Phoenix Suns: 10 Takeaways From The 2014-15 Season (Part 2)

Gerald Bourguet

Feb 23, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas (left) against Phoenix Suns guard Eric Bledsoe at US Airways Center. The Celtics defeats the Suns 115-110. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

The Phoenix Suns’ 2014-15 season mercifully came to its conclusion Tuesday night. Closing out the season with a home loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, Phoenix played with only eight healthy players and finished the season with a 39-43 record.

5. This Team Needs Veteran Leadership

The common theme of exit day interviews was this team’s need for veteran leadership, though anyone could’ve told you that watching the Suns after the trade deadline. No offense to P.J. Tucker, but a guy who’s only been in the league for four years hardly counts as a veteran locker room presence, even if he’s been this team’s vocal leader over the last few seasons.

If you include older players like Tucker, Brandan Wright, Gerald Green and Danny Granger, the Suns aren’t even in the top five youngest teams in the NBA. But looking at the likely core of Eric Bledsoe (25), Brandon Knight (23), the Morris twins (25) Alex Len (21), Archie Goodwin (20) and T.J. Warren (21), this is one of the youngest teams in the league.

I mean, good for Earl Barron for trying, but a D-League call-up probably can’t be one of your biggest veteran presences either:

Earl Barron said as the oldest player on the #Suns roster, he tried to be the guy who would come early and stay late to set an example
— Valley of the Suns (@ValleyoftheSuns) April 15, 2015

Suns general manager Ryan McDonough said the offseason departure of Channing Frye left the team lacking in the leadership department.

“Ironically, I think some of our most mature guys and some of our guys with the best leadership potential are some of our youngest players, but that’s a tricky position for some of our youngest players with Brandon Knight at 23 years old or even Alex Len at 21 years old,” he said. “So we may need to bring somebody in in free agency or via trade who fills that role.”

It’s too early to start pinpointing certain veterans who will be available this summer, but one positive locker room presence might already be in Phoenix — Danny Granger, who has a $2.1 million player option next season and shares an agent with T.J. Warren.

“I have always embraced leadership roles, even younger in my career I had leadership roles in Indiana,” he said. “It will be something I embrace and I always pride myself as a teacher, even my two kids have to listen to my lectures as I like to teach so it is something I will look forward to.”

Granger, who didn’t play for the Suns because of past ailing injuries, has the added benefit of possibly the league’s best medical staff if he stays in Phoenix. Suns president of basketball operations Lon Babby said if he’s healthy, the team would love to keep him around in a leadership role.

“What’s particularly appealing to him, and we picked his brain a little bit today, was just his observations on our team and his capacity for leadership and his experience and his playoff experience and just being a solid veteran,” he said. “Obviously that’s something that we need and if he’s capable of providing that, that would be a plus.”

Granger is long past his prime, but one more cheap veteran presence won’t hurt, especially since Phoenix will have some roster spots to fill with all their upcoming free agents. Two of them — Brandon Knight and Brandon Wright — were singled out by McDonough as players the Suns are intent on re-signing this summer as the team tries to model itself after championship-caliber teams:

"“I think the best teams have players at all stages, and what I mean by that is you have some veteran players who are in their late 20s or early 30s who have kind of been there, have a lot of experience and hopefully have had a decent amount of success. “You have your players kind of in the prime of their career in their mid-to-late 20s who are your best players and kind of drive the team — traditionally that’s when guys play the best basketball of their career. “And you have the development players, the guys who are probably role players who help fill in when they’re needed and guys that keep it sustainable going forward and filling the gaps in the future as the older guys retire or move on. So we’re definitely skewed to the younger side this year.”"

On the leadership front, even having guys like Wright and Knight available from the start of training camp could be an added boost. Knight, who joined the team as the trade deadline, regretted not being able to play after his ankle injury and noted how hard the adjustment of joining a new team midseason was:

“When you start from summer and move forward it is easier to be vocal versus coming into game 60 when guys have a set rotation and set everything pretty much,” he said. “So it is tough to come in and be vocal and you have to pick your spots. When you start in the trenches with these guys it is easier to communicate with them because you’ve been there from the jump.”

