Suns’ Marquese Chriss looks to show improvement on defense

Suns first-round pick Marquese Chriss has the physical tools to do whatever he wants on a basketball court.

Stunning plays like this flash his amazing athleticism and talent.

Chase down blocks, rejections from the weak side and an ability to use his lateral quickness to stay in front of offensive players on the perimeter were all skills that stuck out while Chriss was at Washington.

He averaged 2.6 blocks and 1.5 steals per 40 minutes.

Where Chriss’ growth must come is attention to detail on a play-to-play basis. He has a tendency to float and lose track of what’s going on around him as shown in these next two clips:

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Plays of this variety happened far too often during his only season with the Huskies. For him to be able to have a positive impact during not only his rookie season –but his NBA career — these types of mistakes need to be cleaned up. The good aspect of this is it sounds like Chriss grasps his flaws and understands he can’t lose concentration as much as he did in the past.

“It’s not really something that you can improve on, I think you need to just acknowledge the fact that you need to focus,” said Chriss at the Suns summer league practice Wednesday. “I don’t think you can work on getting better focus. It sounds weird, you have to focus on focusing. Acknowledge the fact that you’re not focused in the game and that you’re not paying attention sometimes.”

His struggles with the mental side are a big part of the reason he accumulated 4.1 fouls per game and 6.5 fouls per 40 minutes as a freshman.

His first chance to show he’s taken a step forward in this area is on Saturday when Phoenix faces the Trail Blazers at the Cox Pavilion at 1:00 p.m. in the Las Vegas Summer League.