We have almost reached the end of the regular season, and the Phoenix Suns have still not secured playoff basketball. An unthinkable scenario last summer when the organization went and added Bradley Beal to play with Devin Booker and Kevin Durant.
They currently occupy the sixth seed, and have flirted with the play-in tournament enough so far this season that having to take the more dangerous route to the postseason is still a possibility. We now know exactly how head coach Frank Vogel is going to try and achieve this, as he recently showed us his playoff rotation in a loss to the New Orleans Pelicans.
Nice as it would be to think that every Suns player is going to up their game if they get to the postseason, that sadly will not be the case.
The Suns don't have to worry about Booker and Durant, because we all know they are going to show up to play. Booker led the playoffs in scoring last season at 33.7 points per game, and he helped his team take two games off the eventual champion Denver Nuggets. The only opponent they faced who managed to do that.
There are some more question marks around Beal - it is hoped this will be the deepest he will have ever gone in the postseason - but he has stepped up for the franchise recently. With a clean bill of health and a willingness to run the point, Beal has looked more comfortable in his role as the third star with this group. After these three however, look for the following guys to let the Suns down.
3. Drew Eubanks
It feels like Suns fans have a love/hate relationship with backup big Drew Eubanks. There's no doubt he's limited in what he can do on both ends of the court, and on some nights he is simply bullied by bigger opponents. But just when it looks like The Valley is out on him, he puts in the kind of shift that sucks them back in.
Make no mistake - if coach Vogel and the Suns want to go on a deep run - then Eubanks can only be used in a limited capacity. Jusuf Nurkic is the starter here while Durant will likely spend more time at the five than at any point during the regular season. But when Eubanks is on the court, it will be about surviving.
Drew Eubanks whenever he has a shot at a rebound: pic.twitter.com/fJY3sHPG0h
— BealMuse☀️ (@BealMuse_) April 4, 2024
Any potential first-round matchup is going to target him hard when he's out there, with teams such as the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets - two of the likely matchups if the Suns remain in the sixth spot - having the kind of youth and depth to attack Eubanks. Imagine Chet Holmgren going one-on-one with him for example, and putting him in a torture chamber.
Offensively it will be a case of Eubanks getting out of the way, and yet he generally won't have the luxury of playing with all three stars as he'll be coming off the bench. What this will mean is the ball will be funnelled to him as a result of on-ball pressure from opponents, so Eubanks will have to get involved whether he likes it or not. A scenario the Suns will try really hard to limit.