Phoenix Suns referee battle a frustration but nothing more

If you’re a Phoenix Suns fan who thinks the team has often been unfairly treated by NBA referees, then your thoughts have been validated by a recent study.

Betsperts have gone through a five-year timeline, tallying that Phoenix have committed the most fouls of any team during this duration. Their 8,355 fouls committed is ahead of the Memphis Grizzlies with 8,216 and the Toronto Raptors with 8,199.

Do the Phoenix Suns deserve to feel hard done by with refereeing in recent seasons, or is it a case of the numbers making sense given their playstyle?

According to the numbers, Phoenix foul by committee more than anything. Although they lead the league as a team, not one Suns player (or former player) ranks in the top ten for fouls committed as an individual.

Over the first two seasons of this period, Phoenix were the worst team in the Western Conference. As a bad team you’re likely to foul more anyway, and regardless, refereeing decisions aren’t the issue holding you back from being successful.

The last two seasons, whatever you want to say about the officiating, Phoenix have put themselves in a position to contend for the NBA championship. So, what’s the officiating been like in the two playoff series’ they’ve lost?

Firstly, there was a disparity in the fouls committed during the 2021 NBA Finals, unsurprisingly not in the Suns favour. Phoenix committed 122 fouls to 105, so yes, they consider themselves unlucky to a degree.

There’s also no one in the league harder to officiate than Giannis Antetokounmpo, and the fact is that he’ll always garner a heap of calls regardless of who he’s playing. The Finals MVP shot 85 free throws in the series and by contrast, Phoenix don’t hold a player that can demonstrate rim pressure like he does. For this reason, the foul numbers aren’t overly surprising.

Phoenix also committed more across their seven-game series against the Mavericks, tallying 156 compared to 149. Is that a huge disparity, especially when the Mavericks possess a crafty foul-drawer in Luka Doncic? Not really.

You can look at these numbers and say that they don’t take into account the importance of the calls at a particular time, but neither do Betspert’s initial figures. The fact is that every fan thinks their team is hard done by, and these statistics do nothing but give Suns fans a bit of validation for those thoughts.