The Phoenix Suns have plenty of work to do.
The team’s second-half schedule begins in Portland on Thursday night, and the expectations are appropriately high.
Can the Suns sustain the success established through their first 35 games? The challenge will be intensified because they no longer will be able to sneak up on the better teams down the stretch.
The secret is out, as the industry’s various NBA power rankings have concluded.
The Phoenix Suns should cruise to a 2021 playoff spot, but a few key roles must be solidified.
Phoenix Suns: The No. 3 most important role
This one lands on the scorers not named Devin Booker and Chris Paul.
With the team continuing to play at a slow pace — No. 29 in the league beginning play on Thursday — the possessions matter more than on most teams.
At the end of each possession, ideally, is an open look or a strong drive to the hoop. The open looks are where the role falls primarily to Cam Johnson, Mikal Bridges and Jae Crowder.
Each has proved capable of converting from long range, as you can see:
C. Johnson, 24.2 minutes, .559 on 2-point field goals, .378 from 3-point range
M. Bridges, 32.3, .620, .420
J. Crowder, 27.6, .485, .376
But wait, Suns fans certainly have taken notice of the high-quality shooting from the deeper supporting cast.
How about Dario Saric showing an improved versatility and comfort? Saric missed significant time early this season as the Suns plodded through an 8-8 start.
Now healthy and a key contributor, he’s playing 18.1 minutes per game and hitting .561 on 2-point attempts and an impressive .377 from 3-point land.
In limited attempts, deep rotation guy Langston Galloway converts 3s at a .457 rate, leading the team, and Cameron Payne buries his shots from beyond the arc at a .421 clip.
That’s some upper-level shooting — on top of the firepower from Booker and Paul — that all strong playoff teams must sustain as postseason series unwind.
As a team whose odds to win its division went from 17-1 to 4-1 in three short weeks, the Suns have earned the NBA’s respect.
Phoenix Suns: The No. 2 most important role
The maneuvering of key pieces now and up to the March 25 trade deadline falls to Monty Williams and general manager James Jones.
The personnel department certainly had a strong offseason, bringing aboard Jae Crowder, Chris Paul, E’Twaun Moore, Abdel Nader and Langston Galloway, but is there more work left to be done?
While Deandre Ayton has provided strong effort in learning the switching defensive demands on the perimeter, his defense on the low block — along with the tendency to occasionally allow his rebounding focus to drift — leaves plenty of room for improvement.
Frank Kaminsky isn’t really the answer, though his 3-point shooting and general offensive contributions have been a pleasant surprise.
Do the Suns look to find a creative way to improve their interior defense, perhaps adding a rim-protecting specialist? Either via trade or signing, players such as Hassan Whiteside, DeMarcus Cousins and LaMarcus Aldridge could be candidates to be acquired.
Each of those, along with those such as JaVale McGee and Andre Drummond, has drawbacks.
The question for each scenario is how well would a new piece fit in this carefully constructed — and successful — chemistry experiment carried out by Williams on the court.
At 24-11, and establishing a style that has long been proved to work in the postseason, the Suns are already well on their way to looking like a playoff competitor. But a little more grit and toughness added to the interior would help the chances to win a round or two in May.
Phoenix Suns: The No. 1 most important role
Devin Booker, the Western Conference Player of the Month for February, has found his comfort zone again. The early-season stumbles are in the distant past, and, with Chris Paul having a stunningly efficient desert debut season, this combo can take Phoenix into the Western Conference Finals.
Remember the conference finals? That’s the last place fans saw the Suns in the postseason — 11 long years ago — in a loss to Kobe Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers.
Booker has lifted his shooting numbers — .362 from 3-point range and .554 on 2-point field goal attempts — beyond his career averages and better than last season, too, in which he scored 26.6 points per game.
His signature midrange game is evolving and improving, too, having raised his percentage on shots from 16 feet out to 3-point range from .402 last season to .468 this season. Opponents really don’t have an answer.
Paul is just befuddling opponents, climbing the assists chart to No. 5 in the league, averaging 8.8 per game. As good as he was for Oklahoma City last season, he dished out only 6.7 assists per game.
But it’s his top two assets this season — leadership and 3-point shooting — that provide the biggest boost for Phoenix.
He has Deandre Ayton parroting the premise of consistent intensity — and most fans believe that Ayton truly has turned the corner.
He has given confidence to those open shooters, as well as helped his backup, Cameron Payne, develop his game to the point that the second unit routinely outplays the opponents’ backups.
But those 3-point splashdowns, right? In his past three seasons, Paul has gone from .358 to .365 to a stellar .391 from long range.
Suns fans appreciated Ricky Rubio, but outside shooting was something Phoenix just has to have from its point guard.
They have that and much more from Paul, who, with Booker could take this team back to where they were as 2010 ended. And maybe beyond.