Suns’ Success Relies on Rebounding

By Jacob Troxell @RantSportsJacob on November 20, 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the five games the Phoenix Suns have out-rebounded their opponents, they have won, and in the other seven games they are 2-5, those two being narrow wins against two of the worst teams in the Inferior Eastern Conference, the Boston Celtics and the Detroit Pistons.

The underachieving Suns are 7-5, good for ninth in the West and out of the playoff picture at the moment. Granted they are only 12 games into the season and there are other things this team needs to work on (like their field goal and three-point field goal percentage, which are 16th and 19th in the NBA, respectively) but rebounding seems to be the main issue.

The Suns only have two guys who can play center, Alex Len and Miles Plumlee. Plumlee has been the starter this year with Len coming off the bench, and combined they average over 44 minutes together, yet neither one of them averages double-digit rebounds.

In fact, Plumlee only averages 6.5 rebounds a game while forwards Markieff Morris and P.J. Tucker are second and third on the team averaging 6.1 and 5.8 per contest.

The Suns do not have a lot of guys that are great rebounders and it puts pressure on Len and Plumlee, so it only makes sense to at least try to put them on the floor at the same time, something Jeff Hornacek has not tried much at all this season, and Plumlee is more than capable of playing the power forward position.

Not only does it hurt them on the boards, but with only one presence in the paint it makes it difficult for the Suns to play defense. They allow 104.2 points per game, 25th in the league and only better than the Philadelphia 76ers, Denver Nuggets, Boston Celtics, Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Lakers.

Playoff teams in the NBA have multiple big men on the floor at the same time: the Los Angeles Clippers have DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin, the Portland Trail Blazers have LaMarcus Aldridge and Robin Lopez, the San Antonio Spurs have Boris Diaw and Tim Duncan and the Memphis Grizzlies have Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph.

If it’s a depth issue and Hornacek doesn’t feel comfortable without one of those two ready to sub in for the other, then the Suns need to look for a trade or pick someone up. Their best trade option would be getting rid of injury prone Eric Bledsoe for a post presence, like Nuggets power forward Kenneth Faried, who could take some of the rebounding responsibilities off of others.

The notion that the Suns should trade Goran Dragic is silly. If anything were to happen to Bledsoe (who only played 39 games due to injury last year), the Suns would be left with just Isaiah Thomas as their point guard while paying Bledsoe $14 million a year.

Not to mention the Suns just signed his brother, Zoran Dragic, so it shouldn’t be hard to convince him to stay when he is a free agent at the end of the year.

In the meantime, they can’t allow their center, whoever it may be out there on the court, to get double-teamed each game in the paint. They need to find a way to get two big men on the court, or they will get manhandled by bigger teams.