New Orleans Pelicans playmaker Lonzo Ball (2) drives against Phoenix Suns playmaker Devin Booker during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Tuesday, December 29, 2020 in Phoenix. (AP Photo / Rick Scuteri)
Most of the attention in building the Phoenix Suns squad this off-season was in two All-Star ball-handlers and depth, as it should have been.
What was overlooked, however, was the team’s defensive advantage.
Chris Paul is an All Defense honoree nine times and is still very good at 35.
This is putting the youngins in place.
Jae Crowder has always been great at this point, Mikal Bridges will have his own Defense waves soon and Deandre Ayton is constantly improving with his defensive ceiling at the galaxy level.
Crowder had an excellent third quarter defending Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans in the 111-86 victory of the Suns on Tuesday night.
The pair of Bridges and Ayton produced a handful of great performances last year containing star perimeter scorers in ball screen actions, like Luka Doncic. Here they are doing it with Brandon Ingram, who only gave 11 pictures on Tuesday.
These four are the foundation of a defensive team that plays the rest of the game.
Out of that four core, Jevon Carter is fantastic, Dario Saric is always in the right place and Cam Payne is flying around. Even players not known for their game at that end, like Devin Booker and Cam Johnson, are high IQ wings that get better every day through these elevated engines.
Booker, in particular, is a guy you can see almost trying too hard with some goods as he gets more talent for the right steps. The same goes for Johnson, who overcame being faster than expected last year, being stronger than expected this year. Both do not defend themselves as the responsibilities that have been assigned to a point in their careers and continue to progress.
In four games, the Suns has the second best defensive ranking in the NBA, 99.0. Leaving aside the short sample size, it is a trend in the right direction, as Booker put it on Wednesday. Given what the Suns should expect from Paul and Booker in attack, a defense in the top 15 would be huge.
Coach Monty Williams said on Tuesday before the victory that he is seeing “multiple efforts” in defense.
“It is too early to be caught [the high defensive ranking] but we like where we are, ”he said on Wednesday. “It’s something that we feel we can hang our hats on. Several of our players talked about it, as our identity has to be defensive and we certainly want to be in this position as the season progresses. ”
When Williams was asked on Wednesday about the multiple efforts he has seen, he specifically mentioned possession of the defensive ball below.
A great defense is almost impossible to watch in real time unless it is strictly containment on the ball. We will focus on three players to illustrate this.
The biggest move is Deandre Ayton, who has to cover for Mikal Bridges, being potentially sent by dribble to Eric Bledsoe. Instead, Bledsoe makes a great backdoor cut, but there is Ayton to cover before an incredible effort on the ball that is neutralized by an even more incredible shot. Good D, better O, blah, blah, blah.
This is the first thing you will see. Take another look, though, and note the possession of Jevon Carter.
Carter goes straight to JJ Redick, ready for any fluffy and quick sealing of Bledsoe or quick change to take Redick where he wants to be: on the move for his right shot. From there, Carter tracks Redick’s movement through the middle of the key. When he does that, he has time to sit in the painting for a second and be there to help Ayton if he needs to. Carter does this while denying Bledsoe’s easy pass, a shot for Redick.
Now, notice Jae Crowder’s tenure.
Crowder stands between Jaxson Hayes and his man Nicolo Melli in case there is a quick pass there. As he moves with Melli to the corner on the weak side, Crowder is right behind Redick in case Carter isn’t right there (he is) or there is a lob on top (there isn’t). He is also planning to help Bledsoe as Carter. Since Bledsoe has nowhere to go, Crowder raises his hands, presumably because he saw Bledsoe looking for a pass from Melli. Crowder then quickly returns to Melli when the possession ends.
Watch? It is almost impossible to capture all of this in real time!
Sometimes it’s a little easier, even with three guys involved. Here, Paul pushes his man off the line, Crowder cuts the basket, Paul covers the eviction pass for Zion Williamson and then Booker has the best possession effort in closing and recovering for a tough dispute at Lonzo Ball.
“It is kind of difficult to target isolated defenders, especially on a poor defense team,” Booker said on Wednesday about the concept of team defense. “But when everyone is hitting all cylinders, everyone is communicating, you have confidence, if you switch to someone and your teammate supports you – I think this is what we are winning now … last night was an example of this . “
Williams described the various efforts.
“The first effort is just a sprint-and-turn mentality in the transition,” he said. “If we can go back and form that wall, it allows us to be in a position to know what effort we need to implement. And then the ability to cover up the painting so that teams cannot just continue to attack the painting and make rim shots. Once there is an attack action, our defense has to oppose it with a scheme and great effort and that is what I saw last night. “
Williams said that this scheme was what the Suns call a “change” in which they wanted to take the Pelicans off the three-point line.
Even in a clip as simple as this, you can go back a second time and see how Paul and Booker do it with the way they close.
It has worked for the Suns so far, as they give up a minimum of three points per game, 26.8. That while he is tied at 18th in opposite points in the painting, a fair defensive trade-off that can still improve.
But when things aren’t 100% schematically there, Suns still have that low effort.
Watch Carter and Langston Galloway (in the curves) running back in the transition, the first effort Williams spoke of.
The Suns will obtain at least a dozen or more strong defensive possessions from strictly energy games like this. If it continues, they will be a playoff team.
“That will be the name of the game for us,” said Booker in defense.
“Defense is what will get us where we are trying to get every night.”