This offseason, the Phoenix Suns went all in, after trading for Kevin Durant last February, they reshuffled their roster again, sending out Chris Paul, Deandre Ayton, and Landry Shamet while bringing in Bradley Beal, Jusuf Nurkic, and Grayson Allen. They are limited for future moves by their lack of draft picks and the luxury tax second apron, the time is now in the desert and yet it seems like this season is slipping away.
The main reason for Phoenix’s struggles is their lack of health. The trio of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal have played 24 minutes together with an offensive rating of 132.7 offensive rating, 108.0 defensive rating, and 24.7 net rating. They are really good when they are on the court but they have not been on the court, Beal has missed 24 of 30 games and Booker has missed 9 of 30 games. Losing Beal for the amount of time they have has really messed up their season. Injuries were a concern for Beal as he only played 90 of 164 potential games in 2021-22 and 2022-23, his final 2 in Washington. That and his contract are why the Wizards wanted to trade Beal so badly. The Suns have a depth issue and they need to have their 3 stars on the court, they unfortunately haven’t and that is why they are off to a 15-15 start.
One of the Suns’ issues is they take so many mid range shots. 37.1% of the Suns’ shots come from 3 and 42.1% of their shots are less than 10 feet. Meaning that 20.8% of their shots come from the mid range area. That does not seem like a lot but it is as they are in the bottom 10 in the NBA in 3 point frequency and less than 10 feet frequency, that is losing the math battle which makes it hard to win games. I know they have Kevin Durant and Devin Booker but they are not winning games with the shot variance they are using right now.
The Suns defense has been up and down as well. They are 19th in defensive rating, 18th in the league in terms of points given up in the paint, and 11th in 3 point makes given up per game. They are solid at defending the 3 point shot but are bad in the middle, which is not a surprise given their personnel. Jusuf Nurkic, Drew Eubanks, Chimezie Metu, and Udoka Azubuike are not known as the best rim protectors in the NBA. They need better rim protection and I am not sure where that is coming from, unless they are able to make a trade, which I do not see happening. They need the guys they have to be better and recent history tells us that is unlikely. Nurkic and Eubanks were both with the Trail Blazers last season, who were 3rd worst in the league in field goals given up in the paint.
The Suns need more from their depth this season. All of Jusuf Nurkic, Josh Okogie, Jordan Goodwin, and Keita Bates-Diop are shooting under 30% from 3 on the season and those 4 guys plus Yuta Watanabe and Nassir Little are shooting under 34% from 3 point range. They need those guys, along with Grayson Allen and Eric Gordon, to step up. If there is one guy who has done his part, it’s Kevin Durant. Durant has had a monster season, averaging 30.2 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 5.9 assists per game this season on shooting splits of .52/.47/.87. Those numbers are incredible and he has played in all but 4 games to this point. That can be seen as a positive and a negative. The positive is, of course, he has been on the court and playing incredibly well. He has had an MVP level season and is a large reason why Phoenix still has a chance to turn their season around. The negative is that Durant only played in 137 of a possible 234 games over the previous 3 seasons, including just 8 of 25 games after the trade to Phoenix last February. This would make you think that an injury of some sort is coming, hopefully there is not but recent history tells us that there probably is and I do not think Phoenix could survive that and have a successful season.
Before the season I asked if this was the most important season in the history of the Phoenix Suns and the answer was not a definite no. The window is getting tighter and tighter in Phoenix with each loss and injury they suffer. We just saw the Boston Celtics get to the NBA Finals 2 seasons ago after an 18-21 start so there’s examples of turnarounds but would you expect this Suns team to turn it around? They’ll make the playoffs and maybe even win a round but that is not good enough, this team needs to win the championship. This season has gotten off to a nightmare start for the Suns and I am not sure if they can turn it around in a meaningful enough way to win the championship.
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