The Phoenix Suns are off to a 1-3 start, with Wednesday’s loss to the Sacramento Kings serving as perhaps their most discouraging defeat yet.
Going 1-2 against playoff teams over a three-games-in-four-nights stretch was one thing, but failing to turn a winnable game into a blowout and getting smoked by a Harrison Barnes game-winning 3? That was quite another.
The Kings are no pushover, but it’s the way the Suns lost that proved to be so disheartening. After putting up 61 first-half points and entering the break with an 8-point lead, Phoenix put up a meager 15 points in the third quarter and outscored by 14 in the period while shooting 7-for-22 from the field.
When such a dry spell occurs, it’s only natural to wonder what changed. And in comparing the first half to the second half, Deandre Ayton’s stat line was the most glaring difference.
In the first 24 minutes, DA was dominating the Richaun Holmes matchup. By halftime, Ayton already had 16 points and 11 rebounds on 8-of-11 shooting. But over the next 24 minutes of game clock, he managed just 5 points and 10 rebounds on 1-of-1 shooting.
Obviously he was still a beast on the boards in the second half, but only 5 points and one field-goal attempt? After a 16-point first half?
“Only got one shot,” head coach Monty Williams lamented after the game. “It’s a conundrum, for sure. In the first quarter, we were setting screens and diving, and he was generating a lot of offense. Like I said, we just haven’t been consistent. And that’s on me.”
For his part, Ayton agreed with part of his coach’s assessment: The ball stopped moving, and the hard rolls weren’t there in the second half.
“Mainly it’s us not sharing the ball,” he said. “We’re a team that shares the ball, moves the ball. We try to get at least 30 assists. That’s our type of Suns basketball.”
There were plenty of reasons why the Suns lost Wednesday night, but since all anyone can focus on is “wHY aREn’T tHe SUnS fEeDinG AyToN?” it was time for another Bourguet Breakdown. I went back and rewatched every single offensive possession for the Suns against Sacramento, trying to solve the age-old riddle of why Ayton’s second-half touches fell off yet again.
So what does the film tell us?
Deandre Ayton’s first half
In the first half, Ayton was an absolute monster — not by going outside his game or the 0.5 offense, but simply by doing what he does best. That means setting firm screens, rolling hard, cleaning up around the basket and attacking the offensive boards.
While Ayton did hit a pair of midrange jumpers in the first half, they were wide open, making them decent looks within the offense. But in terms of the Suns’ bread and butter, Devin Booker and Mikal Bridges found DA for a pair of alley-oops out of the pick-and-roll early on:
Ayton missed a pair of makable shots, a bunny after Chris Paul lobbed the ball too high, and a hook shot over Alex Len. But neither one was a bad shot.
It happens from time to time, but the important thing here is how hard he was diving to the paint, especially with all the space Sacramento was giving him.
“Mainly just rolling hard,” Ayton explained as the key to his strong first half. “Putting pressure on them guys and my guys finding me. Just needing me to touch the rim, keep rolling harder and harder and get offensive boards.”
Speaking of the offensive glass, Ayton racked up six second-chance points in that first half: one tip-in, one put-back off his own miss and, of course, the monster put-back dunk that was the Suns’ highlight of the evening:
As if his own offense wasn’t enough, Ayton’s screens and the gravity on his rolls were creating offense for his teammates.
One of these is an Elfrid Payton make on a floater and the other is a blocked layup, but both serve as the kinds of shots Phoenix is okay with generating out of DA’s pick-and-rolls:
It wasn’t just in pick-and-roll action though. Even by running to the paint, DA’s gravity opened up 3s for Suns shooters.
Take the play below where Devin Booker is already going to work on Tyrese Haliburton in transition. Richaun Holmes rushes back to help his teammate, hoping to catch an unsuspecting Book with a weakside block, but Booker sees him coming and remains patient, baiting them both with a pump fake.
That bides time for Ayton to finish his cut to the basket. With Maurice Harkless already retreating to Jae Crowder beyond the 3-point line, Harrison Barnes has a decision to make as the helpside defender: Tag Ayton, or let the big fella run to the basket unimpeded for an easy dunk?
