Phoenix Suns: Is It Time To Tank?

The Phoenix Suns‘ 2015-16 season has been an unmitigated disaster. Not only has a once hopeful playoff team revealed itself to be a jumble of misfit parts, but over the last few weeks, they’ve consistently found a way to reach a new rock bottom with each passing game.

With Eric Bledsoe sustaining a knee injury that will likely force him to miss extended time in the team’s latest embarrassing loss — a seven-point defeat against the lowly Philadelphia 76ers…without Jahlil Okafor…AT HOME — it might be time to rethink Phoenix’s goals for the season.

Heading into the 2015-16 campaign, there was plenty of optimism in the Valley of the Sun.

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Tyson Chandler and Ronnie Price were brought in to address the team’s need for veteran leaders; Mirza Teletovic, Jon Leuer and rookie Devin Booker were added to boost the Suns’ perimeter shooting; Bledsoe looked bigger and more dedicated than ever; Brandon Knight was re-signed and would get a chance to mesh with Bledsoe in the backcourt; and players like T.J. Warren and Alex Len would have another year under their belts to grow.

But with the starting lineup constantly in flux and players not playing to their potential (or even consistently okay), the Suns sit at 12-20. They’ve gone 5-15 over their last 20 games and they’ve lost home games to extremely underwhelming opponents like the Sixers, Milwaukee Bucks (without Giannis Antetokounmpo) and Denver Nuggets (without damn near their entire starting five).

According to ESPN’s Marc Stein, the Suns may be considering replacing head coach Jeff Hornacek, who is in the final year of his contract and has been viewed as a lame duck for months now.

This report should surprise exactly no one, but the Phoenix Suns organization hasn’t been this unstable in years. Hornacek has his strengths and weaknesses as a coach, but his players’ complete apathy and lack of heart on the court isn’t his fault. Still, Hornacek may wind up being the fall guy for a team that cannot figure out how to solve its many problems.

Then there’s the uncomfortable Markieff Morris issue. Coming off a career year, general manager Ryan McDonough created a combative situation between the organization and his team’s starting power forward during the LaMarcus Aldridge pursuit. By trading away Marcus Morris, McDonough sowed the seeds of discord that Keef has been sharing with the world ever since.

Morris’ numbers are way down, there was a seven-game stretch where he nearly racked up as many DNP-CDs as minutes and he’s currently serving a two-game suspension after throwing a towel at Hornacek when the Suns head coach subbed him out of the home loss to Denver.

Keef is the best defender at his position on the roster, and this team desperately needs to improve on that end of the floor. But Morris and the Suns are in need of a divorce at this point in a situation that does not feel salvageable…and yet, he’s still on the roster. Perhaps his trade value is so low that nothing can be done, but Morris will continue to be a distraction until both teams find a better situation.

The Suns may only be two games out of the eighth seed in the weakened Western Conference, but make no mistake about it: this is not a good team, and a playoff appearance this season would mean exactly nothing to free agents if it were a first round sweep at the hands of the Golden State Warriors or San Antonio Spurs.

Hornacek’s job is in jeopardy, Keef is going to keep being a problem until he’s traded for peanuts, Bledsoe will be sidelined for an extended period of time and Phoenix’s next three games are against the Cleveland Cavaliers, San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder.

It’s time for McDonough and the Suns organization as a whole to swallow their pride, admit that this is not a good team and do what needed to be done back in 2013-14: tank their way to a game-changing draft pick.

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These are difficult words to digest. Bledsoe has shown flashes of leadership potential, this is the first season with a lot of new parts and the happy memories of that stunning 2013-14 campaign still linger for a lot of Suns fans.

But that surprising success didn’t result in a playoff appearance, and all it’s done is force the Suns to try and build from the same NBA no man’s land in the middle — the same place they’ve been in since Steve Nash left. This team still doesn’t have a star player on the roster, they’re losing to teams like the Sixers with far superior talent and it feels like the breaking point is drawing near.

It might be time to admit defeat and start rebuilding from the ground up — through the draft — with an honest-to-God franchise player.

Even before his knee injury, Bledsoe was not stepping up as a leader for his team. Neither was the streaky Brandon Knight, and Chandler’s imparted wisdom wasn’t amounting to wins. The bench and starters traded off good nights based on which new starting lineup Hornacek decided to go with and now Phoenix is in a rut that requires change.

Or does it? Perhaps the best solution at this point is to carry on at this pace. The Suns could blow it up and start trading the less important parts for future draft picks, but the truth is that with the way they’re playing, they’re already one of the worst teams in the league — as Saturday’s loss to the Sixers revealed.

The lure of the playoffs is tempting, but a midseason head coaching change is not going to be the galvanizing force that shakes this team out of its apathy anyway. Even if Hornacek isn’t the answer, why not keep him on, let his contract expire and carry on as an unintentional tanking team?

A playoff appearance would be pointless at this juncture, and even if that remained the goal, Bledsoe’s likely absence until after the All-Star break pretty much destroys those dreams anyway.

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Heading into Sunday’s slate of games, the Suns were tied with the Portland Trail Blazers for the sixth worst record in the NBA. There is a steep drop-off between LSU’s Ben Simmons and the rest of the 2016 NBA Draft class, but if the season ended today, the Suns would have a 4.3 percent chance at the No. 1 overall pick.

If they continued their descent, they could catch every tanker outside the Philadelphia 76ers, Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets. Even if the Suns only wound up with the fourth worst record in the league, that’d give them an 11.9 percent chance at the top pick in the draft.

For a team that’s been unlucky or karmically cursed in the NBA’s middle territory for years now, aren’t those odds preferable to watching this team continue to limp — literally, in Eric Bledsoe’s case — its way toward the goal of a meaningless playoff appearance?

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The word “tanking” always draws out negative reactions from fans, but the truth is that the Phoenix Suns have been unintentionally tanking over the last 20 games anyway. It’s time to acknowledge this team for the disaster that it’s become and change the goal of the season…possibly by changing absolutely nothing at all.