7 season-defining questions for the Phoenix Suns to answer
By Luke Duffy
3. Is the offense as good as they think?
Everybody can see that the Suns are pinning a lot of their hopes on having one of the best offensive teams of all-time. But trying to outscore an opponent in every game they play is not only a tiring exercise, but one that gets more difficult the deeper into the postseason the franchise goes.
To be fair, this team won’t be as bad defensively as people think either. Durant is an elite defender when it matters, and so too is Booker. Gordon, Okogie, Bates-Diop and even Allen can also help on that end. The early returns on Nurkic defensively, an area he is not known for being great, have been good. Plenty of room for improvement, but by no means a disaster.
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Preseason stats should always be taken with a truckload of salt, but the Suns did average 119.8 points per game (fourth in the league), and shot 38.3 percent from deep (fifth) across those five games. You get the sense the team weren’t showing their full hand, which makes those numbers even more encouraging.
It is the same story with the team’s offensive rating, which at 114.1 was the fifth best mark in the NBA. This was achieved with Durant, Booker and Beal all sitting out some games, and with a mostly new roster figuring out how to play together and under a new head coach in Vogel. So yes, offensively this group can and will be special.