Will the past repeat itself this year?
The largest leap the Suns have ever made in the lottery was all the way back in 1987 when they moved up five spots from 7th to 2nd, narrowly missing out on the opportunity to select David Robinson, the kind of dominant center Jerry Colangelo had long coveted. In fact, watch Colangelo’s face in the video. The moment he see’s the Suns logo and realizes that he would not be able to draft ‘The Admiral,’ you could tell his disappointment was beyond explanation.
The largest drop in the lottery is only moving back two spots and first experienced in 1988 when Phoenix dropped from 5th to 7th. While probably still disappointing at the time, (and in hindsight the thought of potentially adding Mitch Richmond to the mix of KJ, EJ, Hornacek, Majerle, Ceballos, West, and Chambers would have been amazing and possibly Championship worthy? He averaged 22.0p/5.9r/4.2a his rookie year) the Suns did select Tim Perry. While Perry’s career was nothing individually compared to Richmond, he was an integral piece in the Charles Barkley trade in 1992, thus not the worst result in the world.
The second time the Suns have dropped back two slots was in 2017 when they originally held the best odds to select second overall but instead slipped back to fourth, the only team in the lottery to move back two spots. While the original emotions felt throughout the Valley of the Suns was that of disbelief, disappointment, even anger, those feelings were all (fortunately) turned on their heads when the Suns were able to select Josh Jackson, potentially the player most fans, and even the franchise, wanted most. Many still believe that Jackson could be the best player in the 2017 draft class, and the second half of his rookie season illustrated that that thought may not be that far off from the truth already.
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If the Suns make any leap of significance in the lottery, it will be to move back since they hold the best odds at the first overall selection already. If they hold the spot and the ability to select University of Arizona center DeAndre Ayton, the elation around the Valley of the Suns will be enormous and this past season of tanking will be fully justified. If, however, they were to drop back more than one spot (dropping to fourth would be a slide of three spots and would be the worst in franchise history) the look on the faces of Phoenix faithful will most certainly, on some level, resemble that of Jerry Colangelo’s all the way back in 1987.