Anyway, it’s crazy that this Suns team is second in steals, only behind the Thunder — which might historically be one of the best teams ever at forcing turnovers and generating steals. The last two years we had zero identity. Did we want to run? Shoot a lot of threes? Let KD & Book score from midrange? Crash the offensive glass or focus on getting back? It was just a bunch of “Yeah guys, go out there and play hard!”
I remember some games where the team looked like a CPU-controlled squad in 2K on rookie/pro difficulty. I actually checked my posts from that time, and this really summed up the way we played:
It’s unbelievable how boring the offense is. The Blazers are out there running a G-League-caliber lineup, but they move the ball better and faster than the Suns.
Ball handler brings the ball up, gets a pick from a big, shoots.
Ball handler brings the ball up, they double him, lazy pass to the next man, he drives and tries to get a foul whistle.
Bleh.
This season, the whole energy and the way we play is completely different. Ott is definitely the biggest addition to this team. One thing that surprised me, though, was the pace of this year’s squad. I thought we were pushing the pace a lot and playing fast, but compared to the rest of the league, the Suns are actually 21st. It really shows how crazy the league has gotten with how fast teams run now.
But this brings me back to the first thing I said: identity. We have it again. The Suns force teams to play slower than they want. If they want to run — good luck. The whole team is super active on defense: Dunn, Brooks, Book, Gillespie (my GOAT), Goodwin, Oso, and most of the roster. They’re dawgs and great at getting deflections (Suns are 5th in the league in deflections this year, btw).
On offense, the game plan is simple: put Book in the first action, the defense reacts, find the open man, and share the ball. I never loved the idea of PG Book, but you’ve gotta admit basketball has evolved into a sport where the role of a point guard isn’t what it used to be. Point guards aren’t just ball handlers who bring the ball up, run the play, and decide who shoots. Now, whoever is your best on-ball threat is your point guard. We saw it with Tyus last year. It’s useless to have a traditional point guard who isn’t a threat themselves — defenses just ignore them.
We should really appreciate Book, though. He’s a very underrated basketball player, and it’s sad to see all the hate he gets. Not many All-Stars or elite scorers would be okay with his role. Whatever the team asks from him, the dude delivers. Sure, he has his brain-freeze moments as a point guard, but over the years he’s improved so much as a playmaker, and we shouldn’t take him for granted.
One last thing: when I was watching the Hawks game, I realized how different our third quarters are compared to past years. That used to be one of our biggest issues. The team blew so many leads and came out of halftime with zero energy. Now it feels like opponents run into a wall in the third. I checked some third-quarter stats and I was right! The Suns have the 4th-best net rating in the third quarter this year, and over the last 10 games they’re the second-best (only behind the Thunder again).
This is really good stuff, guys. Teams will adjust to us, and there will be stretches where our shooting cools off or opponents shoot better. But it’s so fun to see that we have an identity again. I’m just hoping for a healthy season, and if Jalen comes back and blends in the way he showed in his first game, the Suns will be a really annoying team to play against…
