Phoenix Suns: Bold flavors

The Step Back has been born from the aesthetics and traditions of the Hardwood Paroxysm Basketball Network. In the past, Hardwood Paroxysm has produced a massive stand-alone season preview. This year, that preview effort has been rolled up into the launch of The Step Back. 

The Step Back’s writers and illustrators have prepared a hefty deep-dive into each team, built from multiple smaller sections. This year’s theme is television comedies and each section is named after some of our favorite sitcoms. For links to all 30 teams, as well as details about the focus of each section, check out our guide on how to read this preview.

Community

By Miles Wray (@mileswray)

Over the last 24 months or so, the Suns have tripped over their own feet, beefed it hard on the ground, and then rolled over chin on hand, and said, “I meant to do that.” The notable thing being that the Suns said “I meant to do that” with such sudden confidence that, golly, maybe they actually really did mean to do that.

The Suns imploded more loudly and spectacularly than any other team in 2015-16. Still, unlike with most full-scale implosions and blatant anti-coach mutinies, Phoenix was able to just kind of plow through it. They emerged on the other side of that blooper-tastic regular season with whatever their identity was still pretty much intact. The team’s plausible path forward to contention has been altered by a few degrees, nothing more.

Their faces may have become familiar now, but a remarkable portion of the roster is still under 25-years-old, with room to grow into their primes. The new salary cap also provided Phoenix with a timely assist: the tactically puzzling deals for Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight, and Tyson Chandler felt like albatrosses just last year. Suddenly, the tabs for all of them have been slashed down to, simply, rotation player. General Manager Ryan McDonough never congregated Sam Hinkie’s devout fan club — but look, there he was in June, the first GM to come away with two top-eight picks (No. 4 Dragan Bender, No. 8 Marquese Chriss) since the Cleveland Cavaliers got Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson in 2011. Instead of piddling away last spring with a transient interim option at coach, the Suns at least built a foundation of continuity — whatever that’s worth — with Earl Watson.

This is all looking at the Suns’ future — don’t look directly into it, of course — with some inch-thick rose-colored glasses. Another version of what is to come: McDonough spends yet another Trade Deadline trying to undo his own past moves, offering up Knight to somebody, anybody. All those accumulated draft picks, and only one bona fide hit, Devin Booker. And Watson has gone and hired Tyrone Corbin and Mehmet Okur, among others, as assistants — are the 2010 Utah Jazz really the correct team to try and emulate?

In the summer of 2015 — preparing, unknowingly, for a doomed season — the Suns looked for a hit amongst a sheaf of low-cost lottery tickets: Jon Leuer, Ronnie Price, Mirza Teletovic, Sonny Weems. There was no small amount of analytical savvy to these moves, especially considering the best-case-scenario seasons from both Leuer and Teletovic. Still, the Suns went in such a dramatically opposite direction in the summer of 2016 that it feels like a lesson had been learned and then intentionally implemented. Two free agents: Jared Dudley and Leandro Barbosa.

Let’s ignore the potential scenario where Barbosa simply wandered back to the Suns’ facility, as if by reflex, and the team decided it probably wouldn’t hurt to sign him to a deal yet again. Although the Suns could easily become a 21st-century team du jour, laced as they are with position-defying teenagers, the team still found it worthwhile to pony up money on that ol’ nugget of a cliché: the high-character veterans. The locker room presences. The ones who will take the rookies under their wing, keep them accountable. As the Suns grow, we might find that, like all clichés, this one about veterans actually being helpful sprouted from a seed of truth.

Arrested Development

By Daniel Lewis (@minutemandan)

When I was younger, I would help run a tailgate at the University of Oklahoma for each home football game. The atmosphere around Gaylord Memorial was special, with tens of thousands of fans gathered together to eat, drink, party, and get ready for the game.

One of the special parts of tailgates is the smell, especially down south when barbecue is involved. Brisket, ribs, you name it, someone was barbecuing it in a smoker and making mouths water downwind. At the tailgate I helped with, we weren’t lucky enough to be graced with a smoker — rather, we just had a grill and we’d cook hot dogs. Someone bought a cotton candy machine, which was fun for the children that would run through, but not so much fun for us adults.

When all you have at a tailgate are hot dogs and cotton candy, you have nothing when other tailgates are loaded with smoked meats, guacamole, cheesy potatoes, pizza bagels, and nachos.

What does college football tailgating have to do with the Phoenix Suns? The Suns have some pretty good veterans (Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight, Tyson Chandler, Jared Dudley) and some pretty exciting young players (Marquese Chriss, Dragan Bender, Devin Booker, Tyler Ulis, Alex Len). But they don’t have a proper, respectable spread, and yes, all the other teams around them are markedly superior.

The Suns’ roster looks like it was built for a fantasy basketball season, with a collection of players that are individually skilled but make no sense together on a roster. They have five guards that should be playing with the ball in their hands. They have two big men that can protect the rim and finish above the rim. They have two young, versatile power forwards who are among the youngest players that will be on a roster in the league this year. They have two veteran small forwards, both of whom would be best served coming off the bench for a team at this stage in their career.

