6. The Phoenix Suns make the 2019 playoffs
For some (I mean, c’mon – it’s all of us, right?), eight years is just too damned long to have not made the playoffs.
The Phoenix Suns were once a mainstay, a franchise who even in a season when they began 0-13, still managed to not only make the postseason tournament, but finish with 7th seed in the Western Conference and nearly knock off the defending Conference Champion (1996-97, in case you were wondering).
Yet here they are today, suffering through the franchise’s longest postseason drought in franchise history, and playing in arguably the toughest Conference and even Division in all of North American professional sports.
That said, they only need to finish 8th in the West to make the playoffs. They need to be able to win just enough games to sneak in, even if it means being swept by the Golden State Warriors or Houston Rockets in the first round.
To some, anything less would be a disappointment and further sully the image of a once tent-poll franchise in the NBA.
To do this, Phoenix would have to leap over seven teams that finished above them last season, something that would be nothing short of miraculous if pulled off.
Not only would Igor have to be considered as one of the savant head coaches in the NBA, but health would have never been an issue, and the continued growth and improvement of the young Suns would have to push forward without hesitation.
There is no doubt, though, that if they managed to make a solid run and sneak into the 2019 playoffs, this season would have been a tremendous success.
Unfortunately though the odds are long on that one, so let’s check out a few of the more plausible ways to count this season as a success.