Phoenix Suns: 5 Takeaways From 2016-17 Media Day

2. Expectations Are Tempered

On the first official day of a new NBA calendar, every team has reason to be optimistic. But coming off an injury-devastated, tumultuous, 23-win season, the Suns may actually be entering the 2016-17 campaign with realistic, tempered expectations.

Of course, making the playoffs is still the goal. Bledsoe, Tucker, Len and Chandler all stressed the importance of winning games and specifically mentioned the postseason as what they want to achieve this year.

However, as much as Bledsoe’s declarations that the Suns are a top-five team in the West or Tucker’s desperation to get back to that 48-win season in 2013-14 are endearing, most of the team is on the same page about the upcoming season, in which Las Vegas set their over/under for total wins at 26.5.

"“We want to help our guys develop, especially the rookies and the younger guys,” McDonough said. “We want them to be better in April than they are today, and just to win as many games as we can. I don’t want to put a number on it, I don’t know what number that is.”"

Jokes aside, even Dudley said that low under/over total for the Suns is “fair,” since they’re usually based on the prior season. With Bledsoe missing 51 games and Brandon Knight and T.J. Warren also banged up, Phoenix’s season was pretty much over in December.

In 2016-17, the Suns will need Bledsoe (51 games missed last year, 39 games missed in 2013-14) and Knight (46 games missed of a total of 109 since joining the Suns) to be healthy.

But even if they are, veteran leaders like Jared Dudley are going to set realistic expectations for the rest of the group.

"“Let’s just be honest, there isn’t any team — including my Milwaukee team which was the worst team in the NBA — that goes into the year saying, ‘We’re going to be bottom-two, bottom-three,'” he said. “Everyone usually says ‘playoffs,’ and then around December or January, reality usually sets in and that’s when you see the tanking for some of these teams.”"

While Dudley acknowledged that the playoffs are the goal, he and Chandler both said it’ll take a top-10 defense for them to get there.

At this point, a more realistic expectation is probably just internal growth, putting forth a ton of effort and hoping Booker, Chriss, Bender and the rest of the youngsters take the next step forward.

"“They’re not mutually exclusive, effort and development kinda run hand in hand a lot of the time,” McDonough said. “Winning can be a little tougher, but we have enough veteran balance now and enough of a veteran presence that I think these guys will be mentored the right way for the first time. “As you guys know, this is my fourth year here. For the first time I feel really good about the people and the character of the people from 1-19.”"