This Suns Team, Thank You.

[b-ball forever]

This is my fave Suns team ever since the end of the SSOL era when Marion got traded.

Team oriented play, a ton of breakout seasons by the players, + a very good new coach and GM.

Future is bright and Ryan McDonough will have even more options this offseason with that higher draft pick.

Great year even tho we just missed the playoffs

[TASTIC]

^basically exactly what you said mate - hell of a season.

I can't remember the last time I've gotten up early (say 5am) before work and hidden anything that could have told me the full time score, then watched the games before work/on the bus...

The maturation of the Morri, the share dominance Green showed for stretches looking like PRIME TMac out there when he got hot (his year-long mix-tape is going to be EPIC), the Bledshow destroying defenses when he wanted at times and I LOVED seeing the bench passion led by Christmas.

Tucker proved he's got a role in this league, whether that's as a starter or a reserve next year remains to be seen - but I hope he's a Sun cos I'd rather have him than play against him.

Frye's return from friggin heart surgery when most of us had him written off as maybe playing a handful of minutes and he started the ENTIRE season, madness.

The most exciting thing for me was Dragic, he became an assassin and the league took notice, even if the fans didn't with All Star selections.

I love that we have Hornacek at the helms and I think he can really be a Pop-type coach, staying in charge for a number of years because he's an extremely smart guy and he trusts his players so they trust him.

McD at the reigns - the Len pick is still up in the air, but really would McLemore have been a better pick? Noel? Meh. This is the year he could really make his mark in the draft - I have absolutely everything crossed that we luck into the top 3 and the MIN pick becomes ours too at 14...Stranger things have happened!

An amazing season and I can't wait for 2014-15 and this offseason to see what happens!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iHgSU0J_VE[/youtube]

[sunskerr]

Im so glad we didnt mail the season in. It's been years since I had this much fun watching the NBA, because I love the Suns. This team has put the league and other players on notice. It's time to translate that into free agency.

[Captain_Obvious]

Congrats on a successful season. Even without reaching the playoffs (which feels like injustice), you played some great basketball. I know my Mavs need to be much better next season to compete with you for a spot once again.

[MathiasPW]

It's always troublesome to deal with expectations. At the beginning of the season, most (all) expected us to suck, and when we won some games and played good basketball, everyone was stunned.

Pure joy.

But then we started playing too much of good basketball, and playoff became within reach, and suddenly expectations shifted towards making it to the playoffs and upsetting one of the leagues best teams, Hornacek getting COY, and Dragic becoming an All-Star. Pressure got higher, and demands on role players such as Green, Tucker and Frye became enormous (and quite unfair).

And we missed the playoffs. Massive heartbreak (and furniture destruction, in my case).

I am glad to see most recognize this season for what is was: overachievement by all players (insert year vs career stats for all here), great surprises @ Hornacek's coaching ability (insert average 1st year coaches W/L stats here) and Ryan McD GM skills.

Only two real minuses were: 1) due to success circumstances, we didn't get too see as much from our rookies as we wanted. That is acceptable, of course. 2) some fans had an approach that is very unproductive for the Suns, flaming players, cheering for losses, and arguing agressively with other fans. In my mind, we are all on the same boat, and should do our best to increase our odds at winning, even when we don't agree to the path chosen to get there.

I look forward to the new season with a (slightly, because I love this team) revamped roster, and, maybe, hopefully, a more concise fanbase who spends more time supporting the team rather than discussing who is right and who is wrong.

[RunDogGun]

Very proud of this team. The coaching staff will improve the longer they work together, and overall, we seem to be on the right track to getting a solid winning culture. And we still have youth and picks to build even more.

[Son of Ra]

There is only one thing that really bothers me about this season. Our rookies playtime. Since we seem to have a multi-year plan in place I don't think it made sense to not develop them in sacrifice for maybe reaching the playoffs when this wasn't even the plan yet. Of course I would have loved to, but I would much rather have had our rookies average at least 20+ mpg. When are you gonna develop them now? Alongside potentially 3 more rookies if no trade or moving up in the draft works out? With every year we should get better and more competitive if things go according to plan thus less playtime for rookies and time to develop players will be available. THIS was the season to throw all the minutes you can at them. No pressure, no harm if you go thru a learning process. Next year when everyone expects the playoffs the pressure will be much higher on the rookies.
I don't believe in them having to earn their playing time. You drafted this guy 5th, he should have a free loan of trust. Same for Goodwin. where is he gonna see minutes when our team is mid of the playoff pack to contender in the next two seasons?
I hope Hornacek just got caught up in the playoff race and is not a coach like Adelman for example that doesn't play his rookies out of principle as it seems. Apart from that and a few games where I thought he made some bad decisions super excited about the coach though, hope he will be with us for a long time.

Besides that, awesome season. I hope all the overachievers can keep it up, this will be vital for our success so we are not another Denver, or Philly (from a couple of years back) team that is on the up&up and then falls apart just one season after that.
It was super exciting to watch this team and get all emotional and even super pissed at the end of the season. I basically always watch every game and the last seasons were so agonizing and sometimes even torturous, this season was just awesome barring - shortsightedly - the outcome.
The fire is back. Gotta love it.

[RunDogGun]

Rookies earn their minutes on decent teams. We were darn close to winning 50 games this season, and Len was injured to start, and just didn't seem fully ready for the NBA.they either edge guys out of the rotation, or they don't.

