You would think that Boston Celtics Head Coach Joe Mazzulla could have nothing to say to reporters across the country during preseason that would have any impact whatsoever on the Phoenix Suns and their own preparations for the coming season. You would be wrong. Noa Dalzell from CelticsBlog caught up with Mazzulla during media availability recently, where he dropped this entirely relevant piece of ball knowledge to all listeners.
"Every team you lead is the most together team right now. Because we haven't travelled. No one's gotten benched. No one's been on a losing streak. No one's gotten blamed in the media. No one's had to go stand in the corner for 10 minutes and not get the ball."
Mazzulla's amazing quote should keep Suns and all others on their toes
Think Mazzulla was done there? Think again.
"So you learn those things as the season goes on, and you just learn how to work through those things together... right now I would say all 30 teams feel great about themselves, and we got to wait until adversity hits."
An incredibly relevant point of view for the Suns, as all is good in The Valley ahead of a season in which they have to improve on the 45 wins of last time out.
Suppose Miles Bridges, who has started life with the franchise strongly, struggles or is sidelined by injury. The high price of landing him in the first place (Grayson Allen, Royce O'Neale, and a precious 2033 unprotected first-round pick) begins to be scrutinized once again.
He already has a mild ankle issue that led to the Suns sitting him for the recent win over the San Antonio Spurs, and the team has been here before with Jalen Green. His hamstring issues began in Macau during preseason last year and never fully went away.
Speaking of Green, what if his willingness to be the point guard for long periods of time alongside Devin Booker does not lead to success? Worse still, how will the Suns cope if Booker is no longer capable of being one of the 15 best players in the league? That would create adversity and some difficult conversations for the franchise to have moving forward.
Dillon Brooks is another player heading into the season in a great place. He's been the Suns' best player for a minute and is playing the best two-way basketball of his career. A sharp decline to the mean would be a disaster for a team that needs him to provide 20 points each night and some elite defending while getting under the skin of opponents.
Then there is starting center Mark Williams. Easy as it is to forget about him because of the sudden emergence of Khaman Maluach alongside Oso Ighodaro, he was brought back this offseason to be the dominant force in the paint, while Maluach, in particular, gets brought along slowly. If he is out all season while the current center rotation struggles, the optimism around Maluach and Ighodaro will quickly vanish.
Suns must stick together when parts of their season go wrong
Despite these words of caution from Mazzulla, the Suns remain in a good spot. They just need to ride the wave of the season together when the inevitable low moments come, and lean on the sneaky-impressive depth they have built, which extends to two-way guys such as Pat Spencer.
Combine that with a top-10 defense put in place by Head Coach Jordan Ott, and they have the ability to see out any storm. It is just worth remembering that it's October, and everything feels so bright and optimistic. That point of view will be challenged in due time.
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