It’s not so sunny in Phoenix anymore.
Heading into the playoffs last season, the Suns were the kings of clutch, winning 33 of 42 games were it was a five-point game heading into the final minutes.
That boded well for their championship credentials. You know what else was a good sign? The fact they posted a 11-4 record without Chris Paul in the latter stages of the season.
With a franchise-record 64 wins during the regular season, Phoenix was an unstoppable force that appeared destined for another shot at the NBA title.
Instead, the Suns crashed out in the conference finals and as bad as that may have seemed, unfortunately for Phoenix it was only the start of what was to come.
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Fast-forward to media day and according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, the only smile came when Devin Booker “made a joke about being on the cover of the NBA 2K video game”.
“I have covered media day for 20 years, I have been to 10 or 12 teams’ different media days. I have never been to a media day that has had the absolute absence of enthusiasm,” he said on his podcast ‘Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective’.
It comes after news last week that team owner Robert Sarver, banned for a year and fined $10 million by the NBA for racist and misogynistic remarks and workplace bullying, would sell the team.
But even that is only the start of Phoenix’s troubles, with Jae Crowder absent as he works with the Suns on a trade while Deandre Ayton’s eventful off-season was another intriguing subplot.
“I’ve been covering the NBA since ‘99, I’ve been to a lot of these media days and this was the most dour, the saddest media day I have ever attended,” added Marc J. Spears on ESPN.
“It felt more like a funeral. I talked to Deandre Ayton on the side a little bit and he said there was a cloud hanging over the franchise.
“I asked him to expand on that a little more and he just feels bad for the people, like Ayton he went to high school here, he played for Arizona, he got drafted by the Suns, like Book he has been here a long time and is close to the city. He just feels hurt for the people and those affected by it.”
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The talk will soon go back to basketball but the hurt caused by Sarver and the painful conversations that have been had, will still linger.
“I didn’t think they were going to be doing handsprings but I kind of thought there might be a, ‘Alright, Sarver is in the past, let’s focus on the future’ but that was absolutely not the case,” said Windhorst.
“I could call it a funeral but that implies they are sad Robert Sarver is gone. Let me pivot to say it felt like a dentist’s waiting room. The players going up to the podium looked like they were about to have teeth pulled.
“This was a 64-win team last year and 95 per cent of them are back. They are still loaded, they are absolutely a championship contender and they don’t have to worry about Sarver anymore and it felt like this team was down 3-0 in a playoff series down 30 points going into the fourth quarter of Game 4.
“Now, today is day one. It doesn’t matter how they feel today, it matters how they feel at the start of the season and I suspect there will be an attempt by everybody to rally spirits when they have a team meeting and dinner tonight. But I cannot even articulate how grim the mood was.”
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Suns general manager James Jones said he was in a “state of shock” after hearing the findings from the investigation of Sarver.
“Just personally you just don’t want to see those types of findings. You don’t want that to be the narrative around your organisation… you don’t want that to be your issue,” he added.
“A flurry of emotions, disappointment, sympathy. Not anger. I understand that for some reason, unfortunately, this is commonplace.”
Coach Monty Williams echoed similar sentiments, in “shock” and “disbelief” after reading the findings.
It was Booker though, who Windhorst felt had the most candid reaction to it all.
“It was tough,” the Suns guard said.
“It’s tough for me because that’s not the Robert Sarver that I know. That’s not the Robert Sarver that welcomed me to Phoenix with open arms.
“But at the same time, I’m not insensitive to everybody that’s involved in this situation. And I understand everybody’s personal experience with other people are always going to be different. But it’s tough to read because that’s not the person I know.”
“These guys really didn’t know how to feel about it,” added Windhorst.
It was not just Sarver though, with Crowder also heading for the exit door and Ayton admitting he has not spoken with coach Williams since being benched in Phoenix’s final playoffs game.
“I think the worst media day might have been Phoenix,” The Athletic’s Anthony Slater said on ‘Tampering: An NBA Podcast’.
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“They just seemed completely unhappy, uncomfortable with the Sarver situation. Deandre Ayton was asked about his contract, didn’t exactly throw love the organisation’s way for matching it and Jae Crowder is not there.
“We’re talking about the runaway number one seed last year and the way that has devolved. They clearly have the talent to be a top-type seed but there’s a chance the house crumbles down if it’s a testy as it seems.”
Starting with Ayton, there were question marks over his future in Phoenix after he was benched in its stunning Game 7 loss to the Mavericks, managing just 17 minutes.
Ayton is back though, with the Suns matching his agreement with the Indiana Pacers to re-sign the 24-year-old on a four-year, $133 million contract.
Although he seemed less than impressed with how it all unfolded.
“I’m here,” Ayton said when asked about the deal, adding, “I’m alright” when asked whether he was happy to be in Phoenix.
“Deandre Ayton, who can be a little quiet at times, would barely say six words to any question,” Windhorst said.
“There is no question some scar tissue about the way his contract way down. He basically said, ‘It’s all business, I don’t want to take any steps backwards’. Even when he was asked about Sarver, he gave very short answers.”
Ayton also did not wish to elaborate too much after revealing he had not spoken with coach Williams since that Game 7 defeat to Dallas.
“I haven’t spoken to him at all, ever since the game,” Ayton told reporters.
“I can show him better than I can tell him. It’s life. Nobody cares about the uncomfortable nature of it, it’s how you perform and what you bring to the table. What’s said is already said.”
Williams said in response that he has not spoken with a “bunch” of the Suns players, telling reporters “they needed a break from me [and] the gym”.
“Unless you were in the gym like every day, I’ve had interactions with everybody, but talking to guys about deep stuff, there’s a number of guys I haven’t talked to,” he added.
But when asked whether Ayton is happy in Phoenix and if there was any lingering tension between the pair, Williams simply said he did not “want to answer” for him or any of his players.
“I think all of our guys are happy here,” he added.
“We’ve won a lot of games and we’ve had some success and then when you have a blip on the screen, like a Game 7, like I said, things get magnified. To be straight, I’m not going to talk about this anymore cause it just doesn’t make sense to keep talking about one guy after one game. We lost Game 7.”
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And now it looks like the Suns will lose Crowder too, who is sitting out training camp with reports suggesting his camp is working with Phoenix to facilitate at trade.
“After very fruitful and deliberate conversations, we just decided it was best that he wasn’t with us for training camp,” general manager Jones said.
“What that means going forward? I don’t know… as of right now, it allows us the opportunity to focus on the guys that are here.”
That does not sound very promising for Crowder’s future at the franchise.
“I’d say it’s a little unfortunate,” Booker said of the Crowder situation.
“Jae came in here a couple years ago, and we’ve done a lot of really good things here. We’ve shaped and shifted this culture, but at the same time, I wish him the best moving forward.”
Like Crowder, the immediate future for the Suns franchise is uncertain.
This is a championship contender that is absolutely still capable of having another swing at the title and there is no better time than now to do it.
All you can hope is that the mood at training camp was not a sign of things to come.
