Welcome to “Inside the Suns,” your weekly in-depth analysis of the current Phoenix Suns team.
Every week, the Fantable – a roundtable of Bright Siders – gives their take on the latest Suns numbers and news… and this week, we all want to, too. Happy Thanksgiving to all Suns fans around the world!
Fancy questions of the week
Q1 – What is your opinion on Booker’s point guard play?
GuarGuar: I was very impressed with Booker at the Point. He played the role of facilitator very well and our offense has been a well-oiled machine since his return. We’re playing a lot faster and looking great on the field most of the time. And he’s kept turnovers pretty low too recently. As of this writing, he has an Ast/TO ratio of 2.9. I think he’s been phenomenal at Point to start the season.
Elder Az: Booker seems to find new ways to improve his game every year, and that drive to always improve (and self-awareness of the areas he needs to improve) is part of what makes him elite. This year his distribution and decision making took this big leap and it was necessary based on the team’s construction.
There are games (perhaps as part of his return from injury) where he seems less explosive, but that may also partly be a matter of maturity to realize that he doesn’t need to force his own offense and constantly face double teams. He already looks great when the offense includes KD and other shooters, and I suspect he will improve when KD is rested as Vogel finds the optimal pieces to play with Book and they develop some chemistry and a certain timing. Basically, I expect him to become more effective as he finds the balance between distributor and scorer game by game.
Brrrberry: There is no one else in the league I would rather have at PG. The game has changed and as I have repeatedly pointed out, 4 of the top 5 PGs for assists in league history (Kidd, CP, Stockton, Nash) have played over 70 seasons and won ONE RING. An all-time great passing maestro, PG, guarantees you nothing other than not winning a ring apparently. The book can do it all. He will finish in the top 10 in assists + give us almost 30 every night. He can go wherever he wants on the pitch and is far from selfish. I’m excited to see him master this role as the year goes on.
Stem: Years ago, before the Suns signed Ricky Rubio in 2019 and had virtually no PG, fans were calling for the Suns to just let Book play point. He wasn’t ready then, but after a year playing with Ricky, then three years with CP3, he’s absorbed everything they could teach him about the PG game and he’s showing he’s ready for this now. Booker is currently 3rd in the NBA in points generated from assists with 23.8 per game, while averaging 28.7 points per game himself. I think he’s just going to continue to improve as the season goes on and the team continues to develop chemistry.
Q2 – The Suns defense is currently (after 13 games) 20th in the NBA. Are you worried about whether it might get better over time?
GuarGuar: Honestly, I’m a little surprised with our defense to start this season. I thought we were going to be borderline top 10 defensively this year. We definitely have some things to tighten up if we want to win a championship. I like how we teamed up with other stars on the team. It’s been a breath of fresh air after watching Monty play against all the stars over the last few years. I’m confident we can still right the ship defensively.
Elder Az: I expect it to improve a bit, but before the season I set the bar at 20+ games and they would only play really good defense in stretches so I could get a feel for what is needed come playoff time. Additionally, I think this improvement will depend on what defensive metrics you like to look at.
When playing well, this team plays fast, which equates to more possessions and therefore more points overall. While they may still give up points, I think the improvement will result in more steals, blocks, and forced turnovers as they put massive pressure on other teams to keep pace and that they settle into more stable rotations. My 20 game prediction will also need to be expanded with all the early games Book misses and until Beal starts to fit in. We may not really see those stretches of good defense that I was looking for before the All Star break.
Brrrberry: It’s going to get better and Vogel has proven he can coach that way. This team was built to score, but we have a lot of guys who can buckle down and stop here and there come playoff time. This team is built to compete at the highest levels and if healthy, they will be strong in all parts of the game, especially when they need to be.
Stem: I worry about the defense. In the Suns’ last 4 games (vs. Minnesota, Utah x2, and Portland), they haven’t played to an average of 20th this season and ranked 25th in defense in the NBA over that span. The saving grace was that they also had the best offense in the league during that span, an offense so good that it pushed their net ranking all the way up to 5th.
