Dec 6, 2016; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Phoenix Suns head coach Earl Watson keeps an eye on the action in the first quarter against the Utah Jazz at Vivint Smart Home Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Swinger-USA TODAY Sports
As the Phoenix Suns continue to stumble through their rebuild, here are five adjustments head coach Earl Watson needs to make.
The Phoenix Suns ranking at the bottom of the Western Conference standings isn’t the problem. Most people knew this team would be bad again in 2016-17, since the Suns were coming off a 23-win season and structured their summer around building for the future.
They had added three project rookies, and focused their free agency on more realistic targets, bringing in veterans who would aid the franchise more in the locker room than they would in the win-loss column.
But as much as head coach Earl Watson has brought the team closer together as a family, the Suns are still a very bad basketball team.
Just take a look at Exhibit Y from Devin Booker, who had this to say after a frustrating loss to the Houston Rockets Wednesday night, which featured yet another fourth quarter implosion:
“It’s just communication,” Booker said. “We always talk about it as a team. Off the court, we all communicate. We all talk, we laugh and joke and then we get on the court, we act like we don’t know each other.”
That quote captures the quintessential problem with the Phoenix Suns: their players are very close and get along great, but they’re not being put in positions to win basketball games — and the problems extend far beyond the communication issues Booker spoke of.
The Suns are better off “tanking” this season away and benefitting from another top draft pick in 2017, but there’s a right way to go about a rebuild while losing games and there’s a wrong way to do so. So far, the Suns aren’t even tanking correctly.
Here’s a look at five adjustments Watson and the Suns need to make to ensure another non-playoff season isn’t a lost one too.
Nov 9, 2016; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Phoenix Suns center Alex Len (left), forward T.J. Warren (center) and guard Eric Bledsoe sit on the bench against the Detroit Pistons at Talking Stick Resort Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
5. Move T.J. Warren Back Into Starting Lineup
This is more of a minor tweak, and it should be a pretty easy one for Watson to make, but after three games easing back into the action following a 13-game absence due to a minor head injury, T.J. Warren looks ready for the starting lineup again.
In his third game back, Warren finished with 19 points and five rebounds in 29 minutes off the bench.
“T.J. found his rhythm,” Watson said. “Big shots, he plays within his own pace, great scorer. Deflections, getting up into the ball, fighting. You can tell he kind of hit a wall with fatigue late but he pushed through.”
Warren probably needed some time to get his conditioning back, which might be why he only played 14 and 10 minutes in his first two games back.
But after that display against the Rockets, it’s probably time to demote P.J. Tucker back to bench duty and see if Warren can inject some life back into what looked like a Most Improved Player of the Year campaign early on.
Dec 21, 2016; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker (1) against Houston Rockets guard James Harden (13) in the first half at Talking Stick Resort Arena. The Rockets defeated the Suns 125-111. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
4. Make Devin Booker A Playmaker
In Phoenix’s loss to Houston Wednesday night, Devin Booker tied a season-high seven assists, accounting for more than one-third of the team’s assists. At 3.1 assists per game, Booker averages the second-most dimes of anyone on the Suns’ roster.
When HoopsHabit asked if he had considered empowering Booker as a playmaker by putting the ball in his hands more often, Watson responded, “No, we have point guards. He’ll get enough action with the ball in his hands. You let Booker play any position, he’ll try and play the 5 too.”
To be fair, Watson is correct. The Suns do have three point guards already between Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight and rookie Tyler Ulis…and yet, Phoenix ranks dead last in the association in assists per game, assist percentage and assist-to-turnover ratio.
For a team that plays at the league’s second-fastest pace and makes the ninth most passes per game, that lack of distribution is telling about the kind of point guards Bledsoe and Knight are. With Ulis tethered to the bench, there have been far too many games where Booker looks like the smartest passer on the floor.
Compared to score-first point guards like Bledsoe and Knight, that’s not saying much. But with the Suns ranking 22nd in offensive rating, it’s clear this current approach isn’t working. Instituting an actual offense would be a start, but giving Booker more to do than go one-on-one and take contested jumper after contested jumper might help fix this team’s broken system.
The irony is that before the Houston game, Watson praised the Rockets’ decision to empower James Harden as their full-time point guard, despite his traditional position being the shooting guard spot.
