Phoenix Suns: The Search For Consistency
The Lack Of A Go-To Guy
With the 22nd best offensive rating in the league and a middling three-point percentage of 34.4, it’s pretty obvious the offense still needs a bit of work. That will come as the newcomers learn to play with Bledsoe and Knight and feed off their penetration, but there’s still the troubling issue of not having a go-to player.
“For me, I missed a lot of open shots,” Markieff Morris said after a 9-for-21 performance in the Pistons loss. “B-Knight and Bled also. For the most part, we’re the go-to guys on the team and we need to score every night for us to win.”
There won’t often be nights when all three of Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight and Markieff Morris are completely off…but then again, it’s already happened a few times this season. Take a look at what those three have combined for in the Suns’ three losses thus far:
- Mavericks: 32 PTS, 11 REB, 7 AST, 8 TOs, 11-for-31 FG (35.5%), 1-for-6 3P (16.7%)
- Clippers: 47 PTS, 19 REB, 17 AST, 6 TOs, 17-for-61 FG (27.9%), 4-for-20 3P (20%)
- Pistons: 62 PTS, 8 REB, 9 AST, 9 TOs, 26-for-63 FG (41.3%), 5-for-19 (26.3%)
As Phoenix’s star trio goes, so go the Suns. On the season, those three are shooting a combined 40.1 percent from the floor and 31.0 percent from three-point range. Those percentages are scary, but they become downright terrifying when you consider 55.7 percent of the team’s field goal attempts and 55.4 percent of their three-point attempts have come from those three players.
Unfortunately, with none of them being a reliable option to this point, Phoenix is still lacking a bonafide go-to option who can bail them out when the offense is in a rut.
So far, the Suns have tried to make that player Markieff Morris, which makes sense because he is probably the best one-on-one scorer on the roster. Keef’s size and ability to operate from the midrange as a scorer or passer makes him the closest thing to a go-to option with the shot clock winding down…but the results haven’t been pretty.
On too many possessions, the Suns have wasted most of the shot clock with purposeless cutting, only to settle for trying to feed the ball to Keef on the block or in the midrange. Defenses are prepared for that, and Morris isn’t quite strong enough to carve out that space on a consistent enough basis. This leads to precious seconds being eaten off the clock as the Suns stubbornly wait for him to free himself up.
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By that point, Keef has limited time to work with and since the rest of the offense stands frozen whenever he catches the ball, Morris’ passing skills are virtually useless anyway. So far this season, Keef is shooting just 36.3 percent from the field and 20 of his 91 shot attempts on the season have been with seven seconds or less on the shot clock, per NBA.com.
“I wouldn’t say that [we’re forcing it to me], I would just say we’ve got to get into our offense quicker, get me the ball quicker so I can get other guys shots or get my own shot,” Morris said.
No matter how much time is on the clock, relying on Keef to be the Suns’ bailout option is setting him up for failure, even if he’s the closest thing the team has to a go-to guy. It’ll take time for Phoenix to work out the kinks, hit guys in the right spots and turn all that ball movement into more effective looks, both for their star trio and for the role players who need to pitch in a little bit more.
Next: NBA Power Rankings: Week 2
But for the time being, the Phoenix Suns are still a team that’s consistently inconsistent. They may have the makings of a playoff squad, but it might take awhile to become a reality as they try to find the right chemistry, three-point shooting, passing and scoring to win on a nightly basis.