The Phoenix Suns went all in for an NBA championship last season, trading Mikal Bridges and Cameron Johnson to the Brooklyn Nets in a deal for Kevin Durant.
It didn’t pay off, as they were eliminated by the eventual champion Denver Nuggets in the second round of the playoffs. But it’s not too late for Phoenix to make good on that deal.
In the offseason, they flipped a 38-year-old Chris Paul for Bradley Beal to give them one of the best trios in the NBA, including Devin Booker, and they added a ton a depth after a thin roster was their ultimate undoing last season.
Now, Phoenix has to be mentioned right up there with the upper echelon of NBA teams. As for the other teams in the Pacific Division, they aren’t far behind.
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If the Suns stays healthy, the only question is if they can beat Denver.
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OK, so the health thing is actually a big question to start with. Neither Durant nor Beal has eclipsed 60 games in a season since 2018-19. And Booker failed to hit that mark himself last season, playing in 53 games.
If a lightened load they can all provide each other helps them to stay on the floor, then the next question becomes just how good they can be. I think they can be really good, like NBA title good. In fact, I picked Phoenix to beat Denver last season before being proven very wrong. But the Suns are even better now, in my opinion, so if things click, I think they can give any team trouble.
They’re right up there in the NBA’s top tier, right alongside the Nuggets, Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks.
Will every team in the Pacific make the playoffs again?
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I’m counting on it. Somehow the Sacramento Kings have the worst title odds of all these teams and they won the division last year as the third seed in the conference.
I’m not quite ready to write them off the way oddsmakers apparently are. And yet, I completely understand the urge to prop up every other team. For starters, the Los Angeles Lakers, Clippers and Golden State Warriors all made the playoffs last year, too. And they all did it while dealing with injury problems the Kings did not.
With better health, it’s easy to see how each team could finish better than Sacramento, but that’s just not something I’m willing to bet on. Injury concerns for LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green go back further than just last season. When those guys play, their teams are phenomenal. But how often will they play?
My guess is they play enough to get their squads into the playoffs and potentially into top-four seeds, but not enough to push the Suns and Nuggets at the top of the conference.
Jonathan Kuminga might finally be arriving
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Kuminga has been averaging 26 points through three preseason games, and I know we shouldn’t expect that type of production to translate to the regular season but it’s not nothing.
We’ve been waiting on the athletic forward to develop into a player who could help bridge the Warriors’ past and future and he might finally be ready to tap into that potential they saw when they drafted him seventh overall.
His 35-1 odds to win the Most Improved Player award are 19th best at BetMGM, but Golden State’s addition of Chris Paul has a real chance to maximize his impact and I look forward to seeing it happen. This is a sneaky good value bet.
