Why Phoenix Suns Shot Selection Needs to Improve

PHOENIX — The new NBA season is in full swing – and the Phoenix Suns are off to one of the quickest starts of any team in the league.

Phoenix is one of four teams with either zero or one loss so far – joining the Golden State Warriors, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Cleveland Cavaliers. That has lead to many publications putting the Suns into the top 5 in power rankings.

While the generic sentiment surrounding Phoenix has vastly improved over a short time period, some are still skeptical if the current roster structure, offense, strong health luck and other factors can remain sustainable.

Grant Hughes of Bleacher Report is potentially one of those skeptics, as he used one word to describe every team so far this season – and the singular word utilized to describe Phoenix was quite interesting.

The word used to describe Phoenix? Distant.

That’s right: distant. As in, “far away from the rim.”

For years, the Phoenix Suns have been fans of mid-range shots. With a couple of No. 1 rankings sprinkled in, they haven’t graded out lower than sixth in mid-range attempt frequency since 2019-20. That’s a surprisingly sticky trend, one that has hung around through significant coaching and personnel changes.

That offensive style flies in the face of norms that say shots at the rim and from beyond the three-point arc are best, so it’s encouraging that this year’s Suns have finally modernized in one sense. They’re sixth in three-point frequency after ranking 19th, 18th and 25th across the previous three seasons, respectively.

However, the rim remains off-limits for Phoenix. The Suns rank dead last in rim attempt frequency, a spot they have occupied three times since 2020-21.

The issue is the extremity this season. The Suns are taking only 23.3 percent of their shots from close range, well below their 30th-ranked averages of years past.

When you have Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, you can lean on jump shots more than most. But at some point, the Suns will have to prove they can generate a few more high-value looks closer to the basket.

– Hughes describing Suns in one word

The talk surrounding Phoenix’s shot diet had been one that was resounding ever since the playoff exit at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves in April, where the Suns failed to come even close to the amount of three-point looks necessary to push Minnesota.

The Suns went from bottom 6 in three-point attempts last season to 8th currently – getting up nearly 40 per night in year number one under Mike Budenholzer.

The three-point uptick has been very conspicuous and a welcome development – but the attempts inside the paint could be a point for concern.

The vast majority of analytics point to shots at the rim and from behind the arc being the most efficient shots in the game. While coach Budenholzer stressed how crucial finding ways to get ample looks in the lane, that hasn’t necessarily materialized at a frequent rate so far.

That obviously can change, but the offense has to be pretty creative moving forward with off-ball actions, timely cuts, and transition scoring opportunities to accomplish this.

The balance between three-point shots and shots at the rim could be the ultimate difference between an early playoff exit or deep run moving forward – so it could end up being of high importance to monitor going forward.