It was a sad and disappointing day for those Phoenix Suns faithful, when the final nail in the coffin was hammered into the season with a brutal loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday. That gave OKC the main tiebreaker (head-to-head), effectively ensuring the Suns a vacation in a couple weeks.
Phoenix is 4.5 games back of Russell Westbrook and the Thunder, and have no momentum with a difficult remaining schedule. They only have six games left, and all but one of those teams hold better records than Phoenix. The lone outlier? The surging Utah Jazz who are only four games back of the Suns.
The question can be asked:
Len out at least a week, Knight re-injured ankle & last 7 games are brutal. Honest question, do you think Suns win another game this season?
— Sean Sullivan (@SeanSullivanNBA) April 2, 2015
I say yes, the Suns will win at least one game down the stretch. They aren’t that devoid of talent and a considerable number of these teams could be resting key contributors.
So with the tough schedule and playoffs out of reach, the final record isn’t really that important — unless you’re discussing the caveat of team morale trying to finish with dignity and stay above .500 on the year.
So what does each player on that Suns’ roster need to focus on in these next six games that are basically meaningless, except for trying to play playoff seeding spoiler/matchmaker?
Let’s begin.
*I’m leaving off Earl Barron, Marcus Thornton, Danny Granger and Jerel McNeal because Barron and Thornton barely play and odds are they won’t be on the roster next year. Granger hasn’t even played a minute for Phoenix and McNeal is only on a 10-day contract.
Next: Bledsoe, Knight, Len