What did Paul bring to the sun? This former super fish brisket seems to have completely torn off its label after joining the God of the guard. In the past two seasons, they first lost their first championship in two games, Young Pioneer team history, he also played the league’s best record in the regular season last year, but unfortunately he failed to go further and fell in the Western semi-final. This old saying is used to describe the current sun. All the problems come from money. Due to the unsatisfactory renewal process, elton and the team became unattractive and even more distant. Bad news was always one after another. The boss scandal exposed that he had to apply for the sale of the team. The fate between Claude and Phoenix had almost come to an end, in the preseason, the Sun became the first NBA team to defeat the Australian team awkwardly. On the funeral-like media day of the new season, the lifeless training ground, what story will this once hopeful Sun write in the coming year?
Main signings/renewals during the off-season period: Renewal of Ayton on 0.133 billion in 4 years, renewal of Booker on 0.224 billion in 4 years, Damien-Li, biyongbo, Okoji, Timote luwau-cabaro
Major losses during the off-season: Mackey, Aron-hollerdi, Elfried-Peyton, Claude (reached an agreement with the team and did not participate in the training camp)
Forecast of major rotation in the new season
Starting: Paul, Booker, Ayton, Mical bridges, Cameron Johnson
Main rotations: Samet, Sarich, Damien Lee, Cameron Payne, okogi, biyongbo, Craig
Offseason operation:
If judged by the standard of 2K Games, the sun management seemed to have done well in this off-season. While completing the renewal with the two stars, it also added okogi, the regretful part of a warable general like Damien Lee may be that he can’t persuade Claude to start from the bench in the new season, nor can he get substantial reinforcement from the free market and trading.
However, reality is not a game. The role of human heart, cohesion or chemical reaction is much more complicated than the addition and subtraction of paper strength. James Jones didn’t match the Walker’s contract for Elton until the last moment. The book harvest only saved a few million dollars, and what he lost was Elton’s loyalty, it may also lay a foreshadowing in the difficulties in the renewal work in the future. Cameron Johnson, Saric and other players have few contract years left.
In addition, the situation of understaffing on the guard line is also worrying. Elfried Peyton and hollerdi left the team, and only Duane Washington, how long old Paul can carry the team back on his shoulders is worth observing.
Outlook for the new season:
As a team with outstanding record for two consecutive years and entering the mature stage, Sun’s goal in the new season must be to compete for the championship. But this summer was not wonderful for Phoenix people. All kinds of ramblings made the whole team in a strange feeling of depression. The defeat of Australia in the preseason created an embarrassing history, what was more embarrassing was that thunder killed the same opponent at 33 points immediately after 2 days. Only from the current point of view, various off-site events have indeed affected the team’s atmosphere and combat effectiveness. Generally speaking, Phoenix’s 2023 years will not be better at this stage.
1. Can the impact of off-site events be minimized?
It is completely insulated from the stadium. Lock in stadium is impossible from a realistic point of view. What are the tough things the sun has to deal with now? It all started in the semi-finals of the West last season. The confident Sun was massacred by the Lone Ranger in front of the G7 home audience. Alton was replaced by Monty early. The two have never had any communication since then, in previous media days, Monty and Ayton themselves both confirmed this point. The more worrying part was that neither of them seemed to have the intention to break the ice actively.
Elton did get 0.133 billion dollars from the sun for 4 years, but he was not happy, which was different from the top salary contract he expected at first, and Phoenix did not take the initiative to open a contract, it was only after Ayton reached an agreement with the Pacers. Elton’s comment was: “I’m glad everything seems to be settled. Don’t ask me if I’m happy to live high in the sun. I play for myself.” When talking about this, Elton’s eyebrows were tightly locked, hoping it was just to raise his head.
In mid-September, during the start-up period of the new season, Sun boss Savo was exposed to racial discrimination and misogyny and was accused. Then he was banned from participating in all affairs of sun and Mercury for one year, he was fined 10 million dollars, but obviously the incident could not be solved so easily. All the league stars spoke out one after another. Savo, who couldn’t resist the pressure, finally issued a statement on the 21st announcing that the team was being sold. Paul, the “boss killer”, once again “made a difference”.
Related News >>> Savo statement: I started to find buyers for the Suns and Mercury
Claude made up for Phoenix’s troubled summer. Because he was told that he might lose his main position in the new season and the renewal progress was not smooth, he angrily decided to push forward the deal and reached an agreement with the team not to participate in the training camp, leaving the team has entered the countdown.
