Phoenix Suns Rankings: Which Western Playoff Team To Root For?

Gerald Bourguet

Mar 9, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (right) reacts alongside Phoenix Suns forward P.J. Tucker at US Airways Center. The Warriors defeated the Suns 98-80. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

You’ve probably read this or heard about this by now, but the Phoenix Suns will be participating in the 2015 NBA Playoffs in the same capacity that the rest of us will: from the comfort of the couch. With the Suns out of the playoffs, fans look ahead to the NBA Draft, free agency (and the result of the Morris twins being charged with felony aggravated assault).

8. San Antonio Spurs

I mean, duh. Even the most ardent LeBron James haters had a hard time cheering for the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals over the last two seasons if they also happened to be Suns fans. This is the team that has denied Phoenix their chance at a championship so many times they became the embodiment of why Steve Nash never won a title.

To Suns fans, if you’re the biggest reason Nash never won a title, you are Public Enemy No. 1. It doesn’t help that almost every time the Spurs downed the Suns, they went on to win the damn title just to rub salt in the wound.

2005 - Joe Johnson got hurt in the playoffs.
2006 - Amare out for the season
2007 - Robert Horry
These are some examples. Nash had bad luck
— John Ledesma (@JohnnyNBA) March 21, 2015

In Nash’s first season in Phoenix (2004-05), he won MVP, the Suns won a league-best 62 games and seemed poised to bring the franchise its first championship. Instead, Joe Johnson broke his face and missed the first two games of the Western Conference Finals, which the Suns lost in five games to the Spurs. San Antonio went on to win the title.

In 2007, the Suns lost to the Spurs in the Western Conference semifinals. The turning point of the series? Robert Horry‘s dirty hip check of Nash into the scorer’s table that resulted in suspensions for Horry…and Amar’e Stoudemire and Boris Diaw, simply for stepping off the bench. Without those two key players, the Suns fell in six and the Spurs once again won the title.

In 2008, the Suns lost to the Spurs in the first round, which is what made that sweep in 2010 so darn sweet. But even before the Nash years, the Spurs had beaten the Suns three of the last four times they had met in the playoffs. Their dominance of the Suns is the reason Phoenix is still missing a championship.

The Suns are 4-6 against the Spurs all-time in 10 playoff series.

So yeah, as much as Tim Duncan and co. demand respect, this fan base’s mindset toward the Spurs is, basically, f**k the Spurs.

Next: No. 7

7. Dallas Mavericks

Some Suns fans think of the Dallas Mavericks as a rival, some don’t mind them as much. Dirk Nowitzki used to piss off quite a few Suns fans back in his heyday, but he and the Mavs were always the little brother to the main enemy, San Antonio.

That’s not to say there’s no reason for disliking this team as a Suns supporter, however. In the 2005-06 season, when Nash won his second MVP Award, the Suns were once again bounced from the Western Conference Finals, only this time it was Nowitzki and company doing the bouncing.

Phoenix had won 54 games that season and had to watch the Mavs choke away the NBA Finals to the Miami Heat after building a 2-0 lead. There’s no way of knowing what would’ve happened had the Suns replaced Dallas in the Finals, but that makes it even more tantalizing to think about.

The Suns have only met the Mavericks in two playoff series all-time, splitting them 1-1. The Mavs are relatively harmless in their history with the Suns, but the reason they’re ranked so early in our list is with a season-ending injury to Chandler Parsons, not to mention the Rajon Rondo melodrama, it’s highly unlikely they overcome their current 2-0 deficit to the Houston Rockets.

Bearing that in mind, it’s hard to jump on a bandwagon cheering for a banged up Monta Ellis and hobbled Dirk Nowitzki. Head coach Rick Carlisle may look like Jim Carrey, but he’s not bringing joy to any Suns fans’ TV screens anytime soon. Your bandwagon allegiance could do better.

Next: No. 6

6. Portland Trail Blazers

For the younger generation of Suns fans, the Trail Blazers seem pretty harmless. Half the teams on this list rank higher in terms of being rivals to the Suns, and that’s before considering non-playoff foes like the Los Angeles Kings and Sacramento Kings. The last time the Suns met the Blazers in the playoffs (2010), Phoenix won that first round series in six games.