Next: No. 4

4. A Tale Of Two Seasons: Before And After The Trade Deadline

Looking back on the season, one image stands out that could represent the way things went down at the trade deadline. With Eric Bledsoe looking for his 10th rebound to secure a triple-double against the Dallas Mavericks, Goran Dragic also went for the ball, not knowing that Bledsoe was so close.

Bledsoe barreled over Dragic to get his rebound, the Dragon tumbled to the ground, the two hugged when they realized what happened and everyone laughed it off as a sign of the chemistry the “Slash Brothers” shared. It was a great moment, and one that made every Suns fan feel a little more optimistic that he wanted to stay in Phoenix for the long-term.

Looking back on that play now, it’s hard to see anything other than two point guards wanting the same thing and one knocking the other to the ground to get it.

The Suns’ playoff hopes were dwindling heading into the All-Star break, but they still technically held on to the eighth seed in the Western Conference. But then Goran Dragic spoke up, and everything changed.

Just two days before the deadline, Goran Dragic revealed he no longer trusted the front office and that he wouldn’t re-sign with the team as an unrestricted free agent this summer. Phoenix, realizing they were about to lose the face of the franchise for nothing, opted to move him to get as much value for him as possible.

They also panic-traded Isaiah Thomas, the underlying cause of Dragic’ pent-up frustrations. But the most bothersome departure might have been the Los Angeles Lakers’ top-five protected draft pick, a pick that could be extremely valuable in 2016 or 2017.

In return, the Suns got Brandon Knight from the Milwaukee Bucks, Marcus Thornton from the Boston Celtics, Danny Granger from the Miami Heat and a couple of future first round picks.

The fallout? Every Suns fan was busy making the Overwhelmed Jeff Hornacek face watching this team play for the rest of the season:

The unhappy mood in the locker room was bad enough, but Knight — the big prize of all of Phoenix’s trade activity — only played 11 games with the team because of that ankle injury. Meanwhile, the rest of the young roster attempted to adjust to new roles since one-third of the team had been shipped away at the deadline.

“I feel like it was kind of a tale of two seasons — before and after the trade deadline,” McDonough said. “Before the season, we probably had too much depth in the backcourt positions and it made it challenging for Jeff to allocate minutes and get everybody involved and keep everybody happy.

“After the deadline, especially after the injuries, I felt like we didn’t have enough depth and again that’s my fault, I take some responsibility for it. The injuries were obviously out of our control.”

Those injuries were the primary cause behind the Suns finishing the season on a 1-10 skid, but it all seemed representative of the level of optimism in Phoenix after the Dragon’s departure. Before the deadline, the Suns had a fan favorite and the closest thing to a face of the franchise. They had a Sixth Man of the Year candidate in I.T. Hell, even this guy was still logging minutes:

To clarify, the Suns did what they had to after Dragic voiced his displeasure. They got some value for a player who will get a max deal from somebody this summer, they avoided overpaying him and though trading I.T. was a panic move that didn’t net many assets in return, the Suns made the right call choosing Knight over Thomas to pair with Bledsoe.

As for Dragic, some despised him for the way he left. Others agreed with his perspective that bringing in I.T. and playing Dragic off the ball so much was a mistake. But whatever your view on the Dragon, the fact stands: after he left, the Suns’ offense dove off a cliff.

Here’s a look at how Phoenix’s potent offense suddenly became incompetent, with numbers from before and after All-Star Weekend:

Record: 29-25 —> 10-18
FG%: 46.1% (7th) —> 43.4% (26th)
3P%: 35.9% (8th) —> 29.8% (30th)
FT%: 78.5% (2nd) —> 71.4% (25th)
PPG: 105.9 (4th) —> 95.6 (25th)
Point differential: +1.2 —> -4.9
Offensive rating: 105.9 (7th) —> 97.1 (28th)
Fast break points: 19.6 (2nd) —> 15.5 (8th)

Now, to be fair, the Suns were without Knight for the majority of those games after the All-Star break. Young players were logging big minutes and trying to learn new roles on the fly and even the guys who had been playing regularly were forced to take on new roles.

