The 5: Key stats the Suns must improve upon in 2017-18
Oct 18, 2017, 9:50 AM | Updated: 2:26 pm
Numbers don’t tell the entire story. But they help.
For the young Phoenix Suns embarking on 2017-18 with a similar roster as last season but with experience under head coach Earl Watson, it’s about tiny steps forward. It’s about details, individual improvement and basic understanding of the NBA game.
They tip 2017-18 on Wednesday against the Portland Trail Blazers. The game, which will air on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station, tips off at 7 p.m. and, starting at 4:30 p.m., the “Suns’ Opening Night Special” will feature special roundtables to lead into the opener.
Statistics tell us the Suns weren’t great on either end of the court last year. But what specifically can we glean from 2016-17 as we watch for signs of improvement in 2017-18?
Here are five telling statistics from a year ago and how they relate to this version of the Suns.
1.31
That’s the assist-to-turnover ratio for Phoenix that ranked last in the NBA a year ago.
The Suns’ offense wasn’t all that bad last season. It ranked in the middle-rung of the NBA averaging 1.22 points per shot, right with teams like Oklahoma City, Miami, Memphis and Philadelphia. The Suns even improved their turnover issues that were on a historically bad pace a year prior.
Still, they turned the ball over at the sixth-worst rate (13.4 percent of possessions) and averaged the second-fewest assists per game.
Known as a pick-and-roll-leaning team over the past several years, installing more early offense, weakside actions and better ball movement appeared to be priorities based on how Phoenix played this preseason. The hope is the assists will go up in the second year in Watson’s offense thanks to familiarity, the addition of Josh Jackson, and the growth in playmakers like Devin Booker, Tyler Ulis and even Dragan Bender. The turnovers would, the Suns hope, decrease as well.
89
Technical fouls were a problem for the Suns last season. Booker and Marquese Chriss tied for ninth in the NBA with 11 each, and P.J. Tucker accounted for some of the total before finishing with 11 on the season before he was traded to the Raptors. That’s giving away almost a point a game to the opponent. Phoenix, by the way, had an average margin of -5.6 points last season.
Beyond that, the technical troubles were a sign of immaturity and frustration boiling over.
25.5
How else can Phoenix’s offense take a step forward? If the Suns truly want to play efficiently with Moreyball — taking as many shots at the rim or beyond the three-point arc — then all the concerns lie in the three-point shooting. The Suns, after all, led the league in two-point attempts.
Watson has suggested the past two preseasons he wants the Suns taking 30 threes a game, but they ended up finishing 29th with a 25.5 percent three-point attempt rate (as in, they owned the NBA’s second-lowest percentage of possessions that ended with a three) and hit 33.2 percent of those, good for 27th-best.
Where are more threes and better accuracy going to come from? Nobody would complain if Booker gets more three-point looks off off-the-ball actions. Recent acquisition Troy Daniels will certainly help, improved shooting from Bender and Chriss could help if Phoenix goes to small-ball, and a more structured and nuanced shot selection could improve the situation.
Otherwise, there are promising trends from last season. The Suns got to the foul stripe at the third-best rate in the league, and the Booker-Warren duo should be able to bail them out on broken plays and late shot-clocks. That said, all eyes lie beyond the arc.
38.2
Along the same line of thought about the Suns’ own three-point shooting, they could benefit from improved three-point defense. Phoenix did succeed in keeping opponents off the three-point line, but when they did take shots, foes knocked them down at a league-high rate.
Suns opponents hit 38.2 percent of their three-point attempts, hitting 10.1 per game that was tied for a top-five opponent average. That’s considering Phoenix allowed just 26.3 attempts per game, which was tied for the 18th-most per game.
What’s that say? Probably that the Suns had a good plan to keep opponents off balance but when mistakes were made and errors occured, they were costly ones.
And it leads to the Suns ranking last in the league by allowing 1.31 points per opponent shot.
50.5
Now here’s something the Suns succeeded at during the 2016-17 season. Phoenix ranked sixth in the NBA by grabbing 50.5 percent of the available rebounds — both offensive and defensive — thanks to some handy work by Tyson Chandler and Alan Williams, who individually ranked in the top-seven in rebounding rate. Alex Len was also a top-30 player in rebounding rate among those who played at least 30 games.
But with Williams out for most of the year, Chandler perhaps taking a backseat and more small-ball, will the Suns remain a strong rebounding club?
The onus is on Warren and Jackson, who could play together. Chriss and Bender must attack the boards as they are expected play more minutes at power forward and center. Len can also use his contract year to provide rebounding to keep Phoenix afloat on the glass.
