Phoenix Suns: 5 Areas For Improvement
3. Installing An Offense For Better Distribution
If it weren’t for the individual scoring abilities of guys like T.J. Warren, Devin Booker, Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight, the Suns’ offense would probably be in contention for the title of worst in the league.
But the problem with the Suns’ 23rd-ranked offense (100.7 points per 100 possessions) is not a lack of talent; it’s a lack of purpose, execution and distribution. With Watson leaving his players to figure things out independent of an actual set offense, it’s not surprising a Suns offense that relies so heavily on four score-first players suffers from very little playmaking.
Despite Bledsoe, Booker, Warren and Knight all being gifted scorers, the Suns rank 29th in assists (18.3 per game), 30th in assist percentage (46.6 percent) and 30th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.13).
A more in-depth look at how the Suns are getting their points shows the problems extend far beyond simple assist numbers.
On the Warriors — a team the Suns aspire to imitate one day down the road that is also renowned for their exemplary ball movement, execution and potent offense — their lowest percentage of assisted two-point field goals belongs to Stephen Curry, at 49.4 percent.
Even if we exclude John Jenkins and Derrick Jones Jr., the Suns still have seven players on their roster being assisted at a lower rate on two-point field goals than Curry’s 49.4 percent mark, including Booker, Knight and Bledsoe (and Warren barely tops Curry at 50.6 percent).
In other words, the Warriors player who receives the least amount of help in his offense still gets more help from his teammates almost all four of the Suns players taking the most shots for Phoenix. Golden State sets the bar pretty high for well-balanced distribution and high-powered offense, but that’s still a pretty ugly picture.
Curry is typically thought of as a dynamic one-on-one scorer, but his offense is still mostly engineered through good ball movement. The Suns don’t possess a player like Curry, Kevin Durant or Klay Thompson, yet they’ve still been heavily dependent upon isos and an offense largely devoid of structure.
More than half of Phoenix’s field goals come from contested two-pointers, per NBA.com, yet the team is only shooting 34 percent on uncontested threes.
They might be scoring 106.2 points per game, but the Suns are no elite offense. They’re a fast-paced offense, but it’s really just pure chaos that relies on individual shot-making over anything else. If Phoenix is to take the next step in its ongoing rebuild, the guards need to build a better rapport in their ball movement, and Watson needs to install an offense of some kind.