The 2024/25 season is starting to slip away from the Suns. After leading by two at halftime against Minnesota on Sunday, Phoenix was routed in the second half, ultimately losing by 18 points.
“We didn’t play up to our standards at all,” All-Star forward Kevin Durant said (story via David Brandt of The Associated Press). “We embarrassed the fans and we embarrassed ourselves the way we played. I want us to be better.”
As Brandt writes, the Phoenix is just 3-11 in its past 14 games and is now 28-33 on the season, four games behind Dallas for the final play-in spot in the Western Conference. The Suns are closer in the standings to the teams directly beneath them — Portland (27-34) and San Antonio (25-34) — than they are to the Mavs (32-29).
“We’ve got to go on a run, but it’s got to start,” head coach Mike Budenholzer said. “There’s no doubt that the standings, the circumstances that we’re in, there’s an awareness and we’ve got to do something to change it.”
The Suns made the playoffs outright last season, avoiding the play-in by finishing with a 49-33 record, good for the No. 6 seed in the West. However, they were swept by the Wolves in the first round, leading to the dismissal of former head coach Frank Vogel. Sunday marked Phoenix’s seventh straight loss to Minnesota, notes Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic.
Phoenix failed to match Minnesota’s “physicality” in the second half, according to Devin Booker, with giveaways also being a major issue — the Suns tied a season high with 22 turnovers, leading to 40 points for the Wolves. Durant, Booker and Bradley Beal combined for 14 of the team’s 22 turnovers.
“That’s why we lost,” Durant said, per Brandt. “Forty points off turnovers, tough to overcome that. They didn’t overpower us on the glass, we just gave them the ball.”
NBA insider Chris Haynes recently reported that Budenholzer told Booker to “tone it down vocally” during games, which surprised the star guard. Booker subsequently suggested that the team could use more vocal leadership.
However, prior to Sunday’s game, Booker downplayed any rift with his coach, Rankin relays in another story.
“We’ve had multiple conversations. I can’t seem to find one that sticks out more than the others,” Booker said. “It’s a player/coach relationship. When things start going bad, everybody tries to point fingers to find out what’s wrong. People are going to come up with stuff. The relationship is great. We’re on the same page, we’re trying to win and that’s that.”
When you have 3 guys making 50-60 million, you have no shot. KD is on the older side, Beal looked good on bad teams never did anything great or had to adapt, Booker is Booker.
Don’t want any of these guys on a trade as it would take good players to match salary. Not worth destroying depth.
Knew this was on Bud even before I got to this bit about him telling Booker to be quiet
with the new CBA you can’t have 3 all stars on a team making near maximum money. Even 2 is hard to keep a team together. Suns have no depth. Never understood the Beal trade since he is being paid all star money. KD is most certainly gone at end of season but let’s see if they are smart enough to get back draft picks and bench players for him.
My best trade idea is Durant for Paul George
Rockets offer 2 Firsts to Suns and Rockets get 1 Second in return. 76ers offer 2 Firsts to Suns too
Paul George is General Commander of Tank
Bradley Beal is Deputy General Commander of Tank
that would not solve either team’s problems. Suns would still have no bench and 76ers would still need to get healthy.
Horrendous trade idea
Why would the Rockets even be involved??
As a Warriors fan, KD’s idiotic decision to leave makes me mad to this day. We underperformed in 21, 23, 24 because no KD. That’s 4 more rings GSW could have easily had if KD stayed. 22 proved the team always had it in them, but were missing one key piece in those other years that would have put them over the top – KD.
Blame the donkey.
You’ve been telling everyone it’s Kerr’s fault..now it’s KD’s?
Booker was pathetic on defense, even more so than usual. The second half was as bad as a team can be on defense, then they stopped trying and simply started throwing it away. Why they wouldn’t want to trade Booker in summer is a better question than the whole “theres no way they are trading Booker” stance.
Booker is all this team has. No young talent. No draft picks. KD is a mercenary who will be gone after this season. Beal is stale. Get rid of Booker and start over with what? A wing and a prayer
They’d literally be better off if they kept Beal and traded KD and Booker for guys who can play D, but that option is never being discussed.
Do you even watch basketball??? Out of the 3, the one you wanna keep is brad?
After leaving GSW, KD’s career has just been one massive L. He could have stuck around and won more rings, but he is Very Bad at deciding his own fate, likely because he is too online.
You CANNOT have three guys making all the money on your roster in today’s NBA. Prime examples Russell Westbrick and Bradley Bum. You need to have a full rotation of players on mid-level deals. This isn’t 2009, the depth of today’s rosters are better than ever before. Three guys cannot beat an entire roster alone.
KD… most overrated player in nba history. Amazingly, some other team is going to make the same silly mistake the Nets and Suns made, trusting this guy to be the guy and paying an embarrassing amount to suffer the same fate. He’s a franchise killer. He needs to be a complimentary piece, like he was in GS, not THE guy.