This Suns team is getting further and further away from the championship

The Eastern Division of the NBA in the new season is a bit dull, with few superstars, but the Western Division is full of strong teams. It is not unfounded that there are no weak teams in the Western Division.

There are some teams whose paper strength is average, but they also need to test their results to see how they are going. Like the Jazz, who can beat the Clippers by 21 points in the opening game; like the Trail Blazers, who can beat Curry's amazing Warriors by 20 points.

Maybe the Pelicans are more like a bad team. They suffered two consecutive losses at the beginning of the season; however, there is absolutely no reason for the Pelicans to be bad.

First, because the star Zion has gradually lost the trust of the team, the management originally planned to trade him this summer; Zion urgently needs to prove that he is not a soft persimmon in the new season and can lead the team to achieve results that exceed expectations.

The second reason is that the Pelicans have just completed an operation, signing free agent Jordan with a basic salary of 3.6 million for one year. If it is a bad training team, signing Jordan seems meaningless. It can be seen that the Pelicans have not given up on this season prematurely.

So, is there really no weak team in the West? There is another candidate, the Phoenix Suns.

In the past few years, the Suns, as one of the giants in the Western Conference, could even compete for the league's most luxurious lineup, with the Big Three Booker + Durant + Beal, all full of offensive firepower. The scary thing about this Big Three is that not only do the three of them have top-level independent offensive capabilities, but they also have the experience of being the boss of the team. Even the most inconspicuous Bill averaged at least 30 points per game for two consecutive years during the Wizards period before joining the Suns. In 2021, his scoring average was second in the league behind Embiid.

Unfortunately, this combination did not succeed. They were swept in the first round of the playoffs once and failed to even enter the playoffs. The reason for its failure may be that the team's lineup structure is too deformed, with vacancies in the interior and No. 1 guard; and the Big Three are also less compatible, requiring a lot of ball power, and are not very good at organization. During his time with the Suns, Bill completely destroyed his worth. His last contract had an annual salary of more than 50 million, but now he can only get an annual salary of 5 million, which has shrunk 10 times.

A few years earlier, before Durant came to the Suns, there was another Big Three, namely Booker + Paul + Ayton. The compatibility of these Big Three is much better, and they have achieved real results. In the 21st Finals, the Suns once led the Bucks 2-0, and were only one step away from the championship.

Later, the Suns became more and more ambitious and were unwilling to provide Ayton with an ideal long-term contract. They also disliked Paul for being too old. So they decisively dismantled the Western Conference championship lineup that year. While sending away Ayton and Paul, they also gave up high-quality role players such as Bridges and Cameron Johnson just to play Durant and Beal. The final result was a piece of chicken feathers.

This offseason, the Suns reluctantly reached a buyout with Bill and gave away Durant at a low price; especially Durant's deal, it is a bit incomprehensible. The Suns only received Jaylen Green + Dillon + 1 first round + several second rounds in return. It's true that he went to the doctor in a hurry and exchanged five horses for six sheep. The more he replaced, the weaker he became. The current Sun's paper strength has been greatly reduced, and even its combat power has not improved.

In the first three games of the new season, the Suns had 1 win and 2 losses. The only win was Westbrook's debut with the Kings. In the next two games, the Suns defeated the Clippers by 27 points and the Nuggets by 22 points, becoming a real underdog in the Western Conference. Even after sending away Durant and Beal, the Suns still haven't solved their interior and point guard problems.

The current Suns have many centers, but none of them are qualified for the starting position; Richards and Mark Williams both have certain injury risks, and Iguodaro and Maluachi are first- and second-year rookies. Otherwise, they should give up this season and start training new players directly. At the point guard position, the Suns have no choice but to let their star player Booker play the No. 1 guard, which he is not good at. Previously, Bill was asked to take the responsibility, but at least he was a little bit good. Booker is a pure scorer with basically no organizational skills.

In the first three regular season games, Booker committed a total of 18 turnovers, ranking first in the league; he averaged 6 turnovers per game, which was more than his assists per game. Now I know that it is not easy to be a point guard. In Booker's own words: "I was not cautious enough in handling the ball. Those mistakes could have been converted into more shooting opportunities. We are still exploring and adapting to how each other can run out of the open space, thereby gradually cultivating a tacit understanding between the team."

Without Durant and Bill, Booker himself probably knows that they will basically have no competitiveness in the new season. The Suns even pinned their hopes on the acquired Jaylen Green, and everyone knows Green's style of play. He also needs the ball, is not organized, and is extremely inefficient. He is not as good as Bill. Moreover, Jaylen Green began to get injured before the new season even started and has yet to make his debut.

So do you think Durant’s deal was a huge loss, and is this Suns team just ruined?