Will struggling Phoenix Suns even make playoffs this season?

SAN FRANCISCO – Deandre Ayton still has faith in the short-handed Phoenix Suns even after another defeat Sunday against Cleveland at Footprint Center.

"We can do it with this group,” he said. “We just have to make sure we stay on top of it and understand that we don't have the luxury to mess up. We don't have that right now."

No Devin Booker to go for 50-plus points or Chris Paul to make the right play.

No Cameron Payne to provide a spark off the bench or Cam Johnson to ignite from 3.

And no Jae Crowder all season as he and the Suns “mutually agreed” he wouldn’t attend training camp back in September.

With the trade deadline a month away, team president of basketball operations James Jones has yet to move the veteran forward for player in return for anyone; who can help them.

Kyle Kuzma? Bojan Bogdanović? Someone else?

Phoenix (20-21) is struggling at the midway point of the 2022-23 season, which began with high expectations despite how last season ended, a summer of drama and the Robert Sarver investigation that ended with a yearlong suspension, $10 million fine and Sarver deciding to sell the team amid public backlash from critics who felt he deserved a more severe punishment.

The Suns have lost nine of their last 10 games, are on a season-worst six-game skid and have gone from talking about preparing for the playoffs to being desperate for a win in early January.

“I still have complete faith that we'll be able to make a deep run at it, but again, we need to get some wins on the board now," Suns big Jock Landale said.

Game 7 shaped mindset entering 2022-23 season

Losing Game 7 to Dallas in last year’s Western Conference semifinals greatly shaped how Phoenix approached this season.

The Suns won a franchise-record 64 games to earn the top overall seed in the 2022 playoffs, but they fell way short of a championship. They saw seven months of work and winning in historic fashion abruptly end in an embarrassing 123-90 meltdown on their home floor.

That team was on a mission to return to the finals and finish what it started when taking a 2-0 series lead over the Bucks. Then it all ended in 48 minutes after playing its worst game of the season in the biggest one.

That’s hard living, but Phoenix could’ve look at last season from the perspective of having the NBA’s best record and earning homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs. They didn’t finish the deal, but that shouldn’t have made them devalue the importance of the regular season.

Ayton couldn’t have made that any clearer after an overtime loss Dec. 11 at New Orleans.

'I don't care about no regular season game'

“You can’t tell me it’s frustrating when I play hard as hell,” he said. “Do the best you can, and the results are the results. This is regular season. At the end of the day, we’re working on ourselves. I don’t care about no regular season game.”

This was during a five-game skid.

“It don’t really count and at the end of the day, my team and I, we’re working on our damn selves,” he continued.

“We’re working on ourselves for the postseason. That’s it. Everybody wants to make this a thing about regular season. So be it. Go ahead."

If the playoffs started today, the Suns would have to climb out of the play-in tournament just to make the postseason.

Suns coach Monty Williams recently reminded his team Golden State had a 2-9 stretch last season from early February to early March. The Warriors won it all in June.

Boston was at one point 16-19 last regular season, 20-21 at its halfway mark – but reached the finals.

As much as those reference points can fuel Phoenix’s big picture, the current one has several cracks from this recent hailstorm of defeats.

The Suns saw this stretch without the injured Booker as a time for the team to grow.

Ayton and Mikal Bridges can gain experience having bigger roles and be better prepared for the postseason, but the Suns still need wins to earn a playoff spot in the West.

Best case/worst case

Only eight games separated the top 12 teams in the conference going into Monday’s slate of games.

The Suns could get healthy by, say, the All-Star break, roll like Boston did and claim one of the top four spots.

That’s best case.,

Worst case is they never reach full strength, keep struggling and go from having the NBA’s best team at the end of last regular season to not even making the playoffs this season.

They’ll likely find a landing spot in the middle of those scenarios, but the challenges aren’t just within.

Phoenix must still play West-leader Denver and high-scoring Sacramento three times. The Suns also have two more games against the Grizzlies, Mavericks, Clippers, Warriors and Lakers, who have won their last five games without injured Anthony Davis. And they have yet to play Milwaukee or Brooklyn.

