What Suns Still Need to Prove
PHOENIX -- The Phoenix Suns are 37-26 on the season after a victory over the Toronto Raptors last night. Many of the concerns that have followed them all season continue to hang around.
While there are some believers such as JJ Redick, the majority of fans and national media doesn't believe in Phoenix coming into the stretch run of the season.
Phoenix has as high of a ceiling as any team in the Western Conference, but it's also certainly understandable as to why the skepticism is still prevalent.
The Suns have very limited time to turn skeptics into believers ahead of the start of the playoffs on April 20:
Work Out Kinks
The Suns' two biggest concerns pertaining to on-court product are almost certainly fourth quarter woes and the continual turnover conundrum.
While Phoenix is unlikely to completely erase these concerns, they have the ability to work out the kinks enough to become a viable threat out West - especially since the playoffs are a different game compared to regular season competition.
The Suns can truly match any other team in the NBA when it comes to shot-making, and they can certainly take advantage of a playoff series that will almost assuredly come down to late-game execution for the majority of a series.
Stay Healthy
This ties into the last point - the Suns can be so fearsome because of the combination of high-end talent and a supporting cast that fits around the stars in nearly perfect fashion.
The issue is the Suns need to consistently stay healthy.
Many of the injuries that have been suffered by members of the Suns' big three of Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal and Devin Booker have been more "freak" injury than the "injury prone" counterpart.
The fashion in which an injury occurs is unfortunately irrelevant here.
The common belief currently is that the Suns will be unable to continually carry the same rotation throughout the duration of a playoff run due to the patterns of injury that have been seen all season.
Here's to hoping Beal, Booker, Durant, and the rest of the squad have good fortune the rest of the way.
Continue Finding Defensive Identity
The Suns have been fantastic defensively for the better part of two months at this point - ranking in the top 10 in defensive rating since around the turn of the new year.
This is another area where skepticism will be raised.
Phoenix has been exceptional on the defensive end - possibly better than offensively the last two weeks. That doesn't mean there aren't concerns moving forward.
A fair amount of sentiment has been built around the belief that Jusuf Nurkic won't be viable to hand regular minutes to in a playoff setting - despite Nurkic doing a more than admirable job with assignments including Anthony Davis and Nikola Jokic over the last two weeks.
There's also a concern around the Suns' prospects pertaining to on-ball defensive, but players such as Grayson Allen can continue too buck the belief and prove that the Suns can be a stringent defense when they need to be.
Royce O'Neale can also continue being a Swiss Army Knife and can shed the narrative that his best days as a defender are behind him.
The Suns have as good of a chance to rise to the occasion in the postseason as anyone - but they need to continue proving that some of the perceived questions surrounding them aren't fatal flaws.
