Phoenix Suns: Kellar Ellsworth ranks the team’s five key players for the 2023–24 campaign.
AVAILABLE ON OCT 5, 2023
The Suns will be aiming for their first NBA Championship with a Big 3 of Durant, Beal, and Booker.
The Phoenix Suns are embarking on a new chapter marked by extravagant spending, bold moves, and superstar players like Kevin Durant, all because to their aspirational new owner, Mat Ishbia. The Valley of the Sun’s days of Robert Sarver’s penny-pinching are over, which is good news for Arizona basketball fans. Ishbia and NBA great Isiah Thomas got to work fast rebuilding the team, and in transactions that were only six months apart, they managed to get Durant and Bradley Beal.
They also sent Chris Paul and DeAndre Ayton packing, transforming the squad more quickly than a house remodeling program. The Suns are one of few clubs going all out that have star-studded lineups. The following list contains the top five Suns for the forthcoming season.
With as many skilled offensive players as the Suns have, spacing is essential to letting their abilities show to their best advantage. This offseason, the Suns signed Yuta Watanabe, Grayson Allen, and Keita Bates-Diop, three of the best shooters their top-heavy roster could contain.
But defense still seems like a question mark, which is where the Suns think Jusuf Nurkić and Nassir Little can help. Little is a very athletic wing player who is 7 feet 2 inches tall. Every year he has been in the league, he has also increased his three-point shooting %; in the previous season, he virtually tripled his attempts per game to meet league average. The Suns had trouble finding two-way guys to complement their studs when they faced the Nuggets in the playoffs. Little profiles when the lights are brightest, as a potential postseason addition.
Ishbia claims that trading Ayton was a fit decision. “Nurkić might not put up the numbers that Ayton put up, which is perfectly fine, but he is going to play the role,” the owner told reporters. And right now, we’re aiming for a championship. Nurkić is a better match for us because of his abilities both on and off the court and his ability to assimilate into the company.
Setting aside Ayton’s remarks about Nurkić being “off court” and “fitting into an organization,” Ishbia’s evaluation of Nurkić is still accurate. The enormous Bosnian scores well and offers above-average defense and rim protection when healthy. Regretfully, throughout the previous four seasons, Nurkić has only played in 52, 56, 37, and eight games. Additionally, he had a terrible complex fracture to his left leg. Will the Suns be receiving a guy whose ailments have limited his output, or a nimble big man who can anchor the paint?
Simply make another blockbuster transaction if the first one wasn’t enough. The Suns appear to be taking that tack. Because of Durant, Booker, and Beal’s mix of playmaking and shooting, opposition defenders will be forced into desperate maneuvers by this amazing collection of offensive skill. Beal in particular will relish the open looks that the Wizards have received recently, which have been few and far between.
