1 HR AGO - It’s not a good fictional grade. The 2018-19 Phoenix Suns are bad. Good luck finding anyone who feels differently. Exactly how bad is a matter of debate, though. The minds at Sports Illustrated felt the need to use a mark you won’t find on a traditional grading scale. They’re giving your Suns an “F -” at the midway point of the season. Grades don’t get that bad. Take my word for it, if the educators at Ball State University or Reitz Memorial High school could have given me an F -, they would have. NBA midseason grades: The Warriors are short on consistency, but that doesn’t appear to matter much https://t.co/RpiiYzU1kQ— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) January 17, 2019 Rohan Nadkarni on your Suns: What the hell is going on here? At what point do we ask the Suns to not be so awful at basketball? Phoenix has a young team, sure, but the Suns need to see that Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton can actually start producing some wins. It’s not an apples to apples to comparison, but look at Collapse

19 HRS AGO - The Phoenix Suns continued their four-game road trip as they traveled up north to take on the Toronto Raptors on Thursday night. Collapse

23 HRS AGO - Kawhi vs. Booker, whose got this round? What: Phoenix Suns (11-34) at Toronto Raptors (33-13) When: Thursday, 5:30 PM AZ Time Where: Up in the Great White North Watch: Fox Sports Arizona Listen: 98.7 FM Probable starters: Suns - De’Anthony Melton, Devin Booker, Mikal Bridges, T.J. Warren, Deandre Ayton Raptors - Kyle Lowry, Danny Green, Kawhi Leonard, Pascal Siakam, Serge Ibaka Collapse

1 DAY AGO - Road trip continues with a stint across the border. What: Phoenix Suns (11-34) at Toronto Raptors (33-13) When: Thursday, 5:30 PM AZ Time Where: Up in the Great White North Watch: Fox Sports Arizona Listen: 98.7 FM The hits just keep on coming. Tonight, the West cellar dweller Phoenix Suns get another chance to beat one of the best teams in the league. The Toronto Raptors are have won the second-most games in the East in their quest to convince Kawhi Leonard to stay in Canada long term. Part of the challenge is keeping him happy all year, but a larger part is simply how they do in the playoffs and we won’t know about that till the hometown Suns are off on summer vacation. Both teams are coming off a loss — the Raptors lost to the Celtics last night on a huge game from Kyrie Irving, while the Suns got rolled by the Pacers on Tuesday. The Raptors Stats: 7th on offense, 9th on defense, 17th in pace Kawhi has been absolutely incredible for the Raptors this year, putting him squarely Collapse

2 DAYS AGO - Oubre Jr. should soon be a starter, but his ideal fit within Igor Kokoskov’s system means it’s time to talk about that million dollar wing question. Kelly Oubre Jr. seemed to be the Suns’ Plan B after their Dillon Brooks debacle in a previous trade negotiation involving Memphis and Washington, but he’s starting to really thrive within his new role with them. Not only has he helped lead the Suns toward being No. 1 in steals and deflections since joining the rotation on Dec. 19, but Oubre Jr. is truly becoming an energy spark this team has missed dearly. Oubre Jr. has averaged 13 points, 4.2 rebounds, 0.9 assists, 0.9 steals, and 0.8 blocks on 44.2/32.5/76.6 shooting splits in a Phoenix uniform but the bigger numbers involve his overall efficiency and usage. The fourth-year wing out of Kansas is currently carrying a true shooting percentage of 56.0 with a career-high usage rate at 22 percent. Both of these career-best numbers point to fit playing a major factor in Phoenix, as Oubre Jr. Collapse

2 DAYS AGO - This game was never close after the first five minutes or so. So much for that defensive improvement with the Suns. They ran into a buzzsaw tonight with Indiana, one of the hottest teams in the NBA finding its groove at the right time. Being near the bottom of the standings, this game shows truly how far Phoenix still needs to go until they can flip that switch. The Suns cut down the lead to nine early in the third quarter, but then it ballooned all the way up past 30 late. Honestly, this lack of defensive effort and lack of rhythm was surprising after their recent week-long stretch where they went 2-1 without Devin Booker. Speaking of Booker, he looked out of rhythm like the rest of the roster. We’ll save that for later, so let’s dive into my ‘Thumbs Up’ and ‘Thumbs Down’ from tonight’s blowout loss at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Thumbs Up: Deandre Ayton It’s hard to really come up with many positives in a game where they lose 131-97, but the first half from Ayton was encouraging. He Collapse

3 DAYS AGO - How will the Suns fare in Indianapolis tonight? What: Phoenix Suns visit the Indiana Pacers When: 5:00 p.m. AZ Where: Bankers Life Fieldhouse Watch: Fox Sports Arizona Listen: 98.7 FM Probable starters: Suns - De’Anthony Melton, Devin Booker, Mikal Bridges, T.J. Warren, Deandre Ayton Pacers - Darren Collison, Victor Oladipo, Bojan Bogdanovic, Thaddeus Young, Myles Turner Suns OffRtg - 104.2 (28th), DefRtg - 112.0 (28th), NetRtg = minus-7.8 (27th) Booker is back, everybody. That changes a ton for the Suns, who have struggled to score effectively and consistently without their star. Even though Phoenix had the No. 2 defensive rating over the past three games sans Booker, they ranked 27th in offensive rating, scoring only 103 points per 100 possessions. If the Suns can strike a balance of keeping their competitive defense going while integrating Booker’s elite scoring back in, they could look like an average team over the final half of this season. Speaking of that improved defense, Collapse

3 DAYS AGO - Booker says his teammates can’t get comfortable losing no matter what their record is. Devin Booker was looking back to normal at practice Monday, going one-on-one against Josh Jackson and Élie Okobo. He was also rocking the headband, which he seems to play pretty well in. Booker came over to media drenched in sweat, out of breath. He enjoyed getting back out there on the court with his guys. Headband Book said practice was intense today. You can sense that with the amount of sweat dripping off his face and heavy breathing pic.twitter.com/YzM6ZpC5d6— Ashley Nevel (@AshleyNevel) January 14, 2019 “It was good,” Booker said. “It was intense. I think the team had to get refocused. After coming off of big wins like that you get a little complacent. We started off practice slow then we picked it up. We all got into each other and made it next level.” The Suns played well for all four quarters against the best team in the west, the Denver Nuggets, in late December at home. Then, the Collapse

4 DAYS AGO - All three of us are back for the 109th edition of the Solar Panel! The main topic of this episode is the 2019 free agent point guard class, since Phoenix Suns interim GM James Jones said that’s the most likely place for them to get a long-term point guard that fits with this team going forward. Dave, Tim and Greg each rank our favorite among the unrestricted and restricted free agents. Other topics we discuss: should the Suns bench Devin Booker for a while? is Dennis Smith that much better than De’Anthony Melton or Elie Okobo? can you make a first round pick “Zion Williamson” protected rather than lotto-slot protected? how much do you NEED scouts if you’re only picking Top-5? more on the exclusive James Jones interview with Bright Side last week the impact of the Quincy Acy signing Support the show here: support Listen right in this very browser here! Visit the Solar Panel crew at www.SunsPodcast.com. Follow them on Twitter @SunsSolarPanel, @Espo, @DaveKingNBA and Collapse