The Phoenix Suns are going to shoot three-pointers this year. Hallelujah. Praise be to Budenholzer.
The three-ball has changed the game of basketball. We’ve seen a significant uptick in its usage as analytics have entered the game, combined with elite shooting and better floor spacing. The Phoenix Suns were once the trendsetters. The team figured out early on that, when the majority of your shots are three-pointers (combined with an effective percentage of makes), good things happen.
We saw a renaissance of thought during the Seven Seconds or Less Era, with Steve Nash orchestrating the offense, the pace of play soaring, and the team attempting an unprecedented 29.3% of their total shots from beyond the arc.
In recent years, however, the Suns have been behind the league average in terms of the total percentage of shots coming from deep. In the past eight seasons, the team has surpassed the league average in three-point attempts as a percentage of total shots just once.
It’s an issue that was clear as day last season, yet while we pined over why the team wasn’t shooting more from beyond the arc, no change occurred. 5th in three-point percentage. 25th in three-point attempts. Mind-boggling.
The team had shooting talent. With an NBA average of 36.6% from deep, Phoenix had six players above that line:
- Grayson Allen — 46.1%
- Bradley Beal — 43.0%
- Bol Bol — 42.3%
- Kevin Durant — 41.3%
- Eric Gordon — 37.8%
- Royce O’Neale — 37.6%
With Mike Budenholzer now at the helm, the Suns’ philosophy is taking a clear shift. This was a recurring theme throughout Suns Media Day, where the message was loud and clear: the team will prioritize shooting from beyond the arc.
“He preaches a lot of threes,” Grayson Allen said of Budenholzer, “and that’s something we want to get more up.”
Bradley Beal on shooting more threes under Coach Bud:
“We don’t have a choice.” pic.twitter.com/KIPdWoUp5n
— Bright Side of the Sun (@BrightSideSun) September 30, 2024
Known for his emphasis on spacing and ball movement, Budenholzer’s influence will likely see the Suns adopt a more modern, perimeter-focused style of play, aiming to leverage their shooters and increase scoring efficiency from deep. This shift could redefine how the Suns attack offensively this season.
How have Coach Budenholzer-led teams stacked up when comparing their percentage on three-pointers taken versus the league average?
Every year but one, his teams have been above league average, a notable shift for a Suns team that finished 1.7% below the league average last season.
Over the past five seasons, Budenholzer’s teams have averaged 40.9% of their shot attempts from beyond the arc. In contrast, the Phoenix Suns have never surpassed the 40% mark in their history as an organization. They came close in 2020-21, when the team took 39.2% of their shots from deep.
40%. That’s the number I’ll be monitoring all season long with the Suns
They have never attempted 40% of their total field goals from beyond the arc. The closest they ever came? 39.2% in 20-21
As for Coach Bud, his teams have surpassed that mark 4 timespic.twitter.com/xMPcdR4zGJ
— John Voita (@DarthVoita) October 3, 2024
This season promises to deliver a new brand of Phoenix Suns basketball. With Budenholzer at the helm, the focus has already shifted to maximizing floor spacing and precise positioning, even after just one day of training camp.
First day of Suns training camp. You can see boxes at the 5 spots on the floor, presumably just like the ones Mike Budenholzer used in Milwaukee to denote where guys should space the court pic.twitter.com/6swnXOBNI9
— Gerald Bourguet (@GeraldBourguet) October 1, 2024
His system, which relies heavily on creating open looks from the perimeter, is set to transform the Suns into a more dynamic, three-point-driven team. As Budenholzer fine-tunes these elements, we can expect a faster-paced, more efficient offense that capitalizes on every opportunity from beyond the arc, a significant evolution for the Suns.