Suns end preseason with offensive pros, cons flashing vs. Jazz

PHOENIX — Friday was a luxury for the Phoenix Suns and head coach Jordan Ott, a great matchup for them to get some real run in the preseason finale, one that ended as a 119-116 loss to the Utah Jazz.

Before we get there, there were two notable absences.

Luke Kennard (left knee tendon strain) and Oso Ighodaro (hip soreness) were both out. Kennard left Wednesday’s game after aggravating his knee. Ighodaro should be fine for the opener, while Kennard is more of a wait-and-see situation.

Ott declined to say yet who will be the starting center despite the strong indication that it is Ighodaro.

The Jazz were down Jusuf Nurkic (foot), so it was backup centers opening the game. Beyond that, though, this was an opportunity for great defensive reps with the starters getting longer run.

Utah starts two skilled and quick bigs that have wing-like qualities in Jaren Jackson Jr. and Lauri Markkanen. Its young guard duo of Keyonte George and Darryn Peterson has electric upside. This forced Dillon Brooks and Miles Bridges to guard up their height, something they’ll do all year, while Devin Booker and Jalen Green had to mark a more high-level defensive assignment than you’d ideally like.

Green’s had a good preseason defending on the ball and within an action. Booker took on the Peterson responsibilities with some gusto, bumping through screens and getting physical whenever it was required. That was good to see.

“I thought Jalen’s ability to get up into the ball really disrupted them at times,” head coach Jordan Ott said.

More from Ott on the duo together embracing physicality on defense: “When you ask them to do it, they feel what it does to impact our team. When you have your best players play defense, and then offensively play the right way, you got a chance every single night. And that’s what we have, that’s where it feels like we’re headed in the right direction and we’re ready to play.

“Because you got to see it happen and translate in the regular season, because it doesn’t end.”

The problems actually came on the other end.

Peterson’s going to be a good defender in the league quickly and might be great. He and George, along with some of second-year wing Ace Bailey off the bench, presented issues to Booker and Green getting downhill. The two combined for nine turnovers in the first half, with four assists for Booker and a pair for Green. The starters finished with a combined 10 assists and 10 turnovers.

“Both of us turned the ball over too much tonight but still trying to learn each other, trying to let each other just use our potential and share the ball as quick as possible and make those quick reads,” Booker said.

Some of those can also be attributed to a lack of spacing. Booker is going to have to adapt fast to how much tighter some of his windows are, and Green is going to be taken back to his days with Houston on rosters lacking shooting talent.

Bridges will be a very good balancing force for the turnover woes that will stack up, as Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale were too. Bridges’ 2.30 assist-to-turnover ratio is near elite for someone with his usage. Allen (2.35) and O’Neale (2.02) did it in lower usage, something Bridges will have to get used to. He only took nine shots on Friday. It’s worth keeping a close eye on how he responds to it over the course of the year.

Brooks will only weigh it down further. He had a near-historic 99 assists in 56 games last year, an unreal total considering how often he had the ball. His assist-to-turnover ratio was 1.01 and Green sat at an also-rough 1.26. Booker’s was much better as usual, a 1.92.

The good news for the Suns is that scoring contributions were there to help make up for it. Brooks and Green scored 18 apiece, while Booker shot 6-of-16 for 16. Getting buckets won’t be an issue for these fellas and some nights the production will have to be magma-like to lift up the offense.

Rasheer Fleming did not appear until the fourth quarter. He looks to be firmly out of the rotation for opening night, a rather surprising development considering how many terrific flashes he showed as a rookie and how his physical profile is exactly what the Suns lack the most. In his brief appearances, Fleming looked lost more than last year with finding a rhythm within the flow of the game.

If injuries pile up and Ott is ever required to go deeper into his rotation for one more perimeter guy, it’ll be interesting to see if that opportunity is granted to Fleming, Haywood Highsmith or Koa Peat. It’s probably Fleming, and there’s still a chance for any of the three to emerge ahead of Ryan Dunn as the season progresses. Don’t rule out Peat making a late surge.

The speed at which Utah figures out the dynamics with that unique group could determine a lot in the West and it relevant to the Suns. If it’s fast, the Jazz will be in the top six. If it’s not fast enough, Phoenix should have a great chance to finish ahead of them.

The foursome of George, Jackson, Markkanen and Peterson is a combination of size, space and shooting that no other team in the league possesses. The offensive ceiling is immense. Markkanen and Jackson are All-NBA caliber. George isn’t that far off if he keeps getting better, and Peterson has the highest upside out of any of the four.

A lot of the exhibition on offense was the Jazz looking for Markkanen and Jackson in mismatches, oftentimes starting the possession with those two in the shallow mid-post and then running action around it. Both are talented enough as playmakers and dribblers to make the right play out of that spot. And for someone like Peterson, he’s a great cutter and mover around screens off the ball with a premium jumper too, so he will be just fine in that type of role. Buy whatever stock is left of his.

How much the Jazz are required to rely on those hubs to prevent George and Peterson from operating as full-blown floor generals, a large ask for two combo guards, will be worth monitoring. That’s how Utah is going to try to bypass some of the issues the Suns will run into. It’s either that solution, another leap from George or Peterson is legitimately great right away as what will let this click into place. All three have a solid chance of happening.

Defensively, especially with how great Bailey looks as a glue guy, the ideal lineup is Jackson at the 5. On top of him being a bad rebounder, though, Jackson’s proclivity for fouling multiplies when he’s in that position. We briefly saw that lineup in the second half, and right on cue, Jackson went from three fouls to five in under a minute. Again, though, the size and length is unlike just about any other team. Even if the defense lags behind, it can make up for mistakes with all the athleticism.

It’s the most fascinating team in the conference. Vegas doesn’t buy it, placing them as slight underdogs to finish with 40-plus wins. What’s the most likely is for the Suns and Jazz to both be firmly entrenched in a mess for the 7-10 play-in race.

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