With the NBA All-Star game coming this weekend at the “Boss Hogg Bowl” in Texas it’s time to check on our Phoenix Suns (Photo by Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images) so far in the 2009-10 season.
The record: 31-22 (tied for 6thplace in the Western Conference, 9 ½ games behind the Lakers). The .585 winning percentage projected to the end of the season would leave the Suns at 48-34.The excellent start of the season (14-3) followed by an awful two-month period December (7-9) + January (7-9) and looking at the schedule (16 home games remaining) could suggest a more reasonable 45-46 wins that should be enough for 7th or 8th place in the Conference.
Nothing new:Best offense (109.9 PF) and more or less worst defense (107.5 PA) in the League. Nash is playing great, Stoudemire is having an All Star caliber year (despite often looking disgruntled), Grant Hill is getting younger every year and Alvin Gentry is doing a solid coaching job.
Biggest surprise:The Bench. Jared Dudley (8.3 PPG, 3.6 rebounds and an outstanding .469 3-point shooting pct) and Goran Dragic (8.2 PPG, 2.4 assists) are clearly improving. Goran is still a couple of years away from being a good NBA point guard but has good instincts, can play some defense and his shooting is improving. Robin Lopez is also showing signs he could become a solid (maybe not a starting center but a good role player) contributor for the Suns.
Biggest disappointment:It comes down to Jason Richardson and Earl Clark. J-Rich had finally showed something early in the year (great month of November 17 ppg) but is fading away as the season progresses. Awful defense, bad shooting at 13 million a year. Rookie Clark, the 14th overall pick in the draft, looks still very far from a solid (read decent) NBA player. Earl has shown some athleticism but his basketball skills are way behind, sometimes it seems like he’s very tentative even with his basic shooting mechanics. He was drafted on potential, but I’m beginning to worry.
Biggest Worry:Leandro Barbosa. The Brazilian was hit by injuries from the start, has missed more than 20 games but even when he played he often looked a very different player from the one we used to know and love. He seemed a bit out of sync with the rest, so to speak.
Biggest need: The Suns need to find a solution at the 2-Guard possibly trading Richardson.
Team MVP:Steve Nash. Our PG is leading the way every night (18.3 PPG, 11.1 assists, .519 shooting). He’s having one of the best season of his career at 36 and shows up ready for battle each and every night. We should start building a statue of Steve outside the US Airways Center (MVP on a horse).
Future watch: The organization finds itself at a critical point four years after being so close to the NBA Finals. Ownership must make the right choice deciding what to do with Stoudemire (offer him an extension, trade him, lose him as a free agent) and then decide if the Suns are ready to rebuild or are looking to compete at this level (second round of the playoffs if everything goes right) for the next couple of years until Steve Nash retires. It looks like one of the toughest offseason in Suns history.
Today, Feb. 7th Steve Nash(Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images) turns 36 (it’s already 2010) and for the Sons of Steve Nash it feels like Christmas.
February 7th, 1974 it’s the day it all begun in sunny South Africa. So, to remind everyone about the importance of this date in Suns (and World’s) history, I’d like us to think why we love Steve without even mentioning MVP trophies, stats or 13 amazing years of Pro Basketball.
Here’s my Top Ten List:
Steve clearly can see things you people wouldn’t believe
Steve is pure genius on and off the court. I believe one day he’ll win the Nobel Prize, for whatever he wished.
In this “in your face” League Steve Nash simply plays the game with pride, intelligence and the consciousness there’s something bigger in life yet leaving all he got on the court each night.
Most NBA players have stories tattooed on their bodies, Steve actually reads them in books
The “0:07 seconds or less” Suns. You really think you’ll ever have more fun at a basketball game?
You won’t see another player in your life with the passing ability of Nash, unless you include Joe Montana in the list
Steve even looks good with that classic Canadian haircut
The Suns are 24-18, currently in 6th place in the Western Conference and only ½ game over Houston, OKC and Utah who are sharing places 7 to 9 with the Memphis Grizzlies only one game back. In other words, Phoenix is one loss away from being out of the Playoffs picture for the first time this season. Not to mention the fact that the 9th and 10th place team in the Conference, Memphis and New Orleans, are playing very good basketball at the moment and quickly making up for the gap in the standings.
