Coach Frank Vogel says the Phoenix Suns have to go back to the drawing board to understand why their season ended in a first-round sweep by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA play-offs.
Despite beating the Timberwolves in each of their three regular-season contests, Phoenix had no answer in the post-season as their exit was confirmed by a 122-116 defeat at the Footprint Center.
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It’s disappointing,” Vogel said. “There’s no other way to put it. There’s no worse professional feeling in the world than getting swept in the NBA play-offs. I’ve never been a part of it. I feel pretty low right now.
“I want to speak to our fans directly and say, I share your passion. I’m as disappointed as y’all are. I share that with you all. But we got beat by a better team this year.
“And we put this team together with the mindset that we have a three- to five-year window where every year we’re going to have a chance to have a team with the firepower to compete for it. But this league is loaded with firepower. We’ve got a talented group; so do the Timberwolves. The top 10 teams in the Western Conference are loaded with talent as well. We’ve got to evaluate and figure out ways we can get better.”
Phoenix’s much-vaunted offensive three of Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal have disappointed with Booker admitting talent alone is rarely enough.
He said: “Roster-wise, everybody talks about the firepower, but you look around the league: It comes down to the details.
“I don’t want to keep saying that, but it’s a super important thing. You can’t just go out there and think you’re going to win off talent. The game is more complicated than that.”
KD with the tough finish over the defense pic.twitter.com/xd0epSSuKW
— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) April 29, 2024
Anthony Edwards was the Timberwolves star on Sunday, pouring in 40 points as the franchise secured their first series win since 2004.
Durant said: “He’s my favourite player to watch. Just grown so much since he came into the league. At 22, just his love for the game shines bright. That’s one of the reasons why I like him the most.
“He just loves basketball. He’s grateful to be in this position. He’s grateful to take advantage of every opportunity he’s gotten. Love everything about Ant. Everything. Will be watching him going forward and you know he’s going to go out there and play extremely hard every single night. But [I] was really impressed with him and he’s going to be somebody that I’m going to be following for the rest of his career.”
