Phoenix Suns: 5 Adjustments That Need To Be Made
As the Phoenix Suns continue to stumble through their rebuild, here are five adjustments head coach Earl Watson needs to make.
The Phoenix Suns ranking at the bottom of the Western Conference standings isn’t the problem. Most people knew this team would be bad again in 2016-17, since the Suns were coming off a 23-win season and structured their summer around building for the future.
They had added three project rookies, and focused their free agency on more realistic targets, bringing in veterans who would aid the franchise more in the locker room than they would in the win-loss column.
But as much as head coach Earl Watson has brought the team closer together as a family, the Suns are still a very bad basketball team.
Just take a look at Exhibit Y from Devin Booker, who had this to say after a frustrating loss to the Houston Rockets Wednesday night, which featured yet another fourth quarter implosion:
“It’s just communication,” Booker said. “We always talk about it as a team. Off the court, we all communicate. We all talk, we laugh and joke and then we get on the court, we act like we don’t know each other.”
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That quote captures the quintessential problem with the Phoenix Suns: their players are very close and get along great, but they’re not being put in positions to win basketball games — and the problems extend far beyond the communication issues Booker spoke of.
The Suns are better off “tanking” this season away and benefitting from another top draft pick in 2017, but there’s a right way to go about a rebuild while losing games and there’s a wrong way to do so. So far, the Suns aren’t even tanking correctly.
Here’s a look at five adjustments Watson and the Suns need to make to ensure another non-playoff season isn’t a lost one too.