The narratives are flying about the Phoenix Suns right now. It's time to address the most annoying ones.

-Gerald

Dispelling 5 false Suns narratives

The offseason came much quicker than expected for the Phoenix Suns, who capped off the franchise's most disappointing season with a first-round sweep at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

When a superstar trio comes together -- mostly by their own volition -- and falls flat so spectacularly, the jokes, ridicule and slander are sure to follow. That's been true for years, and it's even truer in a league with new CBA rules, where building organically through the draft and prioritizing depth over high-end talent is apparently the moral high ground compared to multiple stars teaming up.

The era of Big 3s may have come to a close, and the Suns are zagging while most teams zig. When a team like this fails, the scorn is out in abundance, especially since their best option may be running it back next year. All summer, jokes will be greater than facts.

But as much as the Suns deserve their fair share of criticism for their playoff flameout and skepticism about where they go next, it's important to not let that bleed into revisionist history or misinformation.

To that end, here are five Suns myths that need to be killed with fire.

1. "The Suns have no draft picks"

How many times have you heard this one on Twitter?

I don't know how many different ways to say it before it sinks in: Not controlling your pick is not the same thing as having no picks at all!

To be more specific: No, the Suns are largely not in control of their first-round or even second-round picks for the foreseeable future. As a result of the Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal trades (as well as a few other deals), here is the full list of picks and pick swaps the Suns owe other teams over the next seven years:

2024 second-round pick to Washington Wizards
2025 first-round pick to Brooklyn Nets
2025 second-round pick to Wizards
2026 first-round pick swap rights for Wizards, Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies
2026 second-round pick to Wizards
2027 first-round pick to Nets
2027 second-round pick to Wizards
2028 first-round pick swap rights for Nets and Wizards
2028 second-round pick to Indiana Pacers or New York Knicks
2029 first-round pick to Nets
2029 second-round pick to Oklahoma City Thunder
2030 first-round pick swap rights for Wizards and Grizzlies
2030 second-round pick to Wizards

That's a long list! But before anyone overreacts, a "pick swap" is not the same thing as "owing your pick outright." In 2025, 2027 and 2029, the Suns won't have a first-round pick (or a second-rounder, for that matter). But in 2024, 2026, 2028 and 2030, Phoenix will still very much have a first-round selection! The only question is where those picks will land.

If this all crashes and burns, Devin Booker asks out, and the Suns become a routine lottery team again, then yeah, those pick swaps could become a concern. But Mat Ishbia and company are banking on this team remaining competitive enough for it to not matter -- even after this current Big 3 iteration.

If the Suns remain playoff regulars, their first-round selections will be in the late teens or 20s. In that scenario, the Wizards ('26, '28, '30), Grizzlies ('26, '30), Magic ('26) and Nets ('28) would need to be title contenders for those pick swaps to be meaningful. And even if the Suns bottom out, as long as those four teams aren't significantly better than Phoenix by then, the pick swaps won't really hurt the Suns.

In other words, are the Wizards, Grizzlies, Magic and Nets expected to be a lot better than the Suns over the next half-decade? Orlando's promising young core could get there, but they have to do so within the next two years for it to matter. Maybe Memphis, if Ja Morant gets back on track and everyone is healthy again. But Brooklyn's rebuild around Mikal Bridges isn't going so hot, and Washington is a mess that will take years to fix through the draft.

With an owner like Ishbia and a superstar who attracts talent like Booker, the Suns are as good a bet as anyone to remain competitive enough to mitigate the damage of most of these pick swaps. Even in the worst-case scenario where the Suns are a lottery team and watch as a top-10 pick goes out the window via pick swap...their consolation prize in 2026, 2028 and 2030 would be having a first-round pick of some sort.

The Suns aren't in control of their first-rounders in those three specific years, but they are in control of how valuable those picks become based on their own success (and therefore, whether a pick swap is enacted at all). They're not devoid of picks to offer in deals either, as they can trade their 2024 first-rounder or their 2031 first-rounder starting on draft night this year.

So for the love of God, STOP saying the Suns don't have any picks through 2030. It's blatantly false.

2. "The Suns need to blow it up"

Less than 48 hours after the Suns' demise, we've already gotten doom and gloom columns and bullshit "Devin Booker wants to be in New York" rumors.

To be fair, there's reason for concern! This team had no business getting swept in the first round. The future could look pretty bleak a year or two from now if the Big 3 don't stay healthy, get the right supporting cast, or simply don't get along. Beal's $53.7 million salary for 2025-26 -- and looming $57.2 million player option for 2026-27 -- could wind up being as detrimental as everyone fears. I don't blame anyone for looking at Phoenix's lifeless exit and wanting to cash out on KD's value while they can.

