is still absolutely stacked.
The Denver Nuggets already had the second best record in the Western Conference last season, the Portland Trailblazers made the Conference Finals and added Hassan Whiteside this offseason, the Utah Jazz may have upped their stock around the league more than any other team save for the Clippers and have become a dark horse favorite to be Western Conference champions this season, the Timberwolves remain a difficult team to counter, while the Oklahoma City Thunder may be the only actual weak team in the Division.
So without further ado: let us predict the Phoenix Suns’ record in 2019-20 against the Northwest Division.