General Manager Ryan McDonough has mentioned in the past that the Suns have studied rebuilding plans not only in the NBA, but also Major League Baseball. The team landed on three years as the ideal benchmark for putting a stop sign up on intentionally losing.
On three separate occasions since the 2015-16 season, Phoenix has rested players with no injury related cause. The most obvious one came in 2017 when Eric Bledsoe, Tyson Chandler and Brandon Knight all rode the bench, which led to Josh Jackson at No.