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 – On paper, which Western Conference teams do you currently have ranked above Phoenix?
OldAz: Nuggets, Wolves and Mavericks. This won’t be popular, but until this iteration of the Suns team shows it can beat these teams in the playoffs, these teams that have established cores remain ahead of them in my book. The Nuggets are obvious, the Wolves probably are too at least until age catches up with Mike Conley Jr. and unfortunately the core of Luka and Kyrie in year 3 has proven they have the pieces to be successful. Can the Suns be better than any of these 3? Sure, but until the Suns show it in the playoffs these three are ahead of them.
Brrrberry: OKC because of how they boat raced us last season even when we were playing well, they’ve got great depth, young squad and I think that front line of Hartenstein and Chet is going to work really well together. Other than that I put the Suns, at least in the regular season, up there with any other team and expect they’ll compete for a top 3 seed if we stay healthy for the most part like we did last year.
Houston Rockets are my dark horse contender this year and I expect they’ll be in the mix for a top 6 seed, wouldn’t surprise me if they were top 3. Reed Sheppard was so obviously the best prospect in the draft, they lucked out that he fell to 3 as he’s the perfect guy to run the show with the rest of their roster.
I suppose I have to put Minnesota above the Suns too because they spanked us in the playoffs but I think we can rectify that this year though it won’t be easy.
Rod: OKC and Minnesota are the only two teams that I won’t hesitate to name. Dallas and Denver are ‘possibles’ but I’m not sure that either of them will be as good as last season this year. I presently don’t believe either has slipped enough to rank them under the Suns but I won’t rank them over them either. As I firmly believe that the Suns have improved their roster this offseason, I’m in wait and see mode on who to rank 3, 4 and 5.
Q2 – Back in 2005 Quentin Richardson made the most 3-pointers in franchise history (in a single season) with 226. Last season Grayson Allen moved into a 2nd place tie with Raja Bell (2007) with 205. Is this the year that Richardson’s 19 year old record is finally broken and will Allen be the one to do it?
OldAz: Great question, but I don’t see him getting the minutes to get enough looks to challenge this record. He will get plenty of open looks when he plays, but with the addition of another guard to the rotation, I have to believe it will be Allen’s minutes that are impacted the most. As much as I love Allen as a player, I think he will be the one to be moved if there is a mid-season trade for a 6th man with more size and athleticism.
Brrrberry: Hopefully it’s Devin Booker who breaks that record.
Rod: I really think the only things that might keep him from setting a new record are injury or getting traded. Bud loves three-point shooters and as long as Grayson stays hot, I think Bud will find court time for him.
Q3 – Thirty-four years ago, Tom Chambers set the Suns’ single season franchise record for points per game with 27.17. Both KD (27.09 ppg) and Book (27.07 ppg) came close to surpassing it last season. Do you expect one (or both) of them to surpass it this year?
OldAz: This is possible, but extremely hard to predict until we see what the offense looks like with an actual PG on the floor and with whatever system Coach Bud implements. I actually think Chamber’s record is safe because of how much offensive talent is on the roster. I expect the presence of a PG to balance the scoring more. KD and Book will still lead the team, but unless the team sets overall scoring records I don’t think either of them bests their mark from last year.
Brrrberry: Man if you’d have told me we’d have two guys putting up an uber efficient 27, another guy putting up an efficient damn near 20 and another guy who’d lead the league on good volume from 3 (true shooting % outside of bigs that only dunk) and I’d have thought some type of record breaking team results would’ve come along with it. Lo and behold it was the ugliest approx 50 win team I’ve ever seen. I just refuse to believe it was anything but awful coaching until proven otherwise. Need Bud come coach his ass off and get this plethora of talent into one cohesive unit because we’ve got the horses to win every single night.
Rod: If they wind up averaging close to the same number of minutes this season, I think that one of them beats that record, especially since Bud will be pushing both of them to shoot more threes. With a deeper bench though, it’s possible that Book and KD might not have to play as many minutes per game this season which could be a detriment to challenging that record. Personally, I’d be fine with Tom’s record standing for another year if Book and KD can afford to play fewer minutes during the regular season.
As always, many thanks to our Fantable members for all their extra effort this week!
Last Week’s poll results
Last week’s question was “Do you agree that Beal’s play could be the key to the Suns’ level of success this season?”
81% – Yes.
19% – No.
A total of 147 votes were cast.
Suns Trivia/History
Walter Davis is currently the Suns’ All-Time leading scorer with 15,666 points. He reached this figure in 766 games. Devin Booker is 2nd with 14,529 points but achieved his mark playing 168 fewer games than Davis (598 vs 766). To overtake the “Man with the Velvet Touch”, Book needs to score 1,138 points. If he maintains his scoring average from last season (27.1 ppg), he would pass Davis at some point during his 42nd game this season.
There are only 5 players in the Suns’ All-Time top 20 for total assists in a single season. Steve Nash (8 times), Kevin Johnson (6 times), Jason Kidd (3 times), Stephon Marbury (twice) and Chris Paul (once). Only Nash (8 times), Johnson (7 times), Kidd (4 times) and Paul (once) are in the Suns’ All-Time top 20 for assists per game in a single season
Quote of the Week
“I see Devin Booker as one of them unsung heroes that we not forgot. We not forgot about how cold that man really is. I think it’s up to him to come back and remind us who he is. He’s gonna have a good year this year. Watch.” – Kevin Garnett
Important Future Dates
September 30 – Media day.
October 1 – Training camp opens.
October 4 – Preseason begins.
October 6 – Suns @ Lakers (6:30 pm AZT)
October 8 – Suns @ Pistons (4:00 pm AZT)
- Will be played at the Breslin Center at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan
October 11 – Suns vs Pistons (7:00 pm AZT)
October 13 – Suns @ Nuggets on ESPN (5:30 pm AZT)
October 17 – Suns vs Lakers on TNT (7:00 pm AZT)
- All five Suns preseason games will be broadcast locally on Arizona’s Family 3TV and Arizona’s Family Sports.
October 18 – Preseason ends.
October 19 – Last day for players on fully non-guaranteed contracts to be waived and not count at all against a team’s 2024/25 cap. They must clear waivers before the first day of the regular season.
October 21 – Last day of the 2024 offseason. Roster limits decrease from 21 players to 18 (2:00 pm AZT). Teams will be limited to carrying 15 players on standard contracts and three on two-way deals as of this deadline. Last day for teams to sign a player to a rookie scale extension (3:00 pm AZT). Last day for teams to sign an extension-eligible veteran player with multiple seasons left on his contract to an extension. Last day for teams to convert an Exhibit 10 contract into a two-way contract.
October 22 – 2024/25 regular season begins.
This week’s poll is…