HOWEVER. When this team was put together, the thinking was that these things rarely come together in Year 1. It's the reason I've stated numerous times that unless the Big 3 played a minimum of 60 games together this year, they'd be at a severe continuity disadvantage against any team in the Western Conference. They only got to 41 games, and they spent the first half of the season cycling through underwhelming role players before shaking up the roster again at the trade deadline.

Were we expecting all of that to come together, with so many moving pieces and a new coaching staff, when the Big 3 only spent half the season together on the court? Or do we not remember back to last year, when everyone called the Timberwolves a failure?

For their part, the Suns acknowledged their window was never just this season.

“We didn't look at this thing as a one-year thing and we're gonna come in and we only got this year to figure it out," Beal said. "Like, no, we got time. You don't want to use that as like a cop-out, but just the reality we live in, like, that's the game plan.We have a window. Yeah, it's a short window, but we have a window. So we want to maximize it as much as possible.”

“Continuity is important," Durant added. "All the great teams in the league thus far has been together for two, three years -- Minnesotas, Denvers, Bostons, the Lakers OKCs. Like, a lot of teams have been together for a few years, so I'm looking forward to building.”

Whether they get a chance to do so remains to be seen, but Shams Charania believes Phoenix will mostly run it back:

There's a decent chance this Big 3 experiment doesn't work out and this group never wins a title. But if it doesn't happen, it doesn't necessarily mean their thought process was faulty. And shy of trading Durant -- a massive risk -- there's no way to feasibly improve the roster. Devin Booker isn't going anywhere as the younger face of the franchise, and Bradley Beal's contract (and no-trade clause) make it nearly impossible to envision him being dealt.

Sometimes the only way out is through, and another year of continuity with the core pieces intact could make a sizable difference in Year 2.

“One of the positives I'm looking forward to next season is now that we have a year under our belt with this group playing together and figuring things out, failing together, knowing what works and what doesn't work, I feel like that'll put us in a good spot for next year,” Grayson Allen said.

3. "The Suns need a point guard"

This entry deserves its own article, and rest assured, that's coming in the near future. But for now, take it from the guy who watched back every single turnover the Suns committed this season: This team's turnover problem was NOT because they lacked a traditional point guard.

It's because their three best players (and Jusuf Nurkic) need to be sharper with the ball. The majority of the Suns' turnovers were a product of Booker, Beal and Durant being sloppy and making dumbfounding mistakes that any team would expect their bigs to avoid.

Beyond that, the moment the Suns traded for Beal, bringing in a starting point guard made zero sense. If you thought the Suns were undersized now, just imagine replacing the 6-foot-4 Grayson Allen in the starting lineup with a 6-foot-1 or a 6-foot-2 point guard. If you thought the Big 3 lacked balance before, just imagine how adding another player who needs to handle the ball would complicate those touches.

And honestly, if you really think "true point guards" are still a thing in the NBA right now...maybe take a look around the league and make sure you're in the right decade?

“Everybody keeps saying a 'true point guard'; there's not really many true point guards that play in today's game," Beal explained. "Like, it's a lot of combo guards and a lot of scoring guards. It's about initiating our offense, and we just could have all been better in that fashion."

Does Jrue Holiday -- and his whopping 4.8 assists per game -- function as the point guard for the league-leading Boston Celtics? Nope. How about Jamal Murray on the Denver Nuggets? Nope. Most "point guards" now are score-first guards, while players who once would've been called 2-guards (Luka Doncic, James Harden), forwards (LeBron James) or even bigs (Nikola Jokic, Domantas Sabonis) are the actual lead facilitators.

Guys like Chris Paul, Tyrese Haliburton, Trae Young, Darius Garland and Tyus Jones are exceptions, but guess what? Those guys are either too old or not available.

Teams want the ball in their best players' hands, no matter what position they play. The Suns don't have the assets to trade for a lead playmaker who isn't a nominal point guard, nor are they capable of landing anyone who's good enough to convince Beal to be a $50 million sixth man. Good luck finding a floor general who can facilitate; without needing the ball; hit catch-and-shoot looks; put pressure on the rim' defend opponents' best guards; and is big enough to not leave Phoenix undersized...all while still being on an affordable contract!

“I know the guys that we have with Book, Brad and KD, we want the ball in their hands," Allen said. "Those three are gonna be out there for the majority of the game. We want the ball in their hands, we want them being scorers. Adding a point guard, I don't know if that helps or just takes the ball out of their hands more. I believe in the group that we had this year. I think we had enough, we just didn't quite put it all together.”