With Knight’s injury, the Suns went big, inserting Marcus Morris into the starting lineup and moving P.J. Tucker to the wing. By doing so, Phoenix improved its defensive rating from 104.1 (17th) to 102.2 (15th) and moved from 19th in the league in rebounding before the break to seventh afterward.

But those marginal improvements on the defensive end weren’t enough to make up for the fiery death of the Suns’ offense. I mean, look at those numbers! Have you ever seen such a drastic midseason plummet?

Next: No. 3

3. The Isaiah Thomas Pickup Changed Everything

So how did this happen? Why were the Suns backed into a corner with Goran Dragic and who’s to blame? Unfortunately, as convenient as it’d be to blame the Dragon for abandoning a fan base that’s already had to watch Steve Nash, Amar’e Stoudemire and Shawn Marion walk out the door, the guy had a point.

Maybe not about the whole “not trusting the organization” bit, but was he wrong for wanting the ball in his hands? Last season he was Third Team All-NBA and a top-five point guard who won the Most Improved Player of the Year Award! And now he was being told to play off the ball and defend small forwards on the other end?

It was ugly the way it all went down, but the cause of that frustration was the presence of Isaiah Thomas.

When the Suns picked Thomas up in a sign-and-trade with the Sacramento Kings, they locked him in for four years and $27 million, a virtual steal for a player of his caliber. Even better, the Suns didn’t really have to give up anything to get him.

So essentially, the #Suns sent a bag of peanuts and a future bag of Doritos for Thomas. #nba
— Michael Dunlap (@DunlapSports) July 11, 2014

Even the staunchest critics of the idea to bring in another point guard had to admit it was a value move. At the time, Bledsoe’s contract status was still up in the air and by making this move for I.T., the Suns had insurance for Bledsoe. And even if he stayed, Thomas represented a vast improvement over Ish Smith at the backup point guard position.

Ryan McDonough had Mcdone it again.

Except sometimes you can win the battle and lose the war. In this cutthroat, Game of Thrones type league, McDonough was Robb Stark, the king who never lost a battle. The Thomas acquisition and subsequent trade deadline fiasco represented his Red Wedding, sealing the Suns’ fate in the most gruesome way possible.

That being said, I.T. himself did nothing wrong. The guy actually played pretty well for the Suns off the bench in a sixth man role. He said all the right things about taking on whatever role was necessary as long as the team was winning, he never publicly complained and he fed off the crowd at US Airways Center on the nights when he got hot.

It’s also worth noting that unlike poor Robb Stark, McDonough’s time is not done. One bad move that was a slam dunk at the time does not mean he’s a poor GM or that the Suns are doomed. But like Hornacek, McDonough is only in some second year. Some mistakes were to be expected.

But if we’re analyzing the season as a whole, we have to note that it was Isaiah Thomas’ mere presence that complicated matters for the Suns. Simply put, there was too much talent in the backcourt and not enough minutes to go around for three starting-caliber players, and it was one of the chief reasons for the steep drop-off after the All-Star break.

Next: No. 2

2. Eric Bledsoe Is Great, But Not Yet Ready To Lead

The lack of veteran leadership on this team is all too apparent, but if you’re looking for the real thing the Phoenix Suns are missing, it’s a star player. Fans got to see it in person when guys like Stephen Curry or James Harden came to town, taking over late in games and carrying their teams to victory. All the Suns could do was sit and watch and wish they had a player like that.

Ryan McDonough isn’t shy about letting the world know he’s well aware of this team’s biggest need:

"“That’s one of the challenges for us is trying to win in a very difficult Western Conference without a superstar player who can cover up a lot of mistakes. Those guys can bail you out late in the shot clock and create a lot of good looks for themselves and for others. “We have a lot of good players, but we don’t have anybody who’s an MVP candidate or a perennial All-Star and obviously we’d love to get one of those guys.”"

