Ranking each position’s need for improvement for the Phoenix Suns
By Adam Maynes
The Phoenix Suns have plenty of holes and weaknesses on their roster. This is a ranking of each position’s need for improvement.
The Phoenix Suns are in a very strange situation: they are in the area before NBA purgatory (a perennial 7-10 team who is never bad enough to win the lottery but never good enough to compete for a title), but they are no longer in NBA hell – the basement – that can only be climbed out of through the luck of the draw in the NBA Draft.
The Suns have Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton, the first two pieces in a three-headed monster that should be what they need to finally become that NBA championship competitor (or at least tough playoff out) that fans have been longing for since the end of the Steve Nash era.
Yet even with Booker and Ayton, only one position is actually all lined up with very little need for improvement. Booker is forced into a position where he is a child of two worlds, at both point guard and shooting guard. Ayton is pretty much settled at center.
Other than those two though, there is need for improvement in either both the starting lineup and/or off the bench for nearly all five positions.
Whether the Suns are able to improve any of their short-comings this season or not remains to be seen as they might not have the assets necessary (or the opportunities available to them) to even make such a deal to improve their lot.
Improving these positions might have to wait until the offseason, especially at point guard, thus forcing Phoenix to remain in the precarious position in the Western Conference: waiting another year before they can finally reach the next stage, which is the actual NBA purgatory.