It's been frustrating, to say the least over the last decade or so for Phoenix Suns fans. Every year around this time free-agency starts up, their is still hope in the air. There is hope that the Suns might actually put together a team that can make the playoffs and end the drought.
The path to winning starts with one big move and a huge change in culture on the court. In my opinion, there is a move that should coincide with this culture change, but it will never happen. I would go out and give Kevin Garnett whatever he wants to be an assistant coach and teach this team how to play DEFENSE!
I'm not even sure if KG wants to coach or if he even would if he was approached. But being a die-hard Boston sports fan, I'm sure of one thing. When the Celtics won the title in 2007-2008, it wasn't because they had the "Big 3" of KG, Pierce, and Allen. It was because they had a floor general who understood how team defense works and he had the mindset, voice, and energy to back it up. Kevin Garnett is why the Celtics took home the title that year, and he's why they had the #2 overall defense in the NBA.
The Suns don't have a defensive mindset, and they continue to bring in players who yes, are flashy on offense, but are horrible at defense. Out of the 53 NBA players who received votes for a spot on the 2018-2019 NBA All-Defensive Team, none were from the Phoenix Suns. That means that even though there are only two official All-Defensive teams per year, no Suns player would have made it even if they had 10 NBA All-Defensive teams.
And today, all the hype before NBA free-agency officially starts, has rumors of the Suns going after D'Angelo Russell. And guess what, Russell didn't receive any votes for the All-Defensive team either, but he did have a teammate that got a couple votes. So YAY, the Suns will be flashy, but they won't stop anyone.
Unless you are absolutely jacked with offensive players and play "decent" defense, then you're not winning anything. The Suns have not ranked better than 21st overall in Opponents Points Allowed in 16 straight years. As a matter of fact, in the last 20 years, only ONE team has won the NBA Championship while their defense was ranked worse than 20th.....the 2000-2001 Lakers, which was their second title of three straight. And the Lakers book-ended that title with championship team defensive ranks of 6th and 9th.
The numbers don't lie. Every team in the Western Conference with a positive +/- in team points scored vs points allowed made the playoffs in the Western Conference last year. As a matter of fact, EVERY NBA TEAM made the playoffs with a positive rating counting the Eastern Conference too. No team in the Western Conference with a negative rating made the playoffs.
The other problem that I see outside of team defense is that this is a team by name only. The style of play is not team basketball, it's individual hero ball with very little movement. That's why someone like Devin Booker can score 30 points or more 60 times in the last two years, and that only translated into 19 wins.
That's why it's okay to take a team photo around one player who scored 70 points in a single game with everyone else on the team surrounding him smiling. 70 points is a great feat, but what the hell is everyone else in the photo smiling about? You lost that game by double-digits. So yes, let's celebrate the one guy who actually did anything in Boston that night and have photo proof of everyone else who was there that did absolutely NOTHING. But that's the culture that we have here in Phoenix.
Hard work is not pretty, it's not exciting, but it gets the desired results. Insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again hoping to get different results." Refusing to bring in those "hard workers" and deciding to go for flashy instead has killed this organization. The bottom line is that I can't tell you one guy on the Suns right now that can match up and lock down (or at least neutralize) the other team's #1 player.
That's why I laugh at those that say today's players are more skilled than players in the 90's. Sure, Lebron James is the greatest player on the court today. But he's the greatest player in the worst defensive era in NBA history. That's why I think it's funny how he celebrated passing Michael Jordan in points........ While still being over 600 steals behind him.
There are still two sides of the court in today's NBA........I believe. But it seems like the Suns have completely forgotten that fact. Over the last five years, they have ranked T27, LAST, LAST, 28th, and 26th in overall defense (OPA). That means that the playoff drought will continue in 2019-2020 unless this culture changes in a hurry.
The sad part is that you don't even need a "great" defensive team to make the playoffs as "average" has worked. But the Phoenix Suns are MILES away from being average on defense. And again, it doesn't look like it's going to change anytime soon.
And please don't label me as a Phoenix sports hater since I'm from Boston. I'm currently growing my beard in SUPPORT of Phoenix teams (since I live here) to make the playoffs. And I can't shave it until either a professional sports team (men's NBA, NHL, NFL, MLB, or Alex Bowman) makes the playoffs! Yeah, let's see YOU do that! So I'm cheering harder than most for the Suns to be successful, or any Arizona team to be successful!
Jeff Demers
Phoenix Area Sports
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