PHOENIX – We at the moment are nearly two months into the 2024-25 season – and the Phoenix Suns have formally reached a possible breaking level.
Continued unhealthy damage luck, psychological lapses on protection and a troublesome schedule performed a job within the Suns’ 12-11 begin — however these explanations alone would merely oversimplify what went fallacious .
Three underlying causes as to why the Suns have struggled over the previous month will be discovered beneath.
Probably the most obvious issues with the Suns at this level has been round for some time – but it surely was magnified this weekend in opposition to larger, extra bodily groups.
A lot of the Suns roster stands between 6’1″ and 6’6″ – whereas additionally sporting comparable bodily/athletic profiles.
They have been merely outmatched by huge our bodies like Goga Bitadze, distinctive athletes like Bam Adebayo, and gamers with fast first steps (Anthony Black involves thoughts).
Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro are most certainly the one “breakthrough” athletes on the checklist – Grayson Allen, Josh Okogie and Royce O’Neale are additionally high quality athletes, however general comparable builds blunt the influence of all three .
Ighodaro is an exceptional athlete in his personal proper, however he lacks the bodily edge that Jusuf Nurkic or Mason Plumlee deliver so far. Dunn’s regression as a stationary shooter has made it tougher for his athleticism. Kevin Durant and Devin Booker are good athletes, however not nice athletes who rely extra on accuracy and IQ to make an influence than anything.
This drawback is not on show on a regular basis, but it surely was on show this weekend in opposition to some very leading edge roster constructing types – and it must be a priority transferring ahead.
Let’s check out the fourth quarter of the loss to Miami.
You may argue that the sport was already out of attain by the point Butler completed two and one video games in a row, however the Suns are completely a staff that may shut a sport’s lead with only a small handful of possessions – so each Misstep right here is amplified, particularly contemplating the place the sport’s momentum was heading earlier than a Butler three-pointer with 4:16 left within the contest.
The Suns additionally must capitalize on second-chance alternatives as a staff ranked within the backside 10 within the league in offensive rebounding proportion.
Whereas fourth quarters have not essentially been a problem, situational basketball has been – and that is completely one thing that must be famous, particularly when the execution will be shoddy in opposition to groups just like the New Orleans Pelicans and the Brooklyn Nets.
The Suns are twentieth within the league in defensive score with 114.4 up to now this season – and the final three video games specifically must be alarming for Suns followers.
The Suns have been torn aside in opposition to the New Orleans Pelicans and Brandon Ingram. The Miami Warmth had success within the second half of the sport on Saturday. Jalen Suggs bought sizzling and devastated Phoenix final night time.
The frequent denominator? Being with out Durant and Dunn.
As beforehand talked about, O’Neale is an extremely various and efficient defender, however when requested to hold the burden of being a do-it-all defender, it is simply an excessive amount of, particularly when the vast majority of gamers who do him encompass are impartial or barely destructive. on the defensive facet.
The Suns merely do not have a constant POA stopper with out Dunn and an ideal weakside helper with out Durant – when a staff is so depending on 2 or 3 particular person defenders to maintain the staff’s protection buzzing, it is one thing that doesn’t point out a prime staff.
The Suns will look to get again on observe beginning Friday night time after they make a fast journey to face the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake Metropolis.