But for Suns fans who have been around for longer than the Steve Nash era, Portland was a regular playoff opponent in the 80s and 90s. In seven all-time meetings in the playoffs, the Suns have won four series against the Blazers and lost the other three.

Unfortunately, one of those losses came in 1990 in the Western Conference Finals. The Blazers emerged victorious in six games in that series, advancing to play the “Bad Boys” Detroit Pistons in the Finals. At the end of this highlight clip, you can see Jeff Hornacek miss a last-ditch effort to tie the game with the Suns trailing by three in Game 6. Heartbreaking stuff:

In 1992, the Suns again fell to the team that would represent the West in the Finals — this time in the conference semifinals — as Rip City bested Phoenix in five games. It’s hard to project what would’ve happened for the 1991-92 Suns, but Phoenix did win 53 games that season. And for a franchise still searching for that first championship, falling in the conference finals in 1990 was especially painful.

Most of the history between these two teams is decades old now, and it’s hard NOT to feel sorry for Portland given all the injury woes they’ve had to overcome over the years (Greg Oden, Brandon Roy and now Wesley Matthews, to name a few).

But since these rankings also take into account how likely they are to compete, it’s hard to put too much faith in LaMarcus Aldridge and a streaky Damian Lillard. They already trail the Memphis Grizzlies 2-0 in the first round and with Matthews and Arron Afflalo injured, they’re likely be heading home soon.

Next: No. 5

5. Houston Rockets

During the 1994 and 1995 NBA Playoffs, the Phoenix Suns were bounced from the Western Conference semifinals. Their opponent? The Houston Rockets. Those represent the only two times the Suns and Rockets have ever met in the playoffs, and since Houston went on to win the title both times, those series leave a bitter taste in the mouths of most Suns fans.

The Rockets join the Los Angeles Clippers as one of the NBA villain teams this season. James Harden has been phenomenal as an MVP candidate this season, but a lot of people don’t like his playing style and the way he gets to the free throw line. The Beard’s tremendous season also doesn’t make his buzzer-beater against the Suns any more tolerable:

Dwight Howard has become a villain or a joke to many and the Rockets were generally labeled as unlikable even before Harden kicked LeBron James in the crotch.

That being said, since a good deal of Suns fans are from Phoenix, we have to recognize that a sizable contingent of Suns fans are also Arizona State fans. Harden, an ASU alum who just might wind up being the greatest player to ever come out of the Sun Devils basketball program, certainly has his fair share of supporters here still.

That’s not enough reason for anyone but the most ardent of Harden supporters to cheer on the Rockets, but still.

Next: No. 4

4. Memphis Grizzlies

In Nash’s first season as a Sun, Phoenix met the Memphis Grizzlies for the first and only time in the playoffs, emerging triumphant with a first round sweep. There’s hardly any playoff history between these two teams and the only time they ever met in the postseason, the Suns won.

However, given the recent history between these two teams, it’s impossible to rank them any higher than this. Over the last five seasons, the Suns have an awful 4-12 record against the Grizz, and they’re 0-7 against Memphis since Jeff Hornacek took over as head coach.

So yeah, Suns fans aren’t high on this current Grizzlies core of Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph and Mike Conley, who seem to consistently expose this team’s flaws and beat them up inside. The last time the Suns beat Memphis at home, they needed a Goran Dragic buzzer-beater to do it:

Plus, during last year’s feel-good 2013-14 season, the Grizzlies were the ones that brought everything crashing down when they beat the Suns in US Airways Center to officially eliminate them from playoff contention. Call me crazy, but most Suns fans aren’t on good terms with this team, even if they haven’t met in the playoffs since 2005.

Memphis is probably going to run away with their first round series against Portland, and their gritty play could give the Golden State Warriors problems in the second round. But I don’t know of any Suns fans that will be actively cheering on the Grizzlies in the West.

Next: No. 3

3. Los Angeles Clippers

I know, I know. I’m fully aware that the Los Angeles Clippers are one of the most despised teams in the league. The face of the franchise, Blake Griffin, is often seen as an overrated prima donna whose high-flying dunks distract people from a lack of toughness and his abundance of Kia Optima commercials.

