In some ways I think the answer is yes.
I believe that, like many other Suns fans, the “Bubble Run” back in 2019-20 marked a turning point in how I viewed the team. Before then I went into many (TOO many) seasons hoping for a better outcome than the previous year but not really expecting it. After that 8-0 run in 2020, the same hope was there but my expectations also started to rise.
Then came the 2020-21 season. What a miraculous year that was!
There were some bumps along the way but with CP3 running the show, the Suns finally looked like contenders again coming up just two games short of the Suns’ first NBA title.
I’m sure we all remember how bad that Finals loss felt but it still left my expectations for 2021-22 sky-high (and I doubt that I was the only one feeling that way). Those expectations only got higher as that season progressed and the Suns set many season records (such as the franchise record 18-game win streak) on their way to an all-time best season record of 64-18.
Even though the team stumbled a bit in the last few regular season games (going 3-4 in their last 7), that didn’t dampen my enthusiasm. What happened in the 1st round of the playoffs (a not too impressive 4-2 series win over the Pelicans) threw some water on those flames but didn’t extinguish them. The 4-3 loss against Dallas in the semis did that… for a while. As the offseason wore on, my expectations rose again.
Ever since then, this team just hasn’t been much fun to watch. And even though they’ve still been winning much more than many of the pre-bubble run teams, I honestly remember enjoying watching them more than today’s team.
Why is that? I can only assume that it was because my expectations for those teams were so low. Just a moral victory of some sort was an occasion for celebration back then but these days I fail to see any moral victories in any of our losses, just losses… and very often ugly losses. Even many of the victories have been ugly and unsatisfying. They do have their moments and there are times they’re fun again for a while but those moments rarely last very long and more often than not the wins bring on a sigh of relief rather than a cheer of joy.
Between 2015-16 and 2018-19, the Suns won only 87 games and lost 241 (a W/L record of .265) but I remember actually enjoying the games more back then. Sometimes the play was ugly back then too but the expectations were so low that I didn’t care. There was basically nothing to lose (except the games themselves) on any given day so losses didn’t bother me as much. Why would they when you went into almost every game expecting a loss? These days losses just depress me. This team depresses me because it should and could be much better than they are. I expect much more of it than those previous teams but they just keep letting me down one way or another.
There are quite a few things wrong with this year’s team but perhaps the biggest thing is that I rarely see joy and enthusiasm from the players on the court. Maybe they are having fun at times but I rarely see it and it makes me wonder if their hearts are really in it, how much they really care.
I’m certainly not having much fun watching them and at times I wish I didn’t care that much either… but I still do.
Back in the early 80’s, one of my favorite bands was Triumph, and one of my favorite songs by them was titled “Fight The Good Fight”. The main lyric of that song was, “Fight the good fight every moment, every minute, every day.”
Maybe it’s just me but I seem to remember watching those bad teams “fight the good fight” more often than this one and even in a loss, at least there was pretty consistent effort.
I don’t see that often with this team and I don’t think that it’s too much to ask of them… especially for just a 48-minute span of time two or three days a week.
Right now, I just wish I could bring myself to expect at least that much from them again.