Welcome to Inside the Suns, your weekly deep down analysis of the current Phoenix Suns team. Each week the Fantable — a round table of Bright Siders — give their takes on the Suns’ latest issues and news.
Fantable Questions of the Week
Q1: After the first 7 games, Devin Booker is leading the Suns in 3-point percentage (45.7%) and is 12th in the NBA in 3-pointers made this season (21). What are your thoughts on this?
Ashton: Still, too many turnovers. But I may be a little harsh. In this regard being that he is taking the majority of the shots while playing two positions.
This question is about Book’s three-point shooting. He needs to shoot fewer of them, not more. It has become a joke on this board that he can
make seven of them. That is probably the worst prop bet in the history of prop bets.
I can use recency bias to show he went 1-5 against GSW but put up great numbers as a facilitator while not playing “Hero Book” outside the arc. There are only so many Chefs in the NBA.
OldAz: In many ways, I think we are starting to see (once again) the best version of Booker. He is being more assertive offensivel,y but also playing better than ever with his teammates. One of my main complaints in past years is that Book treats other stars like CP3 or KD like teammates, but younger players like role players that are beneath him.
Now it seems like he is choosing to trust both his teammates and the process more and drive the team’s offensive concepts. This and Jordon Ott’s offense has resulted in a surprising number of open 3s where the ball movement has resulted in Book left wide open for a rhythm catch and shoot 3. Making those helps get Book in rhythm, and we all know how he can get when his shot starts falling. I see him more this yea,r maintaining those hot streaks within the flow of the offense.
This obviously still has room to grow for him, as evidenced by the end of the recent loss, where he closed the game with 2 contested missed threes, where either one being a bucket (of any type) secures a Suns win. I am encouraged by his team play the rest of the gam,e so hopefully he will grow even more to trust the offense and work to get better shots even in crunch time in the future.
Rod: I don’t think Book can maintain that three-point percentage over the season, but I also think that part of it being so high now is that he’s getting shots off screens and set plays rather than having to create his own three-point looks. I credit Ott’s offense as much as Book for it being that high and believe that, while it should drop as the season goes on, it very well could also still stay high enough for this to be one of the best three-point shooting years of his career if everyone sticks to the plan.
Q2: Over the last 5 games (which includes 3 losses), the Suns’ defensive rating was 10th in the NBA, with an offensive rating of 19th and a net rating of 12th. Over the last 2 games, all three ratings were in the top 10. What are your thoughts on this?
Ashton: With Inside the Suns, we are dealing with questions that encompass a timeline that encompasses multiple games. Trust me, this was much easier in the summer when we were all twiddling our thumbs.
The win over the Spurs did the unthinkable. It breathed hope into our fan expectations of what the Sun’s team could be. But it turned out to be a cool wind against GSW on what looked like a Hot Sun’s team on Sunday. Granted, GSW is a pretty damn good team. Spurs should be. And Memphis is a hot mess.
No Ja Morant please.
So Rod is going to make me look up the stats. Ugg, I hate stats. That is why I tried to get AlanS to do them for me (he declined). I will take the cheap way out and let all of you run the charts.
As of today (11/05), the Suns rank 23rd in defensive efficiency. That is not good, no matter what spin you put on it.
OldAz: You can see it coming together, and the stretches of good offense and good defense are extending for longer periods. This includes some stellar stretches of defense against Utah and San Antonio, and it is clear Ott believes in active and aggressive defense. Even in the loss to the Warriors, where their experience allowed them to counter the Suns’ defensive switches, you saw the Suns continue to work hard on the defensive end.
I think the early ratings show the potential if they keep up this emphasis and grow together around this defensive energy. I continue to caution folks, however, that growth is rarely linear and we can expect some regression and stretches of struggle. They are still a young(ish) team and will get even younger as the rookies get their chances to play. As long as the effort and energy are there, we will need to be patient and anticipate good things in the future from a team truly focused on team defense.
Rod: Yeah, it’s a small sample size, but it shows me that this team is capable of playing top-10 defense on any given night if not for the entire season. At the very least, it tells me that the players are getting comfortable with Ott’s schemes, especially those on defense. While these numbers are good to see, they obviously don’t actually prove anythin,g although it is encouraging to see them get better in recent the more games.
Hopefully they can keep improving as the season goes on and prove these early, small sample size stats aren’t just a fluke.
Q3: Dillon Brooks is leading the team in FGAs (19.3) and 3-pt attempts (10.3) per game but 12th in FG percentage (37.3%) and 7th in 3-pt percentage (29.0%). What are your thoughts on this?
Ashton: That he actually plays?
Arizona has something called the “Lemon Law”. It is meant to protect buyers from purchasing bad motor vehicles. There is no cooling-off period, from what I read.
Right now, it seems like Houston sold the Suns a bad receipt of goods on the KD trade. Green is injured, and everybody is lying on his timeline. Brooks is injured, and it seems like everyone is lying on his timeline. Heck, KM needs minutes, and he parked in the back section of the dealership.
