Houston Rockets over Phoenix Suns in 6
This series would be Deandre Ayton’s chance to shine. If he wasn’t able to average 25 and 15 against a Rockets team with zero NBA-caliber centers or even traditional power forwards, it would reflect poorly on him.
James Harden might be the most difficult player to defend in the NBA and maybe NBA history though with his innate ability to draw fouls, get separation, and get his defender off balance. Bridges would learn a lot trying to defend him for an entire series.
Despite the Suns’ size advantage, I just think the Rockets superstar duo and depth of shooters and defenders like P.J. Tucker and Robert Covington would be a lot for the Suns to handle, especially with a healthy Eric Gordon as a third Houston scoring option.
Denver Nuggets over Phoenix Suns in 6
It seems like the Suns should have beaten Denver every time they played them this season, but they went 0-4.
A healthy Nuggets team is so deep and talented (especially with the emergence of Michael Porter Jr) and Jamal Murray has been giving the Suns nightmares for years.
As great as Devin Booker is, he doesn’t affect the game as much in as many ways as Nikola Jokic at this point in their careers and Jokic would be a really difficult match-up for Ayton.