To me, the Suns are the league’s biggest early-season surprise. They’re 3-2 and barely lost (99-96) on the defending Western Conference champion Spurs’ home floor Wednesday. That came just one night after the Suns won on the road against the Pelicans. Without a doubt, new coach Jeff Hornacek has his team scrapping.
Offseason acquisitions Eric Bledsoe and Gerald Green are proving to be the biggest difference-makers for the Suns. I also like the little of what I’ve seen from rookie shooting guard Archie Goodwin, a late first-round pick. He isn’t scoring much, but you can see the potential is there.
On top of all that, everyone in the Suns’ frontcourt has been busting their buns -- from Channing Frye to Miles Plumlee to the Morris twins off the bench (Markief and Morris). Sometimes, chemistry and just playing hard can carry you a long way. The Suns are proving that early.
Granted, they probably don’t have enough talent to sustain this over the long term or get into the playoffs. But it’s pretty clear the Suns are no pushover. It’s obvious they aren’t approaching the season with tanking as the goal.
"They created a lot of matchup problems,” Spurs guard Tony Parker said. “Both of the (Morris) brothers, they're tough to guard and Bledsoe in the pick-and-roll, same thing -- he's super fast. He's like a pit bull. They're pretty good. A lot people, they really don't believe in Phoenix. I think they're a pretty good team.”
Green missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer that would have tied the Spurs game.
“They’re not going to quit,” Hornacek said of his team, the fifth-youngest in the league. “That’s the big thing. We have a lot of guys who can give us a lift.”
Here is the recap from AZCentral's Paul Coro, one of my favorite NBA beat reporters.
Twitter: @SamAmicoFSO
