NBA Analyst Believes Suns Have Taken Step Back

It's nearly time for a new season of Phoenix Suns basketball, yet the ghosts of last season are still present in conversation.

The Suns, primed and ready to make a return to the NBA Finals, ultimately flopped out of the second round of the postseason in embarrassing fashion. That kick-started an offseason full of drama that has now only recently simmered.

Phoenix returns majority of their roster and again carries high expectations as the 2022-23 season inches closer by the day. The hope is to again dominate their 82-game slate to set themselves up for another run in the postseason.

Preseason power rankings are like podcasts: everybody has one. NBA analyst Marc Stein is no different.

Scouring the web, you'll find the Suns in various spots. Some outlets have them as high as No. 2, while you can also find Phoenix somewhere near the bottom of a top ten list.

In his first batch of power rankings, there's little room for surprise at the top. Golden State, Milwaukee and Boston rank as the medal winners. Denver and the Los Angeles Clippers close out the top five.

You'll then find Phoenix at No. 6 with the following tidbit:

"The Suns won eight more games than any other team in the league last season. They ultimately retained Deandre Ayton and still have essentially the same group that finished two wins shy of the first championship in franchise history in 2020-21," said Stein.

"Yet there's an unavoidable sense, as a byproduct of the Suns’ embarrassing Game 7 home loss to Dallas and the acrimonious nature of contract negotiations with Ayton going back months, that this team has taken a step back. They’ll have to prove that they have moved past all that to move back into our top five."

Proving themselves is an odd way of phrasing Phoenix's ranking when the Clippers' trio of stars have all proven to be shaky at best when it comes to injuries as of late despite the obvious talent. The same can be said for Denver.

The Suns finished just above Philadelphia and Memphis.

Phoenix (understandably) will again need to prove themselves on the national stage before anybody can claim them as title favorites, but the Suns also do deserve a bit more love in preseason power rankings.

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