Running More

[George O'Brien]

D'Antoni wants the Suns to run more, even though they already increased their shot attempts from 7018 to 7167 from 04-05 to 05-06.

Just out of curiousity, I checked the number of shot attemps of the other playoff teams:

Denver 6672
Lakers 6607
Sacramento 6500
Clippers 6443
Dallas 6375
San Antonio 6342
Memphis 6125

In the East

Chicago 6737
Washington 6656
Milwaukee 6566
Detroit 6558
Cleveland 6412
Miami 6355
New Jersey 6317
Indiana 6274

BTW, Iw as shocked to see that the Bulls led all Eastern playoff teams with shot attempts. Of course they hit only 44.6% of them, but it shows how slow teams can still shoot a lot. None the less, typically the number of shots is a function of the style of the offense.

I am not sure what the most shot attempts in a season would be, but my guess would be the Paul Westhead Nuggets of the early 90's. In 1991-02, the Nuggets took 7380 shots (but hit only 44.2% of them. In 1992-03 they took 7282 and hit 46% of them. One obvious difference was that the Westhead team was not very good shooting three pointers; while the Suns are the best in the NBA.

Could the Suns take more shots than those teams? It works out to only 2.4 more shots per game; which is certainly feasible for a team that already takes 87.4 shots a game now.

Get out your calculators, we're in for a wild ride.

 

[Mainstreet]

George, this is somewhat off topic, but since the major football programs in Arizona and the Arizona Cardinals are so bad this year, I'm very thankful that the Suns' training camp and preseason are starting.

The Suns and their fast paced style are truely a breath of fresh air.

 

[basketballfan]

George, this is somewhat off topic, but since the major football programs in Arizona and the Arizona Cardinals are so bad this year, I'm very thankful that the Suns' training camp and preseason are starting.

The Suns and their fast paced style are truely a breath of fresh air.

Amen to that!

 

[Dr. Jones]

Why is it that teams from AZ seem to tend to play a frantic style... Moreover.... They don't focus on defense....


Other than Dick Tomey in the early 90's.... AZ is riddled with offensive powerhouses.

Maybe I am just not old enough to remember other stuff. But ASU, the Suns, Mercury, and others seem to try and outscore everyone.

 

[msdundee]

"ASU, the Suns, Mercury, and others seem to try and outscore everyone."

If you outscore the opponent, you usually win. Except in golf.

 

[George O'Brien]

Failing to outscore the opponent is generally a bad thing.

Throughout the team's history, the Suns have been a team that tries to score a lot of points. For example, their best team was the 1992-93 team that averaged 110.3 ppg and shot 49.3%. Their opponent's shot 47.9% but averaged only103.8 ppg. What helped was that the 1992-93 team out rebounded their opponents by 2.6 rpg.

So the Suns lost because they were a bad defensive team? Their opponent was the Bulls who averaged 109.5 ppg and shot 48.2% while their opponents shot 47.4% and scored 103.3 ppg. The Bulls out rebounded their opponents by 3.3 rpg.

It is amazing how close the two team's regular season stats were. Yet somehow the Suns were considered a bad defensive team because that was their reputation. The Bulls had a history of being defense oriented and no one seemed to notice that their defense was not that great.

 

[Mainstreet]

Why is it that teams from AZ seem to tend to play a frantic style... Moreover.... They don't focus on defense....


Other than Dick Tomey in the early 90's.... AZ is riddled with offensive powerhouses.

Maybe I am just not old enough to remember other stuff. But ASU, the Suns, Mercury, and others seem to try and outscore everyone.

I'll try to partially answer your question from my "mental archives." I know in the early years of the Suns and particularly when Cotton coached the team, JC always felt he owed the fans an entertaining product, if not always a winning product. JC always realized he was in the entertainment business and wanted the fans to enjoy the game so he put a running team on the floor early on.

Thus it is no surprise to me that D'Antoni was selected as the Suns Head Coach to perpetuate this philosphy. I think the Suns style to this very day was germinated from this seed. So I think the Suns will always want to put an exciting team on the floor as long as JC is involved, but that doesn't mean that the coaching staff does not want the team to play good defense.

As far as my archived ASU memories go, ASU's football teams were always stocked with an impressive array of talent at the skill positions under Frank Kush and his teams were built on speed. The names of the skill players that went through the program is amazing. I particularly remember QB Danny White, John Jefferson, Travis Williams, and the Malone brothers but there were so many, many more. Anyone besides me remember that Reggie Jackson went to ASU to play football (but became a not so average baseball player) there? Hall of Famer I believe. And that Danny White (if I recall correctly) was a track star at ASU that was switched over to play QB. Not a bad pro quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys.

Ned Wulk believed in racehorse basketball when he was the coach. Fat Lever, Alton Lister, Byron Scott, Scott Loyd, Sam Williams, Rudy White and so many, many more went through the program under his tutelage.

As far as ASU baseball, the great Bobby Winkles always built his teams around hustle, chemistry and superior talent. As mentioned, there was Reggie Jackson plus a number of other quality players he produced like Rick Monday, Duffy Dyer, Sal Bando and the list goes on. Bobby Winkles also put together some great pitching staffs as well. The ASU baseball teams back then were extremely exciting and College World Series Championships were achieved. Coach Jim Brock carried on this tradition.

Anyway, I'm only going from memory, but since you asked I tried to give you a glimpse of where the foundation for explosive offense began in Arizona sports.