Welcome to Inside the Suns, your weekly deep down analysis of the current Phoenix Suns team. Each week the Fantable \u2014 a round table of Bright Siders \u2014 give their takes on the Suns\u2019 latest issues and news.<\/p>\n
This week, I hope everyone will join me in welcoming Diamondhacks as the newest member of the Fantable!<\/p>\n
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Fantable Questions of the WeekQ1: With two-thirds of the season behind us, the Suns are a borderline playoff\/Play-In team. Which side of that line do you think they will ultimately fall on at the end of the regular season?<\/p>\n
Diamondhacks: It could easily go either way, with the Wolves, us, and the Lakes all facing tougher-than-average remaining strength of schedule. But since Rod threatened to revoke my BSOTS cafeteria privileges if I didn\u2019t answer the question, I\u2019ll guess Play-In. Some of our key guys may be wearing down, and we\u2019re not surprising opponents much anymore. Coaches like Lue, Kerr, and Nurse are more aggressively targeting emergent difference makers (ie, Collin, Oso, and Goody). Everybody, even Anthony Edwards, knows who \u201cthey\u201d are now.<\/p>\n
Jalen Green is still the wild card, but unless he can reliably turbocharge this offense, my worry is that most of our structural and surprise upside this season has already been realized. If Ott can get Jalen to do that, reasonably efficiently, on top of everything else the Suns have accomplished, then I think we have the Coach of the Year.<\/p>\n
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Ashton: It really does depend on injury reports. Yeah, hot take.<\/p>\n
Tankathon ranks the Suns\u2019 remaining strength of schedule as the fifth-hardest in the nation. The good news is that Denver, Thunder, and Wolves rank above them. Dallas and Clippers are in the tank, right? And LeBron is fighting arthritis in his left foot.<\/p>\n
Six seed seems to be correct to me.<\/p>\n
Rod: I think they have a really good chance of ending the regular season as the 6th or maybe the 5th seed and avoiding the play-in games\u2026IF they stay relatively healthy between now and then. And by that I mean no serious injuries that keep key players out for more than a game or two at a time. If everything falls just right, I could even see them finishing the RS as 4th seed, but that\u2019s a \u2018best case scenario\u2019 that I consider unlikely.<\/p>\n
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At worst, I really can\u2019t see them falling below the 8th seed in the play-ins unless something bizarre happens to completely derail the rest of the regular season. I really doubt that happening, but I also can\u2019t just write off that possibility.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not much of a betting man, but I\u2019d go with the over on the playoff\/play-in line for the Suns right now. I think the AS break will be good for them, and they return rested and re-energized to make a strong run to the regular season finish line.<\/p>\n
Q2: Jamaree Bouyea\u2019s stats have taken a big hit lately. In November, his averages were 5.8 ppg (per 36 = 19.3) while shooting 55% from the field and 54.5% from three in 10.8 minutes per game. In February, his stats dropped to 4.5 ppg (per 36 = 9.9) with shooting percentages of 40% from the field and 9.1% from three in 16.4 minutes per game. Why do you think his performance has dropped off lately?<\/p>\n
Diamondhacks: JB\u2019s month-by-month decline could be for tangible competitive reasons, like teams are defending him better. A more abstract (and hopeful) take is that his seasonal rate stats still align very closely with (admittedly limited) career numbers. So maybe the fast start and subsequent decline are more of a passive or random statistical variation; thus, he\u2019ll bounce back from the latter a little. It\u2019s hard to say, because his sample sizes are still so small. We don\u2019t really know what his established level is yet, but it seems increasingly unlikely to me that he\u2019ll reprise his captivating November.<\/p>\n
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Ashton: He didn\u2019t even play in the game against the Mavs. So, let\u2019s go with the obvious clue here: playing time. And in order to get that playing time, he needs to pack his bags for Tempe and let Amir Coffey cook a little with the NBA minutes.<\/p>\n