The Suns have lost 4 in a row (against Memphis, Charlotte, Atlanta and Indiana…all good teams but hardly the NBA’s best) and on three of those have allowed over 120 points.
Phoenix was 7-9 in December, is 3-6 in January with 7 games left in the month, before facing a very tough February with 7 road games including visits to Denver, San Antonio, Dallas.
In the last 9 games (those played in 2010) Phoenix has allowed on average 115 points a game, it’s amazing they actually won three of those and lost one on a buzzer-beater by the Hawks.
Now we all knew, deep down that the Suns were not the team that started the season 14-3 but neither this terrible sub .500 team.
The truth is probably the Suns are facing a tough stretch, it happens during the course of a long NBA season, but it means they’ll have to fight to the end for a Playoff spot.
The alarming trend in turnovers has been discussed on this same site over the last few days as is the Suns’ inability to protect their lead in games.
The scary thing is that the Suns seem to be losing a bit of confidence in what they’re doing as Grant Hill stated following the horrible loss in Charlotte: ”We’ve got to figure out who we are, who we want to be.”
Gentry is starting to feel this same pressure and he tried to shake things a bit last night putting Barbosa and Lopez (AP Photo/ Mark Weber) in the starting five in place of Richardson and Frye. J-Rich, the most disappointing of the Suns so far, is averaging 13 points since December while shooting at just 41 percent from the field.
Coach Gentry has turned the alarm on: “We just have to play with a little more energy and a little more desperation. We are fighting for our lives and we have to play that way”
I’m not sure if it’s already time to panic but I’m sure the answer will come from the next three home games. Phoenix hosts New Jersey, Chicago and Golden State this week. Should the Suns fail to win at least two of them, three actually, I think we should all start worrying for real.
The Suns are the worst team in Turnover Differential in the entire NBA at -2.0.
This isn’t always a revealing statistic, as i.e. Golden State and Milwaukee are in the top three in TO Diff., but it’s becoming very relevant in our case as the Suns have been unable to hold leads in games they seemed to have in control at an alarming rate with the latest case being last night’s loss to the Pacers.
Turnovers are the spark that often ignites a rally by an opponent and the Suns seem to allow them in bunches at times this season.
The Suns are allowing 15.5 TO a game and forcing only 13.5. It means two full possessions given away. If you add the fact the Suns’ opponents have grabbed 1.9 more rebounds per game that’s already 4 more plays on offense for the wrong side.
The Suns are shooting 83 FG per game (at .491 best in the League) while their opponents are taking a league-high 88.5 attempts at the basket per outing. The second worst team in the NBA, the Lakers are at 85.2. Of course turnovers and rebounds allowed are creating the gap in shots taken.
Phoenix is allowing basically the same amount of TOs in wins and in losses (a slight decimal difference) and strangely Steve Nash (AP Photo/Darron Cummings) , who is second in the League for TO at 3.95 a game (much worse than his career 2.76), is losing more basketballs in victories (4.1) than in losses (3.7) as strange as it might sound for the real Suns barometer.
Turnovers are for sure a big problem for the Suns and they are allowing way too many, but what’s really alarming is that the Suns seem to turn the basketball over when they are leading games.
Could be a case of lack of concentration or playing with (too much) superficiality when they believe to have the game in control. I’m sure Coach Gentry is already working on that.
On Sunday morning, I spent a couple of hours over breakfast watching the Suns-Heat game I recorded a few hours earlier (on Friday Night). I tried to focus on one single element of the Suns’ offensive game: The Pick and Roll.
Here’s what I found out.
Of the Suns’ 100 possessions against Miami I charted (see the above chart) P&Rs on 39 different occasions (in 3 cases they played it twice in the same play): 7 in the first quarter, 8 in the second, 12 in the third and 12 in the final period.
The Suns played almost exclusively Nash+Stoudemire with the game on the line, like 9 consecutive plays in the final 3 minutes.
Of the 42 P&R the Suns played:
Nash was involved in 35, Stoudemire in 29, Frye in 9
17 resulted in 2pt shot attempts
11 resulted in 3pt shot attempts
7 resulted in turnovers
The shot was taken either by the ball handler or the player setting the pick on 16 occasions while the greatest beneficiary of P&R plays were J-Rich (6 shots), Hill (5 shots) and Frye (3 shots all beyond the arc).