Chris Paul‘s State Farm commercials have become over saturated as well, as has his penchant for being called the best point guard in the NBA without ever making a conference finals. Matt Barnes is despised by most NBA fans, Glen Davis breaks things in hotel lobbies and Doc Rivers‘ lobbying for DeAndre Jordan as the next Bill Russell was borderline obnoxious.

And all of this is before we mention that Blake Griffin’s step-back three was the first buzzer-beater in a long line of game-winners that ultimately tanked the Suns’ 2014-15 season:

That being said, there just really isn’t much playoff history between these two teams. They met in the conference semifinals in 2006, and the Suns triumphed in a hard-fought seven-game series, but other than that, there isn’t much here.

It feels unnatural to cheer for a Pacific Division rival, and the general dislike for guys like Griffin, CP3 and especially Barnes is understandable. But it’s hard to watch the Clippers’ high-powered offense run itself into a frenzy without becoming enthralled. CP3 has been unstoppable over these last few months, Griffin is a flying death machine and the Clippers play a pretty fun style of basketball — when they’re not flopping, of course.

If none of this resonates with you, consider two game-changing facts: 1) The better the Pacific Division does in the postseason, the better the Suns look for missing the playoffs. The Southwest Division was the best division in the NBA this year, but if the Pacific Division can represent, that makes the Suns look a smidge better.

But more importantly: 2) The Clippers are playing the San Antonio Spurs in the first round. Do you need a better reason to root for them than that?

Next: No. 2

2. New Orleans Pelicans

We’ll keep this short and sweet. The Phoenix Suns have never met the New Orleans Pelicans in the postseason. The Pellies have that same underdog vibe about them that the Suns would’ve had if they had been able to hang on for the West’s final playoff spot. Plus, they have Anthony Davis, the next monster-in-the-making.

It’s also worth noting that the Pelicans brought Suns fans quite possibly their most memorable moment of the 2013-14 season when the Dragon started breathing fire to the tune of a career-high 40 points. That performance had US Airways chanting “MVP!” in a way they hadn’t done since Steve Nash played there.

As the eighth seed in the playoffs, it’s highly unlikely the Pellies advance past the first round. They’re already down 2-0 to the Golden State Warriors, Tyreke Evans isn’t 100 percent and Monty Williams isn’t playing Ryan Anderson for some reason. But even with all of that, New Orleans kept both games pretty close and will be a tougher out than most were anticipating.

That makes them easier to root for as underdogs. There’s literally no playoff history between these teams and the Brow is spectacular to watch. The Suns were lucky to dodge the bullet of having to pay Eric Gordon the major contract they offered him once upon a time, but it’s also easy to cheer for him since you have to feel sorry for him with all the injury problems he’s had.

Next: No. 1

1. Golden State Warriors

To be honest, this is the perfect team for every bandwagon NBA fan this season. The Warriors were not only the best team in the league this season, but they were also the most fun, by far. Even when the Dubs came to US Airways Center, chants of “MVP!” broke out as Stephen Curry put on a show. It was easy to be mad he was slicing and dicing the Suns. It was even easier to enjoy the show.

Aside from it being easy to cheer for such a fun team, the Warriors also have players and personnel with Suns ties. Steve Kerr, the head coach, used to be the Suns general manager (let’s pretend the whole Shaquille O’Neal trade never happened, yes?). Assistant coach Alvin Gentry was a well-liked head coach for the Suns after Mike D’Antoni. And Leandro Barbosa, well…let’s just say watching him put up a vintage Brazilian Blur performance in the playoffs was super enjoyable:

On the one hand, it’s a little bittersweet to cheer for the Dubs with so many former Suns, especially since Phoenix could’ve had its chance at Stephen Curry on draft night in 2007. The Suns had a deal in place with the Warriors to trade their 14th pick and a package centered around Amar’e Stoudemire for Golden State’s No. 7 pick.

But no one was expecting Curry to fall to No. 7 in that draft, and when he did, the Warriors busted up the deal to select Curry for themselves. Oh, what might have been.

That being said, you really can’t blame the Warriors too much for backing out on the deal. The Suns would’ve done the same, and since Phoenix is 3-0 all-time against the Warriors in playoff series, Golden State is probably the most appropriate bandwagon for all you bored Suns fans to hop on.

Next: T.J. Warren: 2014-15 Phoenix Suns Player Grades

More from Valley of the Suns

Gerald Bourguet