Bouyea stats in G League are actually pretty good. I can\u2019t link G League stats in my write-ups, but the guy is averaging 20.2 points per game over five games played! So, do I think his performance has dropped off? It depends on the context.<\/p>\n
Rod: Probably the biggest reason is simply that he\u2019s no longer a surprise to other teams, and they have added him to their list of players to game plan for. The Suns have also played some tough teams since he returned after missing 10 games with a concussion. The \u2018rust\u2019 from his downtime while recovering combined with the tougher competition was likely a double whammy that hurt his stats. Hopefully, he\u2019ll be back closer to his normal self following the AS break.<\/p>\n
Q3: What are your thoughts on Amir Coffey and his possible role with the Suns?<\/p>\n
Diamondhacks: He\u2019s Royce\u2019s backup and Ryan Dunn\u2019s three-point insurance. Like O\u2019Neale, Coffey pours in 40+% on corner threes. Coffey\u2019s gritty and earned 1700 minutes under Ty Lue. The caveat is that this year\u2019s stint with the Bucks has been more of a grind.<\/p>\n
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Ashton: This may be the shortest Fantable write-up I have done yet, based on word counts. We do not all know, and this question is way too early to ask. I waited for the Mavs game to try to answer this question, and I still have nothing. He was +1 in that game, and maybe he does something more against the Thunder (yikes!) tonight, but that is not a good introduction for him jelling with the team.<\/p>\n
What can I say? He was solid with the Clippers, but the Bucks treated him like a red-headed stepchild (with respect to red-headed stepchildren), and I find that a little bit worrisome. Of course, it is the Bucks, and I have not watched one of their games since 2021.<\/p>\n
Rod: I have a feeling that Coffey may have just been a bad fit in Milwaukee and will do better in the Valley. In most of his seasons with LAC, he was a three-point shooter, nailing 38.4% there, and close to 50% of his FGAs were from three. With the Bucks, his playing time was way below his career average, as was his FGAs. I wish I\u2019d seen more of Milwaukee this season so I\u2019d have a better idea of why he was pretty much buried at the end of their bench, but I think he may get more of a chance to play here, especially if his three-point shooting returns to form.<\/p>\n
With the Suns so reliant on the three, he could carve himself out some rotation minutes, especially if GA remains sidelined for a while. But more than that, he\u2019s going to have to fit in defensively to stay on the court. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s going to completely move anyone else out of Ott\u2019s player rotation but he should be at least a solid insurance player at both SG and SF. He looked pretty good in limited minutes against Dallas and OKC without much practice time with the team so I\u2019m currently happy with him.<\/p>\n
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As always, many thanks to our Fantable members for all their extra effort this week!<\/p>\n
Quotes of the Week<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this (All-Star break) is a time where we can evaluate exactly who we are, how we\u2019ve been. I think even in this last stretch without Book (Devin Booker), I just don\u2019t think we\u2019ve been as good defensively, honestly. That\u2019s where we got to get back to.\u201d \u2013 Jordan Ott<\/p>\n
\u201cOur focus has to be really high. Especially in this West, a differential of two to three games where you can get in that playoff hunt and you can be a four or five, even three (seed). You have to be real focused in the gym when we come back, and move these last 25 games with some purpose.\u201d \u2013 Dillon Brooks<\/p>\n
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\u201cI think it (the OKC loss) is motivation to be better the next 25 games. The last game we had no Book (Devin Booker), no Jalen (Green), no Grayson (Allen). We get healthy and put it together and we will go at these 25 games like we are trying to prove something like we did in the beginning of the year.\u201d \u2013 Dillon Brooks<\/p>\n
