Phoenix Suns: Breaking Down The Small Forwards

Take a look at the Phoenix Suns’ official roster on ESPN for a second. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Anything stand out to you? If you answered, “Hey Gerald, they don’t seem to have any small forwards other than James Nunnally on the entire roster … and I don’t even know who the hell James Nunnally is!” you’re correct. To be fair, a couple of guys are inexplicably listed as shooting guards when their minutes will be coming at the small forward spot. But if your starting small forward is P.J. Tucker or Marcus Morris, can you really still say you have a small forward?

Of the guys who will actually be a part of the rotation, the small forward spot “boasts” the likes of Tucker, Morris and Gerald Green. That’s right, Suns fans! One of your starters for the 2013-14 season will either be a guy who can’t create his own shot, a guy who shot 42 percent from the floor last year or a guy who’s defining quality is throwing down a nasty dunk every now and then. Forgive me for not jumping out of my seat with excitement.

So what do the Suns’ small forwards have to offer? For starters, coach Jeff Hornacek will make me feel a lot better about his tenure in Phoenix if he keeps P.J. Tucker as the starter. Sure I just spent three paragraphs complaining about him, but Tucker absolutely earned his minutes last season with hard-nosed defense and constant effort that made him a fan favorite of sorts. On offense, Tucker’s not even as graceful as a single George Gervin finger roll, but he did shoot 47 percent from the field last season. He only took 5.6 shots per game and shot a “needs improvement” 31 percent from 3-point range, but just wait until we examine potential replacements before complaining about that.

It makes most sense to start with Marcus Morris on the Muggsy Bogues-sized list of players who could get the start over Tucker. But that whole “Twins! We have twins now! It’s cool because they’re twins! Look at the twins! COME WATCH THE TWINS PLAY TOGETHER!” PR strategy didn’t do much to keep the 2012-13 season from being miserable and it probably won’t improve things this year either. It’s too early to give up on Markieff Morris because he was only drafted in 2011. But what was the point of trading for pretty much an identical copy of an already underwhelming player, again?

Take a look at the Morris twins’ numbers through their first two NBA seasons:

Mark Morris: 145 games, 21.1 MPG, 7.8 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 1.2 APG, 40.4 FG%, 34.1 3P%
Marc Morris: 94 games, 17.6 MPG, 6.8 PPG, 3.1 RPG, 0.7 APG, 41 FG%, 35.2 3P%

Ahh, yes. The 2011 NBA Draft. Where selecting one potential bust over the likes of Kawhi Leonard, Nikola Vucevic, Iman Shumpert, Tobias Harris, Kenneth Faried, Jimmy Butler and Chandler Parsons isn’t enough. To take my rage goggles off for a second, Markieff Morris has shown signs of potential during his two years in the Valley of the Sun. He’s good at rotating defensively and could be useful as a stretch 4 since he’s actually pretty effective taking long jumpers and top-of-the-key 3-pointers. Take a look at his shot chart for last season. If he only shot 3s from the front of the basket and mixed in some layups with perimeter jumpers on the left side of the basket, he’d be pretty darn effective.

Marcus Morris, however, doesn’t have quite the same friendly shot chart. While he’s a respectable 3-point threat from the front and left side of the basket, everywhere else is either underwhelming or downright terrible. Do power forwards get more open looks from 15 to 18 feet than small forwards? Absolutely. But Marcus Morris took more corner 3s (112) than he took shots anywhere other than right at the basket and he only made 39 of them (34.8 percent). And just look at all that red everywhere but the right baseline 2-pointers (where he only went 6-for-9 anyway)! Not exactly a model of efficiency. So as much fun as it’d be to have Morris-1 and Morris-2 in the starting lineup, I can’t say he deserves to start over Tucker with a sound conscience.

That leaves Gerald Green. I’m all for dynamic dunkers and hey, the guy’s got a great first name, but he’s nowhere near consistent enough to earn big minutes even in Phoenix. He shot 36.6 percent from the floor and 31.4 percent from downtown during the 2012-13 regular season to the tune of 7.0 points and 2.4 rebounds per game. And if Frank Vogel was only comfortable with playing him for 14 minutes total in the Eastern Conference Finals, I’m not comfortable with him getting minutes over a guy like Tucker, who can actually play defense.

Now I know it’s a tank year. And in a tank year, having an underdeveloped player on the wing is the best thing for achieving the overall goal. But point guards and centers are pretty much all Suns fans have to look forward to this season unless Archie Goodwin turns out to be the second coming of Russell Westbrook. At the point guard position, Suns fans can look forward to more stellar all-around play from Goran Dragic and they can feel cautiously giddy about Eric Bledsoe‘s future. Down in the paint, a healthy Marcin Gortat is returning and will (hopefully) be challenged by Phoenix’s No. 5 pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, Alex Len.

Not so much potential with the 3-spot. The extent of Phoenix Suns’ fans joy watching the small forward position this season will either be A) admiring Tucker’s defense and hustle, B) trying to determine which Morris is which or C) jumping up and down after a monster dunk and then immediately sighing over whatever Green did next. Eyes on the prize, Suns fans. Small forwards who would be fringe rotation players elsewhere helps get you there.

[slider_pro id=”24″]