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Chad Ford and John Hollinger put together a rating of how bright the future looks for all of the league's teams (taking into consideration future cap space, draft positioning, management, players, etc.) and the Suns are ranked 27th. Yikes. Here's their summary:

"Of all the teams we ranked, the Suns were the ones that caused the biggest double-take between us. The Suns have the 27th-brightest future? Really?

Isn't this the team that led the mighty Western Conference in 2008? Aren't they once again leading the West at the moment? Don't they still have superstars Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire? Are things really so bad?

Yeah, things are bad.

Let's go right to the roster that's been one of the NBA's best for the past five seasons. For starters, Nash and Stoudemire have big asterisks next to their names. Nash turns 36 in February and Stoudemire, coming off serious eye surgery, can be an unrestricted free agent next summer. The rest of their core includes 37-year-old Grant Hill, Jason Richardson (29 in January) and sixth man Leandro Barbosa (already 27 later this month). Youngsters Earl Clark and Robin Lopez have potential but so far are role players at best.

While owner Robert Sarver has shown a willingness to spend at times during his confusing tenure, the signs in that department are discouraging as well. Lately the Suns have looked to cut costs, and in doing so have shipped out both Shawn Marion and Shaquille O'Neal while shopping Stoudemire. (That's not to mention their maddening policy of selling draft picks rather than restocking with young, inexpensive talent.) All in all, the Sarver administration has squandered an opportunity to make the Suns the league's marquee franchise and instead made them a team trying to avoid a second straight appearance in the lottery.

Steve Kerr's tenure has been noteworthy mostly for his shocking and semi-disastrous acquisition of Shaq, though he has since reversed course and reconstructed a running team. And the departure of Mike D'Antoni further hurts the Suns' score in the management category, even if Alvin Gentry has succeeded in restoring the Suns' speed game.

The draft won't help either, at least in the short term: Oklahoma City owns the Suns' 2010 first-round pick.

The bright side for the Suns is that players have shown a lot of interest in playing in Phoenix in the past, and the Suns will have some salary-cap space in 2011 if they don't re-sign Stoudemire. But most signs at the moment point to Sarver putting the savings into his pocket, not his roster."

lol well screw the future, I'm living in the now!

Blah, blah, blah.

Nothing we don't already know.

None of it is wrong, of course. The Suns are looking fine early on, but they look like a hallmark D'Antoni team.

5th in offense, 18th in defense, 2nd in pace. 10th in SRS is the big difference. In 04-05, they were 2nd, with nearly double the SRS margin and were still better the year after. Of course, they also had Marion instead of Grant Hill. Better again in 06-07 and again in 07-08.

The differences aren't huge, mainly in the SRS margin and in defensive efficiency. The latter can be attributed to having a 6'7 wing who can guard anything from the 1 to the 4 and who roamed like some kind of sneaky, athletic monster. The other parts can be attributed to Nash feeding that same monster on the break while also working with Amare.

I don't think Gentry is doing anything overtly special here; maybe a little more creative offensively because the Suns don't have the full range of tools, but this team isn't performing at a level that sets it apart from its previous incarnations (a little worse, actually, which I suppose should be a credit to the current coach).

I like Channing Frye's contributions so far, though his specific efficiency rate will drop.

Richardson has looked awesome so far, but there's no way on God's Green Earth he'll keep shooting 58% from downtown on over 6 attempts a game. When that drops, Phoenix will go from 5th in offensive efficiency to 7th or 8th. Improved free throw shooting from some of the other guys will bump that back up a bit, but the Suns are playing WAY over their heads on a hot streak right now.

This level of offense cannot be maintained, even by a team stacked with elite three-point shooters. Richardson takes something near 50% of his overall attempts from downtown which is why he's performing so well right now; when those go away, his overall efficacy plummets because he doesn't draw fouls and can't do much of anything creative offensively. He'll probably shoot a 48/40 on the season, likely bumping his FT% up to 75% or so over time.

But yeah, the early success is awesome, though it is somewhat deceptive.

Yes, this owner/management team has done a poor job at looking at the future and focusing on the long term success rather than just the short term. That's why we better enjoy this season (and maybe the next) because we won't be competitive for long (unless we make a big free agent acquisition or two).

I'm surprised they weren't 30.

In a way this can be good (as long as they keep their draft picks) it may be painful for some people a first few years but I actually enjoy tanking so I'd have no problem with the Suns doing it to get some good young talent.

Ok let's look at it like this, worst case scenario. Nash and Hill retire in 2012, Amare walks, J-Rich walks in 2011.

That leaves a 30 year old Barbosa along with Dragic, Lou, Dudley, Lopez and Clark. Now unless Clark develops into one of the best players in this draft which I think he can be you're not telling me this is the worst team in the league? Even along with J-Rich he's going to be 31 and will probably start slowing down with his athleticism.

I know the Suns don't have their pick this season so I'm all for them having one last great season and making another run in the playoffs but after this season they really should think about tanking.

By the way who came in after the Suns between 27-30? Is it possible to post the full rankings.

MaryvalesFinest wrote:I know the Suns don't have their pick this season so I'm all for them having one last great season and making another run in the playoffs but after this season they really should think about tanking.

That's for the best; Suns fans deserve one more hurrah before Sarver completes his dismantling of the team and sells everything off so the franchise doesn't burn his pockets anymore.

