Republic: Suns' season-long drop traced to poor defense

[George O'Brien]

Republic: Suns' season-long drop traced to poor defense

Suns' season-long drop traced to poor defense

Paul Coro
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 10, 2004 12:00 AM

It's not too hard to figure out which part of their game turned deficient this season for the Suns, who were beating the likes of San Antonio, Dallas and Sacramento at this time last year.

This year's Suns entered Friday's game with a team shooting percentage that ranked ninth in the NBA at 44.3, the exact same number last year's 44-38 team had.

The Suns' problems are all on defense, where they are giving up the fourth most points per game (98.3 entering Friday) in the league.

"Offensively, we're pretty good," coach Mike D'Antoni said. "It's just that defensively, we're not good enough to be in the upper tier. It's the whole thing. Intensity is the big thing. Hopefully, we can start playing with instincts. We look a step slower than people. That's because we're thinking, and they're acting on instincts."

Caro is right on target about the Suns defensive problems. The defensive stats tell the story:

Last season the Suns outscored their opponents 95.5 ppg to 94.4 ppg.
This season the Suns are being outscored 98.3 ppg to 94.3 ppg.

Last season opponents shot 43.8%. This season the Suns opponents shoot 44.7%.

Last season the Suns were out rebounded by just 0.4 rpg. This season the Suns are being out rebounded by a full 3 rebounds per game.

Last year opponents hit only 32% of their 3 point shots. This year they are hitting 35.1% beyond the arc.

Perhaps the Suns should be looking for a defensive guru. They have a lot of young players that don't play sound defense on a consistent basis (they actually played pretty well against the Kings). Until they do, the Suns are not going to be a playoff team let alone a contender.

 

[F-Dog]

The problem right now is the players. They're not that good yet.


Obviously, if you get rid of Marbury, Bo Outlaw and both Jakes and replace them with Barbosa, Cabarkapa/Lampe and McDyess, your defensive stats are going to go down. That doesn't mean that defense is the main problem, though.

The fact is, this is a different team than last year's, with a different personality. Last year the Suns relied on Marbury's playmaking, tough perimeter defense and winning the turnover battle; if the Suns are going to win a lot of games next year, they'll have to play to the strengths of the players that are actually on the roster, which might mean a lot of running, unselfishness and offensive rebounds. If that's the case, then the Suns' defensive stats will still be down from 2002-3, but it still won't mean that defense will be the main thing they have to improve on.


From what I've seen this year, the Suns need plenty of work on both sides of the ball.

 

[Joe Mama]

Defensively the Phoenix Suns need a shot blocker, but they also need their guards, particularly the point guard, to defend better. They allow just far too much penetration from opponents' perimeter players. I also think they would be much better against most teams playing a straight up man defense. I swear most of their defensive breakdowns are a result of the double teaming, scrambling defense. It doesn't work against teams with good passing skills.

I didn't check the turnover stats, but I've got to believe that it is worse this season without a true point guard handling the basketball.

Joe Mama

 

[George O'Brien]

Defensively the Phoenix Suns need a shot blocker, but they also need their guards, particularly the point guard, to defend better. They allow just far too much penetration from opponents' perimeter players. I also think they would be much better against most teams playing a straight up man defense. I swear most of their defensive breakdowns are a result of the double teaming, scrambling defense. It doesn't work against teams with good passing skills.

I didn't check the turnover stats, but I've got to believe that it is worse this season without a true point guard handling the basketball.

Joe Mama

Actually the turnovers is pretty close. This year the Suns have 15.2 turnovers per game, while last year they had 14.7.

I agree that the Suns emphasis on the trapping defense has been a major problem. This defense has been designed to force turnovers, but I'm not sure the extra forced turnovers are worth the risk of leaving guys wide open.

 

[Errntknght]

I don't think the statistics tell the story on defense nearly as well as D'Antoni's remarks. He's blaming the players for having to think too much - which is very reminiscent of the departed FJ. A decent coach understands the skill level of his players and comes up with a defense they can execute. What did coach Mikey do with his precious time - he had them working on a wimpy half court trap most of the season, seemingly, now abandoned. Time he could have much better spent working on something basic, like how to recognize and avoid bad defensive switches - which happens to be one of their worst problems the team has. Presumeably, he also wasted much of his time working on the complex rotations that are triggered by double teaming - since it is pointless to double team much if you don't have the rotations worked out and the team was doubling up a storm early in his tenure. Time he could have spent working on another basic - how and when to give weakside help, another place the Suns are very poor. It's really sad to see that he doesn't understand the how to order priorities so that the team makes progress.

Of course, he's sadly mistaken if he thinks the team is 'pretty good' offensively. When other teams start taking the Suns seriously they'll tighten up their defenses and start throwing zones at them again. Neither of which can the Suns offense cope with. We have some guys who are good in solo attacks but we'd need at least Kobe to go anywhere without an offensive scheme that contributes a significant amount, which it doesn't do now.

Our biggest need is a decent head coach, or, at the very least, a defensive guru and an offensive guru. D'Antoni can handle the PR duties...

 

[George O'Brien]

I don't think the statistics tell the story on defense nearly as well as D'Antoni's remarks. He's blaming the players for having to think too much - which is very reminiscent of the departed FJ. A decent coach understands the skill level of his players and comes up with a defense they can execute. What did coach Mikey do with his precious time - he had them working on a wimpy half court trap most of the season, seemingly, now abandoned. Time he could have much better spent working on something basic, like how to recognize and avoid bad defensive switches - which happens to be one of their worst problems the team has. Presumeably, he also wasted much of his time working on the complex rotations that are triggered by double teaming - since it is pointless to double team much if you don't have the rotations worked out and the team was doubling up a storm early in his tenure. Time he could have spent working on another basic - how and when to give weakside help, another place the Suns are very poor. It's really sad to see that he doesn't understand the how to order priorities so that the team makes progress.

Of course, he's sadly mistaken if he thinks the team is 'pretty good' offensively. When other teams start taking the Suns seriously they'll tighten up their defenses and start throwing zones at them again. Neither of which can the Suns offense cope with. We have some guys who are good in solo attacks but we'd need at least Kobe to go anywhere without an offensive scheme that contributes a significant amount, which it doesn't do now.

Our biggest need is a decent head coach, or, at the very least, a defensive guru and an offensive guru. D'Antoni can handle the PR duties...

I think the Suns offense has improved a lot since Dice has become their center. They still have problems when opponents are allowed to mug them, but having a reliable shooter at center has made it much harder to zone them. Kobe would help, but I'm not sure that they are too far from being a pretty good offensive team.

I have been pushing for a defense guru for a long time. More than anything else they need someone who stresses fundimental defense rather than generating turnovers. The Suns gamble too much on the perimeter and double weak players to create steals, but risk getting killed by teams that can pass and shoot.