We've been having a lot of fun here constructing an 0-82 Phoenix Suns roster from this decade. Already the point guard position has been selected, while the shooting guard spot was a little harder.
Next up is small forward, and with the caveat of having to appeared in at least 20 games in a season for the organization, this was a two-horse race.
Yuta Watanabe the unfortunate choice at the three
Special mention must first go to Ish Wainright, who was in the running here. His 60 games played in 2022-23 best left to the past, although there was at least an element of trying to defend on certain nights. Still only 31-years-old, he was a let down for the Suns but nowhere near on the level of Watanabe.
The Japanese international arrived to much fanfare and looked like the perfect 3-point shooter to have alongside Devin Booker and Kevin Durant. He had experience playing with Durant for the Brooklyn Nets (making 44.4 percent of his threes there), while in two seasons with the Toronto Raptors he was at 37.3 percent.
What came next was a disaster, Watanabe averaging only 3.6 points in 29 appearances (13.2 minutes per game) before being shipped off to the Memphis Grizzlies. He played five games for them, and then he was out of the league altogether.
If anything what came next when Phoenix decided to move on from Watanabe had a much better impact on the roster this decade. That same deal was a three teamer in which the Suns landed Royce O'Neale, while they also got rid of Jordan Goodwin as the Nets got involved as well.
The Suns would rectify that mistake by bringing Goodwin back once again, and look set to keep him beyond this offseason as well. But when your biggest contribution to a franchise is helping them get a player in O'Neale who bridged the Durant into building again around Booker era, you know it has gone badly.
With expectations so high for his arrival, the sound of groaning whenever Wanatabe checked into a game was audible almost from the jump.
A player who was supposed to knock down all the open threes that would come his way deep into the postseason, would instead never end up appearing in the playoffs for the organization at all. In fact he only ever played five postseason games total, which should have given us a clue as to how this would go.
An easy choice.
Add us as a preferred source on Google