“[Harden] kind of embraced playing the point guard position,” Watson said. “He’s always had the ball for most of the game, but now it’s defined.”
No one’s suggesting that at age 20, Booker is displaying Harden-esque court vision or playmaking ability. After all, head coach Mike D’Antoni went as far as saying the Beard was one of the greatest pick-and-roll players ever, and that’s coming from a guy who coached Steve Nash and Amar’e Stoudemire for half a decade.
But what’s the harm in finding out what Booker can do as a playmaker since he’s shown such promise as a ball handler in pick-and-roll situations? For an 8-21 team that ranks dead last in almost every assist category and sits at the bottom of the Western Conference standings, a little experimentation is worth a shot.
Dec 9, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Phoenix Suns center Alex Len (21) dunks the ball against the Los Angeles Lakers during a basketball game at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
3. Start Alex Len
No offense to Tyson Chandler, but at some point, the Suns really need to stop trying to make the veterans happy and focus on the painfully obvious rebuild that hasn’t been given room to grow.
Chandler has been mostly terrific lately, posting back-to-back 20-rebound games just last week. He’s also 34 years old and would be far more useful to the Suns as a trade candidate, especially since his 27.7 minutes a night are impeding the front office from being able to make an informed decision about Alex Len‘s upcoming restricted free agency.
Len has shown plenty of flashes of potential off the bench this year, averaging 8.6 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in just 22.7 minutes per game. In his nine games as a starter, Len put up 10.2 points, 10.0 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game on 56.9 percent shooting — more than acceptable numbers for a starting center.
At this point in his career, we know Len will probably never be a superstar. We know he’s been injury-prone at times, that he still struggles to regularly knock down midrange jumpers, and that every time he takes a running hook through the lane, an angel loses its wings.
But do we know if Alex Len can be a starting-caliber center in this league? Do we know if he can anchor an average NBA defense? Do we have any idea what his value might be on the restricted free agency market with the salary cap exploding the way it has?
The answer to all of those questions is an emphatic “no,” and the longer the Suns wait to see how he fares against starting-caliber centers on a night-to-night basis in his fourth season, the more they risk bungling this whole situation.
This isn’t rocket science; as one of the roster’s biggest enigmas in terms of his fit with a young core, Len needs the chance to log starter’s minutes. Let Len either prove himself as a long-term fixture in Phoenix, or as a player the Suns can afford to lose should another team swoop in with a massive offer sheet.
Dec 3, 2016; Oakland, CA, USA; Phoenix Suns forward Dragan Bender (35) is fouled by Golden State Warriors forward Andre Iguodala (9) on a drive during the third quarter at Oracle Arena. The Golden State Warriors defeated the Phoenix Suns 138-109. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
2. Play. Dragan. Bender.
Part of the reason the Phoenix Suns are so maddening is that they’re 8-21 and have gotten there while riding veterans like P.J. Tucker and Tyson Chandler to 30 minutes a night. Maybe Watson owed it to himself and the team’s most experienced guys to see if this team had the chemistry to make a surprise playoff run, but it’s become increasingly clear that isn’t happening.
A look north to a similar rebuilding franchise like the Minnesota Timberwolves shows little difference record-wise, with the Timberpups sporting an ugly 9-19 record.
But at least Tom Thibodeau can say his team got there by playing its young cornerstones. The Suns have no such luxury, especially when it comes to 19-year-old Dragan Bender.
To be fair, Watson has made his fair share of decisions in favor of the team’s youth. He made Devin Booker the starting shooting guard from day one, bumped Warren into the starting lineup because of Tucker’s injury and kept him there once the defensive ace returned, and moved 19-year-old rookie Marquese Chriss into the starting rotation ahead of fan favorite Jared Dudley.
But Knight has been an outright disaster, making the Booker decision look like a no-brainer in retrospect; Tucker is still playing 26.6 minutes per game and somehow still kept Bender away from significant minutes when Warren was out; and Chriss is still only averaging 18.2 minutes per game to Dudley’s 23.8 since Watson made the swap.
The worst part of Watson’s rotations has been Dragan Bender’s confounding lack of minutes. This problem doesn’t figure to improve now that Warren is back, further clogging Bender’s opportunities for minutes since the Suns insist that their 7’1″ rookie is actually a 3.
