Now that the dust has well and truly settled on a tumultuous 2023-24 season, the Phoenix Suns can seriously dissect where exactly it all went wrong. Unfortunately for the organization, it is hard to point to one moment alone as to when the wheels came off this expensive wagon.
Even more worrying, it is hard to see how exactly a lot can change between getting swept by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the opening round of the playoffs, and opening night of next season. Having a new head coach in Mike Budenholzer should help, and plenty of current players are likely to excel playing for him.
But with a core trio of superstars on max contracts and no wiggle room to make trades, it will be more of the same in a lot of areas in 2024-25.
Not that that is a complete disaster. After all, this group did win 49 games with a head coach in Frank Vogel who never seemed to truly fit and with a top-heavy roster that on some nights like great, and on more still was not able to give the effort required to win at the highest level. Time then to revisit the past, in order to stop as many of these things from derailing the Suns next season.
5. Failure to take care of the ball
During the regular season, the Suns coughed the ball up 14.9 times per contest. That in itself is bad enough, but the manner in which they did so was incredibly frustrating. There appeared to be a complete lack of interest in not producing careless turnovers, and many were unnecessary and foolish.
"I couldn't find the game."
— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) April 30, 2024
Bradley Beal on his Game 4 performance of 9 points (1-of-5 from 3), 6 turnovers (5 in the 4th) and 6 fouls in 32 minutes with a minus-12 in loss to T-Wolves to end Phoenix's season in a sweep in the 1st round.
Story below. ⤵️ #Suns #NBAPlayoffs https://t.co/CEBJQeSWIq pic.twitter.com/l4fE0VX68D
The Suns ultimately finished 25th in turnovers each night, and it is telling that the five teams below them all didn't make the playoffs, and have six of the top 10 picks in this year's NBA Draft (the San Antonio Spurs have two selections). If you're trying to win a championship, that is simply not the company you want to be in.
It is hard to even blame one player in particular for this awful statistic as well. On any given night one of Devin Booker, Bradley Beal or Kevin Durant could be off the pace, while the likes of Grayson Allen and even Bol Bol were guilty of giving the ball away. It sound simple but in order to see improvement next season, actually holding onto the ball to make more plays would be a good place to start.