The Suns Lost Their Preseason Opener To The Adelaide 36ers Of The NBL (The Australian League)

Kate Frese. Getty Images.

YIKES.

Since the clock hit 0.0 in Game 7 against the Mavs and the Suns season ended, things have not exactly gone what I would call….great. It started with the restricted free agency of Deandre Ayton. The Suns made it clear they didn't want to pay him by not giving him that early extension, he hit the market and the Pacers were able to open up enough space to offer him a max deal that the Suns were sort of bullied into matching so that they wouldn't lose the player for nothing. 

Then came the Robert Sarver ordeal which is certainly a distraction. When the best player on the team is tweeting out about how badly the NBA screwed up his punishment and then a few weeks later he's ultimately forced to sell the team, things aren't great. Then Jae Crowder decided to hold out of camp and demand a trade all because he didn't want to come off the bench in favor of the Suns starting Cam Johnson, who is a better player. 

Then we got to training camp and we learned that Deandre Ayton and Monty Williams haven't even said a word to each other since their Game 7 drama, which also isn't the best look considering one guy is the young franchise center and the other is the head coach. Even before we saw the Suns play a second of basketball, there was drama everywhere you looked.

Enter last night.

To kick off their preseason, the Suns had a date with the Adelaide 36ers of the NBL down in Australia. They haven't won an NBL title since 2001-02 and don't beat yourself up if you've never heard of them before. The point is, this was supposed to be a nice little easy tune up game for the Suns who have been arguably one of the best teams in the NBA over the last two seasons. It felt like in college football when a team pays a school to come play. If you win, it's whatever. But if you lose? Well then things become more of a disaster. There's no way the Suns would lose this game right?

What if I told you they didn't just lose it, they got their asses kicked

it's not like the Suns sat guys either. All their main guys played and saw legit minutes

so to give up 134 points, at home, against a team that isn't even in the NBA is not exactly how you want to kick your season off. If nothing else, it's just very embarrassing. Not to take anything away from the 36ers who played out of their mind, but this is the Suns we're talking about here. A team that would go months last year without losing 2 games. They were elite on both ends of the floor and looked like a well-oiled machine every time they took the floor. That was NOT the case last night.

You never want to put too much stock into a single preseason game, but it does plant that seed of uncertainty when it comes to this team and their ability to block out all the drama. Once the season starts they'll be facing teams much better than the 36ers on a nightly basis. Who knows, maybe this is the type of performance that snaps you out of whatever funk you're in and reminds you that just because you're the Suns it's not like you can just show up and automatically win. But unless this team figures out their shit on the defensive end, I'm not sure anything else matters. They weren't even bad offensively but when you're giving up 134 points and allowing 24 3PM, that's not going to cut it on any level. 

The concerning part for me if I was a Suns fan would be that most of the damage came from the guard spots. Chris Paul and Devin Booker were in hell all night long. I would hope that was just them not really trying in the preseason because the alternative is not something that screams future success in a tough Western Conference. I suppose the only person on the Suns who was happy with how things went yesterday was maybe Jae Crowder, especially since Cam Johnson only went 2-7 (0-4) in his 22 minutes. Their game last night certainly helps his case that he should be the starting four, but my guess is that bridge has been burned given what Crowder has pulled this summer.

Maybe one day we'll look back at this loss and laugh because it ultimately meant nothing. That's certainly possible. But it's also possible that this is an early warning signs of things maybe not being as smooth sailing as they have been the last two years in PHX. If you are a supposed contender like they are, you can't be losing at home to a non NBA team while giving up 134 points. I don't care if the games are fake. That's pretty embarrassing.