What will be the primary focus in training camp? Offense? Defense? Team Chemistry?
Last season the Phoenix Suns were awful both offensively and defensively. They couldn’t shoot, they couldn’t stop the opponent’s offense, and they really didn’t look like they were ever all that in sync.
The roster has gone through a considerable amount of turnover this offseason, and the addition of talent in Ariza, Anderson, Deandre Ayton, Mikal Bridges, George King, Élie Okobo, and De’Anthony Melton will help a tremendous amount. The trade of Brandon Knight (who didn’t play last season) and Marquese Chriss might be a bit of addition by subtraction, all of which should make the Suns a better team immediately.
That said, the roster is so new to the team, and they will all be learning brand new schemes on both sides of the ball, so there will be a learning curve to them all and likely a lot of growing pains.
Phoenix too was so bad overall last season, the new coaching staff will have specific things they want to fix.
Phoenix Suns
Unfortunately, training camp is so short now (only five days), and the preseason is only six games long versus the past’s traditional eight. Plus this season the coaching staff has the added disadvantage of no Devin Booker until after the regular season has begun. All of this leads to an inability to fix everything right away and will cause them to want to focus on some aspects more than others.
The great question though is, which side of the ball Igor Kokoskov want to focus on?
He runs a fast-paced offense that involves a lot of passing and movement, the lack thereof being the most wretched part of the team’s offense for the past few seasons. Where the genesis of Kokoskov’s offensive ideas came from is unknown, however his first assistant coaching job in the NBA was under Alvin Gentry with the Los Angeles Clippers, and later coached again with Gentry with the Suns, and Steve Nash, giving him considerable experience with run-and-gun offenses from a successful head coach.
On the other side of the ball too though, Kokoskov has been with several fantastic defensive teams as an assistant, including the NBA Champion Detroit Pistons in 2003, and the lock down stalwarts of the Utah Jazz over the past three years.
Does Kokoskov focus on teaching a fluid offense, dedicating the bulk of his team’s time to make sure that ball movement is fluid? Or is teaching a grinding and aggressive defense system that flusters the opposition, causing turnovers and taking their foes out of their offensive game plan, the more important direction?
This, among an additional number of important questions must be asked, and answered, when Media Day commences on Tuesday morning.