After losing two heart breakers to start the week, the Phoenix Suns protected home court and picked up two dominating wins to end the week against the Utah Jazz and San Antonio Spurs. The Valley is now
3-4 on the year with all three of their victories coming at home.
Here are the main questions for week 2 that we want your thoughts on:
How can the Suns build on their winning streak?
The Valley’s had two strong performances that they can build off of after getting revenge on the Utah Jazz on Halloween and handing the Spurs their first loss of the season. In both contests, the team got off to early, first half leads and never relinquished them.
Devin Booker looked to facilitate before score in their win over the Spurs, is that a key to success for Phoenix? Ryan Dunn looks more comfortable in the offense, is him being more assertive important for the team to keep up the winning?
Who should stay in the rotation when the Suns are fully healthy?
When Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green return, it is likely that a few rotation players minutes’ may decrease. Because of their positions, Collin Gillespie, Jordan Goodwin and Nigel Hayes-Davis are the most likely culprits.
Gillespie is having a strong start to the year, playing a lot of minutes with the starters and running the offense for the second unit. He’s second in assists, shooting over 40% from three on seven attempts a contest, and has double digits in his last four games. Goodwin’s minutes have picked up in the last two games and he’s provided shooting and another ball handler for the Valley, but has been turnover prone. Hayes-Davis’ minutes have declined since the start of the season. He hasn’t provided a strong offensive presence.
How will the rotation change when they both get back?
Why did the Suns defense improve throughout the week?
After an abysmal start to the year defensively, the Valley had two strong defensive outings to end the week, including limiting Victor Wembanyama to a season-low nine points on 4/14 shooting and forcing him into six turnovers. How were the Suns able to limit Wembanyama, and despite Brooks out, their best and most decorated defender, improve on that end of the floor? To start the week, they allowed Lauri Markkanen to have a career- high and allow Ja Morant to easily hit a game winner over them to lose a game. At the end of week, they forced one of the leading MVP candidates to start the year to his worst game of the season.
Additionally, Mark Williams, the team’s starting center, continues to be on a minutes restriction. The continuity the team wants to build still isn’t there, but to end the week, even if it was a small sample size, the team’s defense played its best it has all year. What do you attribute it to?
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