Hollinger: With these Phoenix Suns, there are reasons to toss aside the usual doom-and-gloom skepticism
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Look closer at the Suns through 14 games and their warts seem minor relative to those of much of their competition. Phoenix has played one of the league’s more difficult schedules to date and outscored its opponents by over 4.0 points per game. The Suns have defeated both the Clippers and Sixers, have four double-digit wins, and rank in the top half of the league in both Offensive and Defensive Efficiency. Three-point luck, a primary driver of early-season variance, doesn’t suggest the Suns have been disproportionately fortunate.
Overall, nothing looks particularly bizarre or fluky about what they’ve done, other than stretches of insane overachievement from Baynes. After an offseason that added Rubio, Baynes, Frank Kaminsky, Dario Saric and Cameron Johnson, a fully stocked Suns roster goes 10-deep with rotation-caliber quality. Phoenix has length on the wings with Kelly Oubre and Mikal Bridges, stretch shooting with Johnson, Kaminsky and Baynes, and an all-star caliber scorer in Devin Booker. Why wouldn’t it have a decent team? (Virginia homer note: All this and they’ve yet to unleash Ty Jerome on the league!)
Looking ahead, if the Suns can just tread water to the beginning of January, a Charmin-soft month of schedule offers the opportunity to build a margin over their rivals … you know, the ones that are already behind them.
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Playing with a real point guard, shooting guard Devin Booker seems transformed. Statistically, you can point to a higher 3-point percentage and a lower shooting rate as a sign of his maturity. He’s taking fewer shots but better ones and scoring nearly the same amount overall (24.9 ppg vs. 26.2 ppg a year ago), but with a 65.9 True Shooting mark that blows away his 55.8 career mark.
But also, refer back to the eye test here. Gone are the 40-foot YOLO chucks and the extended sequences of defensive indifference; it can be almost jarring at times to see Booker actually deny his man the basketball on the wing. He still doesn’t rebound and he’ll never make the All-Defense team, but he doesn’t have to – if he just stays solid, the talent around him will cause enough mayhem to get stops while he fills it up at the other end.
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For a less statistically tangible but more readily apparent reason to believe in this year’s Suns, look to Williams. Sources say he is as good a culture-setter as there is in the league. While his Xs and Os have not always blown people away, the fit here could not be more perfect – taking over a young team that lacked discipline and molding it into a vastly more professional outfit.
Williams also filled out his staff with a well-respected group — Phoenix lured rising star Darko Rajakovic from Oklahoma City (full disclosure – we tried to hire him on our staff in Memphis), brought veteran assistant Randy Ayers with him from Philly, and added gritty former players such as Steve Blake and Willie Green.
You could see Williams’ impact more when things were going badly on Tuesday in Sacramento. The Suns trailed by 26 in the second half after Rubio had to cut short his evening due to back spasms. (Watching his labored attempt to get through warm-ups, I’m amazed he played at all). Rather than wave the white flag on defense or splinter into a competition to see who could take the worst shot – a common sight a year ago – the Suns kept battling and nearly stole it, cutting the Kings’ lead to three in the final seconds before running out of time.
Williams lamented the Sun’s lapses in Thursday’s loss to the Pelicans, especially the start of the second half when New Orleans made 10 straight shots to regain control of the game.
“To not have the discipline and urgency to start both halves, especially the third,” said Williams, “That’s something (where) you don’t scheme for that … we weren’t locked into the game.”
But the bigger picture for these Suns over the first 14 games is the opposite: They have been locked in and focused, especially when Baynes has done his Superman routine. It remains to be seen if they can fight off their recent history and stay on this path for 68 more games. But through one month they’re on the right track, and a little three-game losing streak and some spilled sewage shouldn’t distract us from that.
From John Hollinger at The Athletic...there was a lot more where I put ......... but cut some out to make it shorter. Though I shouldn't post that much paid content here either, so if you haven't signed up, their content is well worth it.
Though I can see why some feel it is dumb to pay for a subscription, I used to pay for newspapers and stuff back in the day, so it's not anything new to me...and far cheaper than it was back then.
