NBA Player Rankings: Phoenix has two top-15 players, so why are the Suns so bad?

You'd expect to be firmly in the playoff picture when you have three high-level scorers in today's NBA. When you employ two top-15 players, you'd expect your squad to be contending. Sadly, the Phoenix Suns are New York to California away from either of those outcomes. Fansided's NBA99, a list of the 99 best players in basketball, acknowledges the greatness of Kevin Durant and Devin Booker — KD is ranked No. 7 while Booker, the Suns all-time leading scorer, is plopped in at 14th, and No. 4 among gaurds.

With high-end talent like that, why are the Suns on the brink of missing the play-in tournament altogether?

From the outside looking in, the Suns' mega-scorers aren't to blame. Booker did have a sloth start to the year, but he's back in form, averaging 26/4/7 on 59 percent true shooting. The Suns shot profile has been discussed for years, but Book is doing his part to balance their attack. He's shooting a career-high 7.8 3-pointers a game. His accuracy could go higher, but those shots are still respected, which creates space for others.

Durant is Durant. There's never a slow start for him. Arguably the best and most versatile scorer the league has seen is padding his career numbers with another 27 point per game season. The efficiency is ever present with Durant's 63.7 percent true shooting. If these two are getting theirs, where is the Valley disadvantaged?

Check out NBA99, FanSided’s list of the 99 best players in the NBA. These rankings are a living project, updated regularly throughout the year, exploring how each player has carved out their NBA niche and how it is evolving over time. If you love the list, share it! If you hate it, even more reason to share it!

The Phoenix Suns have players with similar games, and they lack defensive girth

Bradley Beal is the third high-level scorer of the bunch, and maybe one team doesn't need three potential 30-point scorers on a roster. Beal isn't to blame for his game being his game — but he and Booker are redundant. That isn't a seamless fit. The fit was so "Spiderman pointing meme" that Coach Mike Budenholzer relegated Beal to a bench role for 15 games. That decision has been reversed, and Beal is back to having his name yelled by the PA announcer with the rest of the starters. It's been the same old story with Beal back among the starters, as the Suns have given up more than 117 points in 11 straight games.

The Suns defensive strategy of "Hey, you get a free pass" has them ranked No. 27 on that end, per Cleaning the Glass.

An intricate part of defense is communication. After the Suns' embarrassing loss to the Western Conference-worst New Orleans Pelicans Thursday night, Booker hit the presser harping on the importance of talking — they're 2-8 over the last 10.

To our surprise, Chris Haynes dropped a semi-bombshell on Friday morning, outlining Coach Bud's request to ask Booker to tone his voice down so coaches can be heard. Players must respect you organically; you can't beg for that and expect them to fall in line. Putting a muzzle on the franchise's leading scorer is certainly a choice from Bud. You win with the players on the floor. We're not here to undersell coaching at all, but somebody has to be talking. Who better than the guy who's been there for a decade?

The vibes are off in Phoenix. We've seen KD downplay reports about the fractured locker room, but instances like the Haynes reports fuel the fire. No matter how many bucket-getters you have on a team, if the coach and players aren't aligned, you'll be staring at 27-31 and on the edge of going home in April like the Suns.