4. "The Bradley Beal/Kevin Durant trades were a mistake"

Hindsight is 20/20, but again, the Suns literally just ended Year 1 of this Big 3 experiment. Anyone arguing against the KD/Brad Beal trades is relying on hindsight, fan favorite "vibes," being a prisoner of the moment, or favoring results over process.

Durant is a top-15 player of all-time who will likely earn All-NBA Second Team honors this season. And while Beal fell well short of expectations this year, he's still the best player the Suns could've reasonably acquired last summer, via trade or free agency.

Everyone seems to conveniently forget that the Suns were barely four games above .500 at the time of the Durant trade, with Mikal Bridges and Deandre Ayton failing to step up as secondary options and Cam Johnson spending most of his contract year out injured. No shade, but ask the Nets how their rebuild around the Twins is going so far.

The same logic applies to nostalgia-driven arguments about how Phoenix should've kept a 37-year-old Chris Paul...while ignoring similar injury concerns or the fact that the Suns turned him and Landry Shamet -- two players whose time in Phoenix had run its course -- into a three-time All-Star.

Yeah, Beal's contract could look bad in a year or two. Sure, the Suns could've used a locker room leader and on-court organizer like CP3. And yes, the Big 3 experiment may never result in a championship. But those two individual trades were sound in reasoning, especially when one remembers what Paul looked like this season and the type of contract he was still on.

Unless the Suns had waived Paul, they wouldn't have had a mid-level exception to work with. Even if that had done that, take a look back at the list of players who signed in free agency last summer for the taxpayer MLE ($5 million) or less. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Who else could the Suns have added that would've raised their potential ceiling as much as Beal? What other "depth" pieces were they capable of adding, exactly? They couldn't have afforded a starting-caliber point guard in free agency or on the trade market with their limited assets, and Beal's no-trade clause is what allowed Phoenix to poach him for so little.

In hindsight, the floor is what's measured after such an embarrassing playoff failure. But in the moment, when teams make moves projecting future outcomes, the ceiling is more important to a team trying to win.

In other words, it'd be really, really dumb to continue blasting the Suns for landing the best possible player they could've added last summer, or to blast them for breaking up a likable core that may have already reached its competitive ceiling together.

5. "Mat Ishbia is ruining the Suns"

Again, I understand this is a results-based league. At the end of the day, Mat Ishbia will always be judged by whether he finally ends the Suns' 56-year title drought, which makes them the longest-existing NBA franchise to never win a championship.

But holy shit, you guys. Even making a joke about wanting Robert Sarver back is gross.

For starters, even if this era goes horribly wrong, the Big 3 implodes and the Suns are forced to rebuild from scratch, at least they'll be able to say they went all in and tried to maximize their championship window.

Beyond that, Ishbia would be an improvement over Sarver for the simple fact that the former owner created and empowered a toxic work environment filled with misogynistic, sexist and racist behavior. Say what you will about Ishbia and the aggressive start to his ownership tenure, but at least Suns employees feel like human beings again.

Speaking with several Suns employees, the work place culture appears to be a night-and-day difference compared to how uncomfortable it was under Sarver. Seven or eight Suns staffers obviously don't speak for the hundreds of employees that work for the organization, but until we hear otherwise about Ishbia, the early returns on dramatically improving the workplace environment sound like progress.

All of this, of course, comes without mentioning how Ishbia is dedicated to raising the bar in every facet. He mended the franchise's relationship with former Suns legends like Shawn Marion and Amar'e Stoudemire by inducting them into the Ring of Honor. He built a brand-new team member campus, with a state-of-the-art Phoenix Mercury practice facility coming soon. He made Suns games more accessible in Arizona, is bringing back a G League team, landed All-Star Games in Phoenix for both franchises, and drastically upgraded dining options for employees and media members.

Ishbia has also spared no expense in hiring a new head coach and general manager for the Merc, made Kevin Young the league's highest-paid assistant, and dropped millions in extra luxury tax payments on players he and the front office believed would help the Suns win, including Durant, Beal, Grayson Allen and Royce O'Neale.

In short, it's odd how the Suns' early playoff exit is now being spun into "classic case of overaggressive owner." Since when did an owner wanting to win become a negative? If this becomes the old adage of "owner thinks he knows ball more than the people he hires and should be delegating to," then that's a problem. But none of the moves Phoenix has made so far are indicative of "crazy owner who's overstepping."

Yeah, being that aggressive could come with severe consequences down the line. But for decades, Suns fans had to endure a horrible owner who refused to spend extra money on this team, improve the organization's culture or aggressively pursue success. Now, as Phoenix's title drought tacks on another year, they can at least say they have an owner who's doing everything in his power to change that.

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