Pace, miscues, youth can make, break Suns
Phoenix Suns General Manager James Jones has an idea of how the games will play out when the NBA resumes the 2019-20 season July 30 at Walt Disney World Resort.
“The games will probably be sloppy, the games will probably be fast,” Jones said during Monday’s media conference call.
Scheduled to leave Tuesday for Orlan- do, the Suns (26-39) are a long shot to make the playoffs in the 22-team return format, but can increase their chances by continuing to play with pace, cutting down on turnovers and using youth to their advantage.
Phoenix was ninth in the NBA in pace before the season was put on hold March 11 after Utah Jazz’s Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, but 21st in turnovers.
That can be interpreted as the Suns play fast, but are careless in their haste.
They came into the season the NBA’s youngest team with an average age of 24.49 years. Their average age is now 24.43 as they released Tyler Johnson and rookie Jared Harper, but added Cameron Payne.
Young often equals inexperience, which also plays a part in turnovers.
If Phoenix can’t protect the ball
in games that could very well have upand-down play filled with transition opportunities, it will have a hard time winning against the league’s best teams.
Six of its eight regular-season “seeding” games are against current playoff teams.
Then again,
Phoenix’s favor.
As Jones said, young players tend to recover quicker. Having games mostly every other day might lead to the Suns being fresher, especially against teams with older players in their rotation.
Monty Williams has talked about
youth
might
play
in
watching minutes all season. That hasn’t changed going into the season resumption; the Suns could look to wear down teams with numbers.
This is all assuming Phoenix will have its full complement of players with the exception of Kelly Oubre Jr. (knee), although Jones isn’t ruling out Oubre returning at some point, and none of them miss games due to contracting COVID-19 or suffering an injury.
The latter is highly possible because of how easily the virus can spread, and the players only getting three weeks in Orlando to prepare as a team after having not played in a game since March and being limited in terms of training and playing basketball.
The Suns haven’t been fully healthy all season, but regardless of who was out there, they played with pace, turned the ball over more than desired and as mentioned were a young team.
They looked their best playing with tempo, but playing fast led to turnovers, too.
When predicting how the games might play out, Jones talked about the importance of having as many ball handlers as possible. Starting point guard Ricky Rubio is third in the league in assists at 8.9 and only commits 2.7 turnovers a game.
That’s good, but Devin Booker is the team’s best player and has the freedom to push the ball and make decisions. He’s averaging 6.6 assists, but is sixth in the league in turnovers at 3.9.
Guess who is fifth at four turnovers a game? LeBron James.
Top four? Trae Young, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Luka Doncic. Five all-stars. Three NBA MVPs. Having the ball in Booker’s hands is good overall for Phoenix. It’s why Williams wants to use the first-time allstar at the point more, but that might be a recipe for disaster if the games are fast and sloppy like Jones predicts.
Jones praised Jevon Carter for how he was playing right before the hiatus. Carter reached double figures in scoring in two of his last four games. He isn’t an assist guy (averaging 1.3 this season), but Carter does protect the ball.
Carter is averaging less than one turnover a game (0.7 in two NBA seasons). The Suns need him to keep playing that way, but they added another ball protector in Payne.
Williams called Payne “a really good passer,” but like Carter, he protects the ball.
Payne is averaging just one turnover in his four NBA seasons.
He hasn’t played in an NBA game this season. Payne was doing work in the G League, but he could be key for Phoenix in Orlando.
“When I watched him on film, I saw a burst, I saw a more mature body, I saw passing,” Williams said last month. “A feel for the game. He’s somebody that hopefully can help us. We’re a team that likes to play at a certain pace, but we also move the ball.”
If Phoenix protects the ball and maintains pace, it can make noise in Orlando.
The Suns have no problems scoring. They’re averaging 112.6 points a game, lead the NBA in assists and have a player in Booker who can get 30, 40, 50 on any night.
If Phoenix doesn’t protect the that can tap into glaring weakness.
The Suns were giving up 17.1 points off turnovers before NBA Commissioner Adam Silver pressed pause on the season.
Guess who was allowing 17?
The Los Angeles Lakers and defending NBA champion Toronto Raptors.
The difference is they have quality teams that can overcome those mistakes.
Phoenix is far from that right now. Therefore, they can’t afford to play sloppy.
Then again, pace/turnover stats can be choreographed to fit a good or bad narrative.
Milwaukee, which has the NBA’s best record, leads the league in pace.
That gives credibility to the stat, but five of the next seven teams have losing records including Atlanta, which only won 20 games.
Plus the Bucks have the reigning MVP, Giannis Antetokounmpo. Having him sure makes things easier, right?
As for turnovers, Phoenix committing 15.1 a game is bad, but the Lakers average the same amount and Milwaukee is at 14.9.
Then again, they have great teams led by two of the game’s best players. The Lakers and Bucks can live with turnovers and win.
The Suns can’t.
So Phoenix must find a way to play fast, limit the turnovers and use youth to their advantage to make things more than interesting in Orlando.
ball,