SpLENdid Spacing?
That’s not to say the Twin Towers won’t make an appearance, however.
“We’re hoping at some point we can get the two of them out there at the same time,” Hornacek said at Tyson Chandler’s introductory press conference. “There’s gonna be some opportunities and maybe some situations where we’re playing a team that doesn’t have a stretch-4 and maybe we can go that route.”
But how does playing two seven-footers look on the offensive end?
Hornacek said there will be scenarios where Len and Chandler play together. Even more likely in light of Len's work on his perimeter shot.
— Matt Petersen (@TheMattPetersen) July 10, 2015
Last season in Dallas, Chandler averaged 10.3 points per game while shooting 66.6 percent from the floor. Clearly he’s an efficient scorer around the rim, but he’s also never been a focal point on the offensive end at any point in his career. Chandler is simply the guy who cleans up around the basket, finishing alley-oops and earning easy buckets on put-backs.
Sir Charles In Charge
Still, on a team with two point guards in its backcourt, Chandler has immense value on offense as a pick-and-roll diver. Not only does he set those “veteran” (READ: craftily illegal) screens to free up ball handlers, but he also sucks in the help defense when he rolls to the basket as an alley-oop target.
If defenses help too much, Phoenix’s guards will find open shooters on the perimeter. If defenses don’t help enough, Chandler will be open for a high percentage look at the basket. That’s part of the reason Chandler surprisingly led the NBA in offensive rating last season at 133.4, per Basketball-Reference.
There’s just one small issue: with another seven-footer clogging the lane, that spacing goes to hell. For the Suns, the ability to play this lineup and survive offensively will depend on how much progress Alex Len has made with his perimeter jump shot this summer.
According to Hornacek, Len has been working on extending his range out to three-point territory and the team seems okay with him trying his hand at a few corner threes this year. Len has shown decent touch on midrange jumpers from around the free throw line, but his shot chart from last season is not exactly indicative of a player you want jacking up threes just yet:
Len has plenty of potential to spread the floor with a serviceable midrange J. He’s still only 22 years old and if he’s half the “sponge” that Hornacek has consistently called him, he’s going to learn a ton in other areas of the game from a veteran with championship experience like Chandler.
But in this current pace-and-space era, Len will have to have substantially improved his perimeter shot over the summer to make the Twin Towers viable on the offensive end. The Suns have never been a team to slow things down and pound the ball down low (just ask Steve Kerr about the Shaquille O’Neal Suns era), and Len and Chandler aren’t exactly a dynamic interior passing duo either.
For this lineup to work for more than a few minutes at a time, Len has to be able to keep defenses honest with a respectable perimeter shot. It’s as simple as that.
Next: Defensive Pros And Cons