Phoenix Suns Owner Robert Sarver said that the tank is over and that it is time for the team to win. Then it is also time to stop screwing around with the starting lineup and run with this one instead.
The Phoenix Suns have been running with a quasi-traditional starting lineup, one that looks normal on paper but is otherwise entirely unworkable thus far.
With Isaiah Canaan as the starting point guard, all he has provided to the team has been that he is a “traditional” point guard, the results of which has been a 1-5 start and not the offensive jump that fans expected to see this season from the starting lineup.
Booker is the obvious choice at shooting guard and has played a good portion of his time there, although he has been playing a lot of point guard as well, a position that he has struggled with in the early part of the year.
Then things get screwy: Trevor Ariza is the starting small forward, where he was and succeed with the Houston Rockets, although because his shooting this season has not been up to the levels of year’s past, he hasn’t really provided the oomph that the Suns were hoping for when they signed him.
Ryan Anderson has been the starting power forward, although why is anyone’s guess. He lost his starting job in Houston last season and has been ice cold to start the year in Phoenix while also playing absolutely terrible defense.
If anyone deserves to be demoted it’s Anderson.
Finally center is all locked up with Deandre Ayton who has been looking very good in the early going averaging a double-double. Should he finish the season with a double-double average, he will be the first rookie in franchise history to do so.
This lineup though has not been working.
The Suns are now 1-5 with it (although technically only 1-3 since Booker has missed the last two games – however it does not appear that any changes would have occurred had he been healthy and it also does not appear that the Suns would have won either game anyway) and do not appear to be getting any better.
Although they are only five games into the season, if the tank really is supposed to be done and it is time for the team to start competing and winning, then it is also not too early to start making changes to the rotation as first-year head coach Igor Kokoskov attempts to find a winning formula.