Trick or treat! Which early season Suns treats are actually just tricks?
TRICK: Suns lead the league in fouls per game
There has been much praise for ball-hawking, mauling defense the Phoenix Suns have employed this season. With that aggression, however, has come a plethora of fouls.
The Suns lead the league in fouls per game at 29.4 per game.
Some fans blame bias whistles for this disparity. Others point out that many officials often have a quick whistle early in the season when they are trying to set a precedent and certain points of emphasis are fresh on the mind.
A large part of this, however, is the Suns’ new physical style of defense along with gambling for steals equates to more fouls. That is not necessarily a bad thing.
It vaguely reminds me of the 2013 Louisville Cardinals who
won the NCAA National Championship
had their NCAA National Championship vacated. That team played so physically they fouled nearly every play. It got to point the point referees had to simply stop calling fouls because if they did, it would have gotten out of control.
Effectively, that team changed the baseline for what was considered normal contact in a basketball game, so it took extraordinary contact for referees to blow their whistles. Their success actually led the NCAA to change the rules in favor of freedom of player movement the very next year.
While the Suns aren’t exactly at that level, the premise of these early fouls is the same. Once they establish this is how the team plays, referees will likely adjust, and this clip of nearly 30 fouls per game has nowhere to go but down.