February was a month for the Phoenix Suns to forget, with several uncharacteristic outings and serious drop-off on both ends of the floor. After March started to get back on track, not so much with the win-loss record but what the eye test told you, the month ended with that progress looking like a mirage.
Tuesday’s 115-111 loss to the Orlando Magic was on tab to be a change in that energy with the return of Dillon Brooks from a 18-game absence and instead was more of the same.
The consistency of the Suns’ identity is fading by the game.
It’s at least understandable as to why the Suns thought they could lollygag on defense for three quarters in Memphis on Monday, because they did and still won by 26 points, but once a team with real intensity and a desire to win showed up, Phoenix obviously couldn’t just flip the switch back on.
The bottom line is the claim Phoenix rightfully held for the first half of the season as the hardest working group in the league simply isn’t true anymore. And the team plays like it doesn’t realize how much of a necessity that is to how good they can be.
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Bad habits have formed.
Imagine the team we saw for a few months giving up an offensive rebound to a free-throw shooter like it did on Tuesday. Or a breakaway dunk off their own missed free throw. Transition defense has taken a real dip, with simple things like matching up properly looking like a chore at times.
You could see a shift in the last two months for how much opposing teams come into the game knowing there are plenty of downhill opportunities toward the basket because of the lack of size and on-ball ability defensively. Add that onto Phoenix’s overall resistance becoming even worse and it’s been a tremendous weakness for the Suns.
You would think their rotations on the back side once a guy gets by his on-ball defender would be consistently precise with how often the defense is put in that position, but that is not the case.
The woeful quality of Tuesday’s game sure didn’t help sway you toward optimism.
There were a combined 26 turnovers and 47 free-throw attempts at the half. This was as much of a mid-off as you’ll watch between two teams in the top-eight of their respective standings. The shot-making in the final frame was tragic.
Orlando jumped out to a 16-point lead over the opening nine minutes when you saw obvious carryover from Phoenix’s empty effort the night prior in Memphis. From there, it was just about which team screwed up less. Because both kept screwing up plenty and the quality of play did not improve.
No one could string together just a few competent possessions in a row to take control. It was a maddening watch.
The game was tied entering the fourth quarter and a separation point of more than a possession didn’t materialize until Desmond Bane’s layup with seven seconds left put the Magic up five, with the gap between the shot and game clock being wide enough for the Suns not to foul down three.
Phoenix missed eight straight shots over 5:21 until Devin Booker made a desperation 3-pointer with three seconds remaining. Orlando made free throws and that was mercifully the game’s conclusion.
Brooks, as expected, was fired up to start this one. A little bit too fired up!
Within 30 seconds, he was already yapping with Orlando star Paolo Banchero and bumping him inside his space. That resulted in one foul he gave away to send a message, but then got a second in transition shortly after when he turned the ball over. Brooks got a technical foul (his 17th this season) at the next break, which put him one away from another one-game suspension.
Unsurprisingly, this came back to bite Brooks. He got fouls three and four midway through the second quarter at nine minutes played.
About 2:30 into the second half, Brooks bit on a Banchero pump fake and went right back to the bench with five fouls. He stayed there until there was 10:17 left and played the rest of the game.
Brooks finished 4-of-13 for nine points with five rebounds, zero assists and one turnover.
Brooks started alongside Booker, Jalen Green, Collin Gillespie and Oso Ighodaro. That Gillespie spot was the one up for grabs between him and Royce O’Neale.
Given how often the primary trio will have the ball, this largely relegates Gillespie to a spot-up shooting role as a connector off the ball. That has been O’Neale’s role for many years but Gillespie does provide more of a ball-handling options when it is that guy’s job to attack off the dribble.
On the other end, it’s a tough call.
O’Neale really struggles to prevent guys from driving downhill at him, while Gillespie has become a real target as well. Gillespie is the more energetic of the two and can take on some of the initiator assignments, taking that responsibility off the shoulders of someone like Booker or Green. Size-wise, O’Neale is five inches taller, but Gillespie averages within a rebound per game of O’Neale’s mark.
Neither are good fits for the spot. The best is clearly rookie Rasheer Fleming with his size and defensive versatility, but head coach Jordan Ott has to see that as extending him a bit too far and must feel the offensive end needs all the firepower it can get. That’s where Grayson Allen would slot in, and actually did at points earlier in the season, but it’s important for that firepower to also have some equity amongst the reserves, too.
The trickle-down effect of the rotation immediately begins with how many minutes Allen (29.5 MPG), Gillespie (28.9 MPG). and O’Neale (28.9 MPG) can get, bringing about conversations from a half-year ago that haven’t been relevant until the last day of March. Go figure. Those conversations didn’t even factor in Gillespie as a guy getting 15-plus minutes a night, nor Jordan Goodwin, the last guy to make the roster who has now become a vital bench piece at 22.6 MPG.
And even though Ryan Dunn has performed better as of late, Fleming has obviously secured his rotation spot and was getting 20.8 MPG in his last dozen appearances. All of those have been both deserved and needed with what he provides as an outlier on the roster.
If you do the math for a squad that almost always plays a center, it’s 192 minutes up for grabs on the perimeter. Booker, Green and Brooks (once he’s off a minutes restriction) will accompany for half of that. Go with a conservative total of 95 and that leaves 97 minutes to go between that group of five that has those five MPG totals mentioned add up to 130.7.
Ott might try to steal some with smaller lineups. He did so in each half by deploying Fleming at the 5, which resulted in just three minutes for Khaman Maluach.
This is the type of Green performance that is the most concerning when the Suns are fully healthy.
He’s going to make a fair share of questionable decisions and have some nights where the turnovers pile up, in addition to making mental errors defensively. One on Tuesday led to Brooks chewing him out after a whistle.
The difference before was Green could have a big scoring night to offset that, but with less shots to go around, a night like Tuesday of eight points, two assists, four turnovers and two steals on 3-of-10 shooting is more damaging and will make his contributions even more volatile than before.
And he’s not going to finish games if that’s the case. Green checked out with 4:58 left in the third quarter and did not return. Perhaps that was injury related, as Ott has sat Green a lot for fourth quarters, but not to that extent. With more options available, though, that’ll change.
Green played 20 minutes, while it was 36 for Booker, 32 for Allen, 31 for O’Neale, 29 for Goodwin, 27 for Gillespie and 16 for Fleming. Dunn was the odd man out with the rotation already at 10 guys.
Goodwin tried his best to lift these guys out of the haze for the second straight night. He had nine points, five rebounds, two assists, two turnovers and three steals.
Anthony Black (left abdominal strain), Jonathan Isaac (left knee sprain) and Franz Wagner (left ankle sprain) were out for Orlando.
The Suns dropped to 42-34. With the Los Angeles Clippers in action later on Thursday, a win for them could mean they are just two games back in the loss column for the seventh seed at 40-36. They host Portland.
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