Phoenix Suns

The 2019-20 Phoenix Suns season can be defined by the fact that the Suns won more than 24 games for the first time in five years, and by the fact that the Suns went undefeated in the bubble.

What did we learn?

The Phoenix Suns are no longer the punching bag of the Western Conference!

Deandre Ayton’s 25-game PED suspension at the beginning of the season was quite the bummer, however, it unlocked something special: The most spacing that Devin Booker has ever had to work with. Head coach Monty Williams inserted newly acquired Aron Baynes into the lineup in place of Ayton. Baynes, a center capable of knocking down the 3-ball, was positioned along the perimeter opening up the paint and opening up s p a c e.

More space equaled more cookouts with Book! Devin Booker finished the season with 28 games with 30 or more points. Book posted almost identical per game numbers to the season prior, but his percentages and efficiency were the highest of his career. Book was selected to his first All-Star Game and deservedly so.

Also newly acquired last off season, Ricky Rubio a.k.a. The Spanish Samurai, handled the ball as the main point guard, alleviating ball-handling and play-making duties that Book was previously required to burden. Rubio averaged 8.8 assists per game, the most since his last season in Minnesota back in 2016-17.

Kelly Oubre Jr. played the best basketball of his career, posting career-highs in points per game, minutes per game and three-point percentage. Oubre (a.k.a. Tsunami Papi!) of course also regularly brought us the thunderous power dunks, constantly head-bobbin’ and flexin’ on ‘em.

Baynes bombing 3’s + cookouts with Book + Rick Rubio running the show + power dunking Kelly =

OUR SUNS!!!

We were enthralled by this reiteration of the Suns, redolent of past league pass teams that aren’t particularly great but a helluva lot of fun to watch. Our Suns played polished team ball. Our Suns played together. Our Suns finished with the second highest assist percentage in the NBA.

Our Suns also had rookie Cam Johnson knocking down 39% of his threes on 4.8 attempts per game and the long-limbed Mikal Bridges roaming on D.

The problem with our Suns was that Baynes dealt with injuries and was banged up often, missing a total of 31 games.

The solution, however, was the bubble. Many believed (including us) that it made no sense for the Phoenix Suns to travel down to Orlando to participate in the eight seeding games. We were all proven wrong by the Bubble Suns who ran the motherfuckin’ table, going an astonishing 8-0 which included a Devin Booker game-winning fadeaway buzzer beater over both Kawhi and Paul George.

Despite going undefeated in the bubble, the Suns did not make the playoffs, losing out on a tiebreaker to the Blazers.

But that’s okay, because they were OUR Suns!!!

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What are the answers to our Season Preview Final Questions?

Will we see Los Suns: Lineup de el Blanco?  Tyler Johnson, Ty Jerome, Dario Saric, Frank Kaminsky, and Aron Baynes.  Wait, that lineup kinda works out positionally!

We see no evidence that this five-man lineup ever made it on the court together. It’s probably for the best.

Can Booker and Ayton develop their two-man game to the next step with Rubio’s and Monty’s help?

Yes, Booker and Ayton did develop their two-man game to the next step with the help of Rick Rubio and Monty Williams.

The five-man lineup of Rubio, Oubre, Booker, Bridges and Ayton played 226 minutes together with an astounding net rating of +20.2, a staggering Offensive Rating of 121.6 and stout defensive rating of 101.4.

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Would our preseason Over/Under prediction have hit?

The Suns will be a lot more fun than they are good.  UNDER 29.5 wins.  (36% winning pct)

Suns 2019-20 final record: (34-39)  47% winning pct

NOPE, our preseason Over/Under prediction, in fact, did not hit.  The Suns achieved their 30th win on August 6th in the bubble. But they were even more fun than we imagined!

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What’s Next?

• Carry the momentum from the bubble into the 2021 season. 

• No suspension for Ayton, please!

• Get Tsunami Papi healthy!!

• Re-sign Aron Baynes!!!

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Favorite Suns Highlight from the 2019-20 Season:

#BeLegendary pic.twitter.com/N2ZjlTLuc6

— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) August 4, 2020

Washington Wizards

The 2019-20 Washington Wizards season can be defined by the fact that Bradley Beal actually signed his contract extension, $72 million for two years to align the duration of his contract with John Wall’s.

What did we learn?

We shouted it from the mountaintops: THE WIZARDS GET INTO SOME HIGH SCORING AFFAIRS!!!

