I don’t think a lot of people realize that Villanova has become the Golden State Warriors of college basketball. Any team would be wise to stock up on Villanova upper classmen since they would have 2–4 years of experience in a system so many teams are trying to copy.
Phoenix will have a lethal scorer in Booker (21), and two big switchable, rim running wings in Jackson (21) and Bridges (21), and Ayton (19) as a young core.
Then, it’s just a question of finding the missing piece.
They can go big and defensive with Chriss (20), try to stretch the floor with Bender (20), or use their second best scorer with Warren (24).
Or, they try to go small and find the right point guard (Okobo?) to play defense and share ball handling duties with Booker.
If you’re wrong about Ayton, and I think you are, this could become a playoff team in a couple of years.
Besides the Warriors and Rockets, I don’t see one Western Conference team as a sure thing going forward.
The Jazz will be good, but aside from Mitchell they don’t have one good player under 25 who has any foreseeable upside. New Orleans will have Anthony Davis (I hope for their sake) and nobody else under 25 to improve the team. Portland looks like they are ready to implode. And Minnesota cannot survive Thibodeau’s horrendous time management and the Wiggins contract. Denver will never play defense. The Clippers are becoming the Clippers again, even tarnishing the legacy of the Logo. Memphis and Sacramento look like lottery teams. Even San Antonio, without Leonard, will be toast, especially when Pop retires.
It all depends on whether the Suns’ new coach can get the team to play defense.