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 – Believe it or not, training camps will open in a little less than 7 weeks and preseason games will begin shortly afterward. What are some of the things you’ll be looking for in those preseason games?
OldAz: Before the Tyus Jones signing I would have shrugged my shoulders and said “whatever” to the preseason. All there was to look forward to was seeing what the new coaching staff wanted to implement, but it would be surprising to see much of that in the preseason. However, now with Jones on the roster it will be interesting to see that chemistry build between Jones and each of the other core players. This is what I will mostly be watching for.
Brrrberry: I suppose I want to see what type of pace they’re playing with and I’ve heard the players and coaches talk about getting up more 3’s for several years now so it’s about damn time we just hoist a lot of 3s if that’s something everyone has identified as being smart ball. We’ve got the personnel to make that happen and while I’m not sure how many 3s per game is optimal, I’d like to see them get in the top 10 for attempts.
Obviously I’ll be watching Monte Morris closely and hoping to see him play with a chip on his shoulder. If I was in his shoes I’d be pissed about the Tyus Jones signing so I want to see him get after it and force the coaches to give him minutes. Jones is a more talented player than Morris but if they’re both in peak form, the distance between them isn’t all that great so I want to see Monte resurrect his career and standing as a legit rotation PG in this league.
I’ll also be watching Bol’s minutes closely. I’m glad we were able to retain Fiz because him and Bol seem to have a strong relationship so I’m sure having an advocate in Fiz in Bud’s ear giving him the scoop on a unique player like Bol, will hopefully allow Bud to find a role for him and comfort spot for himself in affording Bol consistent minutes.
Rod: There’s actually a lot to be looking for during preseason. The starters won’t be playing a lot of minutes but I can’t wait to see how much of a difference having a true point guard in the starting lineup makes. I’m also curious to see how the smallish backcourt of Jones, Beal and Book works out against larger backcourts. And of course, I want to see Budenholzer’s offense in action!
Individually, I want to see Dunn get lots of minutes and take lots of shots… from everywhere. The mechanics of his shot look fine so I don’t think there’s big problem there but I want to see him make a respectable number of of shots from downtown and even from midrange. Being the best defender in his draft class will only earn him so many minutes if he can’t also consistently get the ball in the bucket.
I’m also very interested in seeing Oso playing against real NBA players. I don’t think he’ll ever be a star but I do think he has the potential to maybe become an elite role player some day. And how is Bud going to use Bol Bol? I think he may be ready for consistent rotation minutes this year and a good preseason performance from him could be the key to getting that.
Unfortunately, I’m really curious as to how good (or bad) this team will be defensively this year but I expect team defense to be a work in progress and unlikely to be anywhere near ironed out during the preseason games. I will be watching individual defensive performances though.
Q2 – On the Olympic team, Book has deliberately played less like a star and more like a role player. Would you like to see more of that from him on the Suns this season?
OldAz: I could write pages upon pages on this question as I have said for years that Booker integrating his teammates more would be huge for the teams success as well as his own development as a leader. The best example of this was that amazing game against the Bulls a couple years ago where they started off feeding DA until the Bulls adjusted, which gave Booker a little extra space to get white hot to the point he could not be stopped.
In the 2nd half they rolled back towards Booker, but instead of going back to DA, Booker was so hot he made the contested shots anyway. Further, Booker (and the team) never leaned into this strategy in any meaningful way after that. DA was never going to create his own shots or become an equal partner, but Book has always treated his teammates like supporting cast and it was to both his and the teams detriment. The story is similar with Mikal who was treated like a role player but was obviously capable of so much more.
Only when an established star like CP3 or KD showed up has Book showed deference to those players as equal teammates. To me, this was always a mistake and something the coaching staff should have been pushing him on. There are so many offensive weapons on the Suns team that if Book would play like 1 of 5 instead of 1+4 more often, it would actually open things up more for him and make both him and the team better. In the past I have seen this as evidence of Book’s lack of respect for his teammates, and the Olympics does nothing to change that opinion. Hopefully, he finds some value in this role (and success in the PF role) and extends some of these things to the regular season.
Brrrberry: NOPE! I want to see the Devin Booker who lit the first 2 rounds of the NBA playoffs on fire in the 2023 playoffs, on both ends of the floor. Nearly all of the guys on the USA roster have been playing like role players, really everyone aside from Ant. Book was the leading scorer today against Brazil and he’s playing his role to perfection.
Some people have called this squad the greatest ever assembled and Booker is entrenched as a starter. Every player in that starting 5 is a superstar including Book. He needs to be a superstar in every way for this years squad to accomplish their goals.
