The Suns are showing they are what we thought they were

Here’s an exercise for you: Next time during a Phoenix Suns game, take a peek at the box score on your favorite basketball app.

First, look at the shooting percentage for each team. Then compare how well the shooting accuracy reflects the product on the court — and the score. Quite often, it doesn’t.

That trend has continued to astonish me since a Dec. 21 meeting with the Pistons, who allowed the Suns to bomb for a 58% shooting mark by the game’s end yet ended with a 133-125 victory.

The Pistons shot 55% in that one, and you could blame the Suns’ defense a bit.

Let’s look at the last five games against pretty light competition for more of this trend, though. Phoenix has consistently outshot its opponents — credit to the offense and even the defense lately.

– 51-44% Suns advantage in a five-point loss to the Hawks Tuesday
– 48-45% Sunday in a seven-point win against the Hornets
– 51-44% Saturday in an eight-point win against the Jazz
– 58-49% in an eight-point win over the Hawks Thursday
– 42-39% in an 11-point loss to the miserable Hornets last Wednesday

What’s the point I’m trying to make? Phoenix’s offensive execution has been good enough and its defense has held up.

The Suns continue to score the hard way, and even if you have players who are wildly efficient doing it the hard way, that doesn’t make it easier. Convince me Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal wouldn’t have a little more energy to defend and rebound if they’re bombing spot-ups and transition threes instead of isolating in the mid-range.

The Suns are losing on the margins in a lot of respects.

Widen the view season-wide and across all the miscellaneous ways to score, and the Suns find themselves struggling to make up ground even when their offense is clicking.

Per game in 2024-25, the Suns are 18th in points scored off turnovers, third-to-last in second-chance points, 20th in fastbreak points and second-worst in points in the paint.

Sounds like a roster expensively constructed around high-level scorers with holes and a lack of identity otherwise.

So about the Phoenix Suns’ recent rebounding issues

In the past 10 games, the Suns’ rebounding has been miserable, partially because they play small and for three different reasons (suspension, illness and coaches decisions) haven’t had their best rebounder, Jusuf Nurkic, in the mix much, if at all.

Phoenix is last in the NBA by giving up 17.3 second-chance points per game in the past 10.

“We’re just ball-watching, watching guys jump over us, watching guys run past us, get the ball, get the rebound, first to the ball on the floor. Especially the long ones, as guards, we got to get in there,” Beal told reporters after the Hawks game.

Head coach Mike Budenholzer and Durant also mentioned that size isn’t a great excuse. Against a team like the Hawks with a couple of deep gunners, many of the rebounds were long ones.

As Phoenix gave up 27 second-chance points off 20 offensive boards Tuesday night, at one point television play-by-play voice Kevin Ray pointed out a long rebound during the broadcast that reached the playing surface before it was gobbled up by a Hawk.

Backup big Onyeka Okongwu scored 22 to go with 21 rebounds, joining Goga Bitadze, Trayce Jackson-Davis, Nick Richards and Mark Williams as non-All-Star centers to go ballistic on Phoenix.

“It starts with just everybody who’s out there has to participate,” Budenholzer told reporters after the loss to Atlanta. “Are there other guys or other things that maybe we can do to help our rebounding? We got to look at that and see where we get better. But everybody who’s out there has to make a commitment to go get it. That’s where it starts.”

I’ll translate that for you: Neither Bol Bol nor Nick Richards will save the Suns’ season. The rebounding problem is one of many.

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