On P&R plays the Suns scored 33 points or 0.85 points per possession.
It was Nash and Stoudemire on 27 occasions. They’re the best P&R combination in the League in my opinion.
The Suns never play the P&R with Dragic (only twice actually) on the court as they often entered in the offensive set with Goran at center court and 4 players wide (2 and 2) on the wings.
The Pick and Roll is used by the Suns to create space for the other players and let Nash create plays out of the adjustments the defense needs to make. Proof is that on 26 (out of 42) possessions the shooter was a “third” player.
What’s interesting is that against the Suns more and more teams are switching defenders on the P&R. It was very clear in the Knicks (a Suns 126-99 loss) as Mike D’Antoni, who created the Nash’s P&R plays actually, choose to switch defenders systematically on the P&R with Nash, allowing him to shoot (16 attempts) rather than distributing the ball (only 8 assists). Interesting theory, maybe.
Same thing happened in the recent Warriors game, another Suns loss as Nash scored 36 points on 22 attempts but had “only” 9 assists out of 107 possessions. I think we’ll have to check if there’s a trend here.
I’m not sure it’s useful, maybe it’s just one Steve Nash Fan’s big perversion, but it helped me understand the Suns offense a bit better.
Yours truly, Steve Fan
PS Of course I could have missed a play or two here and there…
Over the last few season we have been criticizing Suns coaches for not using the bench. The short rotation has always been considered one of the reason why the Suns have often appeared tired at the end of the season, not to mention during the playoffs.
Considering the Suns players are not getting any younger I’ve checked minutes played by each player comparing this season to the previous one.
The starters
J. Richardson: 33.1 in 2008/09, 30.7 in 2009/10
S. Nash: 33.6 in 2008/09, 33.6 in 2009/10
A. Stoudemire: 36.8 in 2008/09, 34.5 in 2009/10
G. Hill: 29.8 in 2008/09, 30.2 in 2009/10
C. Frye: 31.6 in 2009/10 (S. O’Neil: 30.0 in 2008/09)
The bench
L. Barbosa: 24.4 in 2008/09, 19.8 in 2009/10
J. Dudley: 15.2 in 2008/09, 24.3 in 2009/10
G. Dragic: 13.2 in 2008/09, 17.1 in 2009/10
L. Amundson: 13.7 in 2008/09, 14.8 in 2009/10
R. Lopez: 10.2 in 2008/09, 9.9 in 2009/10
(M. Barnes: 27.0 in 2008/09)
As we all know, in an NBA game there are 240 minutes to be distributed among the team’s players (48×5). Suns starters are used, on average, 160.6 minutes a game (roughly 67 percent of the total). Last season it was 68 percent. Not much of a change, actually and it’s a bit surprising that Nash and Hill are actually playing the same amount of time that they did last season.
So, why are we getting the impression the Suns are playing their bench much more?
Amundson is playing the same minutes in both seasons; same thing with Robin Lopez. Barbosa, Dudley and Dragic are playing 61.2 minutes per game while last year the three combined for 52.8, and the Suns lost Matt Barnes’ 27 per night who moved to Orlando.
It’s just that, finally, some new faces are emerging as solid contributors especially Dudley (the real surprise of the Suns season so far) and Dragic. But the relative emergence of Goran hasn’t done anything to reduce Nash’s minutes and might have been actually caused by the below standard season of Leandro Barbosa.
That takes me to The Question once again. Is Steve Nash playing too much? Yes and No, as usual.
In the NBA there are 16 PG playing more minutes than Nash, of course none of them will turn 36 in a few weeks (actually one, Jason Kidd) but you can’t really play your starting PG less than 32-33 minutes per outing. Of course, none of them (with a couple of possible exceptions, like C. Paul) is as important as Steve to a team system of play.
Are 33 minutes a night too much for Steve’s back? Only time will tell, so far he’s playing like an All Star.
On Christmas Day I spent almost 10 hours on the sofa in front of the TV watching NBA basketball. I didn’t actually watch the game the whole time as I found myself sleeping occasionally and more or less for the entire Boston-Orlando game.