There’s going to be a residual effect that’ll occur to his confidence that even he wouldn’t admit to from being a starter amongst this group of players and it’s going to propel him into an incredible season. It’s crazy how good he is, the guy was 27ppg and 11th in the league in apg (7), and in a lot of ways it seemed relatively nondescript. The best is yet to come.
Rod: I’d like to see some of that on a regular basis from him but he’s still a star player for the Suns and can’t afford to change his game too much (like trying to also be the primary ball handler… we saw how that worked out). Hopefully coach Bud can afford to keep his minutes down to a reasonable level (his 36.0 mpg last season was his highest mpg average ever) and Book can at least afford to expend more energy on the defensive side which is what I mostly would like to see.
And if KD or Beal are on a hot shooting streak, I wouldn’t mind him taking a step further into that role player role and let them carry the scoring load on those nights. But of course, when HE’S on a hot streak, they should also be willing to take that same step back and let him just concentrate on scoring.
This all should be much easier with Jones and Morris taking over the majority of the ball handling duties this season and with what will hopefully be a stronger bench than last season.
Q3 – For his career, Jusuf Nurkic is only a .280 shooter from three (31.2% over the last 4 years) but Budenholzer likes his bigs to shoot threes. Do you expect Bud to give Nurk the green light to attempt more threes?
OldAz: If it’s open, I think Bud will want him to shoot it. I believe that is part of Bud’s philosophy of playing more random. However, it is also very possible that with all the passers the Suns now have that they will be a team that moves the ball more to find the optimal shot and Nurk continues to only shoot the 3 when the defense leaves him wide open and concedes that shot. I’d be more interested in him making a higher percentage at the rim (would kill his rebound numbers, LOL).
Brrrberry: Has Nurkic put in the work to emulate his last season in Portland when he shots 36%? If he has, he’s going to get the greenlight. If it’s not been a pressing matter in his preparation for this upcoming season then I don’t expect we’ll be seeing him hoisting up all that many 3s unfortunately. If a player doesn’t have the ability to make 1/3 of the time from distance, they shouldn’t be shooting them at all.
I’m expecting good things from Nurk this upcoming season. He stayed as healthy last season as he has in years, played 76 games! That tells me his body is in good shape overall. He’s a system player and our “system” last year was a mess. He’ll benefit playing in a more cohesive framework as much as anyone on the squad. Not having to deal with the nagging (or even major) injuries that he’s dealt with the last 5 years+ allows him to take care of getting better instead of rehab. I expect that he’ll have refined his game a bit this offseason and will make a solid impact when the games begin. Hopefully from 3 too!
Rod: I think he may do that in preseason to see how it goes and I wouldn’t doubt that Bud’s already told Nurk to be working on his threes this summer. Whether Nurk get the green light during the regular season will likely be based on how well he shoots them in practice and preseason. But as neither Plumlee nor Oso are anywhere near credible threats from three, I’m not sure how much coach will rely on working three point attempts by the centers into the offense and will likely not actually rely on it as part of the overall offensive scheme.
But when the opportunity presents itself, I think Nurk will have the green light to decide whether to take the three whenever his defender sags off him when he’s out beyond the 3-point line.
As always, many thanks to our Fantable members for all their extra effort this week!
Last Week’s poll results
Last week’s questions were, “At the beginning of the season, SHOULD coach Budenholzer have Bradley Beal come off the bench as the Suns’ 6th man?”
58% – Yes.
42% – No.
A total of 444 votes were cast.
And “At the beginning of the season, WILL coach Budenholzer have Bradley Beal come off the bench as the Suns’ 6th man?”
21% – Yes.
79% – No.
A total of 397 votes were cast.
Suns Trivia/History
On August 13, 2020, the Suns defeated the Dallas Mavericks 128-102 to finish their perfect 8-0 run in the Orlando Bubble. No other team did this. This was the first time NBA regular season games were played during August and will likely be that last as the 2019-20 season was delayed for several months during mid-season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Unless such an event ever happens again, the Suns will go down in NBA history as the only team to ever go undefeated during the month of August.
After averaging 30.5 points, 6.0 assists and 4.9 rebounds during this 8 game stretch, Devin Booker was named to the “All-Bubble” 1st Team, one of only 3 unanimous first-team selections.
Phoenix Suns BEST Plays From The Bubble 8-0 Record!
Suns Preseason Game Dates
Oct. 6 – Suns @ Lakers PRESEASON (6:30 pm AZT)
Oct. 13 – Suns @ Nuggets PRESEASON (6:00 pm AZT)
NOTE: These are currently the only two preseason game dates for Phoenix that have been released. There is no word on TV coverage yet.
This week’s poll is…
Last season the point production from Suns’ bench was the NBA’s worst at 26.6 ppg. The NBA’s best bench production (by Indiana) was 46.8 ppg.