We know Book isn’t a bad defender, but his return seems to have shaken things up defensively and necessitated some rotation adjustments. We’ve seen these adjustments during this 4 game stretch and they’ve helped, but D is going to continue to be a work in progress for the Suns for a while it seems.
Their defensive ranking was better at first, but their offense suffered (mainly due to Book and Beal missing many games). Now they rely mostly on outscoring their opponents, but we still get a glimpse of a very good defense that will hopefully become more consistent as the season progresses. We might see this defensive dip again when Beal finally recovers and returns to the field as well…but I hope not.
Q3 – Kevin Durant, 35, is 3rd in scoring (31.4 points per game) in the NBA but also 3rd in minutes per game (37.1). Your thoughts on this?
GuarGuar: I would like to see his minutes go by, but the score he put up is not a surprise at all. He’s one of the most talented scorers of all time, so it’s not shocking when you tell me he’s in the top 3 this year in ppg. Everyone is going to eat in this offense. We are a high scoring team and very fast paced when Booker plays. It wouldn’t shock me if Book and KD both averaged 30 points per game this year. But having KD on your team is extremely fun to watch. He is incredibly talented.
Elder Az: I was worried late last year and early this year (preseason and early games) that the Suns had a diminished KD as age started to catch up with him. I’m so happy to be wrong here and KD is still a freak of nature. In fact, the only relative weakness in his game is when he is forced to be the primary ball handler and can be turned over a bit. Even with that, KD remained legendary and a model of efficiency even when Book was unavailable.
With Book back, KD was able to pace himself more, dominate more 1:1 coverage, and simply decide when to “rest on the floor” and when to take over. What’s surprising is how easy it seems for him since Book’s return.
While I was concerned about overuse and the fact that he might collapse when Book came out, what he’s done over the past week and his level of scoring and efficiency seems very sustainable on the long term. I’m really not too worried about the minutes, except when he was the only one of the big three available and he was soaking up so much contact throughout the game.
Brrrberry: KD is shoveling the crow down so many people’s throats right now. I heard so many inexplicably stupid things from people during the first few games of the year. 7/31/6 on 54/51/88 (soon to be over 90), then he adds a steal and a block each night. I don’t know what his true shooting percentage is, but it’s absurdly high and we’re lucky he’s a Sun. His fame is going to age extremely well over the next few years, so we’re real contenders as long as he and Book are healthy.
Stem: This makes me nervous. It’s great that KD is playing so well, but even a minor injury that sidelines him for a few games would create an offensive hole that I really don’t think the rest of the team can come close to regularly filling , especially with Beal still out. . This team still hasn’t developed the chemistry it needs to adequately survive without having at least one of its star players on the court at all times.
KD is KD and doesn’t want to miss a chance to play, so I think Vogel and the coaching staff might have a fight if they suggest he “rest” more. Hopefully they’ll get to the point soon where they can at least reduce his GPA average and, more importantly (IMO), reduce the energy and effort he has to expend on the field night after night to make the team succeeds. Book’s return already seems to have had some effect on this second game and the team chemistry has also improved a bit, which helps.
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: “How long until the Suns get back above .500?»
52% – They will do it in the next 2 games against Utah!
29% – This will take 3-5 more games.
16% – 5 to 10 games minimum.
03% – They are cursed and will never return above 0.500.
A total of 189 votes were cast.
Trivia about the Suns
Devin Booker has scored 172 points in his first six games this season, the fourth-most points in franchise history through the first six games. The best was done by Charlie Scott who scored 185 in his first six games in 1972-73, then came Booker’s 176 last season and Charles Barkley’s 174 points to open the 1993-94 season. The only other time a Suns player scored more than 170 points in his first six games of a season was in 1978-79, when Walter Davis scored 170. Although KD led the Suns in terms of scoring, its point total for the first six games of this season was 168, just 2 points away from 170.
This week’s poll is…
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