Here's the list of teams (I won't post the summaries, since it's all Insider):

1. Portland Trailblazers
2. Orlando Magic
3. Los Angeles Lakers
4. Oklahoma City Thunder
5. Miami Heat
6. Utah Jazz
7. Chicago Bulls
8. San Antonio Spurs
9. Cleveland Cavaliers
10. Denver Nuggets
11. Los Angeles Clippers
12. Boston Celtics
13. New Jersey Nets
14. Houston Rockets
15. Detroit Pistons
16. Toronto Raptors
17. Dallas Mavericks
18. Atlanta Hawks
19. Philadelphia 76ers
20. Indiana Pacers
21. New York Knicks
22. Minnesota Timberwolves
23. New Orleans Hornets
24. Washington Wizards
25. Memphis Grizzlies
26. Golden State Warriors
27. Phoenix Suns
28. Sacramento Kings
29. Milwaukee Bucks
30. Charlotte Bobcats

Toronto should be lower than 16th...

I stopped paying attention after they put the Blazers and number 1......they'll give us a run for our money for the 6th seed in the west.

Get Nashty wrote:I stopped paying attention after they put the Blazers and number 1......they'll give us a run for our money for the 6th seed in the west.

This is ranking for the future, not necessarily for this season. Roy, Oden and a lot of other intriguing talent locked up cheap for a while is definitely a strong future.

Yes, keep in mind that these rankings basically reflect how "bright" the future is for these teams in 2010, 2011, and 2012.

Also, they include a lot of variables, such as where all of the 2010 free agents land.

Get Nashty wrote:I stopped paying attention after they put the Blazers and number 1......they'll give us a run for our money for the 6th seed in the west.

Not sure how anyone could argue that the Blazers don't have the brightest future: really young superstar in Roy who's locked up for a long time, really young (potentially) great talent in Aldridge, Oden, Batum, Bayless, Webster, etc. A saavy intelligent GM in Pritchard, an owner willing to spend a ton of money in Allen, a rabid fanbase. Lots to like.

Future rankings are stupid. Everything can change in a single off season. The celtics a couple years ago traded away their future for the now.

Speaking of the celtics, Rondo makes them 12th?

I'm not wild about this report. The Suns are underrated for sure.

First of all, I hate how they say players are ALREADY 27. As long as Barbs doesn't lose his step/speed too much after the next 5 years, I see no reason why he can't be in the league for at least another 10 years. The same goes for JRich - if we do hold on to him, I would prefer to say that he's ONLY 29.

Next, failing to mention Dudley, Dragic AND Lou as the "rest of our core" is a blatant oversight. They are all young-ish and IMO should be considered long-term rotation players.

Heck, Dragic could even be an eventual replacement for Nash. I won't count my chickens before they hatch but we have a cheap backup PG who has a shot at being a future starter? Not exactly a bleak outlook at the PG spot.

And as for Amar'e, if we think he is worth what he is demanding we will re-sign him. If we don't, we will replace him. I don't see how that is such a big deal.\

They also fail to hone in on some positives. Frye could possibly be a long-term solution, and he is not wildly underpaid regardless of what some of us thought after he had 2 good games. Clark and Lopez are very young and very unproven - I see each as having a shot at becoming solid rotation players in the next 2 seasons.

I put us ahead of:
13. New Jersey Nets
14. Houston Rockets
15. Detroit Pistons
16. Toronto Raptors
17. Dallas Mavericks
18. Atlanta Hawks
19. Philadelphia 76ers
20. Indiana Pacers
21. New York Knicks
22. Minnesota Timberwolves
23. New Orleans Hornets
24. Washington Wizards
25. Memphis Grizzlies
26. Golden State Warriors

If someone wants me to explain why we are ahead of any of those teams then say the word.

Guys, we should expect this kind of criticism. Nobody is ever going to give the Suns credit for anything. There will always be a reason why we are doing well, sometimes it will be because the teams we play are in a slump or are missing key players ect,ect,ect................ This kind of lack of respect does not even surprise me anymore. When we first brought excitement back to the game in 04-05 we got nothing but criticism, it was a fluke, they can't win playing that style of basketball. But if you listen to them talk now and how they compare this years team to back then all you hear is how that team back then was an elite team, but at the time they wouldn't give us any respect for it. All you hear is a bunch of stat crunching trying to find trends in the stats to back up their claims that the Suns are no good and are playing above themselves. The problem with that is there are no stats to measure the heart and desire of a team, no stats to measure the level of chemistry that any one particular team has and no stat to measure how a "team" will fare as a whole. Yes we have a couple superstars on our team, but our succes is not solely based on just their performance, we do not depend on just one or two players. On any given night one of 5 or 6 players can have superb night and carry the load, but most often it will be the balance scoring of all our parts. We are averageing 5 to 6 players in double figure scoring every night. Our defense is much improved, but because we don't have big name or at least known defensive players on our team there is no way in their eyes that we could be a good defensive team. I guess we will just continue to let them say what they want and let our play speak for itself.......

I think that the predictions fail to include the city into the equation. Phoenix has always been a popular destination for free agents and should continue to be. There's a reason Phoenix has been in the playoffs 18 out of the last 21 seasons. Maybe the future isn't that promising as far as being an elite team much longer but they will never be a bottom feeder for a prolonged period of time because players want to play here.

Yeah the ratings are dumb. How we're below Golden State, i have no idea. Despite Sarver having a reputation as being "cheap" I think he's also prideful and will refuse to let Phoenix be a bottom-dwelling team as long as he owns them.