It doesn't take an NBA "expert" to see that the Phoenix Suns are going no where fast. But when ESPN's Chad Ford and John Hollinger released their future power rankings, they weren't particularly kind to the valley of the sun's aging franchise.
The duo ranked the Suns second to last out of all 30 NBA franchises in their ESPN Insider article that projected "the on-court success expected for each team in the 2012-13, 2013-14, and 2014-15 seasons." And apparently, these two sportstradamuses have seen this dramatic drop-off coming from quite some time:
Our rankings have been really effective in predicting the rise of certain teams like the Pacers. It's also been strongly predictive of the catastrophic fall of a few teams like the Suns, who have slipped again from 26th to 29th this time.
Ford and Hollinger were most critical of the Suns management ranking them dead last out every team in the NBA. Not that it comes to a shock to any Planet Orange supporter over the past half a decade but here's the harsh words they had to say about Suns owner Robert Sarver:
Sarver's bumbling over the past few years has caused us to rank the Suns' management 30th in the league. Yes, we think even Minnesota's David Kahn and Glen Taylor could do this better. That's saying something.
Yes, you read that correctly. David Kahn (A.K.A. KHAAAAAAN!). And just to clue those in who aren't following, as an NBA executive, you never want your name in the same breath as Kahn's unless the sentence is as follows: "Hey, way not to pull a Kahn."
The state of the franchise summary surprisingly wasn't all negative though. Ford and Hollinger were kind to the Suns in their projected salary-cap situation (8th best) and market (10th best) rankings as well as putting them 5th in their future draft rankings (mostly due to the high number of lottery balls they will most likely amass in the impending seasons). The analysts also ended their brief write up by giving one final glimmer of hope saying that the Suns should have enough cap room to sign "at least on significant free-agent" this upcoming summer.
Other than that, it wasn't pretty. But hey, at least Phoenix isn't home to the Bobcats right? Right...?