Eric Bledsoe says Suns are targeting high playoff spot
There's no understating the competitiveness of the vaunted Western Conference.
The top half of the West is the NBA's most exclusive club, where heavyweights like the Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies, and Los Angeles Clippers are expected to duke it out for supremacy over the conference.
However, Eric Bledsoe says the Phoenix Suns are looking to punch above their weight and crash the party.
"We're definitely trying to make a run at a playoff spot. We're not trying to get the last spot, either," Bledsoe told Shane Dale of ABC 15. "We’re trying to get a high spot. We’re definitely looking forward to it."
"We've definitely got a great group of guys," Bledsoe said. "Everybody's been putting in work this summer, and you can see it in pickup. We’ve been playing a lot of pickup games … and it's been fun."
The Suns are a talented bunch, but they haven't made the playoffs since 2010, when Steve Nash was their floor general. Making the jump from the 10th seed to the top of the conference will be extremely difficult.
The Suns came close with a 48-win campaign two years ago, but their implosion last year forced them to retool the team's core.
To their credit, the team quickly rebounded and made a series of moves to upgrade their roster this summer. They nabbed Tyson Chandler to shore up their defense and signed a handful of useful role players in an attempt to rebuild around Bledsoe and backcourt partner Brandon Knight.
Luck wasn't on the Suns' side last season, as they inexplicably lost five games at the buzzer, but if everything comes together this time around, they could become a dark horse playoff contender.
However, the Suns' season could be undone by Markieff Morris' displeasure. The power forward was extremely unsatisfied with the way the Suns went about trading his twin brother, Marcus Morris, and demanded a trade. The request reportedly fell on deaf ears, but it won't be easy to deal with Morris' discontent in the locker room.
The rub for Phoenix is it badly needs Morris to solidify its frontcourt. Morris is the team's only viable starter at power forward and he's arguably its second-best player behind Bledsoe. Without Morris, or a suitable facsimile at power forward, the Suns would be left with a big hole to fill.
In short, Bledsoe and the Suns are decent and should be better than they were a season ago, but they're heavy underdogs in their bid for a high playoff seed in the West.
- With h/t to Eye on Basketball