Jeff Hornacek Not To Blame For Suns’ Struggles

The Team’s Play

There’s no getting around it: the 2014-15 Phoenix Suns are a more worse team than the one that nearly snuck its way into the postseason last year. That team won 48 games in the loaded Western Conference; this iteration will be lucky to finish the year at .500.

Taking a look at the numbers, it’s obvious the Suns aren’t where they need to be defensively, but that was also the case last year. In 2013-14, Phoenix gave up 103.8 points per 100 possessions, the 13th best mark in the league. This season, the Suns are the NBA’s 17th ranked defense, but they’ve actually (slightly) improved their defensive rating to 103.2.

This isn’t a matter of coaching, folks. It’s a matter of personnel, especially since we’ve seen what Hornacek can do when his team executes:

After all, the Suns don’t even have a franchise star who’s worthy of being a coach-killer, which is why the “#FireHornacek” Twitter campaign is entirely and utterly ridiculous.

Think about it. Since the All-Star break, after the team shipped away three of its four point guards, the Suns have been a vastly improved defensive team. With Brandon Knight out, the D has been even better thanks to Marcus Morris stepping into the starting rotation and moving P.J. Tucker to the wing. Phoenix has also become a much better rebounding team with the Morrii in the starting lineup.

There’s no getting around it: as much as the dual point guard system has seen its fair share of success in Phoenix, it leaves the Suns at a disadvantage on the defensive end sometimes. Remember Goran Dragic trying to guard small forwards? That was fun.

If you want to blame lineups on the coach, I suppose you could do so. But that would be entirely irrational since Hornacek is really just working with the players he’s had available. It’s very clear the front office is insistent on playing two combo guards together in the backcourt, and there’s only so much you can do defensively with a young, inexperienced and undersized frontcourt of Alex Len and Markieff Morris.

On the offensive end, the Suns are one of the worst teams in the league at moving the ball…but they were that way last year too and nobody minded then. Take a look at these figures over the last few years testifying to this team’s lack of passing: In 2013-14, the Suns averaged 19.1 assists per game (29th in the NBA) and in 2014-15, that number “improved” to 20.2 per game (26th).

The last two seasons, the Suns have been ranked dead last in assist percentage (49.3 percent in 2013-14 and 52.0 percent in 2014-15). From those numbers, you might be tempted to draw the conclusion that Hornacek’s offense doesn’t emphasize enough ball movement and relies too heavily on one-on-one playmaking.

Don’t get suckered too far into that temptation, though. All season long Hornacek has stressed ball movement in pregame and postgame interviews. He’s praised T.J. Warren for doing simple things like moving without the ball and cutting, and he’s also ripped his team on the nights where the lack of ball movement is painfully obvious.

This isn’t a matter of something not being emphasized; this is a matter of young players simply not listening or executing. Don’t believe me? Look to the sideline the next time you watch a Sun make a boneheaded one-on-one play and you can see Hornacek’s visible exasperation.

That lack of ball movement hurts this next factor, but we should also point out that the 2014-15 Phoenix Suns just can’t hit shots like they did last year. Take a look at how their offense has dipped from last year to this year:

• FG%: 46.3% (8th) —> 45.3% (14th)
• 3P%: 37.2% (7th) —> 34.1% (20th)
• PPG: 105.2 (7th) —> 102.9 (10th)
• Offensive Rating: 107.1 (8th) —> 103.2 (14th)

The raw numbers suggest Hornacek is to blame. How else do we explain such drastic dips in shooting percentages and scoring? But then you have to remember the kind of roster Hornacek has had to work with this season.

Next: Roster Changes