Could Lack of Adversity Haunt Suns' Starting Lineup?

The Phoenix Suns are putting the final touches on their preparations for what is undoubtedly a gauntlet of a western conference that saw them finish as the No. 4 seed, even after the acquisition of Kevin Durant.

With any team, some questions surround the Suns and their ability to push through to the NBA Finals. Plenty of people bring up the recent bad streak of bench play in Phoenix as a concern, especially considering how last year's series against the Dallas Mavericks went.

Others will point to the lack of experience the current starting unit has together. The lineup of Durant, Chris Paul, Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton have played just eight games together heading into the postseason.

NBA on TNT analyst Greg Anthony - an 11 year veteran in the league - says he isn't sure if the Suns are able to handle adversity just yet as a group.

“They still haven’t been through any real fires yet,” Anthony said on a media zoom call (h/t Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic).

“They haven’t faced any adversity in the postseason. They haven’t dealt with one of their top guys maybe missing a game with an injury. They haven’t gone through that yet. So that’s the one area of concern I would say is that we think we know, but we don’t know because we haven’t seen this team together really that long.

“That stuff still has to play out. That is why you’ve got to play and you factor in the level of confidence you’re going to have in this Western Conference one through eight. This isn’t a normal 1-8 scenario. You’re going to have teams that don’t have home court in the first round that literally think they’re going to win a championship this year and that level of confidence will play a role as well.”

Taking Durant out of the equation, the trio of Booker/Ayton/Paul has indeed seen tough times together. They blew a 2-0 lead to the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2021 NBA Finals and flamed out of the second round last year after establishing a franchise record 64 wins.

It's fair to say the trio is battle-tested, and adding Durant (who has reached heights few players will ever touch) understandably adds some unknowns into the equation.

However, all of Durant, Booker, Paul and Ayton have been through the ringer more than once. Time will tell if they'll be able to string it together as a foursome, but if you ask anybody in Phoenix, they'll tell you there's no situation they haven't come across as players.