Slug: Sports-Suns rebuilding, 1050 words
Photos available (thumbnails, captions below)
By SAMANTHA PELL
Cronkite News
PHOENIX — As a player, Earl Watson experienced the baby steps of building a championship contender in the NBA. Now as coach of the Suns, he is hoping his team can follow those same steps to return to prominence.
Watson was playing for Seattle in 2008 when the SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder. That team included two young stars, Kevin Durant and Jeff Green. The Thunder drafted guard Russell Westbrook the next season, then James Harden in 2009.
That’s when the Thunder took off.
“When Kevin Durant was in Seattle, 2007-08 I believe, his rookie year, he was 19-years old,” Watson said. “Jeff Green was 21. The following year, Kevin Durant turns 20, Russell Westbrook is 20 and Jeff Green is 22. They only won 23 games. (Then) they get James Harden and they win 50 (games). So it is a process.”
Watson, now in his first full season as coach of the Suns, said Phoenix has “something similar” to the Thunder in terms of needing a few years for the team’s young pieces to fit.
For the 2016-17 Suns, the rebuilding process has come with growing pains.
Since the days of the team’s last “Big Three” of Steve Nash, Amar’e Stoudemire and Shawn Marion, the Suns are one of many teams with young players trying to establish themselves in the NBA.
But now almost seven seasons since their last playoff appearance, the team hopes it has found a formula to return to the postseason by accumulating talent through the NBA Draft.
By adding young players Devin Booker, Dragan Bender, Marquese Chriss and Tyler Ulis, the Suns are growing talent organically rather than forming superstar caliber teams through trades and free agency.
“I think they (the Suns) are doing an excellent job of drafting and developing these guys and they are going to be a powerhouse I would say, three to four years from now,” said center Tyson Chandler.
And while it has become conventional wisdom that NBA teams needs at least three big-time scorers to contend for a championship, the process of getting these players is different for every franchise.
“Some teams build it, some teams trade for it and some teams get lucky and just get a little bit of both,” Watson said. “That’s obviously been a key for other teams in the NBA moving forward.”
Closing in on the All-Star break, the Suns are well below the .500 mark, despite the handful of young talent on the roster.
“It is an opportunity to allow young guys to grow and get major playing time,” Watson said. “And moving forward young guys have to get on the court and up those types of minutes and we started with Marquese (on Jan. 30).”
Chriss, one of four rookies on the Suns roster, has made an immediate impact, starting the majority of games he has played in this season. He scored a career-high 20 points on Jan. 30 against the Memphis Grizzlies.
“Marquese is finally coming out of his rookie wall so to speak,” Watson said.
Booker, who averaged 25.4 points in January, said he sees similarities between the Suns and the Golden State Warriors, prior to Golden State acquiring Kevin Durant this season.
“They (the Warriors) did it through the draft,” Booker said. “They all got better together and just by experience. I see similar trends in that with our team. A lot of young players in this league getting a chance to play and I think that is going to help us in the long run.”
The Suns will have a high first-round pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, plus they will have their first-round pick in 2018 and are owed a first-round pick from Miami in 2018 or 2019. Those assets could lead the team to explore trade opportunities before the Feb. 23 NBA trade deadline, rather than adding even more young players.
Suns veteran guard Leandro Barbosa played for the Warriors for two seasons, during which time the team won an NBA title and lost in the Finals. He signed a multi-year contract with the Suns in July.
“The big teams, the contender teams, always have their Big Three,” Barbosa said.
The Warriors are one of many teams with three big-time scorers that have won a championship recently.
Last season, the Cavaliers won an NBA title behind the trio of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. The previous year, Golden State’s Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green led the Warriors to a championship.
In 2014, the San Antonio Spurs won the title behind Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.
And in 2012 and 2013, the Miami Heat won back-to-back championships behind James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade. The Heat trio marked the first time that the players themselves had orchestrated the formation of a “Big Three.”
So far, the Suns have remained steadfast in their approach to building the team with draft picks.
“I think the best way to do it (develop a team) is grow the guys that you have and even organically,” Chandler said.
But, putting together a core of young players can make it difficult for teams to pay all of them their fair value.
In the 2011-12 season, Oklahoma City had four potential stars with Durant, Westbrook, Harden and Serge Ibaka. That season, the Thunder reached their first NBA Finals.
However, with the salary cap an issue, the Thunder agreed to trade Harden to the Houston Rockets just prior to the start of the 2012-13 season. It broke up the Thunder’s “Big Three,” Ibaka was traded in 2016 and Durant left in free agency to join the Warriors this season.
Westbrook is the only player of the core four still playing for the Thunder.
And while the Suns may never reach a scenario like Oklahoma City, the question is whether the young Suns players will develop into a group that can eventually contend for a title.
Barbosa is confident that it can happen, although he knows he won’t be part of it.
“There is a lot to learn and teach, so I’m sure they definitely will be good in three or four years,” Barbosa said. “I’m cheering for that happening. Hopefully, they will be good players.
“I will be retired, watching from home and wishing them the best.”
