The Phoenix Suns dropped to 14-13 earlier this week with a disappointing loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. A rebuilding opponent that featured former Suns first overall pick Deandre Ayton, as well as a second rounder from this summer that Suns' head coach Frank Vogel raved about afterwards.
Whatever your thoughts on if this team can win a championship - and right now that end goal seems further away than ever - the simple fact is that they have to start to win some of the games that they have dropped recently. They have dropped three of the last four, with the single win a squeaky, four point victory over the awful Washington Wizards.
Clearly then things need to change, and quickly, but in order to do so this franchise needs to get to the bottom of why they're losing so many games.
Any group that can boast both Kevin Durant and Devin Booker has a chance to win any game they play - and in the case of the 35-year-old Durant - he is putting together his best season personally since he was with the Golden State Warriors. The same could also be true of Booker, except he has missed nine games up to this point with various niggling injuries.
Bradley Beal has quickly become the elephant in the room, his six games played up to this point not part of the plan for a top-heavy rotation. Then again, Durant was part of a "superteam" with the Brooklyn Nets for three seasons, and he only played 129 games and watched as that project came apart at the seams.
Perhaps the way to build a winner has changed, which is the right place to start here when trying to pick apart why the Suns find themselves languising in 10th spot in the Western Conference. Even worse, the Golden State Warriors (13-14), have won three straight and are now breathing down their necks to put them out of offseason contention altogether.
3. Role players haven't stepped up
It was always going to be a tough job for the Suns' front office to build out a competent rotation with so much money being plugged into their top three players. To give them credit though, they went out and got Eric Gordon, Yuta Watanabe, Chimezie Metu and Keita Bates-Diop, while also bringing back Josh Okogie.
On top of that, they managed to nabbed the useful Jordan Goodwin in the Beal for Chris Paul deal, while trading Ayton for Jusuf Nurkic, Grayson Allen and Nassir Little looks like a trade that the team won. No small feat given the massive question marks that existed regarding Nurkic's health once the deal became official.
But despite all of this, too many of the role players that the Suns added on the cheap have failed to live up to expectations. Watanabe is probably the best example - he was an amazing get for the organization this offseason - but the 34 percent from deep on a career high 4.2 attempts per night is not quite what the team had in mind.
He has played in only 19 games, with zero starts, and to this point has not been the elite complimentary player that was envisioned. The same is also true of Metu and Bates-Diop, while Okogie has spent some time out of the lineup with injury. Goodwin is a fine backup and an ideal ninth or tenth man, but when he's being asked to step up even more, the Suns run into trouble.
Little has been a nice surprise for the group, and both Gordon and especially Allen have been excellent. But when you're relying on Durant, Booker, Nurkic, Allen, Gordon and whatever role player is playing with the most confidence in any given moment, you're only going to go so far. The Suns need to remedy this problem, either through signing players or trade, to create more depth.
2. No Plan B at the point guard position
If there is one player who is not going to receive any criticism for the Suns' current troubles, it is Booker. Alongside Durant, he has done everything he possibly can to help this team win games. It is not his fault he has missed some time through injury, and when he is on the court, you could make the case Booker is playing the most complete basketball of his career.
He has taken the responsibility of being the Suns' lead ball-handler extremely well too, and so far has averaged 8.2 assists per game. By far the best number he has ever managed (career average of 4.9), and a top 10 mark in the league today. The drawbacks of having a scorer as incredible as Booker were pointed out before the season, and they are still fair problems to point out through 27 games.
When Booker is injured, the Suns kind of have a "point guard by committee" approach to creating plays. Which might empower some players to make more decisions which is great for them personally, but against the elite point guards in the league today, is also going to explain why the Suns struggle to win games consistently.
What was Devin Booker trying to accomplish here? 😭 pic.twitter.com/sBRQ0w4tlf
— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) December 20, 2023
If that doesn't work, then often the ball is just given to Durant to try and make something happen. Which he often does, but at this stage Durant should be viewed as a late game closer and the one who the Suns lean on late. Not midway through the first-quarter of a game against the Trail Blazers (he had a game high 40 points), and that was a game Booker also played in.
In order to reach their full potential, the Suns need to have periods where Booker comes off the ball again. This will free him up to be the scorer we all know that he is, while it will also mean they have a Plan B in the form of a player who is used to running the team. Theo Maledon was recently signed to a two-way deal, but they are going to need to do more than that to remedy the point guard situation.
1. Fix their offensive struggles
If there is one area the Suns were not supposed to struggle this season, it was offensively. Even with Beal missing, the belief was that Durant and Booker being surrounded by snipers like Allen, Watanabe and Gordon was going to lead to a free-flowing scoring machine.
Replacing Nurkic with Ayton was also supposed to help, as Nurkic is the more well-rounded offensive player who is a capable passer out of the post, and underrated screener. He is also capable of stepping into a shot of his own, with the 12.4 points he is putting up per game, often as the fourth or fifth option offensively, a nice boost for the team to have.
But in the last four games - that win over the Wizards and three losses to the Trail Blazers and both New York teams - the Suns have ranked a terrible 22nd in offensive rating (113.4). To watch them play that number would not surprise you, because offensively it has been rigid and the over-reliance on their two star players has been obvious.
Having Beal available would help, but really it is on coach Vogel to get the best out of this group, no matter who is playing. He recently alluded to some players not stepping into the roles given to them so far this season - but right now - this is the most pressing concern for the team. Defensively they'll never be elite, but they can be much better at piling up points on opponents, especially weaker ones.