Five Improvements the Phoenix Suns Must Finish the Season With

DEFENSE

Going into the All-Star Weekend, the Phoenix Suns have only held opponents under 100 points seven times in 57 games (they held their opponent to less than 100 points thirteen times last season by the All-Star break). Their lack of defense has them at 29th in Opponents Points Per Game at 112.4 per game (their worst in 29 years) and during any given game they have trouble stopping any momentum their opponent develops. To make matters worse, the Suns are 27th in the NBA in Opponents Field Goal Percentage (47.1%) and Opponents Three-Point Percentage (38.8%). Offensively the Suns are 10th in the NBA in Points Per Game – 106.9 points per game which means the Suns need to be as efficient with their defense as they are their offense to be competitive.

Their porous defense makes it tough for them offensively because it puts pressure on them to have to score more points than they give up – obviously something this roster cannot do with regularity.

There is no better, and rarer, example of winning with bad defense than on December 23, when the Suns hosted the Philadelphia 76ers and scored well above their offensive average on the season. Phoenix won the game 123-116 but they allowed the 76ers to shoot 50.6% from the field and 41.9% from beyond the arc. Philadelphia posted statistics right near where the Suns allow on the season (less than four points above their scoring average allowed; .1% above their opponents FG%; and 3.1% above their allowed average of 38.8% from beyond the arc) which means that the offense was just simply able to overcome the bad defense.

Through the second half of the season defense needs to be their top priority or the team is never going to improve. The effort that the team is giving on defense needs to be just as much as they are obviously giving on offense.