The Phoenix Suns return home tonight after embarking on a key four-game road trip against the best the Eastern Conference has. It was a great opportunity for the Suns to measure themselves against quality competition and understand their team’s strengths and weaknesses as the playoffs near.
What did we learn while the team was away? Quite simply, they are below average as it relates to defending the perimeter. Currently ranked 22nd in the NBA by allowing opponents to shoot 36.7% from three-point range, the Suns were obliterated from beyond the arc on their road trip. Opposing teams shot 40.2% from three over four games, and that includes an 11-of-38 performance by the Charlotte Hornets.
The opposition started out strong from deep against the Suns as they allowed them to make 42-of-96 (43.8%) in the first half of games. Aye carumba. When the first half ended against the Bucks on Sunday, the Suns had 60 total points. The Bucks? They had 54 points from three-point makes alone.
48.2% of all shots against the Suns were three-pointers. Why? Because their poor perimeter defense allowed opponents to take more shots than a Florida State kid on Spring Break in Panama City Beach. It was like Floribama Shore out there on the road.
“We’ve got to come out with a lot better focus and a lot more sense of urgency from what we’ve been having,” Bradley Beal said after practice yesterday. “It’s been way unacceptable. We all know that. We’ve got to be better.”
It is something that has been concerning throughout the season. If you were to ask what the biggest weaknesses are for this team outside of health, it would be fourth-quarter execution, unforced live ball turnovers, and lackadaisical perimeter defense.
Every night, one of those three weaknesses occurs and puts Phoenix in a position in which they may not win the game. Some nights they overcome their flaws due to the level of talent their roster possesses, but there are no easy wins for the Suns. Everyone feels like a struggle and a rock fight because one or more aspects of their weaknesses derail their ability to be dominant.
Frank Vogel mentioned at practice yesterday that the team was intensely focused on perimeter defense.
Frank Vogel said 3-point defense was the emphasis in today’s practice “by a mile.”
— Kellan Olson (@KellanOlson) March 19, 2024
“Don’t let them get going,” Vogel said when asked about defending the three. “Arriving on the catch. Be in the gaps, show a presence, but close out with urgency to arrive on the catch and contain.”
I hate to be that guy, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
One thing I’ve learned about Frank Vogel in his first season with the Suns is that he says the right things. He’s a professional in that aspect. He doesn’t tip his hand, tells the media what they want to hear, and then does what he does.
How many times have we heard that a player is day-to-day only for them to be out for three weeks? How many times have we heard him acknowledge what is wrong with the Suns but the adjustment never seems to occur?
It’s time for the Suns to walk the talk.
It’s stunning that Vogel can recognize what we all can see; that the team is piss-poor on rotations, doesn’t communicate well, and is susceptible to allowing penetration to derail their basic defensive schemes. But what are you going do to fix that, Frank? Simply acknowledge it?
We’re tired of acknowledgment. We want to see action. We want to see the Suns come out locked in and focused on the defensive end. We want to see a team whose sole mission is to impose their will upon the opposition on that side of the ball. To play with the level of intensity that we’ve seen sporadically throughout the season.
To think that you can simply turn a ‘defensive dawg’ switch on during the postseason is ludicrous. Practice makes perfect and regular season games are the practice for the postseason. To think that you can have a defensively focused workout session on a Tuesday afternoon at your workout facility and that is suddenly going to lead to success in the postseason is farcical.
Yeah, the Suns’ perimeter defense was exposed on a national level during their East Coast trip. Suns have 14 games to fix it. Nice to hear you’re in the lab, Frank. Let’s see if the team can show us that they’ve absorbed anything that you have developed.