ESPN’s Broussard: Phoenix Suns should contend for a playoff spot
Jul 14, 2015, 4:23 PM | Updated: 4:24 pm
The Phoenix Suns have not made the NBA playoffs in each of the past five seasons, but ESPN’s Chris Broussard said that run could come to an end in 2015-16.
Broussard told Bickley & Marotta of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM that the Suns should battle for the eighth seed next season.
“I think they’ll be in the hunt (for a playoff spot) with Dallas, maybe Utah,” Broussard said.
The Suns won 39 games in 2014-15 after winning 48 games the previous season.
Phoenix selected Kentucky’s Devin Booker 13th overall in this year’s NBA Draft.
In free agency, Phoenix re-signed point guard Brandon Knight to a five-year, $70 million contract, added former NBA Defensive Player of the Year Tyson Chandler on a four-year $52 million deal and made a run at one of the top free agents on the market in All-Star forward LaMarcus Aldridge.
Expectations, however, shouldn’t be too high beyond just making the playoffs, as Broussard said Phoenix is “certainly” not a title contender.
The big thing, Broussard said, is moving forward from being a middle-of-the-pack team.
“How do they get to that status?” he said. “I think they need a great front court player…you need somebody in that front court who is of All-Star caliber. Obviously LaMarcus Aldridge would have fit the bill.”
Without a player like Aldridge, Phoenix’s roster can be good, but not great, Broussard said.
“They don’t have the core where you can say in a few years, ‘Okay, in a few years this is going to be a contender,'” he said. “The Suns don’t have that kind of core.”
