Phoenix Suns’ Jeff Hornacek: Roster is missing a shooter
Mar 31, 2015, 4:53 PM | Updated: 4:54 pm
The Phoenix Suns were once synonymous with great three-point shooting.
From 2004 to 2011, the Suns ranked in the top five of the NBA each season in three-point percentage and led the league in that category five times.
The 2014-15 Suns don’t exactly strike fear into the hearts of opponents when they set up to shoot behind the arc.
Phoenix ranks tied for 16th in the league, connecting on just .344 of their three-point attempts. Since the All-Star break, that number has been even worse — just .296.
“I think so,” head coach Jeff Hornacek responded Monday when asked by Bickley and Marotta on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM if a shooter was the biggest missing ingredient on this year’s roster.
“Last year, Channing Frye was able to spread it out and he was a guy that everybody was worried about making threes,” he said. “This year, Isaiah (Thomas) was making threes and Goran (Dragic) wasn’t shooting as well as last year, but he was still kind of a threat.
“And last year, Gerald (Green) was kind of big for us — he shot 41 or 42 percent and he’s kind of struggled with his shooting this year, so I think that’s a big need for us.”
In their last five games, the Suns are hitting just 25 percent of their three-point shots.
“We’re getting shots, we’re just not making them,” Hornacek said, pointing out that a hot shooter like Oklahoma City’s D.J. Augustin, who burned the Suns Sunday night for four three-pointers, is hitting even contested threes, another area where Phoenix struggles.
“We go 2-for-6 on wide-open shots,” he said. “That’s got to be better.”
