The Phoenix Suns entered the season as the team to beat, not only in the Western Conference but in the entire league. At least on paper. But as we’ve seen countless times, paper doesn’t win NBA championships, and it takes more than just stacking talent to make things work.
Bradley Beal’s addition was as promising as it was intriguing. Most people expected him to mesh right away with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, but those who were worried about his availability — or lack thereof — were proven right at the beginning of the season.
The former Washington Wizards star has missed 22 of his team’s first 28 games. They’re 14-14 and have gone 8-11 in their last 19, ranking 16th in points scored per game (114.5) and 15th in points allowed per game (114.0). Needless to say, those aren’t championship-caliber numbers.
With that in mind, veteran Eric Gordon expressed his concerns about this current slump, urging coach Frank Vogel to get all scorers — not just their two biggest stars — more looks.
Eric Gordon Complains About Lack Of Touches
“Early on in the season, it was better,” Eric told Bleacher Report. “And lately, there just hasn’t been an emphasis [to get me more looks]. So, it’s definitely different. Lately I haven’t been getting hardly any touches really.”
The sharpsooting veteran believes that not only himself but the rest of his teammates could contribute to a bigger extent if they got more involved in the offensive gameplan:
“No question. Everybody knows the type of player I am and what I’m about. I came here to win, but what I do is score,” Gordon said. “And I think when I score, it really opens up the door for a lot of people because I can score in big games and in big ways. That’s just what it is.”
As of now, Durant and Booker currently combine for 40.2 of the team’s 86.0 field goal attempts per game. That number goes up to 51.7 whenever Beal is also on the court. Gordon is the only other Sun averaging double-digit in field goal attempts (11.0 per game).
Booker Is Unfazed By The Struggles
Even so, Devin Booker isn’t all that concerned about what’s going on. He’s been a part of some very bad teams, so as much as he would rather things look differently right now, he’s got full confidence in Frank Vogel:
“I’ve been through worse than this,” Booker told Bleacher Report. “Remember those first five years for me? I’ve seen this before. I trust everybody in here. We have the talent to turn it around. I’m not too discouraged, but there’s a pep in our step now. We know we have some work to clean up. It’s better to go through this now than the end of the season.”
At the end of the day, this is still the kind of team that could click and become a nightmare for opposing teams in the playoffs. But they cannot keep going through the motions, and they’ll have to spread the wealth and the touches to get all players to buy into this system.
SURVEY Can the Suns turn things around?
Can the Suns turn things around?
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