Charles Barkley is wrong: Devin Booker and Kevin Durant aren't soft
Charles Barkley says they’re soft, but the Phoenix Suns have a puncher’s chance to make a deep playoff run.
Barkley’s opinion carries weight, and not just because he was once known as the “Round Mound of Rebound.”
The guy is one of the greatest players ever to lace a pair of Nikes. He once dunked on Godzilla. And these days, he argues with Shaq for a living. Plus, he’s speaking for every fan who can’t understand why these Suns look like they’re playing in an eclipse half the time.
So, it’s worth considering when Barkley said to 12 Sports’ Cam Cox: “They don’t have any mental toughness. The leaders are not leading. (They’re) not going to turn it on this late in the season. I’m not sure what you’re expecting … They’re just really soft.”
I happen to disagree, and it’s because I believe in the guys Sir Charles is calling out: Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal can knock out anybody, anywhere, anytime on any given day … especially when they have a monster like Jusuf Nurkic standing in the paint, ready to pick his teeth with the Bones of Hyland or any other wing player who thinks Barkley is right.
A basketball season is like a title fight, and the playoffs are the championship rounds.
As long as a guy has a strong enough punch, he can struggle early and still win late with a knockout.
It’s how Ali beat Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle. It’s how Foreman recaptured the heavyweight title when he was well into his 40s. And it’s basically the plot of every Rocky and Creed movie: The eventual winner takes all the punishment imaginable through most of the fight before uncorking an overwhelming offensive flurry to pull off a victory no one expected.
Phoenix Suns are built for the brighter lights
Booker, Durant and Beal have that kind of firepower. (And Beal showed it with 12 points in the fourth quarter to help the Suns rise over the Kings in a gotta-have-it-game in Sacramento on Friday night.)
It’ll be better for these guys to avoid the play-in tournament. (They’ll need to beat Minnesota and have the Pelicans lose to the Lakers on the final day of the regular season for that to happen.)
The Suns are built for a seven-game series. In the playoffs, coaches only play seven or eight guys, so the most talented team usually wins.
But the play-in tournament sets up elimination games, where anything can happen as the NCAA Tournament shows us every year.
If the Suns have to play their way into the playoffs, they’ll be locked into the No. 7 seed and will have two chances to win one game in order to advance.
It’s not ideal, but it could actually be good for this group. We’ve seen it before.
From the play-in tournament, the Lakers made the Western Conference Finals last season. (And it pains me to write anything good about the Lakers. They could go 0-82 every year, and the only people I would feel bad for are Magic, Kareem and Jack Nicholson.)
Plus, sports fans in Arizona are familiar with improbable finishes from the Diamondbacks run to the World Series last year, despite barely ssssslitering into the playoffs, and the 2008 Super Bowl in Glendale, when the wild-card Giants knocked off the undefeated Patriots for the NFL championship.
How far can scoring get this team?
The play-in tournament could be a blessing in disguise if it forces the Suns to play their best ball right away, creating momentum that could propel them toward the conference finals.
But my confidence in the team really just comes down to something Monty Williams once said, “In the playoffs, sometimes, you just need a guy who can get you a bucket.”
The Suns have three in Booker, Durant and Beal.
The stakes are high.
If these guys can’t go deep in the playoffs, they’ll have to face questions of whether they make their teammates better. It’s a legacy question: Are you truly a great basketball player or just a great scorer?
Plus, an early exit could get Frank Vogel fired, which I think would be a mistake.
I think Booker, Durant and Beal are among the greatest ever.
They have a chance to prove it and make Barkley eat his words, starting Sunday against Minnesota.
Reach Moore at gmoore@azcentral.com or 602-444-2236. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @SayingMoore.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Devin Booker and Kevin Durant soft? Charles Barkley is wrong on Suns
