Photo Credit: HoopsHype

The Phoenix Suns’ Process: The Phoenix Suns have not made the playoffs since 2009 and haven’t had a winning season since 2013. This is mostly due to their poor draft performance. For a team that has had so many consecutive sorry seasons, you would think they would be able to hit on more than one pick outside of Devin Booker. They took Alex Len 5th overall in 2013 who has never averaged more than 10 points per game and his career high in minutes per game is 23.3, while Steven Adams and Rudy Gobert were on the board. They also could have taken Giannis Antetokounmpo that year. In 2016 they took Dragan Bender 4th overall and Georgios Papagiannis 13th overall. Both have literally contributed nothing to the NBA in recent years as they struggle to even stay in the league. They traded for Marquese Chriss that year as well by packaging Papgiannis and the 28th pick, and he is a Houston Rocket now. Last year, the Suns showcased their 4th overall draft pick Josh Jackson who averaged about 13 points per game, but is regressing to 9 points per game this year. Overall this has been a miserable decade for the Suns and if they want to retain Devin Booker, their only gem, they better come up with a new game plan.

The Twin Towers: Obviously the pairing of Anthony Davis and Demarcus (Boogie) Cousins didn’t work out as Boogie is a Golden State Warrior now. The New Orleans Pelicans couldn’t have foreseen a torn Achilles, and it is understandable they offered a player coming off a serious injury a mere 2-year $40 million contract. That being said, they gave up a boatload for what ended up being a busted trade with the Sacramento Kings. They gave up Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans, Langston Galloway and a future first and second-round pick. Hield is having the best season of his career this year for the Kings and Evans had arguably one of the best seasons of his career last year for the Memphis Grizzlies. Boogie rejected that contract because he felt like he deserved more, as this year he plans to the revitalize his career with the Warriors by proving he can be a difference maker and collaborative teammate. It just doesn’t make sense that the Pelicans would give that much up for Boogie without considering the possibility of him getting hurt. They made the investment with the trade, so they should have fed that investment by retaining him. They have failed to surround Davis with any other big names since drafting him, outside of Jrue Holiday, and now are being bombarded with rumors of losing their star to the Lakers.

Chandler Parsons: The 38th overall pick Chandler Parsons made his name on the Rockets during the 2013-2014 NBA season. For what initially seemed like a feel-good, breakthrough story for a budding NBA player, he has completely spiraled negatively into a nightmare that worsens yearly. Since 2014 his stats and games played have all gone down. He is being paid $94,438,523 by the Grizzlies from 2016-2020 averaging about $23 million a year according to spotrac.com. Parsons hasn’t averaged even 15 points per game since 2015, while playing a total of 73 games since the start of the 2016-2017 season to date. Parsons’ career has been plagued by injury, seeing the knee surgeries, meniscus tear, and bone bruises pile up onto each other. It is mind-boggling that another team actually took a shot on Parsons and gave him starter money to go with it.