Regardless of what hole you’re looking to poke into the Sun’s postseason opportunities, from inexperience to star power to complete disbelief in Chris Paul or Devin Booker, it’s clear that the best way to address those shortcomings is That is, to get enough of each player on the list that not a single thing can be the setting of the suns. In practice, it means that many of the problems we saw in the Suns playoff fights this week cannot continue.
Point one in the Sun’s internal memo about these games must begin with the ball movement. It’s an integral part of what the Suns want to do on offense, and it helps explain why many of the team’s roleplayers weren’t at their best in this week’s duel against two of the best teams in the west. The suns had only 40 assists across the two competitions compared to 28 sales. What happened to point five?
It’s not just misses. The ball wasn’t moving enough. This season, the Suns have made nearly 288 passes per game. Against Utah and the Clippers, that number fell to 260 per game. This can also be seen in the low three-point sums. Most threes are supported, and a small number of threes attempted is often evidence of less pass. The Suns only took 58 threes in those two games, despite averaging over 34 a night throughout the season.
This means that the role-players got into a difficult situation. Both Dario Saric and Cameron Payne fought, shot 7:19 from the field and flipped the ball five times in the Clippers game alone. The pivot of the tanning bed should be a pick-and-pop between the two, but when teams turn it on or go under screens on Payne it can get sticky.
But the bank wasn’t the only group in trouble. Jae Crowder was 2-9 in the first game before disappearing in Los Angeles. You don’t want Crowder to do too much, but his confidence and reach as a Sagittarius make him a useful standoff. If he doesn’t open the ball behind the arch, the offensive will sputter.
Defend three and stars
Of course, it’s not just about insulting. After all, the Suns broke 100 in both games and mostly scored enough points to keep up with both Jazz and Clippers. Pull-up three-point shooting, especially by Donovan Mitchell and Paul George, but also by Rajon Rondo and Jordan Clarkson, seriously injured the sun this week. Almost a third of Utah’s shots on Wednesday fell on three-pointers without a corner, and late in the game Mitchell pocketed a pair that brought the jazz back into play. The next night the Clippers went 12-22 for three with no corner, largely thanks to George’s blast.
These are the shots that superstars will do in the postseason. In order to win multiple playoff series, the suns have to defend the bow better. Their season numbers are fourth best in the NBA in terms of opponent’s three-point percentage per cleaning the glass, so they usually do this well. But in the regular season, not many players really put pressure on the defense that way. Adjustments are made every night in the playoffs. The suns could reasonably have to go through Luka Doncic, George and Kawhi Leonard and then LeBron James in the postseason – all people who can kill you with that shot.
Some of today’s three-point games are all about luck. Rarely will there be such a large discrepancy between teams (the Suns shot 6-24 from below while LA shot 18-37). But it’s also important that the suns keep their best defenders on the ground. Jazz only came back into play because Mikal Bridges hit the bench with bad trouble and Mitchell was able to find his rhythm. It’s a constant struggle for bridges to maintain discipline and play aggressive defenses without getting dirty.
Could a little ball kill the suns?
A much larger number of adjustments could be on the cards for Monty Williams and the coaching staff move into the playoffs on Deandre Ayton. The Clippers obviously went into the game last night knowing they wanted to play small against Ayton. When Ivica Zubac was eventually drawn and Patrick Beverley thrown out, Ty Lue played the rest of the night equally large, eclectic casts. We’ve seen Marcus Morris or Nicolas Batum match up with Ayton many times, and because the big man is still not a trustworthy shooter who can punish mismatches, the Suns haven’t made the Clippers pay for downsizing.
That brings us to a certain positivity. Someone who has played well in both games but may not have played enough is Torrey Craig, who seems to have good things to do with his energy, IQ and defense every time he steps on the floor since he started was traded to Phoenix. He has to take shots to really stand out in the rotation, but the Suns have an obvious way of playing smaller themselves with leaning more on Craig.
In just that brief recap, I mentioned almost every Suns player’s name. Because of some of these valid constraints and questions that the suns face as they prepare for the postseason, the margin of error is lower. While there’s a chance Paul and Booker will just go into supernova and make life easier for everyone, it’s far more likely for me that the suns will have to continue winning like they did in the regular season: with everyone, who interferes, and the collective effort and chemistry of the team brings the suns to the extreme.
The suns are not built for simple star spheres
If, like me, you believe that stars win the playoffs, it may seem counterintuitive, but when everyone fulfills their role it in turn makes things easier for Booker and Paul. You need space to operate, and Booker does a lot better with cuts, screens, and spot-up looks on the ball than just isolating. We saw what happens when opponents can hit Paul while he hits the ball into the ground. In order to avoid injuries and achieve maximum effectiveness, Paul needs his teammates.
And of course, neither Booker nor Paul are groundbreaking defenders for the Guard. To keep the opponents close and limit the stars of other teams, the Suns need constant high-level influence from Bridges, Ayton, Craig and Crowder. It’s all or nothing to these suns.
This week has shown that against a team like the Clippers, a pure superstar Mano a mano basketball won’t work very often for the Suns. Even jazz had Mitchell’s newly discovered deep shooting brilliance to fall back on. The way the suns win – and alleviate the noisy doubts about this team – is by gathering contributions up and down and solidifying into a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
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