Those Wild Horny Days

[Mr Puddles]

Since expectations are low heading into next season, I wanted to draw some parallels with the 2013 season - when a young team led by rookie head coach Jeff "Horny" Hornacek turned out to be one of the biggest surprise teams in NBA history.

That teams had:

• A rookie head coach, like we have this year with Otto.
• a backcourt of two PG, vs the two SG line-up for this year's squad.
• P.J. Tucker, savy vet known as a defensive leader - some parallels can be draw with Brooks
• Plumlee, a center acquired from the Hornets - like with did this year with Williams
• Gerald Green - a super athletic guard with questionable shot selection named Green, much like Jalen Green
• Alex Len - an international center drafted in the lottery, much like Khaman Maluach
• The Morris Brothers, **** those guys I'm glad we have Dunn and Fleming instead.

Not all hope is gone and history might repeat itself.

[Saberestar]

Suns 2013/14 - Suns 2025/26

Ryan McDonough - Brian Gregory
Jeff Hornacek - Jordan Ott

Goran Dragic - Devin Booker
Eric Bledsoe - Jalen Green
P.J. Tucker - Dillon Brooks
Channing Frye - Ryan Dunn
Miles Plumlee - Mark Williams
Gerald Green - Grayson Allen
Markieff Morris - Rasheer Fleming
Marcus Morris - Royce O'Neale
Ish Smith - Collin Gillespie
*Leandro Barbosa - Nigel Hayes-Davis
Alex Len - Khaman Maluach
Archie Goodwin - Jordan Goodwin
Dionte Christmas - Jared Butler/Koby Brea
Shavlik Randolph - Oso Ighodaro
Viacheslav Kravtsov - Nick Richards

*Only half season.

[Saberestar]

Yeah, I think both rosters are pretty similar in some ways.

Alex Len had a disappointing season as a rookie and Archie Goodwin (#29) had a bigger impact than him. Maluach/Fleming/Brea has to have better rookie seasons, not that difficult to achieve it.

Miles Plumlee was the biggest surprise for me. He was super active and helped us with his defense and finishing at the rim. Mark Williams is better than him, no doubt about it, but health is the obvious concern here.

On paper we don't have anyone as good as Gerald Green coming from the bench. He was in his prime and started a good part of the season because Bledsoe's injury.

Booker is better than Dragic and I am pretty sure that Jalen can be as good as Bledoe was for us that season in his early prime.

All in all is close but I prefer 2025/26 roster. The Morris Brothers makes that 2013/14 team not that likeable for me.