That’s where all that cap space and future draft picks come in. With the NBA salary cap projected to shoot through to roof to approximately $89 million in 2016-17, it might be worth going over the cap to better prepare this team for its future.

“We’ll be active again on the trade market, we have a number of picks, not only our own but coming from other teams, so I think and I hope that we’re still one of the first teams that other teams around the league call if they do have a star player that’s disgruntled or if they want to go in a different direction that they’ll call us first and try to hammer out a deal with us,” McDonough said.

None of this is meant as a slight to Eric Bledsoe, but as much progress as he made this season, he wasn’t capable of replicating his best work on a night-to-night basis. You know, like the time he dueled with Russell Westbrook and won in a game that had a lot of people (myself included) buying in to his potential as a leader:

As much as that game was huge for keeping Phoenix in the playoff picture, and as much as it felt like Bledsoe was ready to take the leap of becoming this team’s go-to player without Dragic, he just wasn’t there yet.

“The exciting thing for us about Eric is he’s just starting to scratch the surface of his potential,” McDonough said. “Last year he started for half a season and we saw glimpses of us but there were some questions externally about could he do it as a starter? Could he do it over the course of an 82-game season? I think he certainly proved that he could with the numbers he averaged.”

Bledsoe finished the year averaging 17.0 points, 6.1 assists, 5.2 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game while shooting 44.7 percent from the floor and 32.4 percent from the field. The only other players to average a 17-6-5 stat line this season? LeBron James, Russell Westbrook and James Harden, per Basketball-Reference. The potential is all too clear.

Unfortunately, even with those well-rounded numbers, Bledsoe wasn’t always locked in. He was prone to disappearing for quarters or even games at a time, committed way too many turnovers, played lazy defense a times and just looked unengaged in general some nights.

Part of the problem may have been the Bledsoe needed help. He often charged into the lane at full speed, either losing the ball to the help defense or flinging it out of bounds once the defense collapsed, but having some perimeter shooting on the wings could’ve helped open things up for a guy who loves to penetrate.

Bledsoe may have also been overworked, as he was often tasked with hounding an elite point guard every night on the defensive end. When Bledsoe is locked in, he’s as difficult to score on as anyone in the league thanks to his size, speed, strength and ability to make impressive defensive plays from the weak-side:

“I feel great, but it wasn’t good enough, there’s a lot I need to get better at as far as my leadership, minutes, defensively, my approach to the game,” Bledsoe said on his season. “You know, there’s definitely a lot of areas I need to get better at and I’m definitely going to put in a lot of work.”

There’s a chance Bledsoe was burned out from not only playing more than he’s ever played in his career, but also from doing it while defending elite point guards every night. Part of that comes with the simple fact of playing in the Western Conference, but he deserves a little slack given that this was his first full season as a starter.

In fact, after missing half the season last year, Bledsoe averaged 34.6 minutes per game and played in 81 games this season. The only game he missed was for the birth of his son.

“The key for him will be seeing how consistent he can be,” McDonough said. “He certainly has a bright future at 25 years old and we’re very confident he’ll take a big step again next year.”

Bledsoe is a tremendous player. He’s still very young, he made great strides this season and he can be a tremendous secondary option on the right team. But that’s just the point: he’s still not ready to lead just yet, and the Phoenix Suns remain one superstar away from taking the next step.

Next: No. 1

1. The Phoenix Suns Still Have A Bright Future

It’s no secret that the 2014-15 season was a massive disappointment for the Phoenix Suns, particularly from an internal standpoint. After winning 48 wins and being the league’s feel good story last year, the Suns became a trade deadline Greek tragedy and finished the year with nine fewer wins.

“I think with some of the differences between this season and last season, the good thing is they realize what we need to improve on and try to rectify going into next season,” McDonough said. “I think they weren’t satisfied with how the season went, and that’s a good thing.”

The 1-10 skid to end the season — the worst 11-game finish to a season since the team’s inaugural season — didn’t help build optimism heading into the summer. The team was ravaged by injuries after the All-Star break, the investigation of Markieff Morris and Marcus Morris in an aggravated assault case made matters worse and the whole Gerald Green melodrama just piled on more negative vibes.

