Recently, Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns suffered one of their more frustrating defeats of the season against the San Antonio Spurs, who were playing without Victor Wembanyama, out for the game due to an ankle injury. Making matters more embarrassing for the Suns was the fact that they had just blown out that same Spurs squad–that time with Wembanyama in the lineup–just two nights prior, setting the stage for what figured to be an easy win on Monday evening.
Still, despite the disappointment, not everyone has given up on the Suns' chances of success come playoff time, due primarily to the sheer star power of their trio of Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal.
Recently, former NBA player and current podcaster Chandler Parsons took to FanDuel's Run it Back podcast to break down why he believes Phoenix to be the biggest threat in the Western Conference to dethrone Nikola Jokic and the reigning NBA champion Denver Nuggets.
“They are terrifying because we know how good they can be,” said Parsons, via ClutchPoints on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter. “Again, nobody fears the Thunder, nobody fears the Timberwolves until they show it to us and prove it to us. I would love to be coming up here next year and saying ‘Wow, the Thunder, they took that step. I believe in them. I think they're the favorite to win it all this year because of what they did last season.' They haven't done that yet, so yes, I think the Suns as a team, they have the talent, they have a big, they have shooting, they have defensive capability, they have Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal. That is hard to beat, no matter what their record is, for four games.”
A turbulent season in Phoenix
The Suns' arguable biggest issue this season has been their health, as quite frankly, the team just hasn't been able to trot out a lineup featuring Durant, Booker, and Beal that many times this season. When they're all fully intact, the results have been hard to argue with, although that was also the case Monday evening against the Spurs, and the team took one of their most embarrassing L's of the year.
One much-maligned point about the Suns' roster heading into the campaign and now continuing into its stretch run was the team's lack of a true point guard. Devin Booker has been able to fill that void at times, but there are still instances when the team's lack of a floor general to get everyone into their sets comes across as a glaring weakness, as was the case in crunch time vs the Spurs.
Still, as Parsons pointed out, lining up against Kevin Durant in a playoff series is never an enviable proposition, and in the NBA playoffs, star power tends to take precedence over things like team chemistry throughout the regular season. In any case, Phoenix next takes the floor, ironically enough, on Wednesday in Denver vs the Nuggets.
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