The Phoenix Suns actually have a really good defensive lineup
By Adam Maynes
The Phoenix Suns have not been known as a defensive team since former Head Coach Scott Skiles was let go back in 2002. In 2018-19, they at least have one good defensive unit.
The Phoenix Suns aren’t known as a franchise that prides itself on defense. Quite the opposite, as you know. From Run-and-Gun to Seven Seconds or Less, the Suns have been known as a high-scoring team who more often than not tries to outscore their opponents rather than hold their opponents to as few points as defensively possible.
Once upon a time, this was not the truth.
In the late 90s and early 2000s, the NBA went through a slowing down faze that bored basketball fans the world ’round. Scoring was at all-time lows, the game was excruciatingly slow, and teams – like the Phoenix Suns – who were never known as defensive stalwarts, suddenly were.
In 1999-00 and 2000-01, under the heavy-handed coaching of Scott Skiles, the Suns were a top-ten defensive team, holding opponents to a measly 93.7 and 91.8 points per game, the 91.8 of 2000-01 being the franchise’s best. Those two seasons are the only two times since 1982-83 that Phoenix has had a top-10 rating in points allowed.
The league was so slow at that time that in 2000-01 when the Suns held their opponents to 91.8 points per game, they were still 7th in the league in opponent percentage. Four teams held opponents until 90 points per game, with the Knew York Knicks leading the league at 86.1. Only four teams that year even averaged 100 points a game offensively, with Sacramento leading the league scoring only 101.7 per game.
Over that stretch, the Suns held opponents under 100 points per game from 1997-98 through 2003-04. The only other season Phoenix has done so was the lockout shortened season of 2011-12 in which opponents scored 98.6 points per game. However that can be attributed to how poor play was that year with the season starting late and there being little time for teams to prepare.
Of course the 2018-19 Suns are never going to be that defensively dominant, but they are going to have a pretty decent lineup that can hold opponents to a lower scoring percentage and swipe more steals than their counterpart lineups.