Welcome to “Inside the Suns,” your weekly in-depth analysis of the current Phoenix Suns team.
Each week, the Fantable – a roundtable of Bright Siders – gives their take on the latest Suns issues and news.
Fancy questions of the week
Q1 – What are the good points (if you think there are any) of Beal and Booker sitting out games early in the season?
Elder Az: That question became much more difficult to answer after Tuesday’s loss to the Spurs. However, I still think there are some positives. First, Sons fans finally got to see how amazing Kevin Durant is. So far, he hasn’t really shown that level in a Suns uniform and has deferred to Booker. If this time speeds up the process for Booker and KD to play as superstars, it will be a huge benefit in the long run.
Second, when all 3 stars are healthy, there will be periods in each game where KD plays primarily with a bench lineup. This will allow them to spread out their minutes and maintain pressure on opponents. This time, when Booker and Beal are out, Vogel provides important opportunities to experiment and find out what works best. One of the things I like is that Vogel has tried a number of different combinations so far and isn’t just following a script. As long as this period doesn’t exhaust KD or result in a significant injury for him, I think these two positives will far outweigh any negatives.
Brrrberry: It’s simply a question of distribution of minutes. Guys lower in the rotation get more minutes than they otherwise would and any extra reps will help.
It’s crazy how deep this team is, we deployed 10 guys and that’s without Book/Beal dressing. I tend to think KBD and Metu are solid enough players to be a part of the rotation and any team in the league. Right now, they are No. 12 and No. 13 in the rotation. We will then have D Lee available at some point. That makes 14 guys that I feel comfortable calling legit NBA rotation guys. Vogel truly threw himself into his life’s work.
I love what I see from Goodwin (and Okogie). It’s crazy that with this trade to Washington, we have the 1st and 3rd best players in the trade. Speaking of that trade, there were some comments on the Suns IG page yesterday that really scared me, like “It’s going to hit like a truck when the news comes in that Beal is out for the season and requires a back surgery. With all the luck we’ve had over the years, I could imagine that feeling being clear as day. PRAY FOR BEAL!!!!
Stem: First, I don’t think Book or Beal’s injuries are serious and Vogel is trying to be careful with them to make sure they don’t turn into something more serious by playing them while they’re not are not 100%.
The big plus has to be that the actors get significant minutes at the start of the season. They can’t just sit back and let the big 3 carry most of the weight and Vogel has the opportunity to see who he can rely on the most when he needs them to step up. Better to find out sooner than later. It also gives everyone the opportunity to play with different lineups outside of what will ultimately be the normal player rotation once Book and Beal return. I think it also helps coaches understand how much they can rely on each role player going forward and under what circumstances they are best used.
And last but not least, the periods in which KD has rested have accentuated the need to have at least one of the Big 3 on the field at all times whenever the play is even slightly iffy. The Suns have a good, but not great, bench that will often have a tough time without at least one of the team’s alpha scorers on the court with them.
Q2 – Are you surprised that in the first 3 games Vogel only faced Chimezie Metu and Keita Bates-Diop during “garbage time” in the Utah game?
Elder Az: Absolutely, I’m surprised. By the end of the preseason, both looked like very valuable rotation pieces with added length and a pretty reliable shot as well. I see that so far Vogel has prioritized shooting and pressure from the guards in the lineup over the length that Metu and KBD can provide. However, against the Lakers and the Spurs, the opponent’s overall length really seemed to be a problem. Perhaps if this trend continues, Metu and KBD will start to eat up some of the minutes currently allotted to Little. However, I don’t see these players taking minutes from Okogie or Goodwin based on their defensive pressure and not Gordon or Allen once Book and Beal return and compress those minutes anyway. At the end of the day, we always knew these bench players would struggle for minutes.
Brrrberry: Not at all, we took out the Warriors on the road, took a tough L in Los Angeles, then crushed Utah in the home opener. The time will come for these guys and it’s seemingly up to them to carve out a consistent role. I hope Vogel has his finger on the pulse of the roster as best he can right now and the results speak for themselves. Vogel wants to win, so he’s going to put the guys he thinks will give us the best chance of doing it. We have a b2b at home against Spurs, so we need to take care of business and go into the Sixers match 4-1. I really like our early season schedule, it’s not too hard and gives the guys a chance to win a few games and find their feet at the same time.
Stem: I was surprised that neither of them got significant minutes in any of the games. I’m sure Vogel wants to stick to a 9-10 player rotation in close games, but with Book and Beal out for the LAL and Jazz games, I was surprised neither of them got had minutes before the Jazz game turned into a blowout. KBD didn’t look as good as expected in preseason, Metu looked much better than I expected and I thought either would get some minutes when Durant went on the bench to rest, but that was not the case. .
It seems like the minutes I thought would go to one of them went to Nassir Little who didn’t really impress me in the preseason games but obviously impressed Vogel. Little and Yuta Watanabe (with defensive ratings of 97.6 and 94.0 respectively) were pleasant surprises defensively, which could partly explain KBD and Metu’s lack of minutes. Little’s 7’2″ wingspan also helps make up for the fact that KBD and Metu are 3 and 4 inches taller than him. Both only outweigh him by less than 10 pounds, so Little isn’t too under -sized in comparison and can be a more versatile defender when changes are needed.
Q3 – Your opinion on the Ring of Honor ceremony at halftime of the Suns/Jazz game?
Elder Az: My first thought was that this made me feel old since I remember most of these players in their prime and that seems like yesterday. My other thought was how much Matt Ishbia “gets it.” He wants so much to be a part of the franchise and the legacy rather than just owning the NBA. Connecting with the history of former players and teams is a great way to curry favor with the fan base and bring the entire community together. It was really well done.
Brrrberry: It was all a beautiful thing! Ishbia has been a godsend. My biggest criticism of Sarver is that, inexplicably, he doesn’t seem to understand that you have to spend money to make money. It is clear that Ishbia lives under this nickname. It represents everything a sports fan could hope for in an owner and I’m excited to have all the Suns legends have an even greater presence in the building. There’s no doubt that having past legends in the building brings out something in current players.
Stem: It was a great ceremony and I loved seeing so many of my favorite former players…and smiling! As this was done during the halftime show, I can understand why it didn’t last longer, but I wish it could have (with more of the honorees getting a chance to speak) and it was the only slight negative I can think of. The banners look great and were meant to hang from the rafters. Ishbia embraced not only the team and the city, but also their history, which I think was an afterthought at best with Sarver (probably because he didn’t want fans to think too much in the past and compare previous successes to their failures). .
As always, a big thank you to our Fantable members for all their extra efforts this week!
Last week’s poll results
Last week’s question was: “In the Warriors game, the Suns defense…”
32.3% – Better results than I expected.
62.3% – Performed as I expected.
05.4% – Results worse than I expected.
A total of 167 votes were cast.
Trivia about the Suns
In Tuesday’s Suns/Spurs game, the Suns made a season-high 18 three-pointers. This was the 32nd time in franchise history that the team made at least 18 triples and only the fourth time out of those 32 instances that Phoenix did not win with 18+ triples.
Jusuf Nurkic’s 4.0 assists per game average is 3rd best for the Suns this season.
Josh Okogie leads the team in offensive rebounds per game with 2.3 and is the only Suns player to average more offensive rebounds than defensive rebounds (1.8 per game).
Despite only playing in 1 of the Suns’ 4 games, Devin Booker is 7th on the team in total assists and points scored this season with 8 and 32.
This week’s poll is…
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