Just like at the end of a school year, the end of this Phoenix Suns basketball season has (likely) come to a close and with it, come individual grades.
The season may or may not be over…blah, blah, blah…but it probably is for the Phoenix Suns…yadda yadda yadda. Insert all of your standard NBA hiatus caveats here. Just like with the NBA2K simulation look-back, I’m going to assume the Suns have played their final game in the 2019-2020 season.
Before the season started, newly-minted General Manager, James James, treated last year’s roster like a kid who strapped his action figures or sister’s Barbies to bottle rockets and blasted many of them into oblivion.
I guess that kind of thing doesn’t happen these days. Kids probably send characters to the moon electronically on their iPad, but still, the point remains, Jones overhauled the roster and brought in nine new players to start the year.
Some had success, others less so, and most of them got hurt and missed extended periods of time because if it weren’t for bad luck, the Phoenix Suns wouldn’t have any luck at all.
Similar to 2018-2019, there are several players who may have played their last game with the Suns, whether they be unrestricted free agents, restricted free agents, or trade chips. But while we can discuss the merits of whether or not a player is worthy of re-signing, let’s focus on how they did this season, bust of the red pencil, and grade them like a high school teacher who may or may not routinely spike their coffee.
The key to my grading scale here is that they are put on a bit of a curve based on who they are. It’s unfair to say, “Well, since Mikal Bridges didn’t have LeBron James-like numbers, then he gets an F.” Common sense (at least what I consider common sense to be) is factored in.
Let’s go: