Rank It: Top 5 Suns Obstacles
5. Los Angeles Lakers
- The Suns climbed and planted their flag on Mount Lebron last year, there’s no reason to attempt it again. Even if the Suns are definitively better than the Lakers in every way possible, I don’t really care to see Lebron James in the playoffs again if it can be avoided. He’s still Lebron, he’s still capable of unfiltered greatness and avoiding the second best player in NBA history is still advisable. This isn’t fear of this Lakers roster so much as it's a healthy respect for Lebron James.
4. Memphis Grizzlies
- The Grizzlies are trying to do exactly what the Suns did a year ago and we should take notice. Again, the Suns are better than Memphis in almost every way but as the rest of the West found out last year, there’s a level a team can get to when they believe no one else believes in them. While the Grizzlies don’t have their version of Chris Paul, they do have Ja Morant and that could be enough.
3. Golden State Warriors
- Draymond Green’s back injury is the single biggest NBA story that got swept under the rug. We don’t know much about it but if he’s not 100%, I don’t think the Warriors can win the NBA championship. With him, the Warriors are a formidable opponent for the Suns. I think Phoenix is deeper and overall better offensively than this version of the Splash Brothers and Company but Steph Curry’s brilliance cannot be denied and the Warriors championship pedigree would make them formidable in a seven game series.
2. Another injury
- The Suns have had good injury luck for most of this season until Chris Paul went down with an avulsion on his right thumb. If the Suns suffer any other injury to their starting rotation, we have all have an avulsion. I’m not talking about the tweaked ankle here or there but a real injury to a rotation piece could eliminate whatever margin of error may exist for the Suns to get back to the NBA Finals and finish the job they started a year ago.
1. The Suns Past
- The Suns biggest obstacle is likely their own past. The weight of never winning it all can be a powerful suppressor of success. While they came within two games last year of doing it, those last two wins are the absolute hardest. The Barkley and Nash Era Suns have been reduced in NBA history to road bumps for better teams despite being wildly successful. Can this Suns team avoid a similar fate by winning it all? Its their biggest obstacle and their biggest motivator.