Just look at this shit:

• 158-159

• 133-140

• 138-132

• 140-132

• 125-150

• 133-119

• 133-152

• 131-151

• 126-133

Those are final scores to Wizards games and not one of those games went into Overtime.

For the first month of the season, the Wiz had the NBA’s second most efficient offense. They slowly but surely dropped to a middling 16th, but they ended the season with the 7th highest points per game average in the NBA. As you can imagine, the Wizards defensive rating on the other hand was at the bottom of the league the entire year, finishing second to last and just by 0.1 over the league-worst Cavs. A high-octane fast-paced offense (5th in Pace) put together with a Swiss cheese defense is a peculiar concoction.

How did the Wizards have such a good offense and score so many points?

His name is Bradley Beal. Around here, we call him Blue Panda.

We knew that Brad Beal is the real deal. But we did not know that he would take his game to another level, averaging 30.5 points, 6.1 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game as the Wizards main scorer, distributor and defender. Beal averaged 36 minutes per game for the third straight season and posted the highest usage rate of his career at 34.4 percent. We can’t deny that Beal’s stellar defense slipped a bit this season, but we think it’s understandable given the max effort that Blue Panda was required to exert on offense. Beal was robbed by being left out of the All-Star Game and he was slighted again by not being selected to All-NBA. Expect Bradley Beal to play with an even bigger chip on his shoulder next season. You better watch the fuck out for Blue Panda.

The biggest help for Beal this season came in the form of sharp-shooting big man Davis Bertans a.k.a. The Latvian Laser. Bertans shot a remarkable 42.4 percent on three-pointers while averaging 8.7 three-point attempts per game, both of which are top-10 marks in the entire NBA.

Rui Hachimura (a.k.a. Japanese Jordan!) had a solid rookie campaign, achieving a Second Team All-Rookie selection. Some have questioned how high of a ceiling Hachimura actually has, yet Rui has only been playing basketball since he was 14 years old. Rui is just 22, we are down to give him some time.

We really hoped that he would, but Isaiah Thomas did not find his 2016-17 magic as a Wizard. Not at all. IT was eventually traded before the deadline. (Update: IT had hip surgery back in May and says he’s finally pain free for the first time three years.)

The Wizards trip down to Disney World to play in the bubble was not glamorous. Without Beal and Bertans, who did not make the Disney trek, the Bubble Wiz lost every game save for their last against the Celtics B-squad.

Even though the bubble was not a success for the Wiz, this season still was because Blue Panda is staying in D.C. (for now).

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What are the answers to our Season Preview Final Questions?

Who is going to trade for Bradley Beal?  Our preferred Blue Panda destination is Denver, but Beal would be a perfect fit pretty much anywhere.

Bradley Beal was NOT traded and actually signed a two-year contract extension. However, Blue Panda oftentimes looked like this:

The Wizards have stated they have no intentions of trading Beal, and Beal in return has said he and John Wall are looking forward to playing with each other again.

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Would our preseason Over/Under prediction have hit?

We are not thinking twice about UNDER 27.5 wins.  (34% winning pct)

Wizards 2019-20 final record: (25-47)  35% winning pct

Nope, our preseason Over/Under prediction most likely would not have hit.  The Wizards needed just 3 more wins to hit the Over.

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What’s Next?

• John Wall back!? How will Wall look after all of his injuries? How will Wall look next to the newest and greatest version of Bradley Beal? Wall has said that while watching Beal’s rise to stardom up close and in person, he is going to mold his game to fit alongside Blue Panda upon his return. We love the sound of that.

• Re-sign the Latvian Laser! Getting Bertans back on this roster is a no brainer and should be Priority 1.

• Bubble bright spots for the Wiz were Thomas Bryant and Troy Brown Jr., both of whom played some pretty good bubble ball.

• We are high on Garrison Mathews, who the Wiz also need to bring back to D.C. Garrison shot 41.3 percent from 3 and looked like he can actually play some beneficial help defense.

• The Wizards roster is currently lacking the prototypical 3 and D, long and athletic, versatile and switchable players that are imperative in today’s game.

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Favorite Wizards Highlight from the 2019-20 Season:

BRADLEY BEAL 😱 pic.twitter.com/eBOQzSUZ3H

— NBA TV (@NBATV) February 22, 2020

Blue Panda power dunk on Big Penguin!

i cant stop thinking about bradley beal’s joker costume pic.twitter.com/Ks12JjzXs6

— whitney medworth (@its_whitney) October 29, 2019