Are We Sleeping On The Phoenix Suns?

Are We Sleeping On The Phoenix Suns?

Are we overlooking the Phoenix Suns collectively I I mean first of all and they they might dovetail just because the move they made with the one of the other teams I had on my list okay I kind of feel like yes it just like you look at the issues they’ve had and they’re

Real issues but like the turnover stuff when you have your big three it’s not as prevalent through most of the game fourth quarters have been in issues we’ve seen defenses blit them Blitz them but you know what’s been a bigger issue for them in fourth quarters nobody hits

A wi open jumper they still generate them but they shoot and I’ve mentioned this now I think like three times they have an effective field goal percentage of above 63 on wideopen jump shots outside 10 feet through the first three quarters that number dropped to dead

Last in the NBA at about 46 in the fourth quarter that’s like Grayson Allen turns into a pumpkin like Bradley Beal has struggled at points but I look at this team everyone not everyone a lot of people thought they needed a point guard I think they picked Royce O’Neal is not

Super athletic I think they picked the right need which was let’s get another someone who like look let’s be honest Yousef nurkic has been good Grayson Allen has been good Eric Gordon has had his moments but there’s a chance that we look back at the trade deadline and say

Did the Suns just acquire their fourth most important player like that’s how good of a fit Royce O’Neal is and so I think they just checked that the right box and so like are we overlooking them in the sense of could they win it all I

Think we are because if the caveat just well their three stars need to be available well no and so it’s just like we can’t write them off because of that caveat otherwise we’d be writing off the clippers right now right right I mean Beal has missed so much time this

Year and even Booker and Durant missed a couple games here or there so we haven’t seen them at full strength all that much this year it’s gotten much better as of late but know i’ I’d say really for the first couple months of the Season it was

Like okay Beal’s back but KD’s out KD’s back Booker’s out Booker’s back Beal’s out so it just felt very inconsistent but I mean they’re only five games back of the one seed right now over the last month I think they’re 12 and three yeah they’ve been killing it and

They you know they’re playing like they played the Blazers the Bulls the the Nets the Wizards so woohoo I’m not gonna go celebrate that but they’ve also beaten in that stretch the Sacramento Kings the New Orleans Pelicans the Indiana Pacers the Dallas Mavericks the Miami Heat

Uh the Milwaukee Bucks so no yes I’d like to see them prove it against the top tier contenders they’ve got OKC in Denver uh in a three and four night stretch Houston and then OKC in the back to back and then Den at Denver two nights later at the beginning of March

So that’ll be fun but like that might be a good litus test for them um but I mean yeah I mean like if you have Kevin Durant and Devin Booker alone we saw how potent those two guys could be in that Series against Denver last year

Now you add Bradley be to the equation you add these other guys like yeah they they lost some of their depth that they acquired this off season uh in the trade to get Royce O’Neal that’s okay I mean we knew from the moment they went with this big three strategy they were going

To be very very topheavy and they were going to have to lean on know they’re probably going to cut to like a seven or eight man rotation in the playoffs and that’s they just got someone who’s def going to be a part of it too which you

Could not say about any of the like you don’t want already wasn’t really playing it’s like you couldn’t say that about anyone that they sent out yeah like Kates J is probably the the best one of the four and I mean I think you’re they

Got Josh a Ki at home they have the they have the offensive liability Wing Defender there you go right exactly now yeah you have Royce O’Neil who should be a plug-and playay fit there so you know I think they it’s similar to OKC like their move is going to fly under the

Deadline because everyone’s so busy falling over them themselves trying to praise what the Knicks did and trying to make fun of the Chicago Bulls and the Lakers and the Warriors but I think the Suns got notably better yesterday and you know I there’s this focus on Minnesota Denver OKC Clippers because

The standings are all still bunched at the very top of the conference but Phoenix is just lurking there like hey guys you you do remember that we have Kevin Durant Devon Booker and Bradley Beal right like we we are still a championship Contender as well and there’s there’s variables that I think

One’s in favor of the Suns and one isn’t like the one that’s in favor of them is like Bradley Beal has and this because he missed some time and I think he was always going to be the player that needed to adjust more he’s had to make more adjustments and he struggled at

Points but to his credit he hasn’t really tried to like deviate from the script and there are just moments when you can see it work and see it clicking and how this is all supposed to coace together so they’re G to get better some they might get better on offense is my

Point a team that over their last 30 games I think has is like fifth in off or their their fourth in offense over their last 30 games and I don’t remember what they were overall on the season they’re sixth for the season now the one that I have questions about and you

Watch them and you don’t understand it you dig into the data and you start to understand it and then you wonder if it holds up in the playoffs they’re just hovering around League average on defense despite not necessarily having the Personnel to do so um and then you

Start to look at it’s like they haven’t really gotten too lucky on opponent three-point shooting they haven’t gotten like a teams aren’t hitting mid-range jumpers against them but that’s like not the hugest deal and then you look you look it’s like they’re not a good defensive rebounding team overall some

Of their lineups can be but just overall they’re not their backup big situation is traditionally a mess like Drew Eubanks might decide to play well for two or three games at a time but that’s about it and yet they’re a team and I think we people started to come on to

