Can the Suns compete for a championship next season?

In the 2021-22 NBA season, the Phoenix Suns were the best regular season team, finishing with a 64-18 record. As a result, they entered the playoffs as one of the favorites to come out of the Western Conference and win the NBA championship. However, as many of us know, that would not happen, as the Suns would shockingly fall in the second round in seven games to Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks. 

This occurred after the Suns took a 2-0 lead in the series, making it the second straight year where the Suns blew a 2-0 lead in a series and the fifth time in Chris Paul's career. The year before, the Suns had gone up 2-0 against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA Finals but would ultimately lose the next four games and fall short of winning the championship. However, heading into next season, the Suns, despite their disappointing playoff exit, are still in contention for an NBA title next year. 

Let's talk about the important players on the roster and see how the Suns can bounce back and claim the NBA championship in the 2022-23 NBA season after what happened the previous two years.

Chris Paul

At 37, Paul is still considered a top-5 point guard in the game today. However, that was not represented well in the conference semifinals last year, where he had some of the worst performances of his career. Even in Game Five, where the Suns won by 30 points, Paul only scored seven points and was not much of a factor in any areas throughout the game. 

It is evident that Paul is aging, and the Suns need to ensure that he does not have to carry much of the load when his other stars are struggling. Additionally, it is concerning that Paul will make $30 million in his age-39 season, meaning the Suns will have to bank on Chris Paul being able to produce at a championship level as he did in the 2021 playoffs. 

Devin Booker

Booker has shown that he is a star-level scorer in the regular season and the playoffs the last two seasons. After making First-Team All-NBA for the first time in his career, many people expected Booker to carry the offensive load for the Suns to make a deep postseason run. 

Booker did exactly that in the first two games of the first round, averaging 28 points on 53 percent from the field and 58 percent from three. However, in Game Two, he would go down with a hamstring injury and would miss the next three games, but the Suns would still close out the series in six games behind a monster closeout game from CP3. 

In the Mavericks series, it looked like the Suns were going to close out the series, where Booker led the team in scoring with 26.8 points per game on 48 percent from the field and 50 percent from three. However, this would not happen as Booker went on to have one of the worst games of his career in Game Seven after only scoring 19 in Game Six. After the playoffs, Booker was called out for his lack of will to win like his idol Kobe Bryant. If Booker is going to be the player that everyone is hyping him up to be, he needs to become a better defender and a more consistent scorer in the playoffs.

Deandre Ayton

After many trade rumors, Phoenix matched the Indiana Pacers' offer sheet for Ayton, a four-year deal worth $133 million. With Ayton re-signing, the concerns surrounding Ayton's performance in the playoffs will force many people to ask the question of if Ayton is worth the risk. In the 2022 playoffs as the third option, Ayton averaged 17.9 points on 64 percent shooting from the field and nine rebounds a game. While at first glance, those numbers look good, if you look at some of the guys he played against, such as Jonas Valanciunas and Doncic, you will see that they are not as impressive.

Valanciunas outrebounded Ayton by five boards a game. Doncic, four inches shorter than Ayton, averaged 10 boards per game in the second round to Ayton's 8.1. Not to mention that on defense, Ayton could not stop Doncic or anyone on the perimeter for the Mavericks as they made 109 threes in the series at a 40-percent clip. Ayton needs to improve defensively and be a consistent rebounder to help the Suns compete for a championship next year.