Even healthy, Phoenix likely won’t just blitz through its remaining schedule.

Suns kept rolling through injuries last season

So much has been made about the injuries this season, but the Suns played through a rash of them last season and still won big.

Ayton sat 24 games for multiple injuries.

Paul and Payne each missed 15 games. Right thumb fracture for Paul. Right wrist sprain for Payne, who missed five games more with right hamstring strain.

Booker was out 14 with half due to a left hamstring strain.

A right quad contusion sidelined Johnson 13 games. He missed three more with a left ankle sprain. Landry Shamet was out 13 games with nine from a right ankle sprain. Crowder sat 10-plus games. JaVale McGee just under 10.  No Dario Saric all season as he rehabbed from a torn right ACL suffered in Game 1 of the 2021 finals.

Frank Kaminsky sat 67 games for a right knee stress reaction while Abdel Nader missed nearly half the season with right knee management.

All of injuries didn’t stop the Suns from having the NBA’s best record by eight games.

What's different this season?

This season, they haven’t overcome the injuries. That’s had the Suns digging even deeper into thinking it’s more about being ready for the postseason than winning in the regular season – until recently.

Phoenix hasn’t been whole for most of the season so far.

Johnson tore his right meniscus Nov. 4 against Portland. He’s close to returning, but the Suns may take even further caution to bring him back after seeing Booker and Payne re-injure themselves.

Payne (right foot sprain) will be re-evaluated in two weeks. He’s missed 13 games.

Booker (left groin strain) is scheduled for re-evaluation the last full week of January. He’s been sidelined 12 games with multiple injuries.

Paul missed 14 games with a sore right heel and sat Sunday’s game with a sore right hip that kept him out the second half of Friday’s loss against Miami.

And Jones has yet to trade Crowder, a key piece of last year's team who still occupies a roster spot. Several players have referenced Crowder’s absence with Duane Washington Jr. being the latest after Friday’s loss to Miami.

Without Crowder, the Suns are essentially down two roster spots as they already had one open.

Billionaire mortgage lender Mat Ishbia has said he will purchase the Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury for a record $4 billion, but he’s awaiting NBA approval to officially become the team’s new governor. That might not happen until after the Feb. 9 trade deadline. Until then, any deal involving Crowder, which would carry financial implications, still is subject to Sarver's OK despite the suspension.

14 different starting lineups

Every Suns player outside of Damion Lee, Saric and Bridges has missed at least one game. Bridges, who hasn’t missed a game in his NBA career, is playing with a wrap on his right knee.

They’ve had 14 different starting lineups with the latest coming Sunday – Torrey Craig, Saric, Shamet, Bridges and Ayton.

So, the Suns haven’t been healthy enough to build chemistry, but injuries are part of the game and that didn’t stop them from winning 64 games last season.

Then again, the Suns talked about how deep their roster was going into the season.

Additions Josh Okogie, Lee, Landale and Washington Jr., a two-way contract player, have had their moments this season, but the Suns miss the energy JaVale McGee, now with Dallas, brought last season and Crowder’s intangibles, leadership and winning mentality.

This season has tested and stressed this current roster to the point Phoenix is counting on Washington Jr., and Ish Wainright, another two-way player, for valuable minutes.

Phoenix is using unfamiliar lineups and their rotations have been all over the place at times.

The Suns aren’t defending like they did before. They ranked third in defensive rating last season. This season? Try tied for 14^th with four other teams.

Without Booker, they haven’t reached 100 points in their last four games.

20-21 at midway point of season

All of this has factored in Phoenix having more losses at the midway point of this season than it did through 82 games last season.

The Suns have matched the number of defeats that yad in the 72-game 2020-21 season in which they reached the finals.

Paul used to talk about stacking wins the two previous seasons. The Suns used to fume when losing once, let alone two games in a row.

Phoenix only dropped more than two straight games once in the previous two seasons.

This season, the losses have come in waves, leaving the Suns to talk about just moving onto the next one – until recently.

The narrative changed from the regular season doesn’t matter to badly needing a victory.

They’re still looking for one.

Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Will struggling Phoenix Suns even make playoffs this season?