Phoenix Suns: 5 Problem Areas That Must Be Addressed

2. Off-Ball And Transition Defense

The Suns’ offense has fallen off a cliff the last few weeks, but this team’s biggest issue is still its porous and even lazy defense. Phoenix ranks 20th in defensive rating, surrendering 103.7 points per 100 possessions. But a look at the Suns’ defense in a few other key areas reveals what’s regularly preventing them from winning games:

• OPP PPG:  105.2 (25th)
• OPP FG%:  46.8% (30th)
• OPP 3P%:  37.2% (27th)
• OPP PPG in the paint:  44.1 (26th)

To summarize, the Suns are the team that lets opponents get to their preferred spots on the floor. Less than two months into the season, Phoenix has become the defense that fantasy owners everywhere relish playing against because it’s almost guaranteed that their players will go off.

Already this season, the Suns have been punching bags for Stephen Curry, Bradley Beal, Jimmy Butler, Anthony Davis, Blake Griffin, Reggie Jackson, Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum, Pau Gasol, Klay Thompson and Khris Middleton.

“It’s a tough game as it is,” Hornacek said. “These guys who get going, they’re gonna make shots. But at the end, you want them thinking about you so much that it becomes more difficult.”

That certainly hasn’t been the case for star players putting up big games on Phoenix. Yeah that’s the league MVP in the clip above, but rather than taking it to opposing stars and making them work, the Suns have approached with a laid-back mentality that assumes those players are going to get theirs anyway.

With a lack of physicality, length and killer mentality, opposing teams always seem to hang around no matter what the score is.

“We let things happen to us rather than be proactive and do things to stop things from happening to us,” Tucker said. “We kind of sit back and let teams get more physical than us and not hit them first, especially early so teams get comfortable.”

A huge part of the problem has been the backcourt’s downright lazy approach to off-the-ball defense. Eric Bledsoe is a tenacious on the ball defender, but he and Knight have been prone to losing their man off the ball, getting caught on off-ball screens and gambling for steals. The Warriors aren’t a fair barometer, but they did make these flaws all the more noticeable:

Hornacek said Bledsoe gets a little more leeway because of his ability to make plays, but games like the Warriors routs displayed just how rare it is when the Suns pay attention to the minute details on that end of the floor. Any time the Suns gave up an offensive rebound or left Stephen Curry or Klay Thompson for a second, it led to a buried three-pointer for Golden State.

A major aspect of that is Phoenix’s nonexistent transition defense. The Suns are giving up 16.1 fast break points per game, the worst mark in the league with the exception of the lowly Sixers. In some cases this problem stems from bad turnovers leading to easy points, but in most cases, the eye test has shown it’s simply a matter of desire, effort and energy.

Or, you know, just encompassing ANY SORT OF SPACE in the direct path between the ball handler and the basket:

“In transition you’ve got to sprint back,” Hornacek said. “A lot of times it’s off the turnover, so that makes it tough. That’s when you’ve got to be determined, you might be at the free throw line extended and if there’s a turnover, you’ve got to sprint. If you want it bad enough, you’ll sprint.”

Next: No. 1