In hindsight, was our recent 48-win season a good thing?

[Charlie Smithy!]

I think this question's been debated about (loosely anyway) in various threads, but in lieu of the slow season, I figured it'd make for an interesting discussion at any rate.

IIRC, we finished that 48-win season in a loaded West *just* outside of the playoffs (where we have found ourselves repeatedly--mediocre, but not bad enough to build through the draft). I remember being excited at the team's (and Hornacek's) instant success, but when we finished 9th, I sorta got a bad feeling that maybe it sent the message to the FO that we were actually contenders.

Who knows, maybe things would have transpired to this point even without that initial season of success, but I find myself wondering (as the Suns are wandering) if it wouldn't have been better suffer some initial growing pains and slowly churn our way upward to the playoffs (and not just as a borderline 8-seed).

Hopefully all this makes some sense; just spitballing on a slow Friday afternoon.

Thoughts?

[carey]

Nope.

[The Bobster]

No.

No. No. No. No. No.

[SDC]

not only good, great. mcdo should have been EOTY if only he had acquired that "washed up" pau gasol. horny should have been COTY if the suns made the playoffs. dragic should have been 2nd team all nba that year and gerald green should have been Most Improved.

suns should not have resigned bledsoe after acquiring IT and tyler ennis.

[INFORMER]

It would have been fine if we had a GM that was disciplined and savvy enough to see it for what it really was.

[Indy]

It would have been fine if we had a GM that was disciplined and savvy enough to see it for what it really was.

I would add "owner" to that list too. In the end, he meddles like he knows what he is doing, which means any GM won't be able to convince him if he doesn't believe it already.

[Ring_Wanted]

Having that season was more than fine. It was a joy to watch it. There were memorable matches like against OKC, LAC, Indiana's defense, etc. 13-14 made the Suns relevant again, people were interested in our games and everybody thought there was a bright future ahead for the organization. Proof of that is the amount of national games awarded for 14-15. That season meant having league wide respected GM, coach, and core of players. Becoming a FA destination once again, flexibility, picks, etc. However, from that year I will always blame the FO for not making a move by the 2014 deadline to bolster the playoff chances. Too passive.

I don't even have regrets related to the 2014 draft, considering how things ended up playing out. Other than Wiggins that class is a nice collection of talent but for one reason or another far from the uncanny hype that it pulled all year long.

The miscalculations during the following offseason is what screwed things up. IT3 was a domino whose effects we are still resenting to this day.

[Mori Chu]

Yup, yup, yup. I agree with the last several posts. The good season wasn't bad; what's bad is having people running the team who didn't understand what to do to follow that good season. Any exec who thinks it is a good thing to bring in 3 players at the same position as your best player is a moron. Same for signing twins with a history of legal and behavioral problems to a shared contract. Same for trading away first-round draft picks that are likely to be in the top-5. (UGHHHH)

[UglyTruth]

It was arguably the worst thing to happen to this team.

[Danimal]

We seem to be rehashing the same negative stuff around here lately like a support group. Trying to find new ways to reword our thoughts each day that the team is bad.

[DrSublime]

no, a 5 win season and Wiggins pr Jabari Parker on our roster would have been better

[Nodack]

We seem to be rehashing the same negative stuff around here lately like a support group. Trying to find new ways to reword our thoughts each day that the team is bad.

It's a blessing and a curse.

[pickle]

I don't even have regrets related to the 2014 draft, considering how things ended up playing out. Other than Wiggins that class is a nice collection of talent but for one reason or another far from the uncanny hype that it pulled all year long.

The miscalculations during the following offseason is what screwed things up. IT3 was a domino whose effects we are still resenting to this day.

I might have preferred to take Nurkic at 14, I'm guessing Warren might still have been available at 18. The Tyler Ennis pick was really stupid.

[pickle]

no, a 5 win season and Wiggins pr Jabari Parker on our roster would have been better

I'm not high on Parker, at least what he's shown so far... Doesn't shoot the 3, doesn't defend the 4... Who's to say that he's really a better player than TJ Warren at this point?

