NBA power rankings 2012: The Suns continue to settle toward the bottom

The Phoenix Suns continued their slide down the NBA power rankings after going 1-3 last week.

The Suns opened the season 4-4 but have gone 3-7 over their past 10 games, including losing their last three straight.

Seth Rosenthal of SB Nation viewed the Suns the highest out of most major publications, placing them at No. 24 on his latest power rankings. He cites the Suns finding themselves fighting deficits too often in games.

Anybody who's heard Walt Frazier call a basketball game knows how debilitating playing from behind can be and how it often runs you out of steam by the time the gap is nearly closed, and that's characteristic of many of the Suns' losses.

Both ESPN's Marc Stein and John Hollinger have the Suns ranked at No. 27. Stein dropped the Suns down four spots, even below 13-loss teams like the Detroit Pistons, Cleveland Cavaliers and the Toronto Raptors. Hollinger's methods use a more mathematical base for his rankings and they only dropped one spot from No. 26 last week.

NBC Sports was more forgiving of the Sun's bad week, leaving the Suns at No. 23 for the second week in a row, citing Beasley's detriment to the team.

After watching him against the Knicks Sunday, you have to wonder how long before Alvin Gentry just starts slashing Michael Beasley's minutes. Dramatically. He guns on offense, hurts them on defense.

CBS Sports sent the Suns down five spots down to No. 25, citing the failure of the Michael Beasley signing as one of the problems with the team.