The Phoenix Suns’ disheartening loss to the Portland Trail Blazers earlier this week saw them fall to 14-13. A rebuilding opponent that had Deandre Ayton, a former first-round pick of the Suns, and a second-round pick this summer that Suns head coach Frank Vogel extolled later.
Regardless of your opinion on this team’s ability to win a championship, which currently seems more elusive than ever, the fact remains that they need to start winning some of the games they have lost recently. They had lost three of their last four games, and their lone triumph came against the terrible Washington Wizards by a meager four points.
It is obvious that things must change—and quickly—but before they can, this team must figure out why they are dropping so many games.
Any team that includes Devin Booker and Kevin Durant on its roster has a chance to win every game they play. For Durant, 35, this is his best season to date since he left the Golden State Warriors. The same might also apply to Booker, albeit he has already missed nine games due to a variety of minor ailments.
Bradley Beal, whose six games played thus far were not intended to be part of a rotation heavy on the elite players, has emerged as the elephant in the room. On the other hand, Durant spent three seasons with the Brooklyn Nets as a member of a “superteam,” but he only appeared in 129 games and saw the project fall apart around him.
When attempting to dissect why the Suns are languishing in 10th place in the Western Conference, it is appropriate to start here and speculate that perhaps the approach to building a champion has changed. Worse yet, the Golden State Warriors (13–14) are breathing down their necks to eliminate them from postseason contention after they have won three in a row.
3. No one has stood up to take the role.
Building a solid rotation for the Suns was always going to be a difficult task, especially with so much money going into their top three players. To their credit, though, they also brought Josh Okogie back and went out and acquired Eric Gordon, Yuta Watanabe, Chimezie Metu, and Keita Bates-Diop.
Additionally, they acquired the valuable Jordan Goodwin in the Beal for Chris Paul trade, and the trade of Ayton for Jusuf Nurkic, Grayson Allen, and Nassir Little seemed to have been successful for the squad. Not an easy task considering the serious doubts that were raised about Nurkic’s health after the trade was finalized.
All of this notwithstanding, too many of the role players the Suns acquired on the cheap have fallen short of expectations. While Watanabe is undoubtedly the finest example—he was a fantastic addition to the team this offseason—the team was not exactly expecting him to shoot 34 percent from deep on a career-high 4.2 attempts per game.
He has only appeared in 19 games, including 0 starts, and hasn’t yet lived up to the high expectations for a supplementary player. Metu and Bates-Diop have this trait as well, although Okogie has been sidelined by injury for a while. Goodwin is a good backup and a perfect ninth or tenth man, but the Suns struggle when they ask him to do more.
For the group, Little has been a pleasant surprise, and Gordon and Allen in particular have both been outstanding. You can only play so much when your only sources of support are Durant, Booker, Nurkic, Allen, Gordon, and whichever role player is playing with the most assurance at any given time. In order to add more depth, the Suns must either recruit players or make trades to address this issue.
2. The point guard position has no backup plan.
Booker is the one player who will not be held accountable for the Suns’ present problems. He has exerted every effort, in tandem with Durant, to help this club win games. It is not his fault that he has missed some time due to injury, and when he is playing, one could argue that Booker is performing at the highest level of his career.
He has also embraced the role of leading the Suns in ball handling with great skill, averaging 8.2 assists per game thus far. A career average of 4.9 is by far the finest number he has ever had and ranks in the top 10 in the league right now. The disadvantages of having a player as prolific as Booker were noted prior to the season and remain valid concerns after 27 games.
The Suns sort of create plays “point guard by committee” when Booker is out with an injury. It may give certain players greater decision-making authority, which is fantastic for them individually, but it also explains why the Suns have trouble winning games on a regular basis when facing the best point guards in the NBA right now.
In the event that that fails, Durant is frequently handed the ball to attempt and create something. Though at this point Durant should be seen more as the Suns’ late-game go-to player and a game closer—which he frequently does. Not in the middle of the first quarter of a game against the Trail Blazers, in which Booker also participated (he finished with a game-high 40 points).
The Suns need to have times when Booker isn’t on the ball in order to play to their best ability. He can now focus on being the prolific scorer that we all know he is, and they will have a backup plan in the shape of a guy who is accustomed to leading the team.They have signed Theo Maledon to a two-way contract, but more will be required to address the point guard position.
1. Address their ineffective attacking play.
The Suns were not expected to have trouble offensively this season, if there was one area. It was thought that Durant and Booker, surrounded by snipers like Allen, Watanabe, and Gordon, would create a free-flowing scoring machine even without Beal.
It was also thought that switching out Nurkic for Ayton would be beneficial because Nurkic is a more complete offensive player who can pass well out of the post and is an underappreciated screener. With 12.4 points per game, he is a nice lift for the squad and can also step into a shot of his own. He generally plays as the fourth or fifth option offensively.
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However, the Suns’ offensive rating (113.4) has been a dismal 22nd in their last four games, with three defeats to the Trail Blazers and both New York teams and that one victory over the Wizards. You wouldn’t be surprised to see them play that number offensively, given they have shown a clear over-reliance on their two best players.
Although having Beal available would be beneficial, coach Vogel should actually be the one to get the most out of this team regardless of who is on the field.Though this is currently the team’s top issue, he recently made reference to certain players not filling in the responsibilities that have been assigned to them this season. They’ll never be great on defense, but they can score a lot more points against opponents—especially the weaker ones.
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