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👋 GOOD MORNING
Happy Monday! I hope you had a nice weekend. Looking forward to the week ahead, but I have to say, it’s going to be weird with the Suns out of the postseason picture. Even so, the Roadrunners have two regular season games left to learn their playoff fate, the D-backs are off and running, Rising FC is battling in the USL and the Mercury kick off their season next month, so don’t fret, because there’s still plenty to look forward to as the high heat descends onto The Valley.
The PHNX Daily will be hanging with you through it all, so thanks for joining in on the fun! Remember, if this email was forwarded to you, you can sign up for the newsletter right here, and I’ll keep you in the loop with everything going on this summer.
On to the show!
Suns’ Season Mercifully Ends — What’s Next?
The nightmare is finally over.
The Phoenix Suns ended their regular season with a whimper yesterday, falling 109-98 at Sacramento to finish their year much like they played most of it — with a loss.
The team actually gave fans a bit of a silver lining on Friday night, blowing out the San Antonio Spurs 117-98 on fan appreciation night. The only thing left to appreciate at this point, though, is that the Suns’ season is mercifully over following an abysmal performance in which the entire team woefully underperformed. There aren’t a lot of folks that had Phoenix running away with an NBA championship in its first season under coach Mike Budenholzer, but there also weren’t many detractors who had the team missing the postseason altogether.
Alas, here we are, with questions around the head coach’s job security (yet again), Kevin Durant‘s status (yet again), and Bradley Beal‘s value (yep … yet again).
Suns Need Major Changes
Consider this: The Suns moved on from coach Frank Vogel after last season, despite the fact the team finished as the No. 6 seed before being swept out of the First Round by the Minnesota Timberwolves. If that wasn’t good enough for Vogel to survive, it’s hard to imaging a world where Budenholzer sticks around for next season. The end result is a far cry from what we were saying before the season kicked off: A prodigal son returning home to take his favorite childhood team to the promised land.
It looked awfully good in the beginning following an 8-1 start, but a litany of injuries, coupled with what seemed like questionable personnel decisions throughout the season, doomed Phoenix to its worst finish since going 34-39 in 2019-20.
Now what?
- If not Budenholzer, then who? More and more reports are centering around the Suns likely parting ways with Budenholzer, especially as damaging stories continue to surface around his relationship with the players.
- Will KD be back? Seems like it’s anybody’s guess at this point. There are a ton of trade proposals floating around, but you’d have to think it would take a king’s ransom for the Suns to unload the superstar, who showed this season he hasn’t lost a step; the 36-year-old averaged 26.6 points per game this season, over 62 games.
- Is Beal an Asset or a Liability? It’s safe to say the last two seasons with Beal have not yielded the desired results, especially since the 31-year-old has missed 29 games in each of the last two seasons. He was relegated to the bench by Budenholzer earlier this year, averaged 17 points on 49.7 percent shooting, but has all of the control on where he ends up if the Suns were going to try and deal him.
My take: This spring / early summer just isn’t going to feel the same without the Suns battling it out in the postseason, but maybe this is what had to happen before the team could find its footing. Mat Ishbia is honestly the kind of owner so many teams pray for in this day and age (just ask any Coyotes fan 😢), but his desire to win may have been a detriment to Phoenix.
If the Suns are going to right the ship, they need to find the right coach, as well as the right individuals surrounded by their current franchise player — Devin Booker. It’s hard to believe the baby-faced franchise player is now 28, but there’s still time to leverage him in his prime and build a team around him that can truly contend for a championship.
Take a Deeper Dive: Gerald looks at five burning questions after the Suns’ colossal failure of a season.
Musings From Around (and Sometimes Beyond) The Valley
Sweet Revenge: The Diamondbacks took two of three from Milwaukee this weekend, rallying to win games two and three of the series after dropping the opener on Friday. Saturday’s stunning ninth inning rally was the highlight of the young season, as the Answer-backs scored five unanswered to come out on top 5-4. The win honestly felt like a little revenge from a 10-9 loss to the Brew Crew last fall, when Milwaukee rallied from an eight-run deficit to ultimately win 10-9 and derail the D-backs postseason hopes. Arizona kicks off a three-game set in Miami tomorrow.
Burke’s Beginning: The Arizona Wildcats women’s basketball team introduced new head coach Becky Burke on Friday, two days after announcing the former University of Buffalo coach would be named the 10th coach in program history. Burke won 30 games and a WNIT title with the Bulls this past season, and she has a history of winning that dates back to her collegiate playing days, where she starred at Louisville.
Down to the Wire: The Tucson Roadrunners split their weekend series in Rockford and maintained a two-point advantage over 8th-place Bakersfield with two games left to play in the regular season. The Condors do own a game in hand, but Tucson also holds the tiebreaker between the two, so there are still a whole lot of questions surrounding the Pacific Division’s final AHL playoff spot. It won’t be easy, either, as the Roadrunners host the first-place Colorado Eagles to close the regular season on Friday and Saturday.
🧢 Tip of the Hat
Commiserate with our PHNX Suns Crew ⤵️
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