When a team has multiple double-digit losing streaks in a single season; breaks the franchise record for most losses in a row; goes win-less for an entire month; loses over 60 games in a season; fires it’s head coach and has it’s star point guard demand a trade after only three games; I don’t care if you’re selecting first overall, it’s difficult not to declare the 2017-18 season a miserable failure.
The Suns have lost a lot these past three years and are currently on pace to top each of those awful seasons falling just short of their worst record in franchise history, the 16-66 inaugural season in 1968-69.
And while there have been some positive signs of growth by some players (Devin Booker, Josh Jackson, and T.J. Warren in particular), there have been far too many disturbing signs that the Suns are nowhere near putting together a legitimately good team, and that the playoffs may be just as much of a pipe dream next season as they had been at the start of this one.
Regardless of the small victories found in improvements of players, when a star player demands a trade and a head coach is fired literally after only three games, can anything else overtake such fumbling and make the season even feel slightly successful?
The Suns haven’t made the playoffs in eight years. They haven’t been close in five. Yes, they could make a significant jump this coming offseason if they could acquire one or two legitimate star pieces, but the odds of that are slim and they have a better chance of seeing their draft selection slip to fourth overall and enter 2018-19 without a single additional star added to the roster from any level.
How could anyone then look back at 2017-18 and not thing that it has been a failure?