[carey]

no, a 5 win season and Wiggins pr Jabari Parker on our roster would have been better

I'm not high on Parker, at least what he's shown so far... Doesn't shoot the 3, doesn't defend the 4... Who's to say that he's really a better player than TJ Warren at this point?

There's a big discussion over on RealGM about that very point. Someone suggesting a trade for him that would cost us Morris, Warren, something else and the rights to pick swap for Milwaukee. Some people think Warren is better outright now and has the higher ceiling. I don't know if I believe that, but not having a repaired ACL is a big plus.

[DrSublime]

no, a 5 win season and Wiggins pr Jabari Parker on our roster would have been better

I'm not high on Parker, at least what he's shown so far... Doesn't shoot the 3, doesn't defend the 4... Who's to say that he's really a better player than TJ Warren at this point?

There's a big discussion over on RealGM about that very point. Someone suggesting a trade for him that would cost us Morris, Warren, something else and the rights to pick swap for Milwaukee. Some people think Warren is better outright now and has the higher ceiling. I don't know if I believe that, but not having a repaired ACL is a big plus.

i would say Parkers ceiling is a poor mans grant Hill where Warrens is a poor mans Melo.
I'd rather have Hill.

[carey]

i would say Parkers ceiling is a poor mans grant Hill where Warrens is a poor mans Melo.
I'd rather have Hill.

I don't see Melo at all. Interesting. He's more than a Ced Ceballos too even though Ced was a 20 ppg scorer. I haven't really figured out who TJ is, yet. If he could rebound I'd say maybe Marion-lite, but he's not quite that explosive. If you recall, Marion's 2nd jump was faster than some people's first. Some people have said Bernard King but that was way before my time.

[pickle]

I don't mean to put down Parker, and I haven't watched enough of the Bucks to have a great feel for his game. What I have seen though, isn't particularly impressive. He's a good young player, had plenty of hype coming into the league obviously, but he isn't a gravitational pull on offense... opposing defenses aren't really doubling him or paying more attention to him than any other Buck, so his numbers which are not bad for a second year player are kind of empty to me. His inability to stop faster 3s or play rim protector makes him less appealing to me in general.

Of course much of the same can be said for Warren, but he uses the lack of defensive attention to his advantage and keeps moving around the court for those easy passes, plus he's shown a bit more three pointer range lately. He probably has similar issues on D as Parker, but as Carey said, not having the ACL issue is a plus.

[Ring_Wanted]

I might have preferred to take Nurkic at 14, I'm guessing Warren might still have been available at 18. The Tyler Ennis pick was really stupid.

I speculated exactly the same thing at the time. Nurkic-Warren (plus Bogdanovic) would have been a heist, but I don't know if the Hawks would have let Warren slip at #15.

Ennis, yeah, in hindsight it was terrible. At the draft, thought, it made some sense, from a team needs standpoint, as the Suns could use a third PG to backup Bledsoe-Dragic (assuming they were letting Ish go which was a given). Talent wise it was more than questionable, although it was rumored McD was aiming at a trade with the Raptors, who were in love with him. In exchange for Terrence Ross, supposedly. That #27 was also rumored to be on the move along with Gerald Green for Ryan Anderson.

The thing about that draft is that as deep as it proved, no other prospect is living up to the crazy hype. So far you don't get the impression we missed out on any franchise cornerstone besides Wiggins (btw, having a somewhat disappointing sophomore season) and actually it could be argued that Warren is giving you as much as anybody else, all things considered.

[Ring_Wanted]

On Warren vs Parker, just the fact that it doesn't sound utterly ridiculous is already a win for us.

Still, I believe you have to take Parker (despite the ACL his explosion is still there; guy dunks easily in traffic), based not on current performance but potential ability to carry an offense.

You see Parker and can envision a mix of Melo-Hill, capable of scoring on his own against whatever you throw at him. It's true that at this time he has no 3pt range, but spot up shooting is known to be one of the easiest skills to develop. Being able to be given the ball in half court and told 'go get me baskets', not so much. Granted, like in Melo's case you need the right mix of players around, but you can say that about anyone but the all time monsters.