Instead of taking advantage of a time in their division when the Los Angeles Lakers are rebuilding and the Sacramento Kings continue to be dysfunctional, the Suns seem to be blindly plunging forwards with no apparent plan on what to do next.

It’s been seven seasons now since Amar’e Stoudemire had a locker with the team. Seven years, and they are just now beginning to establish a foundation that could translate into a winning team eventually. They’ve finished with a record above .500 once since then, and the head coach that got them there was fired amidst a disastrous season the following year and now coaches the New York Knicks.

Will this season be like the 2013-14 season, Jeff Hornacek’s first with the team, where they exceeded expectations and finished 48-34? Or will this season be another floundering season, full of trades, disgruntled staff, and a place in the bottom of the standings?

If all you have at your tailgate are hot dogs and cotton candy, your tailgate blows hard.

Third Rock From the Sun

By Brian Schroeder (@Cosmis)

Who is P.J. Tucker, really? He’s been around for a while now, and even though I once thought him obscure enough to do a profile on him, he’s pretty fairly established by now, with over 250 starts to his name. But what is he, as a player, in today’s NBA? A small ball four, a rebounding three? A swingman? A backup? A starter?

Last year was not a great year for the now 30 year old Tucker, as he set career lows in three-point percentage (with at least 100 attempts), and a career low in overall field goal percentage. He did however play all 82 games and continued being his career trend of being a very good rebounder and defender, while adding a little more playmaking responsibility to his game (his AST% jumped from 7.4 in 14-15 to 10.6 last season).

So, all in all, I think the only thing I can say about PJ Tucker for sure is that he’s ideally the Suns third best player, behind Bledsoe and Devin Booker (Brandon Knight is *better* but has less of a role) and if everything goes well, he’ll play big minutes in every lineup configuration they have. Hopefully they’ll be good enough to get something out of his contributions.

Perfect Strangers

by Matt D’Anna (@hoop_nerd)

Ten Word Analysis: Booker, Len, and Warren have plenty of room to develop.

TeamSPACE charts are based on mapped clusters of shot activity. These areas are affectionately called Hunting Grounds, because they are the areas on the court where a player hunts for shots — and successfully scores most often. TeamSPACE takes the Hunting Grounds of all five players in a lineup and puts them on the court together — because, you know, they have to share that physical space, and there is only one ball.

In the past, it was one color per player; which meant that blending colors represented overlapping spaces for shot activity. But this time around, these are not your ordinary TeamSPACE shot maps. Each lineup is analyzed in the aggregate — one color! — and that unit is compared that unit to the rest of the league. So you will see a persistent red layer on every chart, highlighting the league’s Hunting Grounds from last season. The most prolific locations should come as no surprise: the paint, the corners, most of the top of the arc, and a couple of dabs at the foul line and top of the key.

So…how were these lineups chosen for each team? In the past, it’s been about projecting the starting lineup, estimating the most used lineup, or even designing the “most favoritest” lineup. This year? It’s the these charts represent the “most interestingly feasible” lineups….what? That’s a loaded phrase, so let’s unpack it a bit.

The goal is to identify the collection of five players on a team that could potentially play together, and if they did, the offensive results could be glorious. Ideally these lineups aren’t too far-fetched, but also slightly off-kilter and confusing to an opposing defense. While this type of analysis is not conducive for assessing defense, somewhat reasonable decisions are attempted to be made. So while it’s tempting to just put all the best shooters together…how realistic is it (outside of Houston, at least)? And, full disclosure: I favor some stretch in my lineups. It not only provides plenty of high-octane potential, but getting stretchy is also on par with current league-wide trends.

Each TeamSPACE chart has a couple of other sitcom-related features:

Family Matters: You’ll notice a series of Jaleel White’s across half court. Each lineup is scored on a scale of 0-7 Steve Urkels for how well it matches league-wide trends. Remember, there’s seven league Hunting Grounds (right corner three; at the rim; left corner three; foul line/top of the key; right wing; middle 3pt; left wing). A lineup gains points for matching each area; it loses points for messy excess shot activity.

Odd Couple: “Most interestingly feasible” is obviously debatable, so in order to account for some of those decisions, you’ll see Oscar and Felix on each chart. Often, there are players that are in the lineup…and maybe/probably they should not be. They get the Oscar label. And, there are those players that are out of the lineup…and maybe/probably should be included. They are the Felix for their team.

And briefly, a word about data. These strange visual displays are based on last season’s shot data, weighted by made buckets — so rookies and season-long injuries are sadly excluded. This analysis is nothing without the help of Darryl Blackport, and the research materials available at Basketball-Reference and NBA.com. Further, these charts feature some of the best logo re-designs I could curate from the ol’ Information Superhighway, including Dribbble.com and Pinterest. I made none of the logos; I merely selected some of my favorites. Enjoy!

