Analyst: Suns Have Been Failure at Halfway Mark

PHOENIX -- This season has been disappointing for the Phoenix Suns. There is little room for argument there, as the changes the franchise made last summer were supposed to lead to tangible improvement this season, but it simply hasn't been the case outside of the first 10 games of the season.

Many have gone even further when critiquing this season - with some essentially calling it an objective failure to this point.

Dan Favale of Bleacher Report gave every single team a letter grade at the official halfway point of the season - and the Suns were given an undeniably poor mark.

More from Favale as to why the Suns received an F+ 43 games into the season:

"Clinging to the bottom of play-in territory is a failure of epic proportions by the Phoenix Suns. And embracing the #TryStuff mantra doesn't shield them from macro hopelessness festering inside the depth chart.

"Bringing Bradley Beal off the bench and forgetting Jusuf Nurkić exists took guts. So did forking over most of their remaining tradeable seconds for Nick Richards. Ditto for turning their 2031 first into three more imminent (less favorable) firsts. But change and risk-taking are not always tantamount to improvement.

"Phoenix has lost its Big Three minutes. There is no coming back from that. And there's certainly no coming back from it when you've slashed your long-range volume, going from sixth in the three-point-attempt rate at the quarter mark to 25th since.

"Rookies Oso Ighodaro and Ryan Dunn remain bright spots, and the Suns are getting a smattering of better individual arcs. Devin Booker has emerged from a weeks-long malaise. Kevin Durant's shot-making (inside the arc) is still stupid. Nothing and no one, though, has translated to enough winning."
Favale on Suns' start to season

There's much to unpack here - the truth that Phoenix is struggling to hold onto a play-in spot is an abject failure. That is inarguable - as the roster tweaks, coaching change, and expected internal improvement lead many to believe they could re-establish themselves as a contender this season. That simply hasn't happened.

The bold moves of pushing Beal/Nurkic to the bench along with making two major trades in the last two weeks have certainly fostered some hope that positive change can come, but until then there are still fundamental questions about the roster makeup and the overarching play style of the team.

As mentioned above, the three-point volume has taken a tailspin in the preceding weeks - this was always a concern under Mike Budenholzer's predecessor, but now it has become one under this coaching staff.

The Suns have too many quality shooters - both on and off-ball - to be in the lower half of volume across the league. There's also questions around if Nick Richards/Mason Plumlee/Oso Ighodaro is enough to fortify a center rotation that has been among the weakest in the NBA this season.

The most apparent truth - point blank - is that no matter how many positive contributions this team has received, it hasn't translated to enough winning. The big-three losing the minutes on the court together is just further proof that what is in place isn't working - and a potential seismic move could be in the works in an attempt to rectify what hasn't translated halfway into the season.

The Suns have 11 games prior to the All-Star break - it's now or never to see if they can salvage this season or not.