Update: Suns blown out, Bledsoe ejected, Morris Twins under investigation, Keef 1 tech from suspension, Archie calls out team. Covered?
— Sean Sullivan (@SeanSullivanNBA) April 8, 2015

But getting wrapped up in all the pessimism will make you lose sight of the biggest takeaway moving forward. Because as rough as this season was, the Phoenix Suns still have a bright future.

“My view of it is that the end was rough,” Babby said. “We were really decimated at the end by injuries and that leaves a very bitter and poor taste in our mouth. I don’t think that it truly reflects where we are and what kind of season we had so that’s one way to look at it.

“You can say that, you can point to the games we lost at the buzzer, you can look to all the games we lost that were close and you can come away with that feeling optimistic — and I do — but I don’t think you can use any of those things as an excuse or delude yourself to think that there isn’t a lot of work to be done and improvement has to be made.”

Babby also pointed out that it was only year ago that we were including Jeff Hornacek in the Coach of the Year conversation while Ryan McDonough joined the discussion for Executive of the Year. Both took their lumps this season, but calling for their heads after a few mistakes/growing pains is unreasonable.

Bledsoe is on the cusp of playing at an All-Star level with a little more help and consistency. Brandon Knight is a very good perimeter shooter who could spread the floor and complement Bledsoe well in the backcourt once they finally have some time together in training camp.

Len looks like a potential game-changer in the paint. Archie Goodwin and T.J. Warren both showed positive signs when they got playing time this season, which is even more encouraging when you consider that only one of them is legally able to buy alcohol.

This team has a young core that needs to be molded and that takes time. The Suns are still one star away, but they have a very good, young starting point, not to mention quite a few future first round picks stockpiled. McDonough noted that the manner in which the Suns have gone about their rebuild is atypical, but that it’s with long-term goals in mind:

"“We’ve tried to do something over the past couple of years that’s not easy to do, especially in a very difficult Western Conference, and that’s to turn over the team, infuse the team with young talent, but also stay competitive. Most teams either do one or the other, they try to stay competitive and win with veteran players — and to be honest with you, you can win more games in a shorter amount of time, but it’s probably not sustainable. “Or, teams go the other way and really blow it up and play a bunch of young guys and usually the losses pile up and the lottery balls pile up and that takes longer. It’s more of a high-risk, high-reward situation, we tried to do both of those things and I think we did a very good job of it last year. This year I think we did okay, we were a little too young, a little too inexperienced, and I think we’ll correct that for next year.”"

The Suns have their young core under favorable rookie-scale contracts, which will still be the case when the salary cap jumps through the roof in two seasons. They have cap space, they have all of their own first and second round draft picks moving forward and they have three additional first round picks coming over the next few years.

“More draft picks” doesn’t seem like a phrase Suns fans want to hear considering how young this team already is, but those picks could be used as trade chips. And even if they’re not, it’s worth noting that over the last few decades, it’s been rare for a championship team to NOT be led by a player they’ve drafted and cultivated into a superstar.

“I think the best way to have a really good NBA team for a long period of time is to draft and develop good young players,” McDonough said. “If you add good young players who are 19-22 years old and they can continue to get better, you can hopefully have them for five, 10, 15 years and have a long window.”

McDonough admitted the team needs veteran leadership, size and rebounding. He owned up to his mistakes as far as having too much backcourt depth and not enough minutes to go around. He’s well aware this team is still a star away and that the 2014-15 season was a major letdown.

But this was never meant to be a quick turnaround, and that’s something everyone needs to keep in mind moving forward. Between the trade deadline drama, sending away Goran Dragic and Isaiah Thomas, all the buzzer-beaters, young players taking on new roles and all the adjustment periods that came with each, it’s amazing the Suns were even within reach of the playoffs.

It may not feel like it, but that’s an encoring sign for this young team’s potential moving forward.

Next: Phoenix Suns: 10 Takeaways From The 2014-15 Season (Part 1)

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Gerald Bourguet