Here’s some of the notes from the day:
Knicks-Heat (02:28 of basketball)
Game One of the Xmas basketball marathon came for me after a very heavy traditional Christmas lunch with the entire family. Once you’ve had a 7 dish meal in a couple of hours is there anything better than finishing the last glass of wine on the sofa watching the NBA?
Actually, it could have been better as the NBA could have started the day with a decent game. Game one was awful from the first minute and got worse as it progressed.
The Knicks are simply horrendous, almost as much as their green uniform. I feel like Mike D’Antoni is trying to work on this team but NY really stinks. I get the feeling the Knicks have given up on the season and Coach D is OK with that which I think it’s very dangerous. Let’s say the Knicks find themselves without LeBron, Wade or even Bosh, stuck with a useless roster and no direction for the future.
Mike D’Antoni, No Defence? Let me think where did I hear that? If defence was bad, offense was possibly worse. Your typical Knicks offensive play: One player keeps the ball for 10-15 seconds and then tries to create something out of nothing. I guess it happens when you don’t have Steve Nash at point guard and for some reason your best PG (Nate Robinson) is sitting on the bench for reasons that have nothing to do with the game.
The Heat must be one of the great underachieving team of the season. They have very good talent but seems to me like they’re not playing 100% and Miami contributed to a game full of bad shooting and plenty of turnovers.
Celtics-Magic (02:44 of basketball and sleeping)
Game Two was a match-up of two of the better teams in the Eastern Conference and it was a nice game from what I can remember.
Boston plays the game with terrific intensity and a physical approach that few other teams can put on the floor. It was much much better than the first game on.
I was happy to have a look at former Suns Matt Barnes who is still doing his usual solid job despite the fact that he’s probably a bit underused and played only 15 minutes on the night.
I woke up just in time to catch the final minutes of the game as Orland came within one single possession of Boston before Ray Allen put the game away. The Celtics are the best clutch team in the League and I my stomach was still full.
Lakers-Cavs (02:42 of basketball and eating)
It was the game everyon wanted to see, the game the NBA had build his marketing campaign for the Xmas special. It wasn’t that special in the end, really.
With a dozen of friends a few years ago we started the great tradition of Leftovers dinner and everyone brings something left (most of the time totally untouched) from his Christmas lunch and so we ended up with lasagne, chicken, salmon, veal, tuna, roasted tomatoes, fish cakes, mashed potatoes, cheese and at least 3 desserts. Wine was of course used to help with those and the first half of the Lakers game was more or less gone with one eye on the game and one on the table.
It was everything but a Christmas game: Odom ejected, Fans throwing yellow foam hands at the refs, Kobe and Lebron not really sharing love around.
I’m sure Bryant and James respect each other, and certainly can understand each other’s greatness but they don’t really like each other. if you don’t believe this watch the last two minutes of the game with the game decided and the Cavs up by 20 both kept trying to score and outplay the other.
I believe the Cavs and the Lakers will meet in the Finals next June and Phil Jackson know that he just lost a single meaningless (eventually) game. Coach Jackson worked the referees all night long (especially talking to Crawford who by the way is the same man the NBA will assign to a game 7 in the Finals…) and coached his players in a long-term perspective as he often does. During the fourth quarter when his team could have tried a comeback, improbable if you like but still possible, Jackson benched Fisher, Bryant and Gasol.
Clearly LeBron won the first battle as he dominated the game far more than his stats showed while Kobe tried to win it by himself (32 shot attempts are you kidding me?) as the the Lakers bench disappeared.
When I watch LeBron at his finest he always seems like a man among kids. He’s so much bigger and stronger than the rest of the players it’s almost scary. He will dominate this League for the next 5-6 years.
One final note, the Laker Girls dressed in the blue Santa outfit were something special!
Suns-Clippers (02:24 of basketball)
Now on to the Suns! I was starting to feel tired and dinner certainly didn’t help.
So far so good anyway, it was time for a doppio espresso to wake me up in time for the Suns game. The game fortunately didn’t require much attention as the Clippers were simply the Clippers. No defense and nothing special and as the Suns pushed up the speed of their game it was all over.
