Phoenix Suns: The Search For Consistency

Ball Movement

An area that’s clearly improved from last season is the team’s ball movement. You wouldn’t expect it considering the 2014-15 Suns had three starting-caliber point guards, but Phoenix ranked near the bottom-third in passes per game and dead last in percentage of assisted field goals made.

This year, the Suns are zipping the ball to the tune of 335.8 passes made per game, the fifth highest mark in the league so far. This team isn’t afraid to move the ball and it’s led to a lot of great looks. But in addition to missing all those wide open threes, some of the Suns’ rapid-fire ball movement has failed to be anything more than passing for the sake of passing.

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Valley of the Suns

For one thing, the Suns’ 18.7 assists per game puts them at 26th in the league. They’re only creating 45.7 points per game from assists (23rd), they’re posting an underwhelming 5.6 assist-to-pass percentage (27th) and their 1.15 assist-to-turnover ratio (27th) doesn’t inspire much hope either.

Against the Pistons Friday night, the Suns posted a season-low 14 assists on 37 made field goals. It’s no wonder the team only shot 40.2 percent from the floor, with everyone trying to take matters into their own hands in a frustrating contest that saw Detroit respond every time Phoenix chipped away at the lead.

“I thought we were delayed on a lot of our passes from everybody,” Hornacek said after the game. “It was an afterthought. You know, let’s try to make a play and then I’ll pass it instead of making a play knowing that you’re gonna be able to pass it here or there.”

The Suns have mostly made smart passes this season, but they also have the 11th most turnovers in the league. And when the Suns aren’t turning it over — usually by trying to throw Hail Mary lobs to Tyson Chandler in the middle as if he’s just going to miraculously clean it up every time — their shot selection has been suspect.

Simply put, the Suns aren’t making the right decisions on when to shoot, when to drive and when to keep the ball moving. Only six games into the season, the Suns have been whistled for far too many travels resulting from a player hesitating to shoot an open perimeter shot, deciding to drive, pump faking and moving their feet before putting the ball on the floor.

Despite all the ball movement in the early shot clock, most of the time, the Suns’ offense will quickly break down and resort to iso-ball, with Eric Bledsoe or Brandon Knight trying to do too much, or by force-feeding the ball to Markieff Morris with everyone else standing around after he’s caught the entry pass.

For the Suns to be more effective with their ball movement and actually turn all those passes into assists, Hornacek says establishing a quicker tempo and starting the offense right away could be key.

“It’s really should be the opposite, where you get down there early in the offense and there’s still 19 on the clock,” he said. “Now you hit part of the offense and now you can make a couple extra passes and if they stop all that, you still have 10-12 seconds where you can go into a pick-and-roll if you need to.”

Next: Defense