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Charles Barkley sticks to his take of what is wrong with Suns

© Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

Phoenix Suns legend Charles Barkley stuck to his take about why the Suns have not had the season they hoped for after yesterday’s 105-93 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, as they are now down 0-2 in the first round.

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“My Suns are in trouble,” Barkley said on NBA on TNT last night. “They never addressed the point guard situation, which they definitely needed, and they needed another big body. That’s one of the things we talked about at the trade deadline. They need to have (Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal) finishing, instead of initiating their offense, and they can play at a much faster pace because Minnesota’s such a big team, it’s tough to score on them in the halfcourt.

“The only way to do that is really speed the tempo up, and they didn’t address the point guard situation. They didn’t even need a great point guard, they just needed a serviceable point guard. And I thought they needed a bigger body. They went out and got Royce O’Neale (at the deadline) who’s more of a shooter, but when you’re playing against some of the bigger teams in this league, you need more than one big guy and that’s all they got.”

For reference, this is what Barkley said all the way back on Jan. 11, a very similar statement.

A few weeks ago in an interview with Cameron Cox of 12News, when questioned about the Suns’ potential to make a playoff run, Barkley swiftly replied, “No, they are not going to figure it out.”

He elaborated, “The leaders are not leading. You are not going to turn it around this late in the season… They just really soft, and the leaders have not led.”

Although a Ring of Honor member for the Suns, Barkley has been openly critical of the Suns this season. He has criticized Kevin Durant for not being a leader, as he did even before Durant got to Phoenix.

Barkley even left Booker off of who he thought should make the Western Conference All-Star team. Barkley also suggested that Beal comes off the bench, and Jusuf Nurkić responded by calling out Barkley for not voting Booker as an All-Star. 

Some of Barkley’s concerns have come to light with the Suns having built what they feel is a championship roster and now being down 0-2 in the first round.

However to Barkley’s point yesterday, a point guard would have made the Suns even smaller and there were no serviceable options to do so at the trade deadline. It would have also disrupted what they are trying to do on offense of having a multi ball-handler attack.

Phoenix also has Kevin Durant, who is listed at 6-foot-11, next to Nurkić, and Durant, although he plays like a guard offensively, has shown the ability to guard 1-5 defensively. O’Neale also gives the Suns this luxury of guarding any position.

A counter to that is then why did the Big 3 play so bad yesterday in a game the Suns desperately needed?

The Suns’ Big 3 finished a combined 18-for-45 from the floor with 12 of the team’s 19 turnovers, while each playing over 40 minutes. Booker had 20 points (6-of-13 shooting, 1-of-6 from 3), five assists, three rebounds, six fouls, six turnovers and was a -24 in terms of plus/minus. Durant was also a -24, as he had 18 points (6-of-15 shooting, 0-of-2 from 3), six rebounds, two assists and two turnovers. Beal finished with 14 points on 6-of-17 shooting (2-of-4 from 3), six assists, four rebounds and four turnovers and was a -21.

The Suns’ Overlying Problem

The Suns have a lot of problems that are hard to make sense of given the roster they have, but it seems to stem from a lack of connectivity rather than roster construction. A lot of this is due to them not being healthy earlier in the season, but they should have found something out by now.

Even by what they say in press conferences, you can tell the team is not on the same page with their thoughts. They all want to win, but don’t have the same idea of how to execute it.

For example, coach Frank Vogel said last night that the Suns did a great job defensively, as Anthony Edwards finished with 15 points on 3-of-12 shooting, while Karl Anthony-Towns had only 12 points on 3-of-7 shooting.

“The defensive plan was good, our defensive adjustments I liked,” Vogel said. “I would run back the defensive side of this game again. We got to do a better job on McDaniels and Conley, but the job we did on Edwards, holding that team to 105 points, I think, is gonna be defensively enough to beat these guys.”

Beal, instead highlighted how Jaden McDaniels had 25 points on 10-of-17 shooting, while Mike Conley had 18 points.

“We have to be better on the defensive end, that’s where we lost the game,” Beal said. “Can’t give Jaden McDaniels, 25-plus points, I think Mike Conley got it going again tonight too. And their two main guys, I’m not gonna say they didn’t do anything, but they were controlled pretty much the whole night. So that’s tough, you can’t let, no disrespect to them, but the other guys just get going the way they did.”

(via 12News Luke Lyddon)

This is just a little example of how the Suns are thinking differently.

The series is not over yet, so we will see if the Suns can respond and what comes to light if they are not able to do so.

Game 3 is on Friday in Phoenix at 7:30 p.m. MST, as the Suns will look to get their first playoff win in front of their home crowd for the first time.

Frank Vogel says Suns didn’t keep their composure in Game 2 loss to Timberwolves

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Brendan Mau is a senior writer covering the Phoenix Suns and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @Brendan_Mau

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