The Suns Started The Youngest Lineup In NBA History And It Didn’t Go Well

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The Phoenix Suns are struggling this season and it is evident in the standings with their 22-50 record. Even at full strength, Earl Watson’s team has not been fantastic and, given the fact that the team’s best player, Eric Bledsoe, has been shut down for the remainder of the campaign, it is easy to see why Phoenix might be in the mood to experiment and build for the future.

On Thursday evening, the Suns did just that when facing the Brooklyn Nets and it came in the form of a starting lineup that doubled as the youngest in the history of the NBA.

The Suns deployed three rookies — Tyler Ulis, swingman Derrick Jones Jr. and top-10 pick Marquese Chriss — while also starting Devin Booker (age 20) and “elder statesman” Alex Len (age 23). While the fact that Phoenix’s lineup was the youngest in history speaks for itself, putting into a bit of a different perspective could provide a window into just how young the quintet was on this night.

Somewhat predictably, things did not go well for the Suns on the floor, even against the team with the worst record in the NBA. The Nets, back at full strength with Jeremy Lin, Brook Lopez and others, throttled Phoenix by a final score of 126-98 and it frankly didn’t feel that close. Brooklyn held Phoenix to only 36.6 percent shooting while scoring at a consistent clip of 113.9 points per 100 possessions and it did not appear to be a match-up between two of the league’s worst teams.

Regardless of result, there is something both admirable and intelligent about what the Suns elected to do here. Yes, Phoenix has a “tanking” incentive to lose games but they are also providing on-court experience to members of their young core and, at least in theory, tinkering with lineup combinations that could be fruitful in the future. The short-term results weren’t good but this was an intriguing and fun look.

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