Inside the Suns – Topics: Kevin Durant’s minutes, early season surprises, Bol Bol

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 – Which do you find most surprising, the Suns currently ranking 6th in defense or 16th in offense?

GuarGuar: I find us being 16th in offense to be more surprising thus far. We finished around top 10 in defense last year so I’m not that shocked at our early defensive success. But being middle of the pack in offense so far is quite interesting given our loaded offensive superstar talent. I expect us to finish top 10 in offense easily by the end of the season and attribute this to just a small sample size.

OldAz: The defense by a wide margin. The Suns have shown great offensive stretches, but you can see that they are still experimenting and figuring things out. The defense, however, has really clicked and really all the rotation players are stepping up their defensive intensity for longer stretches. You add in ONeal and Dunn’s defensive intensity and their defense has been very impressive.

Rod: This is a fairly tough decision to make as I’d really didn’t expect the offensive or defensive rankings the Suns currently have. Even with a new head coach and new offensive schemes, I wasn’t expecting the Suns to be this far down in the rankings but for pretty much the same reasons I didn’t expect the defense to be this high.

Of the two, I’d say the defense is a little more surprising simply because of another surprise… that Dunn has earned so many rotation minutes so early in the season. I was sure he would be a plus for the Suns’ defense but I just wasn’t expecting Bud to trust him so much this soon. Also we’re getting a full season of Royce O’Neale who isn’t having to learn everything on the fly and pretty much everyone else seems to be playing harder on D than last season too.

I’m also not really concerned about the offense as it’s early and everyone is still adjusting to Bud’s system. As everyone gets more comfortable with it, I can’t see how it won’t improve considering all the offensive weapons on this team.

Q2 – At age 36, KD is currently leading the Suns in minutes per game (again) with 39.3 a night (2.1 minutes more per game than last season). What are your thoughts on this?

GuarGuar: 39 per game is too many for KD. I get some games against elite teams we are going to play him 39 a night and that’s fine. But to average that for the season is scary and Bud needs to dial it back on him just a tad. We go nowhere if we don’t have Durant. I’d like to see him get down to 35-36 a night.

OldAz: Understand the concern, but I have said for a few years that the stars are finding rest minutes while on the floor. On previous teams Beal, Booker and KD were always involved in the offense, but with all 3 there are a number of possessions where they are just hanging out in the corner. The extended defensive intensity from Q1 counters this, but finding a little extra energy always seems to be easier when you are winning and happy. One thing you can see more than anything is that KD is happier, more engaged and more active than at any time since he has come to Phoenix. Positive energy can be rejuvenating. I just hope they get some big leads. That can limit his minutes as the schedule eventually gets a tad easier.

Rod: I really hope that Bud can shave off some of KD’s minutes fairly soon. During the Philly game, someone mentioned that he was 2nd in the NBA in minutes per game so far this season which I don’t think is wise or sustainable for him over a long NBA season. Hopefully lowing his minutes can be accomplished by gradually distributing some of them between the role players as Bud becomes more familiar with whom he can trust with them.

Q3 – Fan favorite reserve Bol Bol has yet to play this season. Your thoughts on why he’s been glued to the end of the bench?

GuarGuar: There really is just no room in the rotation for Bol. I think the only minutes he can possibly earn are with him playing center if Nurk/Plumlee aren’t working out. Royce and KD are manning the 4 spot right now and doing a great job. Unless somebody gets hurt or we as a team go into a slump, I don’t see Bol gaining any minutes anytime soon. It just speaks to the quality of our bench that Bol can’t crack the rotation. The Ryan Dunn emergence also hurt Bol’s chances of getting on the court.

OldAz: Who should lose minutes to get Bol onto the floor? Dunn plays better defense and is more versatile, especially if he is a threat from 3. Royce has had an outstanding start to the season. Plumlee has been everything we could hope for. Bol will get his chance as players get nicked up and as the season rolls along, but his place on the bench reflects how much better constructed and deeper this team is compared to last season.

Rod: I’m not very surprised at this, especially with how quickly Ryan Dunn proved he was worth getting rotation minutes. Even in preseason, Bol mostly seemed out of synch with the rest of the team on the court. He has the tools/skills but I’m just not sure if he’s ever going to be able to figure out how to best use them.

So far, all the Suns’ games have been too close in the 4th for there to be any “garbage time” in them and it seems as though Bud just doesn’t trust Bol enough to put him on the court to play meaningful minutes yet. I can’t think of any other reason to keep a 7’3” player with 5 years of NBA experience completely glued to the end of the bench.

As always, many thanks to our Fantable members for all their extra effort this week!

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Rookie & Two-way Players Report

Ryan Dunn – 15.8 mpg, 6.8 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 0.9 apg, 0.4 spg, 0.3 bpg, 0.4 TO, 2.4 PF, 45.5% FG%, 39.4% 3P%, 50.0% FT% (1-2)

Oso Ighodaro – 7.5 mpg, 1.0 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 0.0 apg, 0.0 spg, 0.3 bpg, 0.5 TO, 1.5 PF, 66.7% FG% (2-3), 0.0 3P% (0-0), 0.0% FT% (0-0)

Collin Gillespie – 3.4 mpg, 3.0 ppg, 0.0 rpg, 0.0 apg, 0.0 spg, 0.0 bpg, 0.0 TO, 0.0 PF, 50.0% FG% (1-2), 100.0 3P% (1-1), 0.0% FT% (0-0)

Jalen Bridges – Assigned to Valley Suns

TyTy Washington Jr – Assigned to Valley Suns

Statistics courtesy of NBA.com.

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Last Week’s poll results

Last week’s question was “Would you be for the Suns bringing back PJ Tucker on a vet minimum contract?”

10% – Yes.

90% – No.

A total of 263 votes were cast.

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Suns Trivia/History

With his 35 points against Philly, Kevin Durant became just the 5th player in NBA history with 700 career games with 25 or more points.

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Quotes of the Week

“A lot of people that know me know that I’m going to compete and play through anything. If it ain’t broke, I’m gonna try to get out there and play through it. It’s tough as a competitor, once you make that mindset to cross those lines, you can’t worry about your injuries, you can’t worry about your knick knacks, you gotta just compete and leave it out there. “ – Bradley Beal

“Tonight is an example of why such a great player makes tough shots. He (KD) can make something out of nothing and his length, he can just do so many things to put the ball in the basket.” – Mike Budenholzer

“It really don’t even matter. You shouldn’t even worry about me getting my shots. I’m gonna figure it out, I’m gonna get my shots. I don’t need plays called for me, I don’t need my teammates to force me the ball. If we just play together and random and spontaneous the ball will find me.” – Kevin Durant

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Important Future Dates

Nov. 12 – Emirates NBA Cup begins

Dec. 3 – Emirates NBA Cup Group Stage concludes

Dec. 10-11 – Emirates NBA Cup Quarterfinals

Dec. 14 – Emirates NBA Cup Semifinals (Las Vegas, NV)

Dec. 17 – Emirates NBA Cup Championship (Las Vegas, NV)

Jan. 5 – 10-day contracts may now be signed

Jan. 10 – All NBA contracts are guaranteed for the remainder of the season

Feb. 6 – NBA Trade Deadline (3 p.m. ET)

Feb. 14-19 – NBA All-Star break

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This week’s poll is…