Predicting the Phoenix Suns in 2018-19 v the Southeast Division
By Adam Maynes
In our continuing head-to-head prediction of the Phoenix Suns versus the Association, let us look at how they might fare versus the Southeast Division.
James Jones has done a seemingly masterful job rebuilding the Phoenix Suns’ roster around the core of Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton, Kelly Oubre, and Mikal Bridges.
While always the core four, rather than relying on the potential of the eventual development of a number of rookies and extremely young players, Jones has instead brought in several high-quality veterans, such as Ricky Rubio, Aron Baynes, and Dario Saric.
As such, this is not the Phoenix Suns of the recent past.
In fact, there is a very real opportunity for this team as now designed to make a run at the playoffs in 2020.
Will they make it? Highly unlikely. However, one must trust the skills and abilities of Rubio, Baynes, and Saric, all with playoff experience, over that of Josh Jackson, Dragan Bender, and De’Anthony Melton, young players who have never developed in any positive capacity to help a team reach the postseason.
How the new Phoenix Suns will fare in 2019-20 does remains to be seen. Considering that the franchise only won 19 games last season, an improvement to even 29 wins might seem menial, however it is a 50% increase in just one offseason, especially when considering that they play in a Conference that might literally be the most difficult ever seen in NBA history – and a Pacific Division that is arguably the toughest individual Division in all of North American professional sports.
That said, while we do not have a schedule to really break down as of yet, we do have rosters to compare, and knowing how many games the Suns will eventually play against every time in the league, we can make solid, educated guesses as to what teams Phoenix is better than, who they are worse than, and who they are at least competitive and comparable to.
So now, without further ado, in the continuing series of predicting the 2019-20 Phoenix Suns record based on a Division-by-Division breakdown, let us look at the Phoenix Suns vs the Southeast.