Phoenix Suns: 5 Areas For Improvement
5. Start Alex Len
Has Alex Len earned a starting job to this point in his career? Probably not. Is he even a starting-caliber NBA center right now? It’s hard to tell, but that’s exactly the point: The Suns need to figure out what they have in their fourth-year center before he enters restricted free agency this summer.
With Phoenix sitting at 6-13, there’s very little reason to be starting Tyson Chandler, even on the nights when Len winds up earning more minutes off the bench. The 23-year-old seven-footer has looked great at times, but outright inexperienced at others.
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A little more consistency as a starter would either do wonders for his skill set and confidence, or it’d let the front office know that the center position is still a position of need.
That statement probably depends on the development of Marquese Chriss and especially Dragan Bender, but with the Suns putting Chriss at the 4 and insistent on playing Bender out of position at the 3 for now, the 2016-17 season is Len’s best chance to prove his worth to this team and any other prospective free agency suitors.
Currently averaging 8.8 points, 8.5 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in 23.8 minutes per game on 49.2 percent shooting, Len is never going to get his chance to fully blossom until he’s battling starting-caliber centers every night. His minutes need to be up, his field goal percentage needs to be up, his output needs to be up — all of it needs to be up, if he’s to prove himself as the franchise’s long-term solution at the 5.
But in the beginning of his fourth season, we still only have a raw sketch of what Len’s potential looks like. The Suns’ defense has been 1.4 points per 100 possessions stingier with Alex Len off the court, compared to 0.7 points per 100 possessions stingier with Tyson Chandler off it, but the point of this season was never about wins and losses, even before the team’s 6-13 start.
When Chandler first left the team for the death of his mother and missed four games, Len played admirably in his stead. In the seven-game span since Len filled in for Chandler, the Ukrainian has put up starting-caliber numbers:
Is Alex Len the guy who racked up double-doubles at the end of last season and put up 16 points, 14 rebounds and one block in an early November game against Andre Drummond‘s Pistons? Or is he the guy who started the first few weeks of the season shooting around 40 percent from the field?
Can he anchor a decent defense and knock down the occasional midrange jumper? Or is he the guy who will continue to struggle with his confidence and miss every running hook shot he ever takes? The answer is probably somewhere in between, but it’s Phoenix’s responsibility to find out this year with the clock ticking down toward his free agency. Just start him already.