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New York Times

Suns or Sixers — whose season has been worse?

The designated crisis ballclub in the NBA this season has been the Philadelphia 76ers, who have lost seven straight games entering Monday and are freefalling down the Eastern Conference. But in the West, the Phoenix Suns are also having a season to forget. After their 127-109 loss to the lowly Toronto Raptors, they now sit three games under .500 at 27-30. Advertisement Unlike the Sixers, Phoenix can't point to health to excuse its underperformance, with results not improving despite Kevin Durant and Devin Booker being available most of the season. On the latest episode of 'NBA Daily,' Dave DuFour, Es Baraheni and Zena Keita discussed whether the Sixers or the Suns have had the more disappointing season. A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on YouTube below or in the 'NBA Daily' podcast feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Dave: The Phoenix Suns suffered an embarrassing loss to the Toronto Raptors on Sunday. They are now three games under .500. They don't even look like a Play-In team, let alone a playoff team. I just look at this, and I think, 'How did we get to this point?' With the Sixers, it makes so much sense. The injuries have just eaten them up from the inside. The one bright spot they had was Jared McCain. … I feel like we do this about once a month now with the Sixers. Es: Once a week (laughs)… Dave: We point out all these bad things once a week, and now we've got news that there's a debate about what to do with Joel Embiid's knee; whether he needs to have surgery or whether it's better for him to keep playing. Again, all of this shows it's a season that is essentially lost when this is the conversation point. What do you guys make of these two teams? I almost want to ask who's had it worse? Zena: OK wait, do you guys watch 'Beast Games' (The Amazon Prime series)? Es: No unfortunately not… Zena: This is the perfect example of comparing these two teams and the way that we perceive them (laughs). The penultimate show of 'Beast Games' — a show that is basically psychological warfare in the way that people are competing against each other — is a competition in which 10 people had to go in order. There's $1 million. The first person can choose as much money as they want from the $1 million pile, hoping the next person leaves a little bit for the next person. So it goes from one person, to two, three, four and so on. The first person goes, and they take $100,000, because there's 10 people you would imagine that they'll keep it even, rightfully. So she takes $100,000. The next person goes and takes $223,000. Obviously not the game plan, it was their birthday, so they chose $223,000 — messed up. The rest of the people are going to get a lot less money for that. The third person goes and takes $650,000 from this $1 million pile. Leaving only $27,000 to be split up from numbers four through 10. Everyone comes out of this competition. Obviously, the rest of the people are annoyed that they have no money, and everyone's focused on the guy who took $650,000. Completely leaving alone the guy who took $223,000, who is equally terrible because he took money that people deserved. But everyone's mad at one guy, they're pointing at him and they're yelling at him. That is how I feel that people are looking at the Sixers. They're like, 'Joel Embiid's knee and Paul George's trade, that's so messed up they're not playing well together.' Meanwhile, the completely healthy Phoenix Suns are having a terrible season, and no one's talking about it (laughs). Advertisement Dave: Embarrassingly. Es: It's embarrassing… Zena: They just allowed the 25th offense in the NBA in the Toronto Raptors to have a 19-4 run in the fourth quarter against them. This is what I'm talking about. They're the $223,000. … They're just flying under the radar of being equally horrible. Es: This is a great comparison, this is perfect. Dave: This is so good. Zena: I'm just happy that I could bring this up because I was dying laughing (laughs). Es: Shout out to the people who are watching 'Beast Games.' They're probably clapping in their rooms right now like, 'Yes, I understand,' (laughs). Dave: Here's the thing guys; the Suns are not even dramatic, that's the thing. With the trade deadline drama that came out of there, I don't think you could have answered the questions about potentially being traded any better than Kevin Durant did. That was extremely diplomatic yet seemed pretty honest. It is kind of odd that we have been treating the Sixers like their arena is on fire every single night when they're fighting through injury after injury. I would say also the other guy who's getting away with the $223,000 heist is Paul George, who has managed to have a much worse season than Tobias Harris — the guy he was supposed to be a huge upgrade over. So to your point; a lot of folks are hiding in that Embiid shadow a little bit whereas Embiid, who out of everyone may be catching criticism, maybe deserves it the least. Es: Can we rewind back to a year ago for the Sixers and whenever the Suns acquired Kevin Durant two years ago? Can you imagine the excitement of Suns fans when they were like, 'We now have Kevin Durant next to Devin Booker. This is all we've been waiting for. We had been toiling in mediocrity and all that type of stuff. We are finally back. We just went to the NBA Finals and can now battle and become a new title contender, we're this close.' And it just blows up in their faces. You can listen to full episodes of NBA Daily for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and watch on YouTube. (Top photos: Vaughn Ridley, Stacy Revere / Getty Images)