Suns refuse to abandon run-and-gun offense
Jan 5, 2012, 2:44 AM | Updated: 4:27 pm
The Phoenix Suns have notoriously been known around the
league as a team that thrives off the run-and-gun offense.
While the Suns haven’t resembled the high-octane offense
of years past in the early going this season, it doesn’t
appear they are abandoning their token trademark style of
play anytime soon.
“We want to stay up tempo, that’s always been the exciting
part of Suns basketball and we want to maintain that,”
President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby told Arizona
Sports 620’s Doug and Wolf.
Still, it’s been quite evident how badly the team has
struggled with their shot execution as a unit so far this
year.
“We were putting out what we describe as ‘Grade A’ shots –
– we just weren’t making them,” Babby asserted.
“So hopefully that will improve. I think we have good
enough shooters that our offense will still be pretty
potent.”
Interestingly enough, despite an overall shoddy shooting
percentage as a team, the Suns have touted the game’s
leading scorer in four of the first five games this season
— with their loss to Oklahoma City as the exception when
Russell Westbrook dropped 18 on them.
That’s a pretty remarkable feat for a team that doesn’t
possess a menacing scoring threat on their roster.
There was some thought that the Suns may slow down their
offensive pace to improve defensively but Babby believes
that reasoning is “fool’s gold because your defense isn’t
really any better, there are just fewer possessions.”
Can the Suns find their prolific shooting stroke from the
past and make themselves a viable contender in the West as
the season progresses?
Only time will tell.