Famous Book Marc J. Spears describes the Sun’s media day like this: “This is the saddest media day I have ever attended, and it feels more like a funeral. This is definitely a bad day for the sun, but it sounds like they want to move on.” All of the above led to the current atmosphere of the sun like a funeral. All the eyebrows on the training ground did not show. Everyone was in a depressed state in the preseason, and the communication between the coach and the players was blocked, how to reconcile everything will be the key to how far the sun can go next year. Veteran Paul may need to make his own sound at this moment.
2. Can the old cannon shoulder the team in the key playoff battle?
Paul will be 38 years old in the new season. Although he has floor fan rotten faces again and again in recent years, he rushed to the fifth in the West with a thunder ready to be rotten in the 19-20 season, it also brought the sun into the first top team of the league in the consistent view of the outside world, and set foot on the stage of the finals for the first time in his career.
Paul is really excellent, but the law of nature is always absolute. In fact, since the finals of the previous year, Paul’s performance in key playoff games has been frequently played, if it is reasonable to say that the joint strangulation that was lost to brother alphabet and hollerdi was indeed understandable, the cold last year could not defeat the Lone Ranger, and Paul’s abnormal performance was absolutely divided into a big pot.
Against the solo series, in the four lost games, Paul only got 35 points and 25 assists. In the seventh game of defeat, he scored 10 points and 4 assists, with a positive and negative value of-39. As a leader and mentor who is famous for being tough, such performance is obviously unacceptable.
There are still three years left in Paul’s contract with Sun. He should still be able to maintain a fairly high level of competition in the regular season, but if he wants to win the Championship, Paul must think of some way, the team really needs him in key playoff games.
3. Has the “profit-making period” of the Sun ended?
Last season, Los Angeles suffered from injuries DOUBLE HEROES. MVP had fewer partners Murray and PROTONIC around the teacher, while Dong Qiqi had been fighting alone. Even so, the Sun could not pass the level of Lone Ranger, not to mention the warrior has returned.
Looking back at the 21-year finals of the sun, I met the Lakers with heavy eyebrows, the nuggets of Murray and the Clippers without Leonard. In the finals, facing the stag with a neat lineup and the top star alphabet brother, the sun is no longer magical. Perhaps you still remember that before the heavy eyebrow was injured, the Lakers actually led the total score. No wonder the heavy eyebrow said in an interview that if he was not injured, the Sun would not pass the Lakers.
Perhaps the sun has indeed caught up with a “profit-making period” belonging to them in the past two years, but now the masters in the West have returned one by one, and the new forces represented by pelican are also rising. How long can the winning window belonging to the sun be opened? Maybe next year will be their last chance. After all, Cameron Johnson is facing a renewal. One year later, the core lineup of the Suns finals may be torn apart.
4. Can the rotation team remain strong?
The playoffs depend on stars and the regular season depends on thickness. The Sun’s record of winning the league’s number one last season is directly related to the strong performance of role players. Due to the renewal of contracts with Ayton and Booker one after another this summer, the salary space of the sun has dropped sharply, and the important internal rotation of Mackey has left the team to join the Lone Ranger, and only three people are available for the control guard.
The flank whose thickness made the teams envy, Claude almost certainly left the team. It remains to be seen whether he can be exchanged for combat capability. Bridges and Johnson still have room for improvement. In the playoffs last season, they shot 39.4 percent and 37.3 percent respectively in downtown, but they both shot below 5 times, monti may strengthen their role in the offensive in the new season.
Okeji, the team’s new aid, played badly in Timberwolves last year. He only got 2.7 points and 1.4 boards in 10.5 minutes, and Damien Lee didn’t get much performance opportunities in the Warriors. As the two most important signings of the sun this summer, whether the team can continue to maintain the front row position in the regular season, they will play a key role in the rotation lineup.
Summary:
The strongest fortress was always broken from the inside. Jia Fu in the Dream of Red Mansions was also instantly defeated by civil strife. As one of the hottest teams in the league in the past two years, whether the sun can reverse the decline in the trough will directly determine whether the temperament of the team can change essentially. The step forward is heaven. If it slides down at this moment, Paul’s big contract and the renewal of the two flanking generals will directly break up the runner-up team. The 22-23 season is a crucial year for Phoenix, and it may also be the last chance for Paul to realize the championship. In this seemingly lifeless funeral, whether the most beautiful flowers can be produced or not, expect the sun to burn completely!