What is Wrong With The Phoenix Suns?
The Phoenix Suns are officially the most disappointing team in the NBA this season.
The Suns sit at 14-13 and firmly entrenched as the final play-in team in the Western Conference in an offseason that was filled to the brim with anticipation after the trade for Bradley Beal.
Sure, health has been a factor in the slow start - the Suns and head coach Frank Vogel have utilized ten different starting lineup combinations this season.
But the issues Phoenix is dealing with transcends health. This is not a good basketball team at this juncture. The Suns must reassert themselves as legitimate contenders and time is quickly ceding for them to get things together for the long haul this season.
What exactly is wrong with the team?
Three main things we've noticed during this concerning stretch of basketball:
Defense Has Regressed
The Suns' defense isn't atrocious by any means. It isn't historically bad like a team such as the Indiana Pacers.
But it is bottom-10 in the league in defensive rating, and anyone who has consistently watched the team knows the effort just isn't there. Miscommunication is running rampant. The sub-par personnel on the defensive side is finally catching up to the team.
As Bright Side of the Suns writer John Voita points out, a Frank Vogel-coached team has only improved their defensive rating from game 25 to 82 only three times in his ten full seasons as a head coach.
There is obviously reason to be pessimistic about the long-term outlook of this defense. The Suns don't have an Anthony Davis. The Suns don't have a Roy Hibbert. The Suns might have an Alex Caruso-lite but that simply isn't enough to weather the storm in all likelihood.
This defense is undisciplined, poor at communicating assignments/switches, poor at defending in transition, and poor at rebounding.
There's much work to be done, and little time to actually correct these problems.
Offense Has Stagnated
The Suns' offense came into the season with significant hype from national media. ESPN insider Brian Windhorst even suggested that they could potentially have the most productive offensive season of all time in 2023-24.
That hasn't been anywhere near the case.
The Suns remain a good, not great offense, but the real concern is how the offensive is being implemented on the floor.
Suns associate head coach Kevin Young is widely believed to have a major say in the offense, but Suns fans shouldn't tear into Young too much at this point - some of these problems lie on the players as well.
The most simple way to put things is the Suns' offense is simply predictable, and that isn't a good thing.
Kevin Durant is utilized in the same fashion virtually every game, the rim pressure has improved from last season but not drastically enough to make a difference, and the Suns have far too much variance when it comes to three-point attempts.
The Suns' offense stagnated in the first half of a narrow win Sunday against a historically poor Washington Wizards defense - the team shot 2-for-19 from behind the arc in the first half and forced threes instead of pressuring the rim.
When a team refuses to exploit mismatches to that degree, there's a true disconnect happening somewhere between the lines.
The Suns are undoubtedly a team that possesses a lot of shooting talent. The issue is both an inconsistent volume output from behind the arc and a lack of quality looks for the shooters (save Grayson Allen/Josh Okogie generally).
The Suns offense has been a mess with two of the ten best offensive players in the world - and there are a lot of layers to work through to fix these issues.
Team Simply Lacks Passion
Possibly the biggest red flag from the 2023-24 edition of the Phoenix Suns is this team doesn't have the same fire previous teams of the past did.
Sure, the 2020-21 and 21-22 versions of the Suns were good teams- they typically ran 10 deep/had ample two-way talent. But what made those teams truly special was the camaraderie that was conspicuous every time the squad touched the floor. The fire that fan favorite Mikal Bridges played with being the biggest example.
Those teams simply just played with a drive that can't be taught.
This year's team is just different.
Many fellow media members at the Suns' last home game against the Wizards on agreed that Phoenix's new squad lacked personality. Lacked desire. Lack the drive to win.
It's certainly more reasonable to buy-in to that theory now after the squad barely escaped the Wizards and blew a near 20-point lead to the Portland Trail Blazers.
With or without Beal, this team has far too much talent to be lagging in games against bottom feeders. The 2-9 mark against teams .500 and better is also alarming.
It might be time to hit the panic button.
