Poor defensive outing dooms Suns in loss to Bulls

The Phoenix Suns lost 124-116 to the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night in a way they haven’t all season.

Offensively, the Suns were rolling.

They had legitimate scoring balance for one of the first times this season. Devin Booker had 23, T.J. Warren scored 21 and Deandre Ayton added 18. On top of that, they got big-time contributions off the bench from Richaun Holmes (14) and Jamal Crawford (16).

They shared the ball and took care of it as well, finishing with 28 assists and 13 turnovers.

Defensively, however, they were a mess.

The Bulls (5-13) shot 56.8 percent and were above 60 for over half of the game. The Suns (3-14) also allowed 19 fast break points and 22 points off turnovers. Open shots, defensive breakdowns and sloppy rotations were occurring nearly every possession in the second half.

Phoenix played hard, was competitive and executed well on one side of the floor. The problem is, there are two sides of the floor.

The headline coming into the game was head coach Igor Kokoskov choosing to start point guard Isaiah Canaan after moving him to the bench on Monday. That was a loss to the 76ers, but a loss where Phoenix competed with one of the best teams in the league and led for the entire first half.

With how well the Suns play with Mikal Bridges on the court and the lead guard role Booker already plays with Canaan on the court, it was a perplexing change.

The takeaway from Wednesday’s loss, however, is how the Suns are designed as a whole.

They have a roster that is heavily imbalanced, favoring the offensive side of the ball.

Taking into consideration the age and experience level of the roster, only Trevor Ariza and Mikal Bridges can be trusted as defenders. Ayton, Booker and Warren, on the other hand, are all liabilities. The same goes for Canaan, Crawford and Josh Jackson.

That’s sometimes even to an extreme effect like we saw against the Bulls.

Yes, the star guard still doesn’t look 100 percent, but Booker played one of his worst games in a Suns uniform despite shooting 9-of-20 because of the level of defense he played. While Ayton was engaged and had some great stretches in the first half, his rim protection and role as an anchor was nonexistent in the second half.

And while the offensive side of the ball is a strong suit, Booker is the only reliable creator off the dribble outside of Crawford’s occasional impact. The offense clearly lacked basic execution when Booker or Crawford were not on the ball, and even when they were, they sometimes lacked crispness in their play because of the burden they hold. The Suns need another primary option on offense while the likes of Ayton, Bridges and Jackson continue to grow and develop.

As for how this roster makeup happens, when you’re a rebuilding team that does not yield a consistent contributor after three top-10 picks in the past two years and your point guard of the present and future was supposed to be Brandon Knight, it happens.

In the meantime, Kokoskov has to have his team grow defensively to avoid more losses like Wednesday’s. The ability of his players might not be there, but that’s the case for lots of successful NBA defenses across the league who pull it off through sound philosophies and top-level effort.

The Suns have been competitive in four straight games, which is an accomplishment given how the start of the season went, but there is still plenty of progress to be made before they start playing winning basketball.

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