Phoenix Suns

Pacific Division

Phoenix Suns Power Rankings - 2012-13

Power Ranking
WEEK	RECORD	RANK	COMMENT
Week 24	24-56	26	Three straight non-playoff seasons for the first time since the 1980s. So hearing that Goran Dragic has locked up a spot on my All-Lefty first team might not bring Suns fans much comfort. Nor will coming so close to an extra lottery pick that was theirs if the Lakers had only missed the playoffs.
Week 23	23-54	28	There's actually been a worse season in the desert ... but you have to rewind all the way to the 16-66 expansion team in 1968-69. So this group goes down as the second-worst in team history and, barring a 4-0 finish, can't even match the 27 wins Phoenix notched in 1999's 50-game season.
Week 22	23-51	27	This is what you call textbook tanking: Phoenix has lost 10 of its past 11 games. The solitary victory, though, came against the Lakers. The same Lakers who happen to owe the Suns their first-round pick in the June draft, by virtue of the Steve Nash sign-and-trade, if mighty L.A. misses the playoffs.
Week 21	23-48	27	On course now to post the lowest single-season win percentage in franchise history, all Phoenix can do is root for the Lakers' woeful week to snowball into their first full-on catastrophe since the All-Star break, since the Suns get L.A.'s lottery pick if Steve Nash's new team misses the playoffs.
Week 20	22-45	27	Can't believe we forgot to mention this before but the Suns were one of only three teams -- along with playoff-chasing Dallas and playoff-bound Milwaukee -- not to send a single participant to the All-Star Game, All-Star Saturday Night or the Rising Stars game on Friday of All-Star Weekend.
Week 19	22-41	23	Saturday night's playoff-spoiler win over Houston only shed more light on how far these Suns are from Suns standards, halting a very un-Suns-like record run of 16 straight home games under 100 points. If they don't win seven more games, it'll be the worst season in Phoenix since 1987-88.
Week 18	21-39	22	Records you never thought the Suns would set: Marcin Gortat, Markieff Morris and Wesley Johnson shared team-high honors with 14 points apiece in an OT win over Minnesota. Phoenix is the first NBA team in the shot-clock era to win an overtime game without a single player scoring 15 points.
Week 17	18-39	27	The Suns are obviously prioritizing minutes for their youngsters over everything, but reuniting Marcus Morris with twin brother Markieff can't camouflage the fact that they now have as many home losses by 25 points or more this season (three) as they had in the previous 11 seasons combined.
Week 16	17-36	27	The only positivity in Phoenix stems from the prospect of a kind landing in the lottery, growth from Kendall Marshall and a long-shot grasp at hope that Michael Beasley finds consistency. The Suns' outlook, in other words, is mighty grim. (Kevin Zimmerman, Valley of the Suns)
Week 15	17-35	27	After Tuesday's wholly unexpected win in Memphis, Phoenix's week cratered from there with a loss in New Orleans, followed by away-and-home poundings from OKC to sink all the way in the West cellar. In the latter, Sunday's 69 points marked the second-lowest total in team history.
Week 14	16-32	26	Bittersweet trip for the committee (of one) to one of our absolute fave NBA cities. Loved being back in the PHX for Steve Nash's return to the desert. Hated driving through such gorgeous terrain knowing it might be months (or longer) before the Suns play a game big enough to bring us back.
Week 13	15-30	27	A turnaround by the Lakers, if that's really what we're seeing, is the last thing that the Suns were hoping to see. Because: (1) Steve Nash and Mike D'Antoni make their desert return Wednesday night and (2) Phoenix has an unprotected pick coming from L.A. that, for now, is still a lottery pick.
Week 12	13-28	29	The state of the post-Steve Nash Suns is such that Alvin Gentry has been receiving congratulations more than commiserations from peers in the coaching biz. With Kings seemingly bound for a renaissance in Seattle, Phoenix might well be the new fallen West giant with the bleakest outlook.
Week 11	13-26	26	Even the increasingly rare highs tend to remind you of the Phoenix glory days. The shocker the Suns sprung on Chicago after losing their previous 12 road games established them as the NBA's fourth-fastest franchise to 2,000 wins ... behind only the Celtics, Lakers and Sixers.
Week 10	12-23	27	If not for a shot at a Philly team in the midst of playing 10 of 11 games on the road and visiting the desert on the second night of a back-to-back after upsetting the Lakers, Phoenix might well be looking at nine consecutive L's since a four-game win streak that must feel like forever ago by now.
Week 9	11-20	26	An editor back in Bristol -- the same one obsessed with Andre Drummond -- pointed out to me that this might be the first season since the inception of the Mavericks in 1980-81 that neither Phoenix nor Dallas sees the playoffs. Just not sure why he thinks I'd lump those two teams together.
Week 8	11-17	24	The correlation will inevitably be drawn: Michael Beasley hasn't been granted more than 19 minutes in the past seven games and the Suns won four in a row in the heart of that stretch. Phoenix has been competitive all month, actually, apart from two dates with the rankings-topping Clips.
Week 7	9-15	24	Give the Suns this much: They haven't stopped scrapping for Alvin Gentry in the wake of that 40-point debacle in Detroit. The proof: Phoenix's stunning home win over Memphis marked the fifth time already this season that it managed to erase a double-digit deficit to come back and win.
Week 6	7-15	27	If anyone out there understands the Lakers' belief that Steve Nash can fix a ton, it's the Suns. They handled many high-profile departures over the years, as well as an ownership change, but relaunching post-Nash has been even harder than they thought. Tough, tough spot for Alvin Gentry.
Week 5	7-11	27	There are only three guards out there averaging at least 15 points, six assists and two steals: Chris Paul, Brandon Jennings and, yes, Goran Dragic. Something tells me, though, that Planet Orange is going to need a bigger crumb than that one to sustain itself after Detroit 117, Phoenix 77.
Week 4	6-8	23	You see the Michael Beasley crunch-time layup that wouldn't stay down in Philly? You see the reaction on the Suns' bench when it didn't stay down? Not the way they wanted to start a six- game road trip ... although none of the next three stops (Cleveland/Detroit/Toronto) is too daunting.
Week 3	4-7	25	Going 1-3 in a run of home games against Denver, Chicago and Miami -- with a detour to visit the Lakers stuffed in there -- is honestly one more win than the Suns expected. Ranking as one of two teams with five players averaging in double figures (like Utah) just isn't as fearsome as it sounds.
Week 2	3-4	23	Does erasing a 21-point deficit after a quarter to rally past Cleveland make up for the opening-night giveaway to Golden State? Tougher question: Does Marcin Gortat's start -- 12.6 ppg, 10.7 rpg and 3.9 bpg -- make you believe he can survive without Steve Nash like he vowed he would?
Week 1	1-2	27	Phoenix's unwillingness to sign Amar'e Stoudemire to a five-year max deal is looking increasingly justified. Yet any sense of Suns vindication was temporary thanks to a painful home loss to Golden State in the opener and a road collapse against Jameer-less, Hedo-less Orlando.
Preseason	0-0	24	Formerly the league's great entertainers when a certain S. Nash was at the controls, these Suns will have to be scrappy to be competitive. Maybe they can draw motivation from the fact so few folks on the outside think they can rise, post-Nash, out of the 20s.
Training Camp	33-33	24	Did the Suns hang onto Steve Nash too long? Definitely. Did they spin out of Nash's emotional defection to the hated Lakers about as well as they possibly could by signing All-Lefty Team aspirant Dragic and snagging Scola on an amnesty waiver claim? This desert lover hopes so.