/r/SUNS | Phoenix Suns

In reality, I don't know how anyone expected the Suns to come out of the West after only playing 19 games with KD on the team. The Denver Nuggets were the first seed, had played the entire season together with the core after being plagued with injuries the past two seasons, and had the chemistry and foundation behind them for a long postseason run.

Also, looking back at the playoff series, the Suns weren't as bad as fans made it seem. It's also clear that trading for KD was the right move. KD was definitely disappointing at times in the playoffs, but looking back, he wasn't the problem. Let's look at the stats:

In the first round, both the stars played well. Booker had a postseason start we haven't seen since Jordan averaging 37/5/6 along with 2.6 steals on 60/47/86 shooting splits. KD averaged 28/8/6 on 52/46/96 shooting. While the bench played poorly, the rest of the starters also played quite well, with DA averaging 16 and 11, CP3 averaging 14/6/8, and Torrey Craig contributing 12 points per game.

In the second round, Booker started off the series quite well until he tweaked his ankle in the last couple of games, and averaged 31/5/8 on 57/55/88 shooting splits. KD played poorly aside from the start of Game 1, Game 3, and Game 4, but averaged 30/10/5 on 45/22/88 shooting splits along with 1.7 blocks. The supporting cast was also non-existent, with DA averaging 11 and 8 as the third leading scorer.

Overall, in the series against the Suns, we saw historically bad three-point shooting from KD, Booker getting injured in Game 5, DA being out for Game 6, and CP3 not even playing the last 4 games of the series. The team also didn't even play 20 games together with the entire core. Yet, the Suns pushed the eventual champions to six games, while the Wolves lost in 5 games and the Lakers got swept. The Heat will also probably lose in at most 5 games.

The stars aren't the problem on this team. Devin Booker played at an all-time great level. KD struggled against Aaron Gordon and shot horribly from 3, yet still averaged 30. Also, AG has basically locked down every small forward in these playoffs including KD, LeBron, and Jimmy Butler. The Suns still won 2 games, even with the rest of the team basically missing.

If the Suns can retool this offseason, get a younger PG to replace Paul, and trade DeAndre Ayton for some solid role players and potentially a consistent 3rd scorer, then this team will be fine next season.