1. What disappoints you the most from this 4-game losing streak?
Gerald Bourguet: Brandon Knight’s ankle problems. The obvious answer is inconsistency on offense, and that’s certainly been hard to watch. But it’s hard to get too worked about it when the Suns are so young and are missing a player that the front office wants as a part of the team’s core moving forward. To that end, not having Knight on the floor to develop chemistry with Eric Bledsoe in the backcourt will make it hard for a lot of fans to feel comfortable with the big money heading his way this summer.
Scott Chasen: I’m not sure there’s any one thing more disappointing than the overall fact that the Suns won’t be making the postseason. Really, those frustrations extend far past the last four games, knowing that had Phoenix not lost four times at the buzzer and in a few overtime contests, they’d be a virtual lock for the postseason. It’s the little things. They all add up. You can pinpoint the team’s lack of effort against Portland, or the second-half collapse against OKC, but ultimately, it wasn’t this stretch that killed Phoenix all by itself.
Spencer Hann: Extreme case of lost opportunity. Yes, this team is ridiculously young and the vision is looked at in long-term lenses BUT Phoenix could have been playing for the 8th seed Sunday night against the Thunder if not for two straight home slip-ups. Losing to an inferior Sacramento team, followed by a loss to Portland after blowing a 4th quarter lead and then concluding with the past two embarrassments against OKC and Portland again. Phoenix has effectively ended their season two weeks early when they could have as easily been in a playoff position, controlling their own destiny.
Eric Saar: It’s just frustrating that the Suns are so young. They couldn’t win games they should have won down the stretch when they needed to. It’s really just the lack of experience, but so disappointing. The unexpected win totals over the last two years have really bloated expectations during a rebuild.
Gavin Schall: How well the Suns were playing in the four game winning streak before it. The defense for long stretches of games was performing at an elite level, helped along by the size Marcus Morris brought to the starting line-up. The ball movement was better with one point guard than it had been all season with two, and the one, Eric Bledsoe rediscovered his early season peaks. The balance shifted over that four game streak and the Suns could only reach those levels for quarter long stretches and too often settled for mid-range jumpers and lackadaisical transition defense.
Next: Thunder Meltdown