Were the 2007-08 Phoenix Suns a Superteam?

The term ‘superteam’ is thrown out a lot in the NBA today. It is a moniker that implies a team has a group of at least three all-stars on their roster, which, right now, appears to be the only way a team can win a title.

But that term is actually a fairly new one as players are more friendly to one another than in the past and stars are placing themselves into situations where they can team up with other stars making their combined paths to a title easier.

If you think about it, there have been plenty of teams in the past that are deserved of the nickname ‘superteam,’ specifically those Celtics teams of the 60s then 80s; the Lakers teams of the 70s, 80s, and early 2000s; and I am sure that there are a number of other options out there for someone to argue on behalf of.

Even the most dominant team of the 90s, the Chicago Bulls, were not pegged with the term ‘superteam’ at the time, and yet it is hard to argue that Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman does not equate the three-headed monster that in today’s NBA demands such a title.

So have the Phoenix Suns ever had a superteam of their own?

One very successful NBA-themed YouTube channel believes that Phoenix has had one in the recent past, and that it sorely underachieved.

Do we agree?

NBA Got Game TV selected the 2007-08 Phoenix Suns as one of his top-5 worst superteams in NBA history. Personally, I would have said underachieving and not worst, however I can understand how worst might actually coerce a few more clicks.

Choose whichever adjective you like, unfortunately the Phoenix Suns have had plenty of underachieving teams in their history, and adding the 2007-08 team to that list is a fair one.

That being said, were they a superteam?

This team is the fourth in the Mike D’Antoni era, and the last one to include Shawn Marion. The Matrix would of course be traded to the Miami Heat 47 games into the season for the aging Shaquille O’Neal, a swap made out of desperation due to the franchise’s inability to get by Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs. The host of this channel erroneously states that the trade falls on the shoulders of General Manager Steve Kerr when the local conventional understanding is that Kerr was actually the power player most against the move. Regardless, it was made with the hope that Shaq still had enough in his tank to push around the bigger centers of the league and hopefully drive Phoenix towards the title they had long sought with Steve Nash running the show.

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The Suns finished with a 55-27 record which, as far as superteams go, is respectable, although probably a bit low.

They made the 2008 NBA playoffs as a 6-seed and lost to the Spurs in five games – again, something that you would not expect from a superteam.

As explained in the opening, the term superteam most implies that a roster has multiple all-stars, (in the Suns’ case, they did), and not necessarily ultimate playoff success.

Of course Steve Nash was an all-star that season. Amar’e Stoudemire was an all-star, making his third of his career that season, and second in a streak of five in a row. The season began with Marion on the roster, a four-time all-star, although 2008 was the first season since 2004 that he missed out on the mid-season celebration of talent. He was of course traded for Shaq, a 14-time all-star, and while Shaq didn’t make the all-star team in 2008 due to injury, he would make one for the Suns the following season.

So right away, the Suns had three all-stars on the roster at any one time, a feat that is, by today’s definition, worthy of the name superteam.

When you break the roster down even more, superteam arguably begins to make even more sense.

If you include both Marion and Shaq, the roster had seven players who averaged in double-figure scoring – although six at any given time. Nash and Shaq each averaged a double-double with both Marion and STAT barely missing out with them averaging 9.9 and 9.1 rebounds per game respectively.

The roster included a lockdown defender in Raja Bell, and four fantastic role players in Bell, Grant Hill, former 6th Man of the Year award winner Leandro Barbosa, and 3 and D specialist Boris Diaw.

Amar’e Stoudemire not only won two Western Conference Player of the Week awards, but finished fifth in the league in scoring with 25.2 while leading the league in True Shooting Percentage at 65.6%. Steve Nash finished second in the league in assists per game with 11.1, the only time in his career that he averaged at least 11 per game and didn’t win the assist title for that season, while also shooting a career-high 47.0% from beyond the arc, finishing second in the league behind Jason Kapono at 48.3 – although Nash attempted 263 more shots from the outside.

Nash and Stoudemire each made the All-NBA 2nd team and Raja Bell was an All-Defensive 2nd team recipient.

While the team as a whole allowed the 25th most points per game in the league, they also scored the third most points of an team. The 2007-08 Suns were first in FG% for the third year in a row, first in 3P% for the fourth year in a row, first in assists per game for the third year in a row, and while they were third in scoring, it was the only season between 2004 and 2010 that they did not lead the league. On the defensive end, with the combination of Stoudemire, O’Neal, and Marion, the Suns were fourth in the league in defensive rebounds, and second in the league in blocks per game.

Granted any team in the Nash and Mike D’Antoni era could have been considered a superteam when you break down their roster and stats, this was the only one that didn’t make it out of the first round of the playoffs.

So from this perspective, YouTuber NBA Got Game TV might have a very valid point calling the 2007-08 Suns team a superteam and never making it out of the first round of the playoffs might certainly make them uderachiving.

Of all the great things that that team was both individually and offensively, one of the big knocks on them is that they were actually really inconsistent, which was also one of the reasons Marion was shipped off to Miami.

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Not only did they not have a double-digit winning streak at any point in the season – they had an eight-game win streak with Marion and seven-game streak with Shaq – during the 42 game period between games 21 and 62, the Suns were only 24-18, hardly superteam worthy.

Please let us know your thoughts! Was the 2007-08 Phoenix Suns a superteam that sorely underachieved, or were they just another good to above-average team that were as good as their final record and playoff ousting?

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