If I’ve tweeted it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: several young Phoenix Suns players need to work on their shooting this offseason in the worst way.
The best offensive players in the NBA have balance, that of a good inside and outside game. Most importantly in the spread-offense NBA is the ability to shoot the 3 with efficiency which forces opponents to rush a shooter at the last second opening up lanes for driving with the hopeful outcome of more open, efficient shots closer to the hole.
As of right now, the Phoenix Suns are the league’s absolute worst 3-point shooting team – if it holds, a franchise first. An absolute killer for a team who is also 19th in the league in scoring.
But teams do not shoot 3’s, individuals do. And for a team that boasts four regular rotational players with a 37.0% 3-point shooting percentage, Troy Daniels (39.7), Jared Dudley (39.7), Devin Booker (38.3), and Dragan Bender (37.0), too often the team as a whole shoots well below 35% for the game (41 times), and under 30% (26 times).
Phoenix Suns
The Suns have even shot under 20% four times. (20.0% or under shooting from 3 has happened 72 times in the NBA this season, the league-high of six times by the Orlando Magic. The Los Angeles Lakers, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs each having also accomplished this feat five times).
Unfortunately, the Suns’ poor outside shooting is due to the number of regular 3-point shooters who still cannot hit the shot with any modicum of regularity. (I would actually put Dragan Bender into that category even though he is shooting 37.0% because of his dramatically inconsistent shot arch.)
T.J. Warren, (22.2), Elfrid Payton (22.7), Josh Jackson (26.7), Tyler Ulis (26.4), Marquese Chriss (30.5), Shaquille Harrison (21.4), Davon Reed (31.6), and Alec Peters (19.4), are all offenders of poor outside shooting and desperately need work on their shots to help better improve the overall team’s offense.
Now before I get into my hopes for this summer’s offseason shooting work, I will offer a caveat for some of the names mentioned: I personally do not expect a whole lot offensively from players such as Payton, Ulis, Harrison, Reed, or Peters. There is no guarantee too that any of them will actually even be back with the franchise next season. So while I do believe they all need to work on their shot, I will not focus on any other them in my discussion from here on.
The same could honestly be said about both Marquese Chriss and Dragan Bender (in regards to them potentially not being on the roster next season), although having both been lottery picks only two years ago, I have to presume that Suns General Manager Ryan McDonough will seek to keep both on the roster, even if ultimately at least one of them is moved.
Josh Jackson is a rookie too and didn’t have the kind of time this past offseason to work on his shooting as he will this coming offseason.
That being said, at least three of the four of Jackson, Warren, Chriss, and Bender may all likely be significant pieces of the future, and to put together offensive campaigns that both raise them up in league-wide stature as individuals while also helping their team start winning more games, they each need to improve their outside shooting in the worst way ASAP.
Granted this is somewhat hyperbolic and I have no idea how the individuals or team will focus on each player’s offseason improvements, but I have tweeted on @valleyofthesuns several times that those specific players need to focus on their outside shooting this offseason in two very specific ways.
First off, I hope that they will either be assigned or seek the guidance of shooting coaches to help work out hitches in their shots (Josh Jackson and Marquese Chriss), work on adding a consistent arc (Dragan Bender) or just adding range in general (T.J. Warren). Each of these issues can be rectified so I have proposed that each spends at least 100 hours with a coach over the summer working out the kinks in their shots making them far more effective shooters based on a refinement of their craft alone.
I have then said that they need to take an exorbitant number of shots from the outside in practice (I proposed 50,000), putting together the mental and physical connection necessary to solidify these updated or learned skills in their minds and bodies truly making them consistent and effective shooters.
Only through proper one-on-one coaching and intense practiced repetition from all around the arc can these players develop the skill necessary to create an undefendable outside shot overhauling the entire team’s persona as a poor 3-point shooting team.
Whether or not Chriss or Bender are back with the team remains to be seen. T.J. Warren to is often spoken of by fans and speculators as a piece who could be moved in a trade (an idea I vehemently oppose). Josh Jackson is an almost guaranteed and untouchable core piece of the Suns’ future and needs to add a solid outside shot to his repertoire.
Next: Will Devin Booker allow himself to be shut down?
However, the odds are in each player’s favor that they will all return with Phoenix and therefore must take that next step forward to becoming truly impact players on the roster, bolstering the team’s talent to a level that finally matches those playoff teams that the franchise has stared up at for these past eight years.
Among other things, improving their 3-point shooting is a must.