Losing to Denver in the playoffs is not something to be ashamed of, but the Phoenix Suns did themselves no favors in the playoffs, and Monty Williams should take much of the blame.
Another season of basketball is over badly, with the Phoenix Suns again being embarrassed on their own home floor when everything mattered most. After dropping back-to-back blowouts to end last season to the Dallas Mavericks, to experience a similar, dispirited, embarrassing exit is simply unacceptable. While our superstars faded from fatigue, the mismanagement of the squad set the Suns up for disaster from game one of round one.
The playoffs are no time to experiment, yet Williams did with the Suns
The Phoenix Suns were unbeaten, with Kevin Durant as part of the team was defeated before they even took the floor in the postseason. Phoenix knew Durant was injured when James Jones and new owner Matt Ishbia made the trade for him, but his freak injury during warm-ups of his first home game was nothing anyone could have predicted.
Ultimately, injuries limited KD to only eight regular-season appearances with Phoenix, given all eight were wins, at least the results were strong despite the small sample size. Then, with the postseason, Williams decided it was time to change. Instead of sticking with the only starting line-up Durant had been a part of, Williams changed the starting five for game one.
The change results were positive for Torrey Craig, who had the best game of his career, but were disastrous for the team, with the Suns losing game one and Josh Okogie losing his confidence. Instead of having a hot scoring wing coming off his bench in Craig – who did finish the regular season well – Phoenix had no bench, and suddenly, Landry Shamet was expected to be a difference maker. Worse, Okogie, who was instrumental during the regular season, never regained his confidence the entire postseason.
Before the first shot, before the first pass, before the first tip-off of the postseason for Phoenix, Williams had already destroyed his rotation, and the Suns never got it back. This odd decision is one question Williams, likely along with Jones, will have to answer to the new ownership, but it is not the only one.
A lot of blame needs to go to James Jones in this process, his fury of moves toward the end of the season left Williams with more questions than answers in his team, but Williams’s inconsistency with his squad during the regular season, which carried into the postseason points the finger back at the coach.
The Suns had no rotation and overworked their stars
Durant and Booker were mere shells of themselves when game 6 came around. Outside of Kawhi Leonard – who only played two playoff games – no other players averaged over 40 minutes per game, except KD and D-Book. From a scoring and simply ball-handling perspective, this load is too much.
However, the Suns had little choice because the team had few ball handlers available and none with confidence. The four regular starters all averaged big minutes, but no other player averaged even 20 minutes during the postseason. Instead, Phoenix had nine players average at least 10 minutes but less than 20, making it impossible for any one of the players, let alone multiple players, to find a rhythm and success off the bench.
Like with the minutes, the four main starters were the only players to average in double-figures scoring-wise, with Torrey Craig bringing up the rest of the pack, averaging less than 7 points per game. Like with Okogie and others down the line, the inconsistent role and minutes took a toll, and ultimately, Craig’s contribution vanished and did his minutes.
Making adjustments is not Williams’s strong suit
Besides wrecking the rotation, we saw Williams get beat on the sidelines for the second straight postseason with the Xs and Os. During the first round, Tyronne Lou adjusted and switched up his defenses to help inferior talent compete with superior skill, to which WIlliams had few answers. If not for the incredible ability of Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, the Suns likely would have lost in the first round to a Los Angeles Clippers team without their two best players.
As Lou mixed up the defenses, Williams said to run the same thing as Booker, and Durant went isolation. Chris Paul helped some, but his lack of athleticism prevents his skill from dominating in the pick-and-roll. As the hapless Clippers turned into a good Denver team, the same lamentable ending as last season was easy to predict.
As the Suns got to Denver, instead of finding new ways to pressure the ball or defend Nikola Jokic, Phoenix left their centers on an island to fight the best player in the world one-on-one. Sure, the refs protected Jokic, but so did Williams by allowing him to work single coverage the entire series.
The Suns never changed their defenses and went to a zone at any point. Yes, Denver is a good three-point shooting team, but you have to try something different. Even a box and one or a triangle and two would have been better than continuing to play late help defense and getting dunked on.
If not for Kobe Bryant taking over Booker’s body for a couple of days, the Suns likely would have been swept, as the only adjustment they made was to improve Booker’s accuracy, which was, unfortunately, a temporary fix.
Ultimately, the Suns’ season was lost before it began, with Deandre Ayton receiving a max contract but no contact from his coach. Williams’s strength with the Suns was his man management and ability to serve as a guidance counselor, father figure, and role model for what was once a very young team.
The coaching staff has to accept some of Ayton’s failure
However, as the Suns grew, Williams failed to grow with them and, most importantly, failed with Ayton. How a team can have a big man who can do as much as Ayton can and limit him to 15-foot jumpers three to four times per half is beyond me. The easy blame is to say Ayton doesn’t have that dog in him, or he can’t do it.
Frankly, Ayton was better in his second year than he is now because Williams and the Suns have failed him as much as he has failed us. Like pitchers and the Diamondbacks, Deandre will probably leave in the offseason, go somewhere to be a focal point of the offensive system, and thrive, winning an MVP or two.
Does anyone believe for a minute Ty Lou can’t get more out of Ayton? What about Eric Spoelstra or Greg Popovich? The guards AND the big man can flourish in a competent offensive system.
The Suns fading in the playoffs has a lot of blame to go around, and Jones and several players will get theirs as the offseason rolls on. However, it is obvious that Williams has taken the Suns as far as he can, and if they are ever going to climb that mountain, they need a coach with the Xs and Os to match the best in the league.
Phoenix had a year to figure out the first-quarter yips that cost them what should have been a championship last season. Instead, we have another summer of regret and change. On the bright side, there is no Sarver controversy to cloud the offseason, and the team has an owner willing to take risks to win, on and off the court. Can he and Phoenix make the offseason count and end our long-suffering in the Valley of the Suns?