The Phoenix Suns can become the first team to bounce back from an 0-3 deficit to win a playoff series, but they’re not going to: They don’t believe they can.
Frankly, I don’t think they care enough — and it’s about to get Vogel fired.
If I’m wrong, then I’m wrong. (There’s a first time for everything.) But I’m not wrong about this.
“We just got beat,” Devin Booker said after the 126-109 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 3 of their first-round Western Conference playoff series. “(It) was a point of emphasis going into the game to stick together through adversity. … We just didn’t execute.”
It was so bad a guy named “nickel” dropped double as many 3-pointers as Booker and Kevin Durant combined. That’s no disrespect to Nickeil Alexander-Walker who went 4 for 10 from long range. It’s an indictment on the Suns stars who shot a combined 2 for 8 from behind the arc.
The guys who have signature shoes and more fans than there are old church ladies in the Deep South need to be better in big games.
We know they’re capable of it, so why aren’t they executing? What exactly is Minnesota doing that has them so messed up? Why haven’t they combined with Bradley Beal, who’s healthy for the first time in years, to knock off Anthony Edwards and his pack of Wolves?
“They pressure everywhere and funnel you into (Rudy) Gobert,” Booker said of the Minnesota defense that has him colder than a new air conditioner in a Phoenix summer.
The issue for the Phoenix Suns
But even fans know that.
Does coach Frank Vogel not have them prepared? I don’t believe that for a second. I just think the Suns stars are frustrated and letting their pride get in the way. They’re not listening to their coach, and because of that the role players are rolling over.
Right now, Anthony Edwards looks like Kendrick Lamar to Booker’s Drake and Durant’s J. Cole. (That’s a rap music joke for anybody who needs a little help. “Big Three? … It’s just big me!”)
Vogel should have been able to reach Booker and Durant, by now. Beal is playing with intensity and energy, but it’s not enough. This isn’t his team. It’s Booker’s team. And if it’s not his, it’s Durant’s.
And if it’s not theirs, then it’s Charles Barkley’s because he’s got his feet on the couches in their heads, and the greatest player in franchise history hasn’t even bothered to take his shoes off. He’s been calling out the Suns for a lack of player leadership all season.
I don’t agree with Barkley, who called the Suns soft, but these guys really shouldn’t giggle when Karl-Anthony Towns pokes them in the belly.
Some fans are wondering whether Phoenix should have kept Deandre Ayton. I’d say no. If he were here, the Suns would have lost by 50.
But if they were going to turn over the entire roster, then they should have held on to Monty Williams, who was so bad in Detroit that the whole city started watching football for the first time since they put facemasks on their helmets.
What’s next for Frank Vogel?
Frank Vogel deserves better than this, but he’s not without blame, either.
It’s his job to get guys to trust in his plan. Right now, this looks like a team without vision, and where there’s no vision, the playoff hopes perish.
Vogel looks like a guy who’s ready to be an analyst on NBA TV, and maybe that’s where he belongs if he’s drawing up plays and defensive schemes that his guys refuse to run.
There will be plenty of time to talk about whether he should be fired after one year. (Which I think is unfair, but it happens all the time in pro sports)
There will be plenty of time to talk about who could take over. (With Kevin Young at BYU, I think Earl Watson and Mark Jackson should be the only guys to get calls from Mat Ishbia and James Jones.)
And there will be plenty of time to yap about the flaws in the roster. (Yes, they need a point guard. No, not Chris Paul. I’m thinking they need a young Rajon Rondo-type.)
But for now, the Suns are about to get embarrassed in the playoffs on their home floor for the third season in a row.
The Suns could be the first team in NBA history to claw back from an 0-3 playoff hole. Nothing is impossible for those who believe.
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