The Phoenix Suns are 1-2, back home at Mortgage Matchup Center, and Friday night they get the Denver Nuggets. Three games in, the Suns are last in the league in defense, they are getting beat on the boards in the middle with their centers down, and two of the three games have gotten away from them — run out of the building in Portland and down 22 at Oklahoma City. The one win, over Golden State, is also the one game their defense held up.
That is the situation Jordan Ott walked into Thursday, and he did not soften the number. “When you’re 30th in defense, we need to get better there first and foremost,” the Suns’ coach said. “Our defense last year fueled our offense a lot.”
Asked what specifically is not there yet, Ott split the problem by opponent. Portland and Oklahoma City are elite at driving the basketball, so pick-and-roll drive defense and the rebounding piece hurt the Suns in those two games. Golden State was different — not so much on the ball as straight cuts, a team whose movement Phoenix did not handle the way it wanted. The areas, he said, are on-ball defense, communication that is getting better, and the glass, where the Suns are getting beat in the middle.
He is sticking with the plan anyway, because the Suns saw it work before the regular season started. “We have to stick with some of the things we’ve been talking about,” Ott said, adding that the standard is higher now and the last two days of practice were pretty good.
The shape he wants is five options on the floor at all times, five aggressive players getting to their super skills as fast as they can, with connectors in each group tying those skills together. One of those connectors is his starting center — 20-year-old Khaman Maluach, whose perimeter play connects the groups and who is learning the hardest job on the floor in real time: reading coverages, setting the screens, playing out of the pocket, and getting the ball above the rim so the offense opens up.
Maluach’s own account of his first three games sounded like a young player grading himself hard. It cannot be the home run shot every time, he said — if a man is open, pass him the ball; if not, go to the next action. Some of his turnovers have been bad ones, and some have been offensive fouls tied to his spacing, and he has to be smarter so he stays on the floor .
And when he comes down with an offensive rebound, the ball stays up: the only way they can stop him, he said, is when he brings it down and they take it.
Ott also updated Oso Ighodaro, out since the opener with a right oblique strain: trending in the right direction, yesterday was a higher day than today, he went through the whole practice — and now it is about waking up Friday feeling good, with no soreness. The Suns will know in the morning.
For Maluach, tomorrow is the next rep in an education that is happening in public, and he pointed straight at it: the team has not played to its standard, it is three games into the season, they had two good days of practice — and they will see what happens tomorrow, and get better from game to game.
For stats information on the Suns, readers can visit www.cbssports.com.
Article provided by Sports Tracker
© Old Town News Scottsdale — oldtownnews.us
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