For whatever reason, NBA training camps struggle to attract the same glamour and public intrigue which their NFL or MLB counterparts do. However, their significance and impact on a team’s season cannot go overstated.
If you try to build a house without establishing a strong foundation beforehand, it will collapse even if you hire the best construction workers, use the best materials, and the finest tools. Going into the 2021-22 season, the Phoenix Suns already own all those valuable assets, but need to lay out that critical foundation with a strong training camp.
One week from today, Phoenix’s camp opens up, with preseason tipping off five days after that on Oct. 5. It will mark Monty Williams’s third year running the show, this time without just a playoff berth to his name, but an entire Western Conference championship.
With the team’s entire starting five from last year also aboard for the upcoming season, everyone expects Williams and the Valley Boys to compete once again for a title. This pressure makes a solid training camp extra important, as Williams looks to captain his team and prep them for the wild tides and rogue waves coming their way during their Western Conference defense.
Depending on how he runs camp, things might swing heavily one way, or the other during the regular season, and potentially even the playoffs. Every drill, film session, and team-building exercise factors into a team’s finished product. But above all the rest, these three potential moves from Williams poise to effect Phoenix’s trajectory to a greater extent.