In what has been an otherwise excellent season, the Phoenix Suns shocked the world with their performance in Game 7 on Sunday. They were slow out of the gate, and they looked lethargic all night long and played through a complete blowout before the final buzzer officially eliminated their title hopes.
After acting accomplished all season long, fans couldn’t help but bring back something LeBron James tried to warn them about earlier:
“Stay humble now, stay humble. You was at home a year and a half ago. Now you wanna pop off? C’mon.”
LeBron tried to tell Phoenix to stay humble
(h/t @AhnFireDigital ) pic.twitter.com/vHuxPzK8oF
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) May 16, 2022
We see this with teams all the time. They have a good regular season and make a lot of noise before being humbled in the playoffs, where everything gets harder.
Unfortunately, the Suns fell victim to that cycle this year and will have a lot to think about over the next few weeks. The worst part of it all is that the guy who beat them (Luka Doncic) is the guy they could have picked back in 2017 when they used their no. 1 pick to sign Deandre Ayton:
“You passed up Luka to get this guy,” said ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. “If center is such a devalued position, you were a dumb*ss then! I have been told by multiple people in the PHX organization that [picking Ayton] was a total Robert Sarver move. It sure wasn’t Igor! He wanted them obviously to get Luka, and to put a big offer on the table for Clint Capela. Who is ironically now one of the leverage points that the Suns have, if you want to make Capela-Ayton comps.”
With Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton, Jae Crowder, and others, the Suns have a solid core of veterans and youngsters that can keep them competitive for years. But what will it take to go all the way? With multiple failed attempts at a title, major changes could be coming to the team. They may never be the same after this loss.
They should have listened to LeBron about staying humble because they are finding out for themselves how hard it is to close the deal and succeed when the lights are brightest.
