The Phoenix Suns are ending the season perfectly

The Phoenix Suns are playing the spoiler, winning just the right amount of games and flashing the kind of potential that a young team should show.

Since the All-Star break, the Phoenix Suns have looked like a different team. They’ve won 40 percent of their games in that span, which is much better than their anemic 18.6 win percentage through their first 59 games.

Impressive comeback wins over the Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors show that the Suns are not an unskilled team, by any stretch. Teams that expect to waltz into Talking Stick Resort Arena for an easy win are in for a rude awakening.

The fact that the Suns been doing so well despite various injuries to Tyler Johnson, Kelly Oubre Jr., Josh Jackson and T.J. Warren is even more of a pleasant surprise. Any team that can still play well without four of their best 6-7 players is a real threat.

However, while the Phoenix Suns haven’t bottomed out, they also haven’t thrived — and that’s a good thing. Some teams like, like the Washington Wizards and New Orleans Pelicans, should be bottoming out, but aren’t.

Granted, once the trade deadline passes, a team can’t exactly sell off its old assets in return for young ones anymore. However, they can still choose who they play. Guys like Jeff Green shouldn’t be getting heavy minutes over Sam Dekker. Whether due to injuries or foresight, the Suns have played this well; they’ve been giving more time to guys like Elie Okobo and De’Anthony Melton, and tried to minimize Jamal Crawford.

Again, this may just be because Crawford’s experienced some shoulder soreness, but let’s give head coach Igor Kokoskov the benefit of the doubt here. Even though some of the injuries clearly are legitimate, he’s not trying to rush any players back. Might as well let the bench guys figure things out, considering a loss at this point in the season is generally ideal.

The crazy part is that, as previously mentioned, this injury-bitten version of the Suns is doing even better than the early-season version. Looks like letting the bench guys run isn’t such a bad idea after all.

The Phoenix Suns have pretty much locked themselves with the second-worst record in the NBA, as they’re three games behind the New York Knicks for the worst record and two games ahead of the Cleveland Cavaliers for third-worst. Finishing in the bottom three should give them a good chance at drafting Zion Williamson, Ja Morant or R.J. Barrett.

In short, the Suns have showed they can hang with the big guys, while letting the young backups play and still losing a good amount of games. For a tanking team at the end of their season, they couldn’t be doing much better.