I would invoke the Lemon Law to describe this question. Ran great out of the lot but had to be towed back in later.
OldAz: Many are seeing the recent improvement of the team (offensively and defensively) and correlating it to Brooks being out of the lineup. Many go much further and claim there is causation here, but I think that is a mistake. I 100% chalk this up the the lack of time playing together in the early games. That first week or so, you could see the offense stagnate and everyone standing around looking at one another, not knowing what to do. Often the ball would end up in Brooks hands late in the clock, and he was stuck forcing up a shot.
Recently, the offense has flowed much better with all combinations on the floor, and I have no doubt Brooks (and Green) will fit into this just fine as they get back to playing. This is simply a product of familiarity and chemistry developing. Now, if Brooks returns and the recent ball movement starts to regress (on a consistent basis) and the ball sticks again with Brooks chucking up bad shots, then those claiming causation instead of correlation will have a lot more evidence and it will become hard to ignore. I don’t believe this will be the case, as Brooks has been a part of winning basketball before and has shown an ability to play his role well in multiple situations.
Rod: My main problem with it that he’s shot (and missed) way too many threes. Ott’s philosophy is take the shot whenever you’ve got a good look at the basket but I think other teams could possibly bait Brooks into taking threes until he starts making them at a good clip. If Brooks keeps firing them up even though he’s missing way too many, it’s certainly going to hurt the team and I think Ott would have to consider cutting some of Brooks’ minutes and/or bringing him off the bench instead of starting him.
With that said, I don’t think he was shooting so much out of ego or selfishness. In the three games he played in before his injury, the Suns fell way behind in the 1st half, and shooting – and making – threes was the quickest way to cut into that deficit. In the 1st game, he shot poorly from three, but the Suns still won. In the 2nd game, although the Suns lost, he actually made 50% of his threes (5-10), but then shot poorly from three again in the 3rd game. All in all, I think it’s still way too early to do more than maybe keep a cautious eye on his attempts and percentage once he returns.
As always, many thanks to our Fantable members for all their extra effort this week!
Quotes of the Week
“I think we’ve been playing really hard. I think we just need to play a little bit smarter sometimes with a lot of our fouls and giving teams free throws.” – Devin Booker
“It’s always a good time when the ball is popping around, everybody’s sharing it. It starts on the defensive end and getting out in transition and keeping the ball moving, keeping them in close outs, and still being aggressive to get up a lot of threes too.” – Devin Booker
“When you get a guy who has done so much in his NBA career to get out there, pick up full court, that shows. He doesn’t have to talk anything. That’s leadership.” – Jordan Ott on Devin Booker
“He’s been doing a great job of just setting the table, picking and choosing his spots when it’s time to score. He’s an elite player in the NBA, man. Doesn’t get much better than that.” – Collin Gillespie on Devin Booker
“The greatest way to enhance your confidence is to prepare and he’s put the work in.” – Jordan Ott on Ryan Dunn
Suns Trivia/History
On November 7, 1992, the Suns celebrated their 30th Anniversary season by moving into the America West Arena, where they opened their season with a 111-105 win over the LA Clippers. Charles Barkley (acquired by trade after the end of the previous season) wowed the Phoenix home crowd with a near triple-double (37 points, 21 rebound,s and 8 assists) in his first regular season game as a Sun.
On November 10, 1990, the Suns routed the Denver Nuggets 173-143 to tie a record held by the 1959 Boston Celtics for the most points scored in a non-overtime game (the record still stands). The Suns had 107 points in the first half, breaking the mark of 90 set by the Nuggets three days earlier in a 161-153 loss to San Antonio. Suns Coach Cotton Fitzsimmons also picked up his 700th career coaching victory, becoming, at that time, only the seventh coach in the history of the league to reach that mark. The Suns also set a record for the most assists in a half with 33 and ended the game with 50 total assists. Cedrick Ceballos led the Suns in scoring with 32 points off the bench in just 23 minutes.
This Week’s Schedule
Thursday, Nov 6 – Suns vs LA Clippers @ 7:00 PM (NBA TV)
Saturday, Nov 8 – Suns @ LA Clippers @ 8:30 PM (ESPN)
Monday, Nov 10 – Suns vs New Orleans @ 7:00 PM
Wednesday, Nov 12 – Suns @ Dallas @ 6:30 PM
Important Future Dates
Nov. 7 – NBA G League Tip-Off Tournament begins
Jan. 5 – 10-day contracts may now be signed
Jan. 10 – All NBA contracts are guaranteed for the remainder of the season
Feb. 5 – Trade deadline (3:00 pm ET)
Feb. 13-15 – 2026 NBA All-Star weekend in Los Angeles, CA
March 1 – Playoff eligibility waiver deadline
March 28 – NBA G League Regular Season ends
March 31 – 2026 NBA G League Playoffs begin
April 12 – Regular season ends (All 30 teams play)
April 13 – Rosters set for NBA Playoffs 2026 (3 p.m. ET)
April 14-17 – SoFi NBA Play-In Tournament
April 18 – NBA Playoffs begin
