Phoenix Suns
The Phoenix Suns are one of the NBA’s most pleasant surprises. After going 25-57 in 2012-13, the Suns are rapidly approaching that win total with a 17-10 start.
Since opening the season at 5-6, Phoenix has won 11 of 15. In that time, first-year coach Jeff Hornacek has guided the Suns to wins over the likes of Golden State, Houston and Portland, thus convincing fans, analysts and pundits that the upside is legitimate.
Don’t fall in love too quickly, or your heart may be broken.
The Suns currently rank seventh in scoring offense and 17th in scoring defense, which displays the offensive-minded nature of their approach and success. Phoenix also is fifth in 3-point percentage at .384 and second in 3-point makes at 9.8.
Unfortunately, that level of offensive proficiency doesn’t include the conventional measures of sustainability.
For all of the deserved praise that’s been lavished on point guards Eric Bledsoe and Goran Dragic, the Suns have been doing a very poor job of creating ball movement. Phoenix ranks 28th with 18.9 assists, which is especially shocking considering Bledsoe and Dragic are both starters.
We could pick apart a per game average, but the truth of the matter is Phoenix’s greatest weakness is how heavily it relies upon the individual success of players rather than team chemistry.
According to NBA.com, 62.1 percent of the Suns’ 2-pointers have been unassisted. That’s far and away the worst mark in the league, with the second-lowest mark Toronto’s 56.4 percent.
Furthermore, the Suns are 19th in assisted 3-pointers at 82.6 percent. That means that roughly 1-in-5 attempts from the arc are pull-up jumpers of some form, a concerning stat for a team that scores 28.3 percent of its points off the three-ball.
So what does this all mean?
When the game slows down and threes stop falling – at some point, both things will happen – the Suns will be in trouble. Dragic is superb at running the pick-and-roll, but Phoenix has developed such a dependency on isolation basketball that it’s hard to envision its current level of success being sustainable.
It’s hard not to pull for a team that’s gone from the bottom to contending, but the Suns will collapse if they can’t learn to share the rock.