Barnes slides over to check DA, which frees up the corner 3 for Bridges:
On the very first play of the game, a simple screen and roll action with Book and Ayton leads to this awkward communication gaffe for the Kings, where both Harkless and Holmes are caught in no man’s land at the same time.
They’re initially too close to the ball-handler, and when Booker eyes the rolling Ayton, they both overcommit, rushing back to the big man to cover for their teammate. The result is as wide-open a 3 as Devin Booker is going to get all season.
Talk about gravitAYTONal pull!
And for the “FEED AYTON!” crowd, the Suns actually did throw a lob to Ayton in the post to capitalize on a mismatch.
Watch as four Kings frantically collapse to contain Ayton, who kicks it out to Booker on the perimeter. Bridges misses the open 3 off the swing pass, but Payton (of all people) is there to clean it up with the put-back slam.
It’s only natural to want to see Deandre Ayton take more 3s, show what he can do off the dribble and take on a more prominent role in the offense. But the Suns’ system, which boasted the NBA’s seventh-ranked offense last year, doesn’t really need him to do too much more when he’s already an elite big man by just doing what he does best.
This felt like a point of emphasis for Williams after DA came out launching 3s in the Suns’ season opener.
“I don’t mind DA taking 3s, but we can’t forget what you do well,” he said the morning after the Nuggets loss. “DA’s made a name for himself by dominating the paint. And he generates so much offense. I don’t want him taking so many 3s that he’s letting other bigs off the hook, and I think that’s something he understands. I think he was 1-for-3 last night from from 3. We tell our guys if you work on it, do it in the game, but you also have to be efficient in what you’re doing. So it’s something new for him, but we know what he can do in the paint, especially when he’s in pick-and-roll and he’s diving to the rim.”
That was on full display in the first half against the Kings. Unfortunately, the well dried up in the second half. The question is, was it a case of the Suns not finding him on his rolls, the big fella not working as hard on his dives or the Kings simply adjusting?
Deandre Ayton’s second half
Rewatching that second half, credit where credit is due: Kings head coach Luke Walton made the adjustment of giving Phoenix’s ball-handlers a little more room on pick-and-rolls, which allowed them to keep a body on DA at all times.
The result was taking away Ayton’s breezy lanes to the basket and forcing Paul and Booker to beat them — a task they’re normally capable of, but one they really fell short of during that ugly third quarter.
In the clip below:
- Devin Booker misses a full-speed but makable lefty layup
- Booker misses another makable floater in the paint
- Chris Paul misses two of his patented, fadeaway midrange jumpers after snaking his way around Ayton screens, with his feet in the paint on both misses
- Bridges steps out of bounds off an Ayton offensive rebound
- CP3 gets blocked from behind by Haliburton on an Ayton screen, DA taps it back to him and Paul smokes a point-blank layup
- Booker probes the defense off a good Ayton screen, finds Bridges wide open for 3…and he just misses it
You’ll notice in each and every one of these clips, the Kings put one or even two bodies on Ayton, building a wall in front of him that Phoenix simply didn’t adjust to.
DA should be commended for continuing to do his job despite not having space for the kinds touches he enjoyed in the first half, but it became a recurring theme in the second half: Ayton set a good screen, the Kings gave him no daylight, and Phoenix failed to punish them by hitting makable shots.
When Booker and the rest of the Suns’ ball-handlers did start hitting those midrange looks, especially in the fourth quarter, the complexion of the game changed again:
Unfortunately for DA (and his unrelenting fanbase), the instances of him getting rewarded for doing the dirty work were too few and far between.
Aside from this gorgeous spin move on a pick-and-roll and crashing the offensive glass to earn some free throws, the Suns simply couldn’t figure out how to get Ayton the ball in space.
The Kings adjusted, and Phoenix didn’t have a counter aside from hoping midrange assassins like Book and CP3 stopped missing the looks they regularly knock down.
If anything’s to blame for Wednesday’s result, it was the glaring disparity in 3-point shooting. The Kings shot 39.5 percent from deep, while the Suns — who ranked seventh in 3-point percentage last year — finished at 27.3 percent. Sacramento took 16 more 3s and made nine more than Phoenix.
