The Phoenix Suns were one of the worst passing teams in the NBA last season. Improving their playmaking is a major key to their improvement this year.
The Suns struggled in a lot of areas last year. In fact, the Suns struggled in essentially every area last year. There’s no need to debate which one is the most important to improve, as they’re all significant. However, the Suns inadequate passing is worth spotlighting.
The issues started with the lack of a quality point guard. Before the start of the season, backup Brandon Knight went down with a torn ACL. Right off the bat the Suns were down a critical piece of their rotation and one of their most capable playmakers.
Things went from bad to worse after just three games. Eric Bledsoe tweeted “I Dont wanna be here,” leading to an indefinite suspension and soon after a trade to the Bucks. Oh, and they fired their coach. That left the Suns without their top two point guards and head coach with 79 games to play.
The Suns thew together whatever group of point guards they had, and it very often wasn’t pretty. Tyler Ulis started more than half the season, and his cheap team option wasn’t even picked up this offseason.
In total, the Phoenix Suns played 7 point guards in the 2017-18 season. The five besides Bledsoe and Ulis were Elfrid Payton, Mike James, Shaquille Harrison, Josh Gray, and Isaiah Canaan.
Of those guys, Harrison played the most games for the Suns, even though he only suited up 23 times. Harrison and Canaan are the only two currently on the roster, and neither is a lock to still be there opening night.
Due to a lack of both talent and consistency at the point guard spot, the Phoenix Suns ranked 29th in assists per game, with only the Trail Blazers having less. Ideally, a team has far more assisted than unassisted buckets. The Suns had an assisted to unassisted ratio of 1.24. The Warriors, who led the league in assists per game, had a ratio of 2.19.
Part of the low assist numbers can stem from missed open shots from the Suns’ poor shooters. Then again, the Suns poor shooting can also be attributed to fewer open shots in high percentage areas as a result of poor playmaking. In reality, it’s a cycle with both deficiencies leading to the other being worse.
This year, playmaking will be as important as ever. Deandre Ayton isn’t going to get the ball to himself in the post. Devin Booker needs to improve his passing, but that can’t be his main focus when the team so badly needs his scoring. Mikal Bridges and Trevor Ariza aren’t great at creating their own offense, and someone needs to find them for threes.
Hopefully, between the return of Brandon Knight and the addition of French rookie Elie Okobo, the Phoenix Suns will get far more playmaking out of their point guards. And with a permanent coach in Igor Kokoskov, their ball movement should improve as well. The Suns should be a better passing team this year, and that would go a long way toward overall improvement.