3 offseason moves Phoenix Suns must make to redeem NBA Finals defeat

1. Re-sign Chris Paul

While it wouldn’t hurt as badly as losing the NBA Finals, watching Chris Paul walk away from Phoenix in the offseason would be almost as devesating.

CP3 was a massive reason the Suns turned the corner as sharply as they did last season. We fell in love with the Bubble Suns in 2020, but adding the veteran leadership of Paul took things to another level in multiple areas.

According to Basketball Reference, Paul added roughly 9 wins to the Suns record this season and you didn’t need to look too hard to see his impact in the playoffs. Don’t be one of those lazy armchair analysts regurgtating that stat about CP3 losing another best-of-seven series after his team was up 2-0. Instead consider that Paul had the third-best true shooting percentage season of his career and that the Suns were signifcantly better when he was on the floor.

This is what the Suns looked like when Paul wasn’t on the floor:

We also saw what the Suns were without Paul on the roster. Phoenix had our curisoty in the bubble but they didn’t truly capture — or demand — our attention until after Paul arrived in the locker room.

Which brings up another reason Paul needs to be brought back in Phoenix. Analyitcs aside, it’s impossible to quanitfy how meaningful it was to the Suns culture this season to have Chris Paul in every meeting, at every practice and in every huddle. Devin Booker took his game to a superstar level, Monty Williams was able to apply his Coach Of The Year-worthy approach, and Phoenix went from a team that could be on the cusp of being great to being in the NBA Finals.

Put that all together and there almost isn’t a price too high when it comes to bringing Paul back in 2021-22.