It took the Phoenix Suns all 82 games of their regular season schedule, but they somehow managed to avoid the play-in tournament and secure the sixth seed in the playoffs. An outcome that had looked unthinkable as recently as a week ago, but which once again served to highlight just how bizarre their season was.
Every franchise goes through ups and downs over the course of a long campaign - but in the case of this Suns team - the highs were high and the drops even worse. Which is why the Suns enter the postseason as perhaps the greatest unknown in either conference, because the potential to go on a run still exists.
Their first round matchup pits them against the third seed Minnesota Timberwolves, and the Suns should be quietly confident they can cause an upset in this series.
Make no mistake, the Timberwolves had much the better regular season, in the hunt for the top seed out West until the very end. They also possess a budding superstar in Anthony Edwards who may just be about to have his playoff coming out party against the Suns. It would not be a surprise at all to see this happen.
The Timberwolves just got big man Karl-Anthony Towns back from injury too - and alongside center Rudy Gobert - that duo can and will pose the Suns problems. Yet it could have been so much worse, with a date against the defending champion Denver Nuggets and an Oklahoma City Thunder outfit that give them big problems avoided for now. This is why the Suns will win this series, in six.
3. Bradley Beal figured it out
It took essentially all of the regular season, but Bradley Beal in the last few weeks has finally figured out how to have the biggest impact with this group. The fact he struggled with injuries for the first-half of the campaign did not help, but recent wins against the Sacramento Kings and Timberwolves should have head coach Frank Vogel feeling much better about his starting five.
For a while there it felt like Beal - as is so often the case with stars who slip down the pecking order - was trying too hard to stay in his lane. Spot up in the corner while Devin Booker and Kevin Durant did most of the heavy lifting on the offensive end. Where the change has come in recent weeks then, is with Beal still existing within the flow of the team, but knowing how and when to take over more.
Bradley Beal with the 3 biggest plays of the game:
— Suns Are Better (@SunsAreBetter) April 13, 2024
The huge 3 in the 4th to complete the comeback, the steal and score to tie it up late, and the stop on De’Aaron Fox to win it (with some help from Devin Booker).
He’s an absolutely game-changing playmaker. He’s just awesome. pic.twitter.com/KRqKHOSR2k
The strip of De'Aaron Fox of the Kings was also an example of how Beal can and will have a bigger impact on the defensive end in the series versus the Timberwolves. Coach Vogel will surely put him on Edwards for stretches, while he poses a problem for the bigger Timberwolves on the other end. If Gobert or Towns take Durant, and the other sticks with Jusuf Nurkic, that leaves Booker and Beal.
Booker will always draw the tougher defensive assignment, so do not be surprised when Beal goes for 35 in one of these games. The Suns had the toughest remaining schedule to finish the season, yet in the month of April Beal has put up 21 points and 4.5 assists, while shooting an absurd 69.4 percent from deep on just over three attempts per game. Beal can tilt the series in the Suns' favor.