The Phoenix Suns should have had a Christmas Day game

The Phoenix Suns did not receive a Christmas Day game for the ninth season in a row. I am here to argue that they should have.

For the past eight seasons, the Phoenix Suns have been one of the most mediocre teams in the NBA by record. Heck, since 2015 they might just have been the absolute worst (I hesitate to do that math because I really do not want to know the answer).

Yet, the franchise is finally back on the rise, the team is stocked full of young and exciting talent, they tout the best scoring young player in the NBA – one of the best in history at his age – the number one pick in the 2018 draft, two additional top-five picks in the last three drafts, and is – in essence – a copycat of the league’s up-and-coming darling, the Philadelphia 76ers.

There really is a lot to like and be interested in with the Phoenix Suns.

While Christmas Day games usually go to teams who were at least 50 game winners the year before and at worst playoff participants, when the NBA announced their 2018 Christmas Day slate, the Suns had an argument for a spot in the lineup as they are a team who finally has the kind of draw to at least raise a few eye brows if given the opportunity to be nationally featured.

Putting a team like the 2018-19 Suns on Christmas is not without precedence too.

The 1991-92 Orlando Magic won a whopping 21 games. They then won the lottery and selected Shaquille O’Neal first overall. Of course Shaq was a catalytic force who helped the Magic to a 41-41 record his rookie year, but he also played in 81 games as Orlando did not intentionally tank.

Then, by a dramatic stroke of luck, the Magic – who missed the 1993 playoffs – won the lottery again, and parlayed that into Anfernee Hardaway.

Just like that, Orlando had two young stars on their roster, one with 81 games of NBA experience and one who had yet to play a game.

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And yet, the NBA selected Orlando two play one of only two Christmas Day games in 1994 – the other being the Phoenix Suns versus the Houston Rockets (yes, the Suns won).

While Devin Booker wasn’t a top-five lottery selection, his accomplishments in scoring since 2015-16 have been well documented and he is already one of the most prolific scorers in NBA history for a player his age.

Then even though Deandre Ayton has yet to play a game in the NBA (and has already been disrespected with a less than stellar 2K rating), as the number one overall pick in 2018, and predicted to be one of the most dominant centers in the league (oft compared to Shaq himself) there is no doubt that fans of the NBA will pay close attention to Ayton in his rookie year to see for themselves if he is worthy of such a lofty comparison.

If you’re still not sold, then let’s also look at a couple of the teams that are on the 2018 Christmas Day slate and see how the Suns can actually stack up:

The first game of the day will be the Milwaukee Bucks and New York Knicks.

For starters, while the Knicks are seemingly scheduled for Christmas Day more than anyone else (before this season they have been featured six out of the last ten seasons, while having only two winning records), do they really deserve a spot this year at all? Kristaps Porzingis is not scheduled to make his return to the court until at least February, and aside from him, they literally have nobody else worth watching (no one is going to tune in to see David Fizdale coach. Nobody will hear him if he shouts “take that for data” during the third quarter).

The Bucks aren’t much better either. Yes, they have Giannis Antetokounmpo, arguably a top-five player, but is there anybody else that is such a draw on that roster that fans must tune in to watch them battle a Kristaps-less Knicks? (Again, no one is tuning in to watch a coach. Sorry Mike Budenholzer, you’re boring too.)

Oklahoma City and Houston will be a fun enough game to watch (although I would have preferred to have seen Houston battle the Warriors, but I digress).

Speaking of Golden State, watching them and the Los Angeles Lakers is going to be a draw, although not because of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Kevin Durant. They’re old news. This game will be worth watching because of LeBron James in a Lakers uniform.

That said, the NBA is banking on L.A. being good (they will be), although the team was obviously not chosen because of Lonzo Ball no matter what his father thinks of him (L.A. didn’t play on Christmas his rookie year), or their record last season (35-47).

As far as potential Eastern Conference matchups go, there really isn’t a more interesting one than the Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics. Undoubtedly now the two best teams out East, this game will likely be a preview of the Eastern Conference Finals in 2019.

That said, as articulated above: wouldn’t a master in tanking (Philly) vs. the apprentice (Phoenix) be an appealing game too?

Finally, the night will end with the Portland Trailblazers and Utah Jazz.

Yes, both teams have multiple stars (the Blazers have Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, and the Jazz boast Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert), and yes, both teams were playoff teams last year (Portland finished 3rd in the West with a 49-33 record and Utah was 5th at 48-34), but neither are guaranteed to be playoff participants again in 2019 with the insanely stacked Western Conference (Denver finished 9th in the West but was only three games behind Portland for 3rd – who was swept in the first round by the 6th seed New Orleans Pelicans).

Neither team really has any argument to be featured on Christmas Day over Phoenix. They don’t have any more stars than the Suns (and unlike Booker and Ayton, their stars are no longer curiosity draws as unknowns, rather they would only be draws from fans of the teams themselves or of individual players, lessening their overall national impact), nor do their records or even playoff results indicate that they are in any way championship contenders this season (sure, Utah beat OKC in the first round, but then they were easily handled by the Houston Rockets in the Semis).

In my opinion, the NBA took the easy way out with several of these matchups and missed out on the opportunity to give much of the NBA-watching world an early glimpse at one of the potential great up-and-coming teams in the league.

Sure, by Christmas Day the Suns’ record will probably not be anything spectacular and because of the crushing talent of the West I’d be shocked if they didn’t have a losing record.

However, anybody that actually follows basketball will be able to tell the difference between a truly un-talented and therefore un-interesting team, and one who is young, hungry, exciting, and therefore worth watching, even if the Golden State Warriors (for instance) will sweep them this regular season as they sweep many teams.

Hopefully Phoenix, currently led by Booker, Ayton, and Josh Jackson, can take a large enough step forward this season and make enough waves in the regular season to force the league’s scheduler’s hands to give Phoenix their first Christmas Day game since the Steve Nash era, next year.

That said, they really should have been there this year as well.