NBA Halloween: Playing trick-or-treat with each team’s early season trend

Phoenix Suns

The Suns play defense now, and should be taken seriously: Treat

For as much as people criticized their asset management over the offseason, the Phoenix Suns brought in actual NBA players to help Devin Booker and the young core, as well as an experienced and well-respected coach in Monty Williams. The result? A plucky, resilient bunch that’s had the most unexpectedly impressive start of any team in the association.

The Suns are only 3-2, but that’s miles better than they’ve been in years and it’s far better than anyone predicted, considering they opened the season with a gauntlet featuring a 39-win Sacramento Kings team, the Nuggets on the road, the Clippers on the second night of a back-to-back, another Western power like the Utah Jazz and the Warriors on the road. What’s more, this feels sustainable.

https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1188338285699092480?s=20

Their two losses have come by two points apiece. One came in overtime in Denver, and the other featured a clock malfunction that should’ve given the Suns a chance to force OT. In any case, they join the Lakers as the only two teams in the top-10 for both offensive and defensive efficiency, and their stifling D has been a common denominator in all five games. People wondered if Booker was actually a good player. Now that he has legitimate talent around him like Ricky Rubio, Aron Baynes, Frank Kaminsky and the pleasant surprise, Jevon Carter, we’re getting an answer as defiant as Phoenix continuing to compete despite Deandre Ayton‘s 25-game suspension.