Everybody Loves Raymond

By Ryne Prinz (@ryneprinz)

After the turmoil that was last season for the Phoenix Suns, the franchise seems to be on the up-and-up. They’ve signed a few veterans, like Jared Dudley, to complement and guide their young core. Rookie forwards Dragan Bender and Marquiss Chriss should see the floor early on. Second-year guard Devin Booker is developing into a star. His game has been likened to Klay Thompson, but with better playmaking ability, and Suns fans and fans of the league are excited. There are multiple Suns players who have potential to be the fans’ favorite, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s a certain timeless Suns role player who deserves most, if not all, of the adoration.

Much has changed over the last ten years for the Suns. Afterall, a decade in the NBA seems like a lifetime. The Seven Seconds or Less Suns of the mid-aughts, manufactured by Mike D’Antoni and managed by Steve Nash, were at their peak. Athletic forwards A’mare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion ran the floor with their point guard in a beautiful revolution of offensive firepower. That team is, of course, no more, but will always be remembered kindly. Players left for other destinations, most of whom are out of the league at this point. But one figure has returned to the Suns for the twilight of his career, a player who has been adored at every single stop of his NBA journey, especially in the place he spent his first seven years in the league. Leandro Barbosa is back.

Barbosa was a staple off the bench for the aforementioned Suns and most recently the Golden State Warriors, teams whose identity was constructed by their uptempo and highly entertaining play, a style that perfectly matched Leandro’s. Barbosa’s speed is, and always has been, his biggest advantage, blowing past defenders even as he ages. He thrives in transition, flying down the floor for wide open layups. He is the Brazilian Blur, after all. If he is challenged at the rim, his craftiness allows him to finish even among the biggest of bigs. Barbosa can also step out and shoot, where he seemed to make big shot after big shot for the Warriors over the span of the last two seasons.

We’ll see how much Leandro plays this season, considering he’ll be fifth in Phoenix’s guard rotation, behind Booker, Archie Goodwin, Brandon Knight and Eric Bledose. Regardless, Leandro’s personality will shine. His huge smile is contagious, and he’s absolutely beloved by his teammates. During his 2015 MVP speech, Steph Curry cited Barbosa’s locker room presence and sense of humor as two of his defining qualities. On a team with young guards like Booker and Goodwin, Barbosa’s experiences on legendary teams will prove to be impactful as the young Suns come into their own.

At his introductory, or re-introductory, press conference, Barbosa said, “Phoenix … everything started here”, then proceeded to tell all those in attendance that he loved them. And I can almost guarantee that the feeling was mutual.

Leandro Barbosa is back for his third stint with the Suns. He, and the fans, couldn’t be happier.

Boy Meets World

By Brendon Kleen (@BrendonKleen14)

I could make this section really long, or I could just assume you know most of what there is to know about Devin Booker: that the kid has a chance to become one of the league’s brightest-glowing stars even as he enters his age-20 season, that Talking Stick Resort Arena plays Hotline Bling whenever Booker makes a shot, that he took Brandon Knight’s starting job despite really struggling over long stretches last season.

To do what Booker did in adding real, NBA-caliber ball-handling to his already lottery pick-worthy toolbox is incredible. He has the body to improve as a defender and potentially play up a position as his career moves along, and that shooting stroke (34.3 percent on almost 300 three-point attempts) isn’t going away. Stay Hotline Blinging, my friends.

Past Booker, there is an enviable corral of bigs lurking just below the final developmental hill. T.J. Warren has yet to fully hone his slice-and-dice ways at the NBA level; Archie Goodwin is on the last legs of his NBA career as an undefined “zero guard”; Alex Len enters a season in which he has to prove he’s more than a rebounder with upside; the two power forwards drafted this year — Marquese Chriss and Dragan Bender — will have a chance to play.

Heck, even Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight are in the middle of their second contracts and fall below 27 years of age. Fifth Kentuckian Tyler Ulis might be the odd man out this season, but could be a steal as a second-rounder once Phoenix figures out its long-term backcourt situation (ha!).

Here’s the bottom line: the youngsters are the Phoenix Suns. They’re not a part of this team, a storyline to watch, or a game preview talking point. For anything to go well in the Valley of the Sun, this grand experiment that GM Ryan McDonough has conducted has to work. There exists no backup plan.

And listen, I’m actually encouraged by what McDonough’s juggling act has reaped for the Suns; what started as an over-achieving 9th seed has become a roster with the goods to compete with the Sixers and Lakers for tier two of the “Best Young Team” title behind Minnesota. Yeah, the burned bridges are worrisome, but the Suns have put together a balanced young core for several years while maintaining a bucket of assets behind them.

Phoenix will add first-rounders of their own and from Miami in coming seasons as Booker and others develop. The team’s ability to find goodies in the draft every year will allow them to make decisions on these players in waves, and their knack for keeping veterans interested (good winter weather + renowned training staff = happy old dudes) keeps the team competitive and engaged.

The recipe here is clear, and so far it’s worked. If Booker’s development continues to explode upward and out of the frame, any of the other guys blossoming is just a Christmas bonus. The Suns have earned the respect we so lovingly give the rest of the league’s elite young teams, but they’ll gladly take some extra wins and a nice future.