April 2024
With only eight games remaining until the playoffs begin, the chances of the Suns surpassing 50 wins seems high. Interestingly though, for those who think this is a group who could easily push for 60 wins, that doesn’t seem likely.
The Suns face the Pelicans, Clippers and Timberwolves twice each, with one more game against the Cavaliers and Kings in there for good measure. None of these games will be easy, and there’s every chance a group like the Pelicans or Clippers will be fighting for their play-in lives.
Tempting as it may be to think the Suns could go 8-0 here as they ramp up to a long playoff run, it never goes that way. A couple of these teams are good enough to catch the Suns, home or away, and inflict on them a few more losses before the postseason begins. We’ve mentioned the Pelicans already, but what about the Clippers?
We’ve never seen it before, but they could have Paul George and Kawhi Leonard fully healthy and playing the best ball of their time together. Similarly, Zion Williamson might be about to place highly in MVP voting after a stellar campaign with the Pelicans. If all of this sounds too good to be true, then you need to apply that same logic to the Suns.
On paper they’re among the best teams that there are in 2023-24, but Durant has had injury issues for the last number of years and we don’t know what Beal is going to look like here. Finally, with this only being 80 games accounted for (the other two are TBC because of the in-season tournament), we’ll take those last two and split them. It seems only fair.