Phoenix Suns: 5 early observations from the Jay Triano era

5. A drastic turnaround on both ends

The Suns were a miserable team under Watson all of last year, and that trend was exacerbated by an unforgettably bad start to the 2017-18 campaign.

Aside from going 0-3, a look at the raw numbers — and where the team ranked compared to the rest of the league — provides a pretty clear idea of how terrible the situation actually was:

• -30.7 Plus/Minus (30th)
• 117.0 Defensive Rating (30th)
• 90.4 Offensive Rating (29th)
• -26.6 Net Rating (30th)
• 44.1 REB% (29th)
• 50.1 TS% (26th)
• 39.7 FG% (30th)
• 39.7 RPG (26th)
• 15.3 APG (30th)

In five games under Triano, not only are the Suns 4-1 with wins over the Utah Jazz, Brooklyn Nets and Washington Wizards, but their numbers have improved dramatically across the board:

• +3.6 Plus/Minus (8th)
• 102.0 Defensive Rating (13th)
• 107.8 Offensive Rating (7th)
• +5.8 Net Rating (6th)
• 53.5 REB% (4th)
• 57.0 TS% (9th)
• 47.2 FG% (9th)
• 51.4 RPG (1st)
• 20.0 APG (22nd)

How has this young team fared so well under their interim head coach? There’s always an instant boost in effort when a head coach is fired, as the locker room usually feels responsible and bands together to either get a win for their new coach or simply to prove themselves.

That kind of motivation usually only lasts about one game though. By simply playing players at their true positions and establishing consistent rotations, Triano has given these youngsters a more stable environment to learn in.

With a focus on more tangible basketball concepts rather than inflated talk about “culture,” “family” and “love,” Triano is not only putting players in position to succeed, but he’s also found a constant motivator: playing time.

"“Despite how much money they make, they want to play the game,” Triano said after his first game at the helm. “I told all of the players, ‘If I don’t see an energy level to my standards, I’m going to get subs in.'”"

Marquese Chriss made the most of his opportunity to reclaim his starting job, posting 19 points, five rebounds and three blocks in the Kings win. He’s averaging nearly eight more minutes per game compared to the season’s first three games, has doubled his rebounding from 2.7 per game to 5.2 per game and is also posting 1.4 blocks a night to go with 47.1 percent shooting in that span.

Tyler Ulis, who was averaging a mere 11.2 minutes per game and didn’t make a single field goal in those first three games, has bumped his numbers up to 10.2 points, 3.8 assists and 1.4 steals in 21.2 minutes per game off the bench, shooting 46.5 percent from the field. The absence of Eric Bledsoe obviously factors in here, but Ulis is earning his keep.

The only player who hasn’t really benefitted from the coaching change is Josh Jackson, who was probably thrust into too large of a role too soon, averaging 28.1 minutes per game with a -19.7 plus/minus under Watson.

In five games coming off the bench for Triano, Jackson’s minutes are down to 20.6 per game, but his plus/minus is all the way up to -1.8. Until he’s ready for a starting role one day down the road, letting him find his groove against opposing second units isn’t a bad strategy.

Alex Len has actually seen a slight decrease in minutes since Triano took over, but he’s quietly been a beast on the boards. His scoring has slipped from 9.5 points per game in the team’s first three contests to 8.4 points per game in its last five, but his rebounding has increased from 7.0 boards per game to 9.6. His field goal percentage also shot up from 40 percent to 51.9 percent.

The coaching change has had a positive impact on nearly every player on the roster, making the Suns more watchable, enjoyably and competitive, even as the youngsters make mistakes.

Beating the Nets on the road was one thing, but coming back from 22 points down, on the road, on the second night of a back-to-back, against a very good Wizards team? That’s the kind of fight Phoenix never showed under Watson. That’s the kind of game Watson’s Suns would’ve lost by 40.

The Suns went from being the worst defense and second-worst offense in the league to a borderline top-10 defense and the league’s seventh-ranked offense. Since Triano took over, they’re dominating the glass, moving the ball better and most importantly, everyone’s contributing.

This is no longer the Devin Booker show, which put an inordinate amount of pressure on him to do everything. The Suns are playing as a team, everyone is fulfilling their assigned roles and the youngsters are buying into the winning culture Watson always talked about but never unearthed.

"“Everything’s not the same obviously, but the guys still came in with great attitudes and we’re just trying to stick together,” Josh Jackson said after the team’s first win of the season, less than 48 hours after Watson was fired. “All day today from shoot-around to after the game in the locker room, I felt like we were — at every point of the day today — just together.”"

The first three games of the season were a very dark blip on #TheTimeline, but it seems like now that the Suns have the right coach to harness the talent of this youth movement, maybe Watson’s goal of establishing a family and a winning culture will manifest itself after all.