Happy to see Barbosa back and Grant Hill scoring a buzzer-beating basket from three quarters of the way down the court the game was never in doubt after the first quarter.
Amar’e led the way with a very good 26 points on 10-for-15 shooting, Dudley scored an excellent 18 while Goran Dragic had 13 and Barbosa added 12.
Finally a nice and easy Xmas victory after last year’s misery against the Spurs. Thank God no Roger Mason Jr. This time around.
I was starting to feel tired for real now…4 basketball games in a row it’s too much if you alternate them with wine and food to feed a football team.
Blazers-Nuggets (0:00 of baskteball…enough)
I tried…really, but I had to quit. I missed Roy’s 41 and Melo’s 32 but it was too much (over 10 hours of basketball, eating and some sleeping) and it was getting very late over here.
Hope you had a wonderful Christmas, I really loved mine.
As you all know, the Suns lost of their last games. While I believe the schedule has a lot to do with that I’ve tried to check the differences between the Suns’ performances in wins (16) and losses (8).
Suns in wins: 16 of which 12 against teams with winning records.
In victories the Suns are shooting .518 from the field and an amazing .456 from 3-point range. In their 16 wins the Suns grab an average of 41.6 rebounds, have 25.3 assists and 15.3 turnovers per game. Stats from ESPN.com
The Suns are winning games when they can pass the ball and make 3-pointers, to make it short. No big deal, I understand but interesting I believe.
In wins, Nash is averaging 18.3 ppg and 13.1 assists (!) and his backcourt mate, J-Rich is scoring 19.7 ppg. In those games Stoudemire is averaging a STAT-like 20 points, 8 rebounds.
Suns in losses: 8 of which 6 against teams with winning records.
In losses the Suns are shooting .441 from the field and a pedestrian .357 from 3-point range. In losses the Suns grab an average of 41.3 rebounds, have 20.1 assists and 16.1 turnovers per game. Stats from ESPN.com
In losses Nash is scoring more or less the same 17.4 ppg but his assists are down to 7.1 while J-Rich is scoring half of what he does in victories (10.5 ppg). Amar’e is more or less the same player, scoring almost 17 a night in losing efforts and grabbing 7.8 boards.
Of the 8 losses 5 came against teams with very good defenses, teams ranked in the top 8 in defensive efficiency rating. Good defense can stop the Suns and they’re not as overpowering as they were in the golden years, say circa 2006, when they were simply just too good to face even for good defensive teams. Not anymore.
Jason Richardson (AP Photo/Gus Ruelas) might actually be the Suns key this season. While in wins Jason is shooting .531 from the field and .494 from 3-point range, his stats drop dramatically in losses to .375 and .156. J-Rich 3-point shooting might say a lot about the Suns ability to open defenses. No other player has such a dramatic difference in wins and losses.
Since tonight the “Brasilian Bash” will be held at the Maria Maria Restaurant, Mark and I believed it was the perfect time to discuss about Leandro Barbosa recent injury, his season so far and what it means for the Suns. The “Brasilian Bash” event was created to support the Desert Mountain States Chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society on in loving memory of Leandro’s late mother Ivete. In case you wish to attend, check the event’s website.
Steve Fan: Under Coach Gentry, Barbosa was finally free to run again and we all hope he’ll be able to duplicate the great performance that allowed him to win the Sixth Man Award only a couple of years ago. Barbosa had a positive year last season and I believe the only negative thing was actually his playing time (down by almost 5 minutes per game in 2008-09) .
Leandro is at his finest when is set free to run the floor and attack the basket, actually one of the best in the league at doing it. Unfortunately, as he was ready to explode again in 2009 he was hit first by a wrist injury and then by a sprained left ankle last Sunday that will keep him out of the lineup for 2-to-4 weeks.
Without Leandrinho, the Suns bench loses much of his scoring ability; the guards rotation is all of a sudden very thin and it means Nash will have to play 4-5 more minutes a night.
Barbosa was shooting a career best .485 from the field and an outstanding .405 from 3-point range. His per 48-minutes stats are almost back to his career year.
Barbosa, according to the 5-man unit analysis on 82games.com is a component of all the 3 most effective Suns quintets of the season. The best combination for the Suns is when Leandro and Nash share the backcourt.