[spanishninja]

To me, people can say all they want about us coming short when it counted, but the truth if not for a major Eric Bledsoe injury, we would have easily been a playoff team. We wouldn't have had to wear down the Dragon so much that he was on his last legs at the end, wouldn't have had that rough stretch in the middle of the season, and wouldn't have had such a tight margin of having to win three consecutive games against difficult opponents to get in. Of course, many teams in the west had injury problems (interestingly enough, Dallas was the healthiest team of the eight that got into the playoffs) but we did the best we could 90% of the time. Of course, being young meant that being uninspired the other 10% hurt us. None of this changed that this team vastly exceeded expectations, and made team basketball fun to watch again.

I look forward to locking down Bledsoe (or getting something equally good in return for him), resigning Green and Tucker (critics aside we need his hustle), and getting a star on the frontline to improve our chances against the likes of Griffin, Dirk, and Randolph/Gasol. That man would not be Pau, so I do not regret one bit that we didn't make a move to rent him for half a season. We will get somebody better...I have faith in McD.

[ShawnBronald]

Before last night's game I knew it was a win-win. If the Suns won, we'd have gotten a very exciting evening of basketball on Wednesday. If the cards had fallen in our favor on Wednesday, a young and very deserving team would have been playoff bound. On the other hand, with us losing, we still won. Obviously it's good to get a better draft pick, but I think this team will respond better to barely missing out on the playoffs rather than barely making it in and then, most likely, exiting early. There is no substitute for postseason minutes, but I think this team will be very hungry next season, especially when they look back and realize we have no one but ourselves to blame for not making the playoffs.

Next season, with another year of experience under everyone's belt and, hopefully, a healthy start to the season, the sky will be the limit for this team. With McDonough and Hornacek leading the charge, I have absolutely no fear going into this offseason. If McDonough can work his magic again and make the impossible possible..... look out!

This season was probably the most fun I've had watching Suns' basketball. The Barkley era was great and the Nash era was entertainment at it's best, but there was something about this year's squad that was just plain fun. It made me remember why I loved Suns basketball. I can only imagine what excitement next season will bring.

[TheXgasm]

I'm pretty torn.

On the one hand, this group of misfits and outcasts that was supposed to be a horrid wretch of a team was instead a feared, blazing force that was a few close games or an Eric Bledsoe knee and a Dragic ankle away from making noise in the playoffs. There's now hope in palm tree paradise, where once there was only despair in a desert wasteland, there's a great new coach and a slew of young players itching for success, with a GM that obviously has a plan, and that's encouraging.

On the other hand...at the beginning of the season, we all thought they would tank, and we wondered if they might tank purposely. No one expected playoffs, but there were a lot of people scared that this team would try its hardest and end up just making their draft pick worse without making the playoffs. That seemed unlikely, because we all thought they sucked, but still, that was the worst case scenario: no playoffs, bad draft pick.

And then that happened.

Granted, it happened in a completely different way than anyone imagined, and I'd love to think that because it happened the way it did that we're not doomed to toil in mediocrity forever, but I don't know if we're really a great young team about to take another step, or if we're just a mediocre young team that plays with flash. I know what I hope, but I also know this was the absolute worst thing we could imagine, and here we are: the 14th pick, no playoffs.

In then end, I love my Suns too much to be so negative, but there's that nagging feeling in the back of my head asking: Is this really a good thing?

Oh well. Fun season Suns, and I hope it gets better next year.

[WeekapaugGroove]

Super enjoyable team to follow this year; I had a blast.

Still a lot of work to be done to get them in the elite league but I feel really good about the management and coaching infrastructure.

Sent from my SM-N900V using RealGM Forums mobile app

[Jdiddy701]

We'll be in next year even with the same roster. I think the NBA might change how the teams get in.

[mybloodisorange]

Love the GM, love the coach, love the players, love the cap flexibility, love the draft picks! So much to love about this team

[JazzMatt13]

I think they should do a tournament for the top 3 picks.

Suns should be treated with a reward for the hard work. I hate to think Philly, the most pathetic team in NBA history, is going to be rewarded with a potential top 3 pick for losing 2 months in a row, and making their fans sick to their stomaches, while Suns even made believers of people not in Arizona. I loved this team and coach, if I didn't have 20 years of Jazz fandom, I would have switch teams in a second. I said earlier in season that you got everyone I wanted, Hornacek for HC, Bledsoe, Len, Plumlee, Goodwin, and Dragic, all guys I wanted on my team at one point or another.

The bottom 14 should be in a bracket with #14 getting best position. But instead of just fighting for position in draft, they should offer some kind of reward to the team and organization, so that players aren't just playing for a player who might take their job. But then people would probably tank out of playoffs at last second to go into the draft playoffs.

[DRK]

Well I just got a good night's sleep, and the pain hasnt gone away. It hurts, man...

[Marz11]

The odds should be shortened in regards to lottery picks. It is too big of an incentive to lose at the moment and several teams this season have been a farce.

Good luck to them in turning around the losing culture that they have created.

This has been one of the most enjoyable seasons as a Suns fan ever and that includes the deep play off runs.

[mixerball]

This team will forever be in my heart. The team everyone expected to be last in the Western Conference, has proved everyone wrong. We have demanded the respect of the league with our play.

Nobody, not even myself believed in us, but yet our team did. And we fought tooth and nail to the end.

To this team, and to everyone who has made this season so great, no matter how heartbreaking it is now,

Thank you.

Basketball is alive and back in Phoenix. Lets get it Next Season!

well, you said they didnt deserve to be in the playoffs and now you got your wish. i kid, i kid.

and1´d ya

[NaturalBuns]

Did anyone watch the post game after the final game?
The video with Bledsoe, dragic, tucker, Morris, green and even Jeff reading off all the things said about them
It was a sick video I wish it was online =/

[Marz11]

You mean all the negative things at the start of the season?