Yahoo Sports senior NBA analyst Kevin O’Connor is joined by Steve Jones to discuss Phoenix’s outlook over the final month of the regular season. Hear the full conversation on “The Kevin O’Connor Show” and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
I don’t know with Phoenix, man.
I thought for sure they were gonna be able to catch Dallas.
I thought, I thought it was gonna happen.
That doesn’t mean anything.
I still think they’d lose in the first round, but um, do you see any indicators for Phoenix that, any indicators of belief with the son, Steve?
Uh, the fact they have Kevin Durant and Devin Booker.
Yeah.
That’s, I mean, I, look, look, I’ll, that’s about it.
I’ll be honest, I feel like I’ve been a Phoenix Suns truther during this run trying to explain how it could work and what it could do and fighting the good fight against people who said they need a real point guard and all this good stuff and then you had the start of this year where everything looked really good and then they just stopped playing defense.
And then I’ve never been like it gave me the ick.
I’ve never been able to unsee it.
They don’t guard anyone.
They don’t do anything defensively.
We, we can be honest, no is that a thing?
I don’t bud system.
I don’t know where it is.
They were active.
They were fighting.
They were rotating and that just stopped and I’m like, why did it stop?
And then offensively.
Why is it slow?
Why, why are we not using the movement for KD for Devin Booker?
Why are we not, why are teams not in rotation against you?
Like, why are you, see, I, I think that’s a KD book thing because I was there, not the beginning of the season, but the beginning of last season with Vogel, and I talked with Vogel before the season, and he’s like, we want to play fast, free flowing, and like he’s like, we’re doing that right now in training camp and we’re moving, and it’s gonna look and he’s just feeling good about their own system.
And what it’s gonna be and then the season they play slow, and in this year, new coach Mike Budenholz are coming in, playing slow, very slow.
I’d imagine that’s a player thing more so than than a coach thing.
That’s my impression.
It’s upsetting either way.
I’m not happy about it.
It’s it’s no, we’ve got, we’ve got the ghost of Dallas pass in the play.
It’s ugly to watch and with their defense, look, Suns fans have come at me recently because Kevin Durant’s opponent field goal percentage on defense, he’s like top 5 on the league, opponent field goal percentage.
KD’s not Pete KD either on defense, despite what the numbers may say.
He’s not that guy who can play the 5 and dominate like he did for the Golden State Warriors, winning two finals MVPs, and he’s not quite peak defensive version of himself either, so I think that’s a component of their defense not being what they envisioned or hoped that it would be as well.
Well, the problem is, you know, he can only do so much when he’s in rotation, or he can only do so much from the weak side, and he can only do so much when he’s on the ball.
Eventually someone else is gonna have to be involved and they’re gonna put a big and pick and roll, and what are your rotations gonna look like and is that next man gonna keep the ball in front and as are they connect like they I haven’t felt them be connected on defense in a very long time.
Like I feel offenses feel comfortable doing what they want against them, and if they wanna make this plan, they gotta change that.
I think if they can, they can defend, they can at least do something.
We saw it against the Clippers.
You know, they, they sure, you know, like little moment, but, but, but like even if they make the plan, it’s not gonna last long, Steve, it’s not gonna last long.
