The Phoenix Suns have reached the potential breaking point of their season. Coming off a 2021 NBA Finals run and a 64-win campaign that ended far sooner than anyone expected, the next few weeks could determine whether this group’s immediate title window remains propped open or is abruptly slammed shut. Lately, it’s appearing more like the latter. After starting with…
The Phoenix Suns typically withhold judgment on their rotations until they have a 20-game sample size to work with. They’re only 16 games into the new season, and their new starting lineup hasn’t even had seven full games together yet. However, with Chris Paul’s sore right heel set to be re-evaluated later this week, and Cam Johnson out for 1-2 months due to a torn right meniscus, the Suns will be rolling with Cam Payne and Torrey Craig in that starting five for the foreseeable future. The question is, even with such a small sample size, what have we seen from Phoenix’s new starting lineup? The Suns have strived for “stacking solid,” as coach Monty Williams calls it, and the…
One injury can change the trajectory of an entire season, and Cam Johnson’s right knee injury is no different for the Phoenix Suns. On Sunday morning, the team confirmed that the non-contact injury Johnson suffered in Friday’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers was in fact a torn meniscus. The fourth-year forward will undergo surgery, and there is no timetable for his return. https://twitter.com/GeraldBourguet/status/1589303780327448578 Losing a starter on any title contender is a critical blow, but that’s especially true for a Suns squad that was already missing one starting-caliber player heading into the season. Even without the other minor, early-season injuries that are piling up, Phoenix is quickly running short on depth. “He’s a starter for us, so that’s always…
Preseason previews, predictions and 99.9 percent of analysis heading into the Phoenix Suns’ 2022-23 campaign revolved around everyone and everything but Torrey Craig. As one of the lone holdovers from a second unit that mostly disappeared during the Suns’ underwhelming 2022 playoff run, Craig was something of an afterthought. True enough, he did little against the New Orleans Pelicans or...
Like most players, coaches and fans of the Phoenix Suns, Torrey Craig is still trying to piece together exactly what happened in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals. Going from a league-best 64 wins to getting throttled at home in a second-round elimination game was a pretty jarring turn of events. But Craig echoed what Chris Paul, Devin Booker...
Torrey Craig didn’t know he would be starting for the Phoenix Suns until he got to the locker room before Wednesday night’s game. With the NBA’s best team missing Chris Paul (right thumb avulsion fracture), Cam Johnson (quad contusion) and now Jae Crowder (left groin soreness), his response was simply, “Cool.” Fast-forward a few hours and another Suns win later,...
One game against the 13-win Orlando Magic doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, but for the Phoenix Suns, the impressive debuts of Torrey Craig and Aaron Holiday teased another level this title contender can still hit. In Saturday night’s 132-105 victory, the Suns’ two newest members got their first bit of action in the Valley jerseys, and...
No, Eric Gordon will not be playing for the Phoenix Suns. And yes, it was still a good 2022 NBA Trade Deadline for James Jones and co. As we’d already covered here a few months back with our 10 potential Suns trades, this team was unlikely to make a splashy move at the deadline. Even for a potential target like...
Despite Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton and Jae Crowder missing chunks of the season, despite the ongoing struggles of Cam Payne and Landry Shamet, despite players and coaches being in and out of the lineup due to injuries and COVID-19 alike…the Phoenix Suns currently own the NBA’s best record. And yet, whether it’s due to a fundamental lack of respect for this team or a simple acknowledgement of its potential roster flaws, it still feels like the Suns should do something at the 2022 NBA Trade Deadline — not because they have to, but because this group is only one or two savvy moves away from bolstering down the playoff rotation and cementing their status as legitimate title favorites. It’s not…
Even for a team near the top of the standings like the Phoenix Suns, there are always opportunities to get better. So when The Athletic’s Shams Charania and Bob Kravitz reported on Tuesday that the Indiana Pacers are open to trade talks on Caris LeVert, Domantas Sabonis and Myles Turner, it was only natural to wonder how Phoenix might get...