With training camp about to tip off, here’s what to watch for as your favorite team prepares for the 2015-16 season. Some of these questions will be answered quickly; others could linger into the regular season. Either way, here are three things that will define the first month of this new season:
Does Markieff Morris really want to be here?
The Phoenix Suns were prepared for the worst on media day, as Markieff Morris had threatened to make things extraordinarily difficult for the team. Instead, he showed up on Monday and proclaimed that he was happy to be with his teammates and wanted to be in Phoenix. It’s a surprising turn of face for the power forward, but is it accurate? Or is he simply playing nice until he can convince Phoenix to trade him?
Will the two-point guard experiment work?
Jeff Hornacek’s offense is at its best when it has two top-notch ball handlers working in tandem like a binary star system. But the experiment blew up in the Suns’ faces last year, as Goran Dragic and Isaiah Thomas left town in a cloud of dust and hard feelings. With everything settled, Phoenix is locked in with Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight going forward. But that’s a short backcourt, and the Suns could be in trouble on defense. What schemes might Hornacek have up his sleeve to hide those deficiencies?
What does Tyson Chandler have left?
The Suns are famous for their ability to regenerate aging athletes. If there’s any team that can turn back the clock for Chandler, it’s Phoenix. But there’s an on-court problem here. As indicated in the question above, this is a team that needs a lot of defensive help. Outside of P.J. Tucker and Eric Bledsoe, there’s not really an above-average defender on the roster, which means Chandler is going to have to carry a big load. Will he be able to do so and stay healthy?
