Despite the Phoenix Suns recent success, their fans are still among the least rewarded in the NBA.
The start of the Phoenix Suns’ 55th season of basketball last week has generated excitement among Arizona NBA betting fans, who are hopeful for the franchise’s first championship win.
Although the Suns have achieved recent success, such as winning the Western Conference in 2021 and holding the league’s top regular season record last year, the team continues to strive for greatness, leaving fans hungry for more.
Monty Williams kicked off his fifth year as head coach of the Suns with excitement on Wednesday, as the team avenged their playoff defeat to the Dallas Mavericks by rallying from a 22-point deficit to secure a 107-105 victory in their season opener.
Suns fans receive some of the fewest rewards among NBA fanbases.
Despite the Suns’ success on the court, fans in Phoenix have not seen much reward in the past decade, with the team ranking 23rd in fan satisfaction out of 30 NBA teams.
Yengols.com developed a ranking system to identify the NBA team whose fanbase has earned the most rewards over the last 11 seasons.
The “Minutes Spent Per Win” category was established by multiplying the total number of regular season games played by each NBA team from the 2011-12 season to the 2021-22 season by the average duration of a televised NBA game (2 hours, 13 minutes). This result was then divided by the number of wins in those seasons to calculate the average minutes fans spent watching per regular season win over the last 11 years.
The second category, “Points Deducted for Playoff Success,” evaluated the importance of playoff achievements over the 11 seasons discussed in the first category. Points were given based on specific accomplishments: 1 point for making the playoffs, 3 points for winning a playoff series, 3 points for reaching the NBA Finals, and an extra 15 points for winning the NBA Championship. The total points for each postseason from 2011-12 to 2021-22 were calculated and deducted from Category 1 to determine the final points and rankings.
How we arrived at the determination of the Suns’ position.
The Suns’ low ranking on our NBA fan satisfaction chart is a result of their lack of success from 2011 to 2020. Throughout this time frame, the Suns only had one season above .500, finishing with a record of 48-34 in the 2013-14 season.
In the period between Mark D’Antoni’s successful years and the team’s resurgence under Williams, they experienced a significant decline in performance. Their total record from 2011 to 2020 was 266-447 (.373), consistently placing them at the bottom of the league standings.
Suns fans were left disappointed and unsatisfied by the lack of success on the court during the tenures of head coaches Alvin Gentry, Jeff Hornacek, Earl Watson, and Igor Kokoskov. The franchise only managed to accumulate a total of 17 playoff points, averaging 302 minutes per win.
The Suns earned 17 points towards their playoff success, placing them 19th in the league. Their overall score of 285 points, with the other figure ranked 22nd, landed them in 23rd place on our list.
Last year, the Suns were highly regarded by Arizona betting apps, but they were ultimately eliminated from the playoffs in the second round.
The Phoenix Suns are a strong contender for the NBA title in 2023.
Can Phoenix redeem themselves from last year’s playoff disappointment and a decade of overall dissatisfaction?
Arizona sportsbooks have labeled the Suns as contenders with +1000 odds to win the 2023 NBA Championship, placing them sixth in the league standings.
The Phoenix Suns are currently ranked third in odds to win the Western Conference title at +450 at BetMGM Sportsbook Arizona, behind the Golden State Warriors (+300) and the L.A. Clippers (+325).
According to BetMGM, the Suns are tied with the Clippers at +200 odds to win the NBA’s Pacific Division in 2023, with the Warriors leading at +175.
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Author
Peterson Christopher, with over seven years of experience reporting on sports and sports betting in Arizona for publications like ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly, and the Green Valley News, now holds the position of lead writer at yengols.com.
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