Phoenix Suns: 5 Problem Areas That Must Be Addressed

5. Setting A Rotation

This one is on the head coach. With a roster that’s two or three players deep at every position, you could make a case for an infinite number of different starting lineups.

Can the Suns make the dual point guard thing work with Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight, or should Devin Booker start over Knight to give the bench a primary playmaker?

Does T.J. Warren‘s youth and innate scoring ability outweigh the defense and toughness that P.J. Tucker brings to the table? Should the younger, less experienced Alex Len start at center with Tyson Chandler‘s tank looking so empty?

And what on earth is to be done with the Markieff Morris–Jon Leuer–Mirza Teletovic logjam at the power forward position? Especially as the Keef situation gets even weirder thanks to Leuer and Teletovic playing so well?

There are questions at every turn, with no real answers. There’s a balance to experience vs. development and offense vs. defense, and the Suns aren’t any closer to finding it than they were at the start of the season. But whatever the case, Hornacek has GOT to develop more of a consistent rotation and stick with it.

In the Suns’ most recent game against the Utah Jazz, Hornacek moved Booker and Warren into the starting lineup over Knight and Tucker to shake things up a bit, which makes sense with the way the team had been struggling. But even with Knight responding to his benching (26 points, 8-of-17 shooting), that new starting lineup was completely decimated in limited action.

That’s not the only example of deviation from a set rotation that’s backfired, however. Right when it seemed like Devin Booker had cemented his place in the rotation, his minutes were cut to 14, five, 10, zero, 18 and 13 minutes over his last six games. That’s mostly due to Ronnie Price playing a more significant role as one of the first guards off the bench, averaging 15.7 minutes per game in that span.

Len’s minutes have drastically fallen with Chandler’s return, which makes sense, but the power forward situation has been a mess. Are the Suns still trying to trade Morris and just playing him now so that he stays fresh in the meantime? Were they trying to trade him and a deal fell through? Or was his benching really just because Keef was playing so poorly?

In any case, the fluctuation of minutes for Keef, Leuer and Teletovic has made it hard for any of them to get in much of a rhythm. After playing seven minutes in a seven-game span that included five DNP-CDs, Keef is averaging 8.3 points and 3.7 rebounds in 17.7 minutes per game on 9-of-25 shooting (36 percent) over his last three games.

Compare that to Leuer (11.0 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 50.8 FG% in 14 starts) and Teletovic (9.0 PPG on 40.0 shooting from deep this season) and it’s clear there are better options than Keef right now…minus the fact that the Suns might be trading him soon and Phoenix could really use his defense down low. Hornacek acknowledged how difficult that balance is for him and the players.

“It’s gonna be tough,” he said. “Some nights, like the other night Mirza didn’t get in much, depend on if we need offense or we need defense. That could be what it comes down to sometimes. Those guys are gonna have to accept it and realize that maybe that night might not be their night but the next night might be. Sometimes that’s a tough thing, but I think the good teams do it.”

That’s just the problem, however. The Suns aren’t a good team, and while it’s admirable that Hornacek wants to imitate the great teams with only Bledsoe and Knight averaging more than 27 minutes per game, this team is not the San Antonio Spurs. Putting depth to good use is one thing, but too many players are being asked to step into different roles on a nightly basis.

Next: No. 4