The Phoenix Suns’ playoff hopes are over. Last night’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder was the final nail in the coffin, dropping Phoenix to four games out of the eighth seed in the Western Conference with only eight games left in the season.
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One year after being the league’s biggest surprise, the Suns have somehow become one of its biggest disappointments.
Perhaps expectations were too high for such a young team. Perhaps winning 48 games in the loaded West was just something special for a group of role players, not a new standard for a team whose roster underwent a major shakeup at the trade deadline. Perhaps trading away one-third of your team at the trade deadline makes it hard to make the playoffs.
But in any case, it seems like all the Suns have left to play for now is pride.
Except that’s not really true, is it? The last eight games of the season won’t have an impact on the playoffs, but for the fourth youngest team in the NBA, every game is important. This is a team that’s still trying to develop chemistry among its core, after all. For such a young group, these last eight games should be viewed as learning experiences to prepare for a complete regroup in 2015-16.
With the season all but over, here are five things that we should see over the last eight games for the betterment of the Suns’ long-term future.
Next: No. 5