Inside the Suns - Topics: Strengths, weaknesses, preseason games, bold predictions

Welcome to Inside the Suns, your weekly deep down analysis of the current Phoenix Suns team.

Each week the Fantable - a round table of Bright Siders - give their takes on the Suns’ latest issues and news.

Fantable Questions of the Week

Q1 - Two-part question: What do you currently consider to be the Suns’ biggest strength and what is their biggest weakness?

GuarGuar: Our biggest strength is our star power and scoring ability. We have two top 10 players and another All-Star caliber scorer on our roster. All 3 are high level bucket getters. That is very rare to have and it’s by far our biggest strength.

Our biggest weakness is our interior defense/rim protection. This should be a bit better this year adding Plumlee and Oso, but it’s still our biggest weakness. Teams will not fear driving and attacking the rim vs us this year.

Brrrberry: This roster’s offensive ceiling is definitely what we have going. Previous to KD taking the court with Book for the first time in Feb 2023, Book never had a teammate that was a current 20 ppg scorer. It was our Achilles heel in the finals run just not quite enough offensive playmaking. Now we’ve got 3 25ppg+ type players on the roster with a whole season of ups and downs under their belt to figure out what works and what doesn’t.

Our weakness is pretty evident to me, it’s overall team athleticism. I’d put us median range in that department, potentially not even median. It’s been something we’ve been lacking for quite awhile. Dunn and Oso help improve that so I’m excited by their addition and hoping they develop nicely. Dunn looked solid in some 1v1 drills that got posted online the other day. He’s definitely been putting in work on his game. Bud is going to need to coach him up really good because the system VA runs is literally the exact opposite of Bud so getting him comfortable with playing fast and free offensively will be key and I’m hopeful he exceeds expectations with how quickly he adapts to the NBA game offensively.

Rod: I’d say that their biggest strength could be offensive versatility. The Suns have the players to go big or small whenever they want and won’t have to play in any certain way all game long. They have plenty of bombers that can fire away from long range, they still have some of the best mid-range shooters in the league and I think they should be a better inside scoring team this season (even if Nurk still manages to miss a lot of bunnies' with that damned flip shot of his).

At this point in time, I believe their biggest weakness is size/length. The Suns do have 5 players 6’10” and above but only 1 wing/guard above 6’6” (two-way player Jalen Bridges). This is going to be a problem, both offensively and defensively, whenever the Suns face teams that have bigger/lengthier players in their rotations. The Suns can throw out a big lineup by moving KD to the 3 and playing Bol Bol and Nurk (or Plumlee) at the 4 and 5 positions but that isn’t a lineup that they can afford to keep on the court for excessive minutes.

Q2 - The Suns will play their first preseason game in just 24 days. Which individual players are you most interested in seeing on the court in those games?

GuarGuar: I really want to get a good look at Oso in NBA action. He’s got a really good chance to crack our rotation later in the year in my opinion. His athleticism is very much needed on this team and he had a good Summer League.

I also really wanna see Tyus Jones and how he runs this offense with 3 superstar scorers around him. I have faith he will keep everybody engaged and fed the rock consistently.

Brrrberry: Bol and Dunn no doubt. I’d assume we’ll get some semblance of an idea how Bud views Bol and his potential role here this season. I’m praying he carves out a 20 mpg role as he brings a set of skills to this roster that could make us really scary. Dunn looked lost in Summer League play, very interested to see how he acclimated in an actual team ball scenario where not everyone is playing so selfishly.

Rod: I’m still most interested in seeing Ryan Dunn on the court against actual NBA players. I do believe his defense will translate to to the NBA but I’ll be watching him closely on every offensive possession. And while I have virtually no doubts about the need for a true point guard in the starting lineup, I’m very curious to to see how well (and how quickly) Tyus Jones will mesh with Book, Beal, KD and Nurk in the starting lineup. In theory it should all work out very well but I need to actually see it happen for all my worries to disappear. While everyone is going to have to make some adjustments, Tyus is going to have to adjust the most to effectively run the offense.

Q3 - What is your boldest prediction for the Suns this year?

GuarGuar: My boldest prediction is this will finally be the year the Phoenix Suns win an NBA Championship. We may have a rough first couple weeks to start the season and gel with Coach Bud, but this is a really talented team and I think another year of the big 3 playing together and good health will translate. We will have a top seed in the West and home court for at least 2 rounds in the playoffs.

Booker takes somehow another leap in his development and Beal has a bounce back year. The Tyus Jones signing ends up being a top 3 move made by any team this offseason.

Brrrberry: FIRST seed in the West, 3 guys that will average 20 ppg+.

Rod: Bradley Beal is going to turn back the clock, average around 25 ppg AND play in at least 70 games.

As always, many thanks to our Fantable members for all their extra effort this week!

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Last Week’s poll results

Last week’s question was “Where would you rank the Suns in the Western Conference this season?”

38% - A top 3 team.

58% - 4th, 5th or 6th.

03% - 7th, 8th or 9th.

01% - 10th, 11th or 12th.

00% - A bottom 3 team.

A total of 172 votes were cast.

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Suns Trivia/History

Not only has Tyus Jones led the NBA in assist/turnover ratio in each of the last six seasons, he is one of only two players (Jimmy Butler is the other) that have had more steals than personal fouls in each of those seasons.

Despite their 4th quarter problems, last season the Suns (ranked 10th offensively overall) had the third most efficient offense (115.7 points scored per 100 possessions) against the league’s top 10 defenses.

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Quote of the Week

“There’s gonna be philosophical approaches to how we practice every day, how important shooting 3s is, and the spacing and all the value and all the things that come from being a high-volume 3-point team. I’m gonna work with the whole group to help them embrace it, understand why it’s important to us.” - Mike Budenholzer

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Important Future Dates

September 30 - Media day.

October 1 - Training camp opens.

October 4 - Preseason begins.

October 6 - Suns @ Lakers (6:30 pm AZT)

October 8 - Suns @ Pistons (4:00 pm AZT)

• Will be played at the Breslin Center at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan

October 11 - Suns vs Pistons (7:00 pm AZT)

October 13 - Suns @ Nuggets on ESPN (5:30 pm AZT)

October 17 - Suns vs Lakers on TNT (7:00 pm AZT)

• All five Suns preseason games will be broadcast locally on Arizona’s Family 3TV and Arizona’s Family Sports.

October 18 - Preseason ends.

October 19 - Last day for players on fully non-guaranteed contracts to be waived and not count at all against a team’s 2024/25 cap. They must clear waivers before the first day of the regular season.

October 21 - Last day of the 2024 offseason. Roster limits decrease from 21 players to 18 (2:00 pm AZT). Teams will be limited to carrying 15 players on standard contracts and three on two-way deals as of this deadline. Last day for teams to sign a player to a rookie scale extension (3:00 pm AZT). Last day for teams to sign an extension-eligible veteran player with multiple seasons left on his contract to an extension. Last day for teams to convert an Exhibit 10 contract into a two-way contract.

October 22 - 2024/25 regular season begins.

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This week’s poll is...

Both Kevin Durant* and Jusuf Nurkic are eligible for contract extensions up until October 21.

* The NBA’s Over-38 rule prevents Durant from receiving more than a 1-year contract extension.