Your weekly Inside the Suns analysis straight from the BSotS community who live and breathe the team.
Welcome to Inside the Suns, your weekly deep down analysis of the current Phoenix Suns team.
Each week the Fantable – a round table of Bright Siders – give their takes on the Suns’ latest issues and news.
Fantable Questions of the Week
Q1 – With Nick Richards now on the roster, how would you handle the Suns’ center rotation?
GuarGuar: I’ve been impressed with Nick so far in his first few games as a Sun. He’s a much needed athlete and his rebounding has been a breath of fresh air. I would start him going forward and then use Plumlee/Oso as the backup depending on the matchup. Both of them are fine as backups and I’m cool with this being our center rotation going forward.
OldAz: This is a no win situation for Budenholzer and even winning games won’t be enough to win. Any shortcoming by the center position in any game will lead to a portion of the fan base critisizing the results. This is partially because the Suns Center rotation remains flawed (like the whole roster) but also because fans expectations are usually not reasonable. Personally, I would do what Bud has said he is going to do and base it on who is playing well at the time and what the matchups are.
The only constant for me would be starting Richards because his size, athleticism and instincts for what that opening lineup needs. There are games where they need Nurk’s bulk to clear room and get rebounds, there are other games where Oso’s “switchability” helps with energy. To me Plumlee is not great at anything, but they most compete backup.
Rod: Until further notice, Nick is obviously going to start. I’m actually hoping that all the speculation that Nurk is “disgruntled” and that his illness is being faked is overblown because I’d like to see him as the primary backup to Nick. I think he could more than hold his own against most backup centers in the league and would really help in the rebounding department. That would likely also be dependent upon the matchup game to game and on occasion Plumlee or even Ighodaro might be the better choice as 1st center off the bench.
If Nurk winds up getting moved before the deadline, then in most situations I’d go with Plumlee as the backup. I’d love to give more minutes to Ighodaro but I just don’t think he’s ready for them if the team is actually playing to win.
Q2 – Should the Suns consider waiving Jusuf Nurkic?
NOTE: Only the final year of his contract could be stretched which would add almost $6.5 mil per year in dead money to the Suns cap sheet for three years following this season.
GuarGuar: I wouldn’t waive Nurkic I’m sure we can attach one of our newly acquired first round swaps with him and get something somewhat valuable back. It sucks the way things played out with his. The idea of who he is as a player theoretically fit really well with the big 3. But his flaws overshadowed everything at the end and he’s checked out and so is this team when it comes to him.
OldAz: No. This is just plain dumb in my opinion. He may be a negative asset now towards any trade, but waiving him does not get them under any cap and creates no relief in any way salary or trade wise. There have been games where his bulk would have been a benefit and eventually there will be a trade partner that will return something the Suns value or need. Unless he becomes a distraction, there is no reason to simply dump him for nothing.
Rod: I wouldn’t consider it until they’re explored every trade avenue through this summer. Waiving him now wouldn’t help and if he becomes a locker rood distraction (which I kind of doubt he would) then they aways have the option of doing what the Clippers did with PJ Tucker this season… sending him home to collect his paychecks until something is worked out.
And as I don’t really think that they will be able to work out a trade that basically exchanges Beal for Butler, the Suns now have a future 1st round draft pick to attach to Nurk in a trade. That could be enough to grease to get the trade wheels turning and get someone interested in taking on his contract without having to take back another bad contract in return. Whether that happens before the deadline or this summer, that would still be a way better option than just waiving him.
Q3 – Through the Suns’ 1st 10 games of the season, Tyus Jones averaged 32.4 minutes per game. Over their last 10 games, he’s averaged just 25.8 MPG. Why do you think he’s been getting fewer minutes lately?
GuarGuar: It’s simply his defense. He’s undersized and teams especially down the stretch just attack him over and over. He’s got a bad net rating when he’s on the court with both Booker and Beal. The 3 guard lineups weren’t working so Bud is now using them a lot less and hence less Tyus minutes. If Beal gets dealt and we acquire a certain forward from Miami…I could see Tyus getting close to 30 minutes a game again.
OldAz: To me this is simple. Moving Book back to a guard spot has also resulted in him having the ball in his hands more. It has also been working to get Booker back to top form. This also means more minutes where Beal and Book are together as the 2 guards on the floor with a more balanced lineup similar to what we saw last year. If Beal remains with the Suns throughout the season then this will likely continue. I think the pendulum will swing back on Jones’ minutes a little bit either way as there are many points during a game where the Suns really should use their point guards more to facilitate and ensure the Suns get a good shot every possession.
Rod: I think it’s a combination of Tyus being something of a defensive liability and Booker’s growing ability to facilitate. The Suns’ defense obviously need to get better and, whether he’s actually been playing as the point guard or not, Book has become the Suns’ leader in assists per game. Add in that Monte Morris is paying very well off the bench to those things and it just adds up to less minute for Tyus.
Personally, I’m still glad the Suns have him and believe he’s a very useful player for the team but just not as useful as we had all hoped… and much of that is due to the roster construction, not him.
As always, many thanks to our Fantable members for all their extra effort this week!
Rookie Report
Ryan Dunn – 20.5 mpg, 7.5 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 0.9 apg, 0.5 spg, 0.7 bpg, 0.4 TO, 2.4 PF, 45.4% FG%, 31.7% 3P%, 47.4% FT%
- Last Week – 24.2 mpg, 7.3 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 1.7 apg, 0.7 spg, 0.0 bpg, 0.0 TO, 2.7 PF, 35.7% FG%, 22.2% 3P%, 00.0% FT%
Oso Ighodaro – 16.1 mpg, 3.8 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 1.0 apg, 0.5 spg, 0.4 bpg, 0.6 TO, 1.7 PF, 55.8% FG%, 0.0 3P%, 54.3% FT%
- Last Week – 7.3 mpg, 0.3 ppg, 0.7 rpg, 1.0 apg, 0.3 spg, 0.0 bpg, 0.0 TO, 1.3 PF, 00.0% FG%, 00.0% 3P%, 25.0% FT%
Statistics courtesy of NBA.com.
Injury Report
Bradley Beal (Ankle) – Game Time Decision
Last Week’s poll results
Last week’s question was “How much of a difference do you believe Nick Richards will make as the Suns starting center?”
19% – A big positive difference.
67% – A small positive difference.
10% – No difference.
04% – A negative difference..
A total of 223 votes were cast.
Suns Trivia/History
On January 29, 1984, the NBA’s first All-Star Saturday took place in Denver at McNichols Arena. The first Nestle Crunch Slam-Dunk winner was Phoenix’s Larry Nance, who used a two-ball windmill dunk to beat favorites Julius Erving and Dominique Wilkins.
1984 NBA Slam Dunk Contest
Quotes of the Week
“Nothing surprises you at this point. A lot of things you hear end up never happening. Some things that you never hear ends up happening.” – Devin Booker (on trade talks)
“End of January, February right before the break is the toughest time for a lot of teams in this league. If you can get through this pretty solid, healthy, in good shape, you can pretty much have a solid second half of the season.” – Kevin Durant
Important Future Dates
Feb. 6 – NBA Trade Deadline (3 p.m. ET)
Feb. 14-19 – NBA All-Star break
March 1 – Playoff Eligibility Waiver Deadline
April 13 – NBA Regular Season ends
April 14 – Rosters set for NBA Playoffs 2025 (3 p.m. ET)
April 15-18 – Play-In Tournament
April 19 – NBA Playoffs begin
This week’s poll is…