\u201cI got a lot of stuff to learn, a lot of stuff to go over but at the end of the day, you still got to do your job. So, that stuff will come. But still got to go out and compete.\u201d \u2013 Amir Coffey<\/p>\n
Suns Trivia\/History<\/p>\n
On February 16, 2009, the Suns fired head coach Terry Porter after 51 games and replaced him with assistant Alvin Gentry. The Suns had a 28\u201323 record, ninth in the Western Conference, with Porter. Under Gentry the Suns would go 18-13 to finish the season with a 46-36 record and miss the payoffs for the first time after four straight appearances and two trips to the Western Conference Finals under former head coach Mike D\u2019Antoni.<\/p>\n
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On February 18, 1990, Tom Chambers had the first 50+ point game in Phoenix Suns history, scoring 56 points in a 131-113 win at Golden State. The previous record of 49 points belonged to then assistant coach Paul Westphal scored 10 years earlier on Feb. 21, 1980 in a 125-116 victory against the Detroit Pistons. Head coach Cotton Fitzsimmons left Chambers in the game until there was only 3 minutes left hoping he would reach 60 points.<\/p>\n
On February 19, 2015, after Goran Dragic publicly announced that he no longer trusted the Suns front office and wanted to be traded, the Suns made a flurry of in-season moves at the trade deadline including:<\/p>\n
A 3-team trade in which Phoenix traded Goran Dragi\u0107 and Zoran Dragi\u0107 to the Miami Heat for Danny Granger, a 2017 1st round draft pick and a 2021 1st round draft pick plus John Salmons from New Orleans.<\/p>\n
A second 3-team trade in which the Suns traded a 2018 1st round draft pick to the Philadelphia 76ers and Tyler Ennis and Miles Plumlee to the Milwaukee Bucks for Brandon Knight and Kendall Marshall.<\/p>\n
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And a third 3-team trade in which the Suns traded Isaiah Thomas to the Boston Celtics in exchange for Marcus Thornton and a 2016 1st round draft pick. The third partner in the trade, the Detroit Pistons, acted as a facilitator in the trade and had no direct dealings with the Suns.<\/p>\n
The trades did not work out for the Suns who were 29-25 before they happened and went 10-18 the rest of the season to finish 39-43, missing the playoffs for the fifth straight season in what would continue to grow into a 10 year playoff drought.<\/p>\n
This Week\u2019s Game Schedule<\/p>\n
Thursday, Feb 19 \u2013 Suns @ San Antonio Spurs (6:30 pm)<\/p>\n
This Week\u2019s Valley Suns Game Schedule<\/p>\n
None.<\/p>\n
Important Future Dates<\/p>\n
March 1 \u2013 Playoff eligibility waiver deadline
March 4 \u2013 Final day to sign players to two-way contracts
March 28 \u2013 NBA G League Regular Season ends
March 31 \u2013 2026 NBA G League Playoffs begin
April 12 \u2013 Regular season ends (All 30 teams play)
April 13 \u2013 Rosters set for NBA Playoffs 2026 (3 p.m. ET)
April 14-17 \u2013 SoFi NBA Play-In Tournament
April 18 \u2013 NBA Playoffs begin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to Inside the Suns, your weekly deep down analysis of the current Phoenix Suns team. Each week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[4040,7,75,40290,559,686,15082,301,188,2292,1195,479,6274,1535,861,11690,80226,516,17891,189,12883,102,121,6,478,207,2065,472,4045,4909,474,604,6445,29215],"class_list":["post-601022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix-suns","tag-amir-coffey","tag-basketball","tag-boston-celtics","tag-brandon-knight","tag-clippers","tag-dallas","tag-danny-granger","tag-denver","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-devin-booker","tag-dillon-brooks","tag-golden-state","tag-goran-dragic","tag-isaiah-thomas","tag-jalen-green","tag-john-salmons","tag-kendall-marshall","tag-lebron","tag-marcus-thornton","tag-miami-heat","tag-miles-plumlee","tag-milwaukee","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-nba","tag-new-orleans","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-phoenix","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-phoenixsuns","tag-ryan-dunn","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-suns","tag-the-suns","tag-zoran-dragic"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}