The Phoenix Suns are another few weeks away from seriously jeopardizing their 2024-25 season, setting the table for a dramatic roster shakeup within the next seven months if not enough changes in their play. And if it keeps up to this degree, we won’t even have to wait till the summer.
Phoenix dropped to a 14-14 record on Monday after a 117-90 loss to a Denver Nuggets team that had just played through to overtime the night prior.
The Suns were without Devin Booker (left groin soreness) and Grayson Allen (concussion protocol), two heavy absences but ones that should not allow their quality of play to sink anywhere near what we saw.
Denver reached 100 points through three quarters, continuing a string of reprehensible defense by the Suns.
What is hurting this team the most right now on that end is in the secondary elements. There is clear effort and intent on the majority of possessions when the initial action is taking place. But the rotations after the play starts developing, and especially an attention to detail with spacing and rebounding, are nowhere to be found. To make it more identifiable, these are those moments when, as the ball is going through the basket, it feels like everyone on the defense is just standing there watching.
Add on awful transition defense, specifically in finding shooters, for a team that turns it over a whole lot and that’s how quickly you can become a bottom-tier NBA defense. All of that comes before getting to the limitations of the roster.
Stand on your soapbox plugging this trade here and this rotation choice there. It truly, with all due respect to your search for solutions, does not matter.
Phoenix’s first quarter included a lazy closeout to Nikola Jokic after the 50% 3-point shooter picked up his dribble, getting detached from Jokic off the ball inside the paint, multiple botched rotations on Nuggets who would score on a layup and two buckets for offensive rebounds that should never happen.
A most obvious pathway toward getting a leg up on the Nuggets is capitalizing on the Nuggets’ horrific offensive woes when Jokic goes off the floor. The offensive rating drops from 122.4 to 97.6, per NBA Stats. Denver went +2 in the first half, which was made possible due to an unacceptable drop-off in offensive execution when Phoenix looked aimless and without a plan.
The Suns were down four at halftime when it felt like they should be down 20. Usually that means a team is about to be down 20. Any chance of renewed vibes coming out of the break began with a 9-2 Denver run that included a terrible pick-six turnovers by Kevin Durant and an inexplicable possession in semi-transition defense when no one stuck to Michael Porter Jr. at the 3-point line, the guy who had 17 points in the first half.
Last year’s fourth quarter disasters were clearly getting in Phoenix’s head and multiplied its biggest faults with execution and organization.
But that’s when the game is on the line. Third quarters, especially for the first few minutes, are just about energy and focus. That’s it. Seriously. Just those two things. So this period now becoming Phoenix’s weakness speaks a lot to what the team is right now, like the problems in the fourth quarter did for that group.
The Suns were then indeed down 20 less than seven minutes into the third quarter.
The Nuggets, without Jamal Murray (right ankle sprain), improved to a 5-1 record without their point guard. They are by no means having a perfect season but clearly have the fight in them required to battle when shorthanded. Phoenix needs a search and rescue party to find that within itself.
Royce O’Neale, starting in place of Booker, was working his way around a screen in the mid-third quarter when a collision forced him to go down to the ground in pain. It was not a violent clash, one that looked more awkward than anything, either with O’Neale overextending his right leg or catching a knee in the back of it. O’Neale grabbed at the inside of his upper right leg before feeling out that upper part of his thigh in general. He initially tried to limp his way back up the court before going back down, forcing the Suns to call a timeout.
While O’Neale did return, it’s worth noting given how irreplaceable he is. Looking strictly at consistency this year, rather than the overall contribution of each player, O’Neale can only be matched by Durant this season. He’s been tremendously solid all year and is having a career-best season statistically. Phoenix really feels the weight of when Allen is out given the gap in impactful minutes between him and the other options in the wing rotation, so that will be even more of the case if O’Neale misses his first game of the season.
It’s gut-check time. For a unit that appears by all indications to enjoy playing with each other, it’s time to see if they can really dig in as a collective to grind through these problems. As an example on the other side of the country, the Orlando Magic responded to the news of losing Mo Wagner for the year (while also without Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner) by beating the Boston Celtics.
Those guys compete like they would run themselves into the ground for each other. We have gotten zero indication these Suns are capable of playing with any resolvelet alone reaching that level.
There is no boring middle ground here. They will either fold in spectacular fashion, or rise above it in a surge toward the playoffs. Two months in with six weeks to go until the trade deadline, which outcome would you bet on?
