With games becoming more and more meaningful with just seven games left on their regular season schedule, the Phoenix Suns will look to progress up the standings as they currently sit in a play-in spot.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Having a roster that includes superstars like Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal while in the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference has caused analysts and fans to voice their concerns.
Among those has been Shannon Sharpe, ESPN television personality for the show First Take.
Sharpe Remarks
Today, Sharpe expressed on the show that he expected more from the Suns who he believes have underachieved.
“We demanded more all season long,” Sharpe said. “You got Kevin Durant who is a generational talent, who is a walking bucket. Devin Booker, exact same thing. And here you guys are in the seventh spot [of the Western Conference], that’s unacceptable. We don’t expect it, we demand any team with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker on it to make a deep playoff run and to be in the Western Conference Finals. You are talking about two of the elite  offensive players in all of basketball.”
“I think thus far, the Suns have underachieved. There is no way their record (44-31) should be what it is… We should require, we should demand that you guys got to go further beyond the first round, [the] Western Conference semifinals. You guys need to be in the Western Conference Finals, and that might not be enough given nobody has two guys on the offensive end who can match the firepower those two guys [Booker and Durant] have.”
Fellow analysts Stephen A. Smith and Tim Legler chimed in after Sharpe’s critique about what has gone wrong with the Suns.
Legler claimed that Beal needs to step up and be more effective alongside Durant and Booker. The Suns’ “Big Three” is 21-13, a record Smith, Legler and Sharpe all agreed is not good enough.
As for Smith, he talked about looking at head coach Frank Vogel and the late-game defensive structure/play. Phoenix has lost multiple games this season after leading by a wide margin heading into the fourth quarter.
Sharpe backed up Smith’s statements, citing that with the “Big Three,” the late-game capitulation shouldn’t be a reoccurring theme.
“What I don’t understand is you got those three guys, how can you be so bad at giving up leads in the fourth quarter? You know when playoff time, the game comes down to clutch time, the last five minutes and the game is within five points,” Sharpe said. “You got a Kevin Durant, you got a Devin Booker, you got a Bradley Beal. Man, you guys should be d*** near unbeatable in situations like that. You got three guys that are elite and can go beat anybody off the dribble. No team has three elite defenders that can guard those type of guys in situations like you want to be in clutch situations. So it’s unfathomable to me that the Suns can be so bad at blowing leads late in the ballgame.”
On Wednesday night, the Suns will begin a four-game homestand when they face the Cleveland Cavaliers at 7 p.m. PT in Footprint Center.
Devin Booker joins Wilt Chamberlain as the only players to do this
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Reporter Alec Cipollini covers Phoenix Sports News for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on his X account, @AlecCipollini
