The Suns struck gold with their timing as an organization. Last year they made strides in becoming a more winning team with Ricky Rubio at the point and new head coach Monty Williams. In addition, Devin Booker started to bud into one of the elite scorers in the league.
But what pushed the Suns over the top? They took a massive jump from a team just outside the Play-In Tournament to a championship contender. General Manager James Jones brought in a big name in Chris Paul and some veteran leadership in E’twuan Moore, Langston Galloway, and Jae Crowder.
Chris Paul has made a significant difference for the Suns, but him alone isn’t enough to push a team through the talented Western Conference. The point being is there wasn’t a large injection of talent to the point where you would expect the Suns to be in the NBA Finals, but here they are.
When you watch the Suns play, they are a disciplined group on both ends. It’s a bit of a cliche saying, but the Suns genuinely embody it. That discipline combined with hungry talent in Paul, Booker, and DeAndre Ayton led to a Finals appearance. That’s the difference between the Suns now and the 19 win roster. It’s also the difference between them and another talented team like the Clippers.
Defensive Execution
Here is a snippet from an article on the NBA website about the Suns’ defense written by Gina Kizell:
“Tactically, the Suns’ goals include stopping the ball, switching when appropriate and forcing opponents to shoot non-paint 2-pointers. They aim to limit transition opportunities by using a “sprint, turn and talk” approach, and use disciplined play to keep teams off the free throw line. They work to stay down on pump fakes, get their hand up to challenge shots and finish possessions with a rebound, including guards crashing the glass at times. “
All of this stuff is the fundamentals of NBA defense. Every team, in theory, is trying to do the same thing. The Suns simply do it BETTER.
There aren’t some magical tactics that Monty Williams has implemented that led to the Suns have one of the best defenses in the league. Instead, everyone who sees the floor on the Suns is held accountable for their defensive performance night in and night out.
On top of a desire and intensity to compete on the defensive end, the Suns also have outstanding personnel. Chris Paul has always been a pesky on-ball defender and strong enough to hold his own on some switches. His I.Q allows him to snuff out plays and call them out. Mikal Bridges is their lanky wing defender who gets a ton of deflections and steals. He’s excellent at rotating and recovering. Jae Crowder plays at the other forward spot where he can do a ton of switching and use his physicality to bother guys. DeAndre Ayton’s fluidity at his size is almost a cheat code for the Suns’ defense. He can contain drives and contest anything at the rim. He can even slide on the perimeter a bit.
One of the most underrated parts of their defense comes from Devin Booker. It’s not that he is an outstanding defender, but it’s the fact that their best scorer wants to defend. He wants to defend the opposing team’s best defender. In the Clippers series, he was one of the prominent defenders on Paul George despite the Suns having Mikal Bridges.
Booker is not their best defender by any means, but when one of your best scorers also wants to defend, it’s infectious for the whole roster. There’s no excuse for a role player to slack off since they aren’t expending as much energy on the offensive end. All of this leads to a dynamic where everyone is motivated to play defense and held accountable.
A Sharp Offense
Once again, the Suns don’t have some ahead of the curve actions to create their offense. Instead, they run variations of the pick and roll and set plays to free up Devin Booker as an off-ball scorer. Their key to playoff success is that they continue to run these actions when the pressure builds up. It allows their creators to make reads and create advantages without having to play hero ball.
It’s tough to get away from playing isolation-heavy basketball in a tight game. The Suns, at times, will resort to it when their actions fizzled out, but that’s part of the game and why you need hoopers like Booker and CP3 to close. Against the Clippers, there were some low-scoring, slugfest type of games because both teams had the personnel to switch. Switching forces teams to slow down and look for mismatches, but that in itself grounds the offense to a halt. The Suns got sucked into that at times, but they had success when they ran their stuff. Because the Clippers are heavily reliant on switching, it leaves room for miscommunications when the Suns get into slightly more complicated actions like Spain pick and roll.
The Clippers, on the other hand, almost played hero ball exclusively. They would send ball screens and then immediately slip them to try to get the Suns in rotation. The Clippers are talented enough to win games like that, but it’s challenging, especially without a guy who can get to the rim at will.
When the Suns did move the ball, cut, screen away, and slip, they opened up easier opportunities than what the Clippers were able to generate. In the long run, that’s a recipe for success, even if they don’t have the same shot-making talent across the board as the Clippers had.
The Suns Model of Team Building
This discussion happens every year. A unique team that doesn’t have one of the perennial superstars has success, and teams start to figure out if they can emulate that model.
The Suns have the perfect concoction. Their two stars mesh perfectly together. They already had an up-and-coming core group of guys. On top of that, they had a well-respected coach and general manager. Everything lined up for the Suns perfectly.
The Bulls already tried to perform a similar feat by acquiring another All-Star in Nikola Vuecivic to pair with Zach Lavine. Of course, it’s not a direct comparison as Chris Paul is better than Nikola Vuecivic, but that’s the point. Where is a team going to find a floor general like Chris Paul to pair with a young star that’s receptive to learn along with a strong core that won’t need to be torn apart to acquire said star?
There isn’t a personnel model to emulate here. What’s more important is bringing in a disciplined group and will execute on both ends of the court and having a coach that reinforces those ideas. That’s the model teams should try to emulate.
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