These are becoming disturbing trends for the Suns early in the new campaign. Four games is a small sample size, but it’s alarming to see a defense that’s usually so good in defending the 3-point line give up a league-worst 42.2 percent shooting to opponents from distance. The Suns have given up 40.3 3-point attempts per game (24th in the NBA), which dwarfs the 29.8 attempts (27th) they’re taking on a nightly basis.
“It’s something we have to rectify,” Williams said. “The details of it, we kind of see it in game. I gotta look at the film, but right now we’re over-helping a lot and losing our man behind us, watching the ball. That’s something that we haven’t done. Guys are making those shots and we’re not generating enough 3s on the other side. So as frustrating as it is, it’s early in the season, but we can’t keep using that as an excuse that we will be okay. We gotta get right, and the consistency thing is something that keeps popping up in my mind.”
That’s not to say the Suns can’t improve when it comes to creating opportunities for DA, especially on nights where he’s so engaged and unstoppable early on.
There were a few instances where Phoenix simply missed Ayton, though the gaps were scarce in the second half. On this play, DA is briefly open for a lob behind Haliburton and Alex Len, but the ball is already leaving Booker’s hands to get to CP3 in the corner.
The result is a Booker corner 3, which misfires. It’s not a bad shot for a guy who got red-hot down the stretch, and this is nitpicking, but in terms of anticipating where his seven-footer is about to be, Booker just misses the window here.
The next two examples are also on Booker, who narrowly misses his chances to reward his big man for sprinting the floor but makes up for it by hitting big-time shots.
On this play, Book has a small opening for a pocket pass as Ayton flies by, but unleashes a wicked hesitation move and crossover dribble to free up an easy floater in the lane.
On this play, Ayton hustles down the floor, pins the undersized Davion Mitchell in the paint and sticks his hand up to call for the ball.
By the time he’s there, though, Book has already sized up his defender, determining that De’Aaron Fox is giving him too much space. He launches the pull-up 3, and any guilt he feels for missing DA is eradicated by A) the fact that he made the shot and B) the comfort that if he had missed, Ayton would’ve been in prime position to clean it up.
That’s not to say Ayton’s second half was perfect or that he’s some kind of martyr, however.
He had a couple of minor miscues below, including:
- Failing to pin and rolling the wrong way on a De’Aaron Fox screen, which allowed Fox to recover and contest Paul’s shot
- Not rolling or crashing the glass on a Booker midrange jumper that misfired, then haphazardly pursuing the ball with one hand after it was tipped in his direction
- Not making any contact on a Booker pick-and-roll that worked out because Haliburton cheated too far off Crowder in the corner
Still though, despite the faults on both sides to get Ayton more involved, even in the second half, the Suns showed flashes of that how they can perfectly use his rim-running to their benefit.
A crucial corner 3 from Crowder, which pulled Phoenix within two points with less than a minute to play, was created by Ayton’s gravitational pull off a screen and roll. It forced Haliburton into no man’s land, where he had to leave his man to account for the diving DA.
At that point, Book makes the easy read to the open shooter.
The verdict
At the end of the day, the Suns getting outpaced by 27 points from 3-point range, missing seven free throws and Chris Paul starting the game 0-for-7 had a lot more to do with Wednesday’s loss than Deandre Ayton’s involvement in the second half.
Yes, DA was feasting in the first half. And yes, him getting only one shot attempt in the second half is inexcusable, especially during that third-quarter cold streak where nothing was falling.
But Ayton’s stellar first half was a product of doing the little things and playing to his strengths as an elite roll man, not by playing outside himself or launching 3s or “being fed” in the post. Until DA develops more of an arsenal of post moves and feels comfortable with consistently attacking off the dribble, the Suns “feeding him” within this offense will always depend on his screening, his rim-running and his attacking the offensive boards.
That’s exactly what continued to happen in the second half, only the Kings adjusted by stapling a man to him whenever he even thought about entering the paint. Now it’ll be on Monty, DA and the Suns to find the right way to navigate a problem that’s come up in the past, and one that usually only becomes this noticeable on the nights when their counter — guys making shots they can make — isn’t working as planned.