The No. 4 overall pick in this year’s draft is averaging 2.6 points 1.5 rebounds in a negligent 11.0 minutes per game. He’s only shooting 35.9 percent from the floor and 30.2 percent from deep, and he’s prone to many of the rookie mistakes you’d expect from the youngest player in the NBA.
But he’s also been one of the few Suns this season with a positive plus/minus, and though that’d undoubtedly change the more he plays, he’s shown far too many flashes — especially with his versatility on the defensive end, where the Suns need him the most — to be racking up DNP-CDs.
.@JonBloom did the research: Why Dragan Bender playing in the D-League would be a rare, even risky move https://t.co/mvLu2bl87i
— EmpireOfTheSuns (@EmpireOfTheSuns) December 22, 2016
For example, against a team like the Rockets that has so many forwards who can spread the floor to three-point range, you’d expect Bender and his exceptional defensive footwork to get a crack at containing Houston’s pick-and-pop prowess.
Nope.
Bender played a grand total of two minutes and 19 seconds, all of it in garbage time against the Rockets’ C-team. That would’ve been inexcusable before Watson said the Suns needed to find more opportunities for Bender prior to the game.
“He’s been on his own since he was a teenager so he has the mental toughness, now it’s time for him to get the physical toughness through the game,” Watson said. “We have to find way to get him experience on the court, not just in practice.”
At this point, “DNP – CD” might as well stand for “Did Not Play – Croatia’s Dragan,” since he already has six of them through the first 29 games of the season.
Even if Bender hadn’t shown signs of competence on defense, and even if he hadn’t posted such a successful stat line in his NBA debut (10 points, 4-of-5 shooting), playing the No. 4 overall pick such sparing minutes for a rebuilding franchise is unacceptable.
Dec 17, 2016; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker (1) celebrates scoring against the Oklahoma City Thunder during the second half at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. The Thunder defeat the Suns 114-101. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
1. Get Devin Booker Easier Looks
Against Houston, Devin Booker had more dunks (four) than he had all season (one). His final dunk, with the outcome no longer in doubt, was a downright vicious way to end to Kyle Wiltjer‘s fledgling NBA career.
It was also a perfectly appropriate display of anger from a talented 20-year-old whose shooting struggles probably wouldn’t be so extensive if the Suns were making life easier on him.
“Yeah, it did but at the same time [I’m] still angry,” Booker said when asked if the dunk represented the frustration from yet another tough loss. “We’re in a slump right now, overall as a team.”
Booker isn’t wrong, and his own struggles are pretty indicative of Phoenix’s offensive problems. Not giving a second-year player control of the offense as a playmaker is one thing, but expecting him to carry the load in isolation sets without providing him quality looks is another entirely.
Averaging 19.1 points per game on .412/.326/.807 shooting splits, the start of Booker’s sophomore season has been a bit of a disappointment. Though he’s been much better lately and has put up a couple of standout performances, it’s been a very hot-or-cold season so far.
Booker was frequently compared to Klay Thompson coming into the draft, and while he can do more offensively than Klay could at that point in his career, his greatest potential strength — as a catch-and-shoot threat on the wing — has been underutilized by a stagnant offense.
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Booker is taking 4.4 catch-and-shoot field goal attempts per game, per NBA.com, which ranks him 48th in the NBA. He’s only shooting 32 percent on those looks because so many of them are contested, and his 3.4 three-point catch-and-shoot attempts per game ranks 50th in the association.
Unfortunately, 295 of Booker’s 471 total field goal attempts (62.6 percent) have been what NBA.com refers to as “contested,” with the nearest defender being 0-4 feet away. He’s shooting 39.7 percent on those shots, compared to a more respectable 43.2 percent on looks with the nearest defender 4+ feet away.
Booker got off to a great start with his isolation scoring, but he now ranks in the 57th percentile in that category. He’s shooting just 40.6 percent on iso looks, per NBA.com, and his 13.9 percent frequency on isolation plays ranks 32nd in the league — far too high for a 20-year-old who would better serve the offense if the Suns started running more sets designed to get him easy looks.
Devin Booker is the future of the Phoenix Suns, and as much as growing pains were to be expected from a second-year player under a rookie head coach, the offense really needs to start tailoring itself to help its most promising offensive weapon, not the other way around.
