End of a Timeline
The Suns skipped developmental stages in their quest for a championship.
For the second straight season, the Phoenix Suns got booed off their homecourt in the first half of an elimination playoff game.
Last year, I wrote that the humiliating defeat justified re-tooling the entire roster. I wasn’t saying the Suns should overhaul the roster, necessarily — just that the psychologically devastating nature of the loss would justify an overhaul.
The Suns didn’t overhaul the roster in the offseason. But when new owner Matt Ishbia purchased the team in February, he made a blockbuster trade for a bonafide (though aging) star player, Kevin Durant.
It wasn’t enough, especially after injuries to Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton.
Devin Booker delivered a historically great performance during this year’s playoffs, but the shorthanded Suns ran out of gas in Games 5 and 6 against a very good Nuggets team in the Western Conference Semifinals.
This year’s loss wasn't as bad as last year, but this year’s loss carries more weight.
Matt Ishbia partially overhauled the Suns roster in a gamble for a championship run this season.
Now, after back-to-back humiliating playoff exits, head coach Monty Williams has been fired. And we might see a complete roster overhaul before next season.
It’s the end of an era.
The Suns were a terrible basketball franchise in the 2010s. At some point during a decade of floundering, #TheTimeline became a beacon of hope for Suns fans. The idea behind the hashtag was that the Suns were a work in progress. A young squad that could add pieces and bloom, eventually.
Devin Booker was at the core of this timeline. The shooting guard was drafted in 2015. He was a phenom who endured some of the worst seasons in franchise history. While losing, the Suns accumulated draft picks.
In the 2018 draft, the Suns selected center Deandre Ayton with the #1 overall pick, and acquired Mikal Bridges who was the #10 pick.
In the 2019 draft, the Suns picked up another small forward, Cam Johnson. That same summer, they signed 28-year-old point guard Ricky Rubio.
All of a sudden, the future seemed legitimately bright. Mikal Bridges was an elite defender and solid overall offensive talent. Cam Johnson was a sharpshooter and a tough player. Ricky Rubio was a competent starting point guard. Deandre Ayton had the talent to become a franchise anchor at the center position.
Not a player on the team was over 30.
To nurture this timeline, and to help the franchise heal from the toxicity of previous years, the Suns signed head coach Monty Williams — a man of integrity and character who would be a positive influence for a young team.
Under the leadership of Monty Williams and general manager James Jones, the Suns turned a corner and knocked on the door of the 2020 NBA playoffs.
During a weird Covid season, the Suns qualified for a “play-in” tournament in a quarantine bubble at a sports complex in Orlando, Florida.
The Suns went 8-0 in the bubble. Despite going undefeated, they barely missed qualifying for the playoffs.
This brings us to the biggest “what-ifs” of this past Suns era.
At the beginning of the 2019-2020 season, Deandre Ayton was suspended for 25 games for testing positive for a diuretic on a drug test.
If Ayton had stayed eligible, would the Suns have made the playoffs that season? If the Suns had made the playoffs in 2020, would they have traded Ricky Rubio (and more) for Chris Paul that summer?
Acquiring an all-time great point guard was, perhaps, a no-brainer. Especially given the team’s desperation to get Devin Booker into the playoffs. Many fans also believed that Chris Paul’s veteran leadership would inspire and stabilize young players like Deandre Ayton.
But it added pressure to the timeline. Chris Paul was 35 years old. If the Suns were to win a championship with Chris Paul as the starting point guard, it would need to happen in the next couple of seasons.
Instead of talking about gaining playoff experience to advance #TheTimeline, the fanbase started talking about winning a championship.
The title window was now, and the Suns damn near snuck through.
The Suns broke a 10-year playoff drought and promptly made NBA Finals in 2021. They won the first two games of the championship series before losing four straight games to a more experienced Bucks team.
After the season, Chris Paul underwent surgery on his left wrist. He had been playing hurt in the Finals. The injury was no surprise. His late career is a chronicle of playoff injuries. He was injured in the playoffs in 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2021. He hurt his quad in 2022 and strained his groin in 2023.
Chris Paul’s future in Phoenix is uncertain.
From the roster that went 8-0 in the bubble in 2020, Devin Booker might be the only player left when the 2023-2024 season begins.
Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson (along with draft picks and a disgruntled Jae Crowder) departed a few months ago in exchange for Kevin Durant.
Deandre Ayton and Cam Payne — the only other players besides Booker who remain from the bubble team — might get traded this summer.
Ayton simply hasn’t lived up to expectations for the Suns. He has played strong at times but never developed into a reliable anchor for the team.
Coach Monty Williams helped instill a winning team culture but showed tactical deficiencies in the playoffs.
The Suns are under construction, under new management.
The Timeline is over, except for the following caveats:
Devin Booker is still on the Suns. Maybe he was the timeline all along. He is 26 years old.
The Timeline is the name of a podcast run by two Suns superfans. If you want to follow the drama of the offseason, this is a great show.
Legendary radio broadcaster Al McCoy hung up the mic after 51 years calling Suns games.
Here’s a short video of him reflecting on his career: