When you watch the Phoenix Suns, there’s almost no telling what you’ll see on a night-to-night basis. This is the somewhat predictable result of simultaneous but seemingly incongruous plans to: A) get younger and build through the draft, and B) make the playoffs on the back of solid veterans. Those plans have resulted in a mismatched roster that features 10 players aged 25 or younger; four aged 31 or older; and only one (point guard Eric Bledsoe, who is somehow already 27-years old) in his ostensible physical prime.
Phoenix’s starting lineups illustrate this better than anything else. Their most-used starting five consists of Bledsoe and 20-year old 2015 first-rounder Devin Booker in the backcourt, with 31-year old P.J. Tucker and 34-year old Tyson Chandler flanking 19-year old Marquese Chriss (the No. 8 pick in this year’s draft) in the frontcourt. On the surface, it makes sense, with two veteran defenders helping cover up for the weaknesses of the neophytes. But it’s a group that hasn’t worked at all — that five has been outscored by 9.0 points per 100 possessions this season, playing the equivalent of bottom-six offense and hemorrhaging points at a rate exceeded by only the Portland Trail Blazers’ league-worst defense.
T.J. Warren had the small forward job to open the season, for what it’s worth; but in those games, 31-year old Jared Dudley occupied Chriss’ sport with the starters. So, there have only been eight games where the age spread (the age difference between the oldest and youngest player) of the Suns’ starting lineup was less than 12 years. The Bledsoe-Booker-Chriss-Alex Len foursome was together for all eight of those games and was outscored by 6.7 points per 100 possessions. None of these mismatched groups seem to work.
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Based on his minute distribution and his public comments, Earl Watson seems to want to lean on the vets. Other than Booker, none of the kids are playing all that much. Chriss, despite starting in 22 of 29 games, is only averaging 17 minutes a night. Dragan Bender has appeared in only 23 of 29 games and is at 11 minutes per game. Len is consistently working behind Chandler and averaging just over 20 minutes a night in the games where he hasn’t worked as a fill-in starter. The problem is the veteran-laden units don’t have enough punch to actually outscore their opponents, which means it’s not really worth it to give those guys all the minutes at the expense of the kids.
There even seems to be a push and pull between how the Suns want to play on any given night. Just about the only thing they do consistently is play fast. Their average game contains 103.3 possessions, per NBA.com, second-most in the league; but nearly half their games (13 of 29) have been played at a pace more than one standard deviation away from the average. Even their desire to speed things up comes and goes.
