Suns defense...

[Jimmy76]

Has been dropping through the floor we're currently ranked 27th in points per 100 possessions with 110.4.

discuss

[hunterxaz]

there's no doubt they've dropped off but they're still winning. their defense never really showed up in stats though, it's more about stops and pressure, charges, etc.

[MaryvalesFinest]

Offense > Defense

[JMac1]

Offense > Defense

Thats what Bobby Knight says!

[rsavaj]

27th eh? Ouch.

And here people thought tsherkin was trolling

[NashtyNas]

We may not be great statistically, but we're fighting hard; It's much better than earlier years, I'm sort of content. Improvement obviously wouldn't hurt, but if we continue to play hard and get stops that are necessary, we'll be fine.

[impulsenine]

I have a feeling that this 27th business is the average of being 29-30th in quarters 1-3 and 15th or better in the 4th.

[Thegorillasrules]

Well, the Suns are no defensive juggernaut, but I think two things might be making that stat look worse than it is:

1. Second-chance points - It doesn't matter how many times you stop the opponent from making a shot if you continue to give up offensive rebounds.

2. Garbage minutes - If you're up 110 to 90 early in the fourth quarter, there's not a lot of incentive to play great defense for the rest of the game. Especially when you're scoring at a 60% clip.

[dantian]

The good sign with this team is, they are willing to do the fundamental works to be good defensively. They have been improving a lot over their DA-inherited background of cheating on defense. And this adjustment pain is natural. They will not be the elites on defense but can become adequate enough to stop people in crunch time.

[KJ7]

I expected our D to be much worse this season so I'll take 27th! LOL

Just glad we have Amundson and Dudley who come in and hustle. Seems JRich and Amare have been trying harder on D then prev seasons but we really need those 2 rebounding better then what they have been particularly Amare. No excuse for him not having at least 9 rpg even if they are all defensive. The offensive ones should just add to that.

We were pretty lucky that Hill got a ridiculous amount of rebs in the first few games but no one has picked up the slack with him going back to "normal" status since then.

[lilfishi22]

I think we should all take a step back and look at the bigger picture. We are EXACTLY who we and everyone thought we were on defense so it shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. Whenever you have a starting back court of Nash and JRich and a front line of Amare and Frye, you know we're going to give up points.

What people is making such a big fuss about is the fact that even though we're near the bottom of the league in defense is because we're still winning. What these people didn't anticipate was how good and efficient our offense would become.

It would be nice if we could become a better defensive team and I think we still could learn to play better team defense as the season goes along.

[rsavaj]

Well, we've only had five games where we've played winning teams, so that's why this stat is worrisome.

[KJ7]

Well, we've only had five games where we've played winning teams, so that's why this stat is worrisome.

If you start getting hung up on "if we only improved ... we would be champions" you're setting yourself up for a fall ... take it from me!

Just enjoy having a better record then what we thought we would and go with the flow.

[justinb80]

Lately, the Suns have been blowing out teams, so yeah, the incentive is not there to keep playing exhaustive D. I don't really care that this is a lock down defensive team, just that they know how to play it when they need it.

[Jimmy76]

update: Suns defense up to 22nd after last nights game