The NBA took a giant step closer to returning on Tuesday, with the Boston Celtics having their media day ahead of the 2024-25 season. The Denver Nuggets will be up next, before every other franchise - including the Phoenix Suns - unofficially begin their own campaigns nearly next week.
The Celtics are no immediate threat to the Suns - they compete in different conferences after all - and there's a gauntlet that must be gotten through before these Suns can even entertain a trip to the NBA Finals. Given they couldn't win a single game in the playoffs last time out, that ultimate goal still seems pretty far away.
But there's still lots the Suns can take from the defending champs at media day.
The makeup of the two rosters might seem different on paper - but if you look more closely - there are similarities. The Celtics obviously have the deeper bench, but both boast two superstars and a third star - Bradley Beal and Kristaps Porzingis - who are never too far away from their next stint on the treatment table.
3. Be vocal about their bench
If there is one area the Suns did improve this offseason, it was with the addition of legitimate NBA players to the middle of their roster. After Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, Jusuf Nurkic and Beal, the organization can now call upon Tyus Jones, Mason Plumlee and even Monte Morris alongside returning role players Grayson Allen, Royce O'Neale and Josh Okogie.
The Suns also have two rookies in Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro who will be looking for minutes, while Damion Lee returns after missing all of last season with a knee injury. Oh, and Bol Bol is back in The Valley too. Some of these guys won't stick and will fall out of the rotation, but this team now needs to be as vocal about their bench and depth as Jaylen Brown was about the Celtics' own depth.
We're not sure why Brown singled out the Detroit Pistons as the inferior team he wants to see his own bench unit beat up on, but that kind of confidence - which is certainly bordering on arrogant - is something the Suns have been sorely missing. They've got Durant and Booker, yet we've never really seen a swagger and presence about this group for a sustained period of time.
It's not that we want the Suns to call out the Portland Trail Blazers and tell them that O'Neale and Allen combined are going to drop 50 on them on a random Thursday night in November. But believing in the role players - and letting them have their moments throughout the regular season against certain opponents - is certainly something the Suns should be looking at doing more of.
2. Age is just a number
There's no doubt that center Al Horford is incredibly important to what the Celtics do. Last season he came off the bench, but also slotted into the starting lineup when Porzingis was out injured. In total he started 33-of-65 games played, at 26.8 minutes per night.
In the playoffs those numbers rose to starting 15-of-19 games en route to his first ever championship, with his minutes jumping to 30.3 per game too. Horford revealed at Celtics' media day that he has no plans to retire just yet, and he is going to be one of their more important players again as they defend the chip. All of which is to say, why all the doom and gloom about the Suns' ages?
Durant is about to be 36-years-old - and while there's no question his workload is much bigger than Horford's - he looked amazing last year. Talk of this being his last elite season looks wide of the mark right now, and really the Suns need to stop worrying about age and injuries, and just let these guys cook.
Yes Nurkic has had his fair share of injuries, but he's still only 30 and played a team-high 76 games last season. Beal is only 31, the same age as O'Neale. Jones is 28-years-old, while Allen is only turning 29 at the beginning of October. Booker hasn't even turned 28 himself yet, and he's their best player. This group is not as old and creaky as many think, just let them run and play.
1. Slights as motivation
Celtics' superstar Jayson Tatum was open and insightful when speaking to the media, and revealed his head coach Joe Mazzulla was delighted he didn't win Finals MVP and was benched down for the most important moments of Team USA's gold medal run at the Paris Olympics. Booker getting the nod over him to close out those games. The reason?
So that Tatum could use that as motivation to be even better this coming season. It speaks volumes of the mentality of Mazzulla and his team that winning it all - while the ultimate goal - is now in the past. It is time to do scale the mountain again, and having a hungry Tatum is a lot better for his group than a guy who got his ring and now thinks he's made it.
The Suns also need to develop an "us against the world" mentality under head coach Mike Budenholzer, and to believe that they're being slept on an underrated. Which they are after the scolding they received from the Minnesota Timberwolves in the postseason. Most people think the top of the West will feature the Timberwolves, Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Denver Nuggets are in that mix too, while the New Orleans Pelicans and even Los Angeles Lakers are being spoken about in higher terms than the Suns. Coach Budenholzer better be sticking all of these comments on the walls of the locker-room, so that they can go out there and prove the doubters wrong like Tatum is also going to try and so this season.
