What if the Suns ran without a center for a while

Tyson Chandler has only two years left before his career is probably over. Alex Len is an underwhelming restricted free agent who seems like he could be out the door this summer. Alan Williams is a center in a power forward’s body, but at 6’8″ cannot be placed at the center position full time and anchor the team’s front court.

So what if the Suns ran without a center for a while and basically went small-ball for the foreseeable future?

If the Suns decide not to retain Alex Len (or sign and trade him) they could open up a significant amount of cash in their salary cap to potentially go after another veteran to help provide the young Suns an additional example of hard work and a Championship mentality (Andre Iguodala is a recent example) and run with Tyson Chandler and Alan Williams (providing he is re-signed, as he should be) for the next few years?

Depending on who the Suns draft, imagine a starting lineup of:

(If the Suns draft Josh Jackson)

PG – ERIC BLEDSOE (6’1″)

SG – DEVIN BOOKER (6’7″)

SF – JOSH JACKSON (6’8″)

PF – DRAGAN BENDER (7’1″)

C – MARQUESE CHRISS (6’10”)

(If the Suns draft Jayson Tatum)

PG – ERIC BLEDSOE (6’1″)

SG – DEVIN BOOKER (6’7″)

SF – T.J. WARREN (6’8″)

PF – JAYON TATUM (6’8″)

C – MARQUESE CHRISS (6’10”)

(If the Suns draft Malik Monk)

PG – ERIC BLEDSOE (6’1″)

SG – MALIK MONK (6’4″)

SF – DEVIN BOOKER (6’7″)

PF – DRAGAN BENDER (7’1″)

C – MARQUESE CHRISS (6’10”)

(If the Suns draft Johnathan Issac)

PG – ERIC BLEDSOE (6’1″)

SG – DEVIN BOOKER (6’7″)

SF – T.J. WARREN (6’8″)

PF – MARQUESE CHRISS (6’10”)

C – JOHNATHAN ISSAC (6’11”)

People’s first instinct is going to be expected and not entirely incorrect. “Marquese Chriss isn’t big enough to play center! The Suns are going to get Killed down low!”

The argument for this kind of starting lineup is twofold – if the Suns are not preparing or expecting to win this next season (for the eighth straight season in a row, ugh) then why not continue the playing of the young recent draft picks as much as possible for the 2017-18 season and get Dragan Bender and the 2017 rookie in the starting lineup with as many minutes as possible. If this strategy cuts the learning curve and jump starts the growth process then why not. Right?

The argument for this is strictly strategically – the NBA is shrinking. Not through team retraction (although if fans are serious about their – logical – complaints of the lack of parity in the NBA, retracting 2-4 teams might do it) but through the end of the big, low post center who once dominated the game from the post, slowing the pace down, and minimizing the offensive portion of the court to the small box that the center lived in.

To see the effects of this league-wide phenomena, let’s take the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors for example, the two NBA Finals participants.

Golden State’s starting center, Zaza Pachulia is only 6’11” himself. Not an outside shooter, he starts the game in a traditional sense, but plays only 18 minutes per game while David West (6’9″) and JaVale McGee (7’0″) assist with the center duties – none of whom are dominant and can destroy comparably sized players in the post, nor can they step outside and shoot.

The Cavaliers run with Tristan Thompson (6’9″), hardly a devastating force of size and power, with 6’11” Channing Frye as his primary backup. The Cavaliers were the league’s second most frequent three-point shooters in the league with players capable of stepping back and taking anoutside shot from all five positions (save for Tristan Thompson) on the court at any one time.

Back in Phoenix, with the rookie additions of Marquese Chriss and Dragan Bender last season, both players technically within the range of center height, the Suns could play a football-like spread offense, while still providing plenty of height on the defensive end.

In the Suns’ Pacific Division, none have a so-called dominant center that Phoenix would have to face with regularity. With the trade of DeMarcus Cousins, Sacramento runs with Willie Cauley-Stein and Kosta Koufos at center, neither of whom pose a serious threat to any opposing defenses; DeAndre Jordan is nearly impossible to defend regardless of who is on him because of his freakish athletic ability coupled with his size, but regardless, as he is not a serious scoring threat anyway, no one else on the Clippers should scare the Suns enough to matchup against their centers; and the Lakers have Timofey Mozgov. Um, yeah. Nothing to fear there.

In the entire league, only four centers averaged a double-double of at least 15 points and 10 rebounds in 2016-17 (constituting a legitimate low post force) and two of those players, Anthony Davis and Cousins play for the same team. Taking into account Karl-Anthony Towns and Hassan Whiteside and the Suns will play up to a maximum of nine games against those four centers all season, hardly enough to attempt to build a roster to specifically compete against a single one of them.

While dominant centers have historically been the focal point of a team’s acquisitional desires, there are never more than a small handful to speak of in the league at any one time. From the mid-80s to the mid-2000s, the NBA enjoyed possibly the most center-dominant stretch in league history, culminating with the peak of Shaquille O’Neal and the long-standing dominance of Tim Duncan, an era the Suns were never able to entirely pull themselves over the top of.

However, the league now has fewer dominant centers than ever before and the game itself is evolving into a much more shooting-happy style that emphasizes a player’s ability to stretch the floor, rather than clog the lane in the post backing a single opponent down while the other eight players on the court stand around and watch.

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This type of play has reached the point that even centers now are expected to be able to shoot three’s. Joel Embiid (certainly a player who could become a dominant center in the league if healthy) took his two seasons off from injury to develop a previously unknown to him outside game. Whereas he attempted only five three-pointers in his 28 games in college with Kansas draining one, in 31 games as a rookie last season he made and attempted 36-98 for a projected 95-259 for a full 82 game season had he remained healthy and not be shut down.

Imagine a center draining 36.7% of nearly 300 three-pointers in a season? Until the past couple of years, this idea was entirely unheard of. Now, it’s becoming the norm.

If the Phoenix Suns were to allow Alex Len to leave the franchise and spend that freed up cash on other players who could help the system grow while running with Marquese Chriss and Dragan Bender at center plus add in whoever they draft in 2017 (presuming it is not a point guard), then the roster could begin to seriously develop into the ultimate spread-the-floor-type team where every player on the court could step back and shoot a three. Defenses would be forced to honor the outside shot as the players become known for that ability, and defensively power forwards and centers would abandon the paint opening the lane for guard penetration and cuts from the most athletic front court players.

There is no doubt that the team would initially suffer on the defensive end, however roster depth can help deal with that. There would be times when Tyson Chandler and Alan Williams would need to play important roles in games defensively, holding back the star centers who would be able to impose their will on the currently smaller and less robust Chriss and Bender. But the Suns are not be built to win right away, and fortunately would not have to worry too much about needing to stop those players on a consistent basis anyway.

Moreover, if the Suns managed to become a hot shooting team, opponents with bigger centers may also have to honor the Phoenix game forcing coaches to remove the centers at times anyway to try and matchup with the outside threat.

You will certainly find no argument from me that the Suns should still look to find a franchise center of their own over the next few drafts, or acquire one through trade or free agency. However, in the meantime, those front court players who would hold down the fort for now would develop aspects of their game on both sides of the ball that they would not acquire had they not been thrust into that situation so young. The team would quickly evolve into a Golden State Warriors-esque kind of team, and at least until the players grow psychically and mature, they would be a heck of a lot of fun to watch as they spread the floor and fired from every conceivable direction.

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