The Suns spent 47 million annual salary, why did the "Big Three" become a laughing stock
At the start of the 2024 NBA season, the Phoenix Suns made a big splash in the free agent market, signing Stephen Curry, one of the league's top stars today, with a staggering $47 million annual salary. With the addition of Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, the Suns have thus assembled a "Big Three" lineup that is considered unmatched. The season started with a staggering record - the Suns won just five of their first 20 games of the new season and finished bottom of the West.
Why is this "super team" with high hopes so bad? We have to admit that the Suns are seriously lacking in interior strength. Despite boasting three top scorers, their serious flaws on the defensive end of the interior were ruthlessly exposed by their opponents. In a game against the Nuggets, the Suns were slashed by Nikola Jokic for 48 points inside. There is also a certain conflict in the attacking style of the Big Three. Curry and Durant are both excellent shooters, but Booker prefers to drive to the basket as a point guard. The lack of chemistry and chemistry between the trio led to inefficiency on the offensive end.
We must look squarely at the inherent flaws of the "Big Three" model itself. Historically, there have been few successful cases of this type of lineup formation. The 2008 Celtics Big Three Garnett Pierce Alonzo Mourning and the 2017 Warriors Curry Durant Thompson both had some success, but both won only one championship. Moreover, the Big Three of these two teams are of similar age, while the age gap between the three Suns is large, and the degree of tacit understanding between each other will naturally be affected.
Another issue that cannot be ignored is that the Suns have paid too much price when assembling this luxury roster. In order to free up enough salary space to sign Curry, they had to give up a number of important bench players. At the moment, the Suns have a serious lack of bench depth, and if the main team is injured or their form declines, the team's overall strength will suffer a heavy blow.
With such a bad start, how can the Suns' coaching staff and management save themselves? One view is that the team will need to make changes to the roster before the trade deadline to bolster the interior and add bench depth. But another voice suggests that the Suns should give the "Big Three" more time to grind in, after all, the season has just begun. Either way, the Suns are under tremendous pressure, and the highly-anticipated "superteam" has now become the laughing stock of the league.