Phoenix Suns: 2015-16 Season Outlook

Three Key Storylines (Cont.)

3. What can the Suns expect from Tyson Chandler?

Tyson Chandler made his bones in the NBA as a defensive presence. But he’ll be 33 before the season tips off and averaged 1.2 blocks per game last season.

But the blocked shot has never really been his forte, with a career average of 1.3 a night.

He’s three years removed from his Defensive Player of the Year campaign in 2011-12, when he posted a defensive rating of 98.1 with a net rating of plus-2.4.

Last season in Dallas, his defensive rating of 102.1 was accompanied by a net rating of plus-5.5 and he allowed opponents to shoot 50.9 percent at the rim. That compares to the 49.2 percent Alex Len surrendered at that range.

Chandler is getting older, but it also appears that he’s getting wiser. His 20.1 Player Efficiency Rating last season was a career high, as were his 10.3 Win Shares, and he had the highest Offensive Rating in the league at 133.4.

His offensive game is basically limited to dunks and putbacks—a whopping 80.5 percent of his shots in 2014-15 were from three feet and in and of his 293 makes last season, 179 of them were dunks.

Basically, Chandler knows what he does and that’s all he does. But he does it extremely well.

Len showed a bit more range to his shooting last season, taking 45.6 percent of his shots from three feet and beyond, but he shot 66.4 percent in close, 29.3 percent from 3-10 feet, 28.8 percent from 10-16 feet and 34.1 percent from 16 feet out to the arc.

He might be able to take some lessons from Chandler about efficiency and playing to one’s strengths.

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