Tyson Chandler joining the Phoenix Suns was one of the surprises of the free agency period. They had not been connected by any rumors, and it seemed as though the Suns were set on letting young center Alex Len take his lumps as a starter. The NBA world did a double take when it was announced that he had signed a four-year, $52 million deal to play in the desert.
The decision seemed strange at first. At face value, the signing was to please LaMarcus Aldridge, who hates playing center and prefers to have a true center next to him. It seemed foolhardy to commit a significant contract to one player in the hopes of baiting another.
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Obviously, Aldridge chose a different path, leaving the Suns with Chandler. While the decision to pay an older center a long and rich contract looks like an error for a young team that has a center who needs to gain more experience, Chandler can and likely will become a very valuable part of the Suns’ rotation.
Sir Charles In Charge
Phoenix had two major needs going into the offseason: improved interior presence and leadership. Chandler brings both. The Suns allowed 45.3 points in the paint per game last season, the third worst mark in the league. Chandler defends the interior very well. Per NBA.com’s player tracking stats, opponents shot 5.1 percent worse from within 10 feet when he was defending them.
Keep in mind too that Chandler played on a team that had a poor perimeter defense last season. He was the last line, and the burden on him defensively was substantial. Now he has two players in the starting group, Eric Bledsoe and P.J. Tucker, who are solid perimeter defenders that can lessen the load on him.
Offensively, Chandler is a textbook pick-and-roll big. He slices down the lane, either to get a bucket at the rim or to suck defenders into the paint. He also gets his share of the points on putback dunks. Per NBA.com, 90.1 percent of Chandler’s field goals came off zero dribbles last year.
Being a roll man like that is not as easy as it might look, even though basic a pick-and-roll is certainly not hard to identify. There’s intricate timing involved, and in the below clip, Chandler has to ignore the defense’s attempt to slow him down and stop his shot. Like finishing layups through contact, that’s not just second nature. It takes learning, and Chandler has mastered it.
Chandler has the virtue of being able to get his touches without having play packages featured for him. If he’s not slicing on the pick-and-roll, he quietly waits around the basket for defenses to forget him.
The Suns will likely use him in a similar way, running him off cuts to the basket and-pick-and-rolls with Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight.
Chandler also brings leadership to a young, feisty Suns team. He’s a 12-year veteran, NBA champion and a vocal personality. He also has spent his entire career as a roll man who does the dirty work.
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Those type of players have to recognize that when they slice down the lane, they aren’t doing it to get buckets. They are doing it to scare defenders into the paint and force them to help or rotate. Not all big guys are willing to do that. It takes a level of sacrifice. For his career, Chandler averages 5.9 field goal attempts per game.
This is why I would argue that his arrival helps the development of Alex Len. Despite the fact that I am now a card-carrying member of the “He’s going to be good in two years” club, Len is still a very unpolished player, and Chandler sets an example of a player who contributes in subtle ways that don’t involve getting lots of play packages or baskets, which is what Len should probably do at this point in his career.
The idea has been proposed that they can share the floor as well.
@ralphgabby Yeah I thought about that too. A twin towers of sorts. What if:
— Michael Dunlap (@DunlapSports) August 7, 2015
Bledsoe, Knight, Teletovic, Len, Chandler
There are good and bad aspects to this sort of arrangement. Neither is a good shooter from outside the paint (though Len isn’t terrible and has devoted time to his jumper). That tightens the spacing a bit, especially because Bledsoe is not a reliable shooter either.
This lineup will probably be broken out occasionally depending on the matchup. For example, the Suns could run the Twin Towers lineup against Memphis, a team with two great post-up bigs who have demolished the Suns with their size. Against stretch bigs and small-ball lineups, the Len-Chandler pair doesn’t work, because those kinds of players can take either of Phoenix’s big men off the dribble.
I’d expect Chandler to start but have a light minutes load, that way Len still gets about 20 minutes off the bench. His skills are still the same as they’ve always been, and the Suns will use him the same way he’s always been used in his previous NBA stops.
He fills some of the Suns’ most substantial needs, and he does improve their short-term winning prospects. From just reading other writers’ positions and social media (which is obviously not a great way to do research), there seems to be a split between Suns fans about whether his arrival is a welcome addition or an error.
If he stays healthy and helps the Suns take steps forward, hopefully the Phoenix faithful will be more welcoming.
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