7. The Brutal Home Stretch
Any time you close out the season on a 1-10 skid, that’s obviously going to be one of the worst (extended) moments of the year. But it wasn’t the losses by themselves that made the home stretch so unbearably brutal. Once the Suns were eliminated from playoff contention, the effort dropped off a cliff and the losses got even uglier.
There was a nine-point home loss to the Kings. There were back-to-back beatdowns at the hands of the Portland Trail Blazers and Oklahoma City Thunder. There was an appalling 96-69 loss to the Atlanta Hawks. There was a late collapse against the Dallas Mavericks. And then there were three consecutive double-digit losses to close the year out.
Even worse was the amount of drama in the locker room during that stretch. During that time, Gerald Green wondered if the Suns even wanted him anymore. Green’s agent blasted Hornacek for his comments about G-Air-ld’s defense and the reason for his lack of playing time. And even youngster Archie Goodwin spoke up about the team’s lack of veteran leadership.
During that stretch, the news about the investigation of the Morris twins surfaced again (more on this in a bit) and Bledsoe was ejected from a game when his team needed him to step up as a leader. There were very few positives to take from the final 11 games, and it’s the reason there’s not much optimism heading into the offseason.
To be fair, the trade deadline destroyed this team’s playoff chances, especially when the chief acquisition from that deadline — Brandon Knight — went down with his ankle injury. Alex Len also missed time and by season’s end, half the team was out. But such a pitiful conclusion to the season was hard to watch no matter who was available.
Next: No. 6