This with the Denver Nuggets last year if your league average defensively but you’re super ultra Elite on offense you can win the title my issue with the Suns and they addressed as a little little bit with Royce O’Neal just just a little bit is Denver always had like some of

The individual Defenders Aaron Gordon specifically they had Bruce Brown last year and now they have you know pton Watson in sort of a stay you looked at them and said like they could you you could see the theory of what they were going to do on defense at the highest

Level and then you also got you know Jamal Murray turns it up a notch and the Suns have that with Devin Booker like they’re kind of like Jamal Murray he’ll kick in the next gear especially in one-on-one situations the Suns don’t have their Aaron Gordon they don’t even

Have their Michael Porter Jr who during the playoffs last year um like and you don’t need to listen to his opinions on the WNBA I’m talking strictly about uh like he comes in trashing the glass he’s defending his ass off he’s like making good help rotations I don’t

See that on this team necessarily and so I sort of question whether when they’re going up against teams that are and I’m not smart enough to know the answer to this I’m honest I’m genuinely just asking this question when teams are going to be able to game plan for them

At a best of seven series do we see some pullback from a defense that I would say overall and especially relative to the Personnel that they have has overachieved and is in a spot where you’re like like if you just take the defensive returns at face value which

Again there’s nothing that stands out that you can even one of the things I thought about watching them is their offense is so good they get set like that helps but like they get back after committing a turnover or missing a shot like so they have that in them and so

Look at these results and if you told me they’re just the 14th or 15th or 16th the best defensive team in the league and that that’ll hold up in the playoffs we are absolutely sleeping on the Phoenix Suns I’m just wondering and I think we overall are sleeping on them

I’m just very curious to see whether that type of League average play can hold up in the playoff Crucible yeah absolutely and and I think even if it can’t there is lwh hanging fruit for them to address on offense but it’s fair to wonder if they’re ever going to do it

That they are 26th and three-pointers attempted per game they are 24th in three-point rate I mean four of their five best Shooters are shooting 38% or higher from three-point range the one exception being Bradley Beal who’s at 36.2% so they have five very good three-point Shooters on the team and yet

They are taking the fifth fewest three-point attempts per game so even if the defense does backslide you know I’m not saying they need to be the Boston Celtics and fire up almost 53s a night that’s like but I think there is a better balance that they can find

Between know the mid-range shots that especially KD and Booker so lethal on and can we stretch the floor a little bit more and I think Royce O’Neal might help in that regard as well yeah he definitely will because right now they only have one player attempting more than six three-pointers per 36 minutes

And that’s just like even Grayson Allen’s under six attempts per 36 minutes and that’s like Grayson Allen buddy like that should probably be on a permanent basis that should be up near 10 I feel like like you’re shooting almost 50% from three guy like this is

Your only role on offense and I will say there’s room and we’ve seen it I think for Devin Booker’s volume to climb there because I think I mean he’s when you look at his just like three-point splits for his career he’s definitely like First Team all his shooting form makes

You think he’s had a 45% from three season when he really hasn’t like I do think the extra volume is probably going to need to come from a Beal or a KD just because like they’re so low they’re barely at KD is not even at five attempts per 36 minutes and it’s an

Oversimplification but we just went in detail and all this other stuff the math sometimes the math is going to matter yeah and so when you’re you’re a team what I think is good about them we’ll see if it holds in the playoffs okay you’re a team that despite not putting a

Ton of pressure on the basket like you’re going to get to the foul line they’re actually second in free throw attempt rate on the season which is you know when you consider where they rank as a team when it comes to the share of their shots

That just come at The Rim uh they’re actually seventh I didn’t realize they were that high up am I reading that wrong oh that’s accuracy I knew I was I was like uh maybe you don’t watch they’re 25th impressive okay yeah they’re 25th in the share of their shots

That come at the the rim and so if that holds into the playoffs is it harder to draw the shooting fouls when it’s coming from the perimeter the guys are talented enough that maybe it doesn’t matter but that’s also a fair question as well but you’re right Roy will at least help with

The three-point volume for sure yeah I mean like I’m not saying I’m picking the Suns to win the West by any means but I aggregators there you go there you go but I I mean it like if you held a gun to my head and said it’s Minnesota versus

Phoenix in the second round of the playoffs I don’t know it would your face just said it all it’ be tough for me to pick against the team with Kevin Durant and Deon Booker maybe it’s too simp like maybe I’m just lizard braining this but and they were definitely I think

They would try to like style the out of the series and just say you know what Kevin Durant’s gonna play more five and we’re going to see what that does to their dual big set up and yeah it goes back to my concern with Minnesota like

All these other teams I think are going to have a little bit more ability to change their Identity

Enjoy this sneak-snippet from Monday’s episode with Bryan Toporek (@btoporek) of Bleacher Report, Forbes, Liberty Ballers and The NBA Podcast in which he and Dan discuss whether the masses are sleeping on the Phoenix Suns. SUBSCRIBE TO THE NBA PODCAST HERE: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-nba-podcast–3240433.

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Are We Sleeping On The Phoenix Suns?

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