What I also love about Barbosa is his attitude on the court. He’s hustling on offense, always trying to improve on defense and keeping his mouth shut. Did you know he never got a technical foul in his 7-year NBA career?
We seem to agree that the Suns need Barbosa back as soon as possible. It might be a chance that the Suns two worst losses of the year coincided with Leandro’s absence. It could be by chance, but I believe it’s a fact.
Mark: This young season is already full of ups and downs for LB. An injured wrist has kept him at less than 100%. He’s averaged the least amount of minutes per game of any season since his sophomore campaign. His scoring output doesn’t seem to be what it once was. Add it all up, and the casual observer would think his possibly missing four weeks with an ankle sprain doesn’t amount to much.
The truth is, LB can’t return soon enough.
Without Barbosa providing an instant scoring threat, Dudley and Co. are suddenly a very limited group of hustling bench players. Defense, rebounding, and playing harder than the other guys only gets a group so far. Points still need to be put on the board, and as we all know, LB has been doing just that for years.
Despite his limited time on the court and wrist injury, he’s managed to shoot 48% from the field and 40% from three point land to average 19.5 points per 36 minutes. All numbers aren’t far off from his sixth man of the year award season.
Along with carrying the scoring load for the second unit, LB gives the Suns another player to handle the ball with Nash on the bench. Dragic has noticeably gained in the confidence department but he’s continually finding his way out there. LB helps to relieve Dragic’s still frequent yips, and equally importantly allows Nash a greater amount of rest.
No Barbosa gives Nash more minutes, Dragic less help, the bench less pop, and the Suns fewer wins. Here’s to hoping Aaron Nelson has another trick up his sleeve.
Leandrinho was supposed to dance all night but I’m afraid his twisted ankle will limit him to some real Brazilian eating. We’re sure it’ll be a special night for him and above all, we wish Barbosa all the best.
It’s almost the end of November, a month has already gone in the 2009-10 NBA season, and I feel it’s time to check some numbers.
The Suns are 11-3 right now; have the best record in the Conference; their .786 winning pct. is the best in the league tied with Atlanta (this Hawks team looks better and better by the way) and Orlando and they’re ranked no. 1 in the SI Power Ranking.
11-3 is a surprising fact so far as much a surprise as the way the team has played in the first month of the season. Checking the schedule it’s quite clear the Suns had a very soft start of the season: The Suns played 12 teams so far with a combined record of 82-93 (.46) losing to the Lakers (10-3), Magic (11-3) and Hornets (6-9). The Hornets game was probably the worst of the year and somewhat of an aberration as the Suns had beaten New Orleans by 20 points only a week earlier.
So, Phoenix beat 8 teams with losing record and only 3 teams with winning records but on 2 of those occasions they were very tough games in Boston and Miami.
The Suns have an easy schedule, with the Cleveland exception, over the next couple of weeks before facing the toughest stretch of their schedule so far, a 10-day 6-game challenge when the Suns will face the Lakers, Dallas, Portland and Denver on the road and Orlando and the Spurs at home. By December 17th we’ll have a much clearer idea of what this Suns squad could effectively hope for.
With the schedule clearly on “our side” so far the Suns have played very well anyway. Phoenix is leading the Association (from NBA.com Team Stats) in PPG at 110.3 allowing 105.5 for a plus 4.85 which is 9th best in the League and it could be a first real indication of the real value of this team even if it could dramatically improve by making a few more free throws (so far Phoenix is missing almost 30 percent of their attempts from the line).
Phoenix is shooting a league-best .444 from 3-point range but allowing .405 to their opponents from that same distance (second worst only to the Warriors’ .412) and a clear confirmation of the poor perimeter defense the Suns can actually play.
The Suns are the second-best in the League for assists per game at 24 trailing only the Celtics but they’re allowing over 22 a game and once again the difference is marking the Suns as the 12th best in the NBA. I’m starting to feel like this team could end up somewhere between 5th and 8th in the West.
Phoenix is leading the League in Offensive Efficiency (check ESPN.com Hollinger team statistics) and ranking a traditional 23rd on defense. So really, nothing new, only your same old Suns.