PHOENIX — We’re at the halfway point of the NBA season, and though the Phoenix Suns somewhat stumbled out of the gates, they’ve reached near full health and the results have shown.
Entering Wednesday, the Suns have won their last six games and are one of the hottest teams in the league.
In midseason report cards across the web, Phoenix found some consistency as well:
CBS Sports: B
Colin Ward-Henninger: “It’s been difficult to judge the Suns for most of the season due to the absences of their stars, but when they’ve all been on the floor they’ve been dominant. Despite all the talk about defensive issues, they sit in the middle of the pack with plenty of room for improvement. Durant, Booker and Beal are already jelling offensively, so the defense likely only needs to be around the top 10 for the Suns to be an elite postseason team. Grayson Allen has been an excellent complementary piece, shooting 48% from 3-point range. Outside of Allen and Jusuf Nurkic, however, it’s hard to know which role players will show up from night to night.”
The Athletic: B
Zach Harper: “The Suns might be in the process of turning this into what they expected it to be. They’ve played great basketball recently, and we’re seeing the trio of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal look unstoppable on offense. I still believe in the potential of this team, but they really don’t have role players capable of helping on both ends of the floor. The Suns have to pretty much decide to go all-in on offense.”
Bleacher Report: B
Andy Bailey: “The Phoenix Suns threatened the A-tier last time around, based largely on the assumption that they’d eventually get whole and look dominant whenever that happened.
“But they’ve still only played seven games in which all three of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal were available. They’re 3-4 in those games and just 8-8 overall since the last report card was published.
“In the games when the whole trio plays, the supporting cast has looked pretty underwhelming too.
“But let’s boil things down even further. Given all the injuries, this sample size is probably too small for confident takeaways, but Phoenix is scoring 140.4 points per 100 possessions and is plus-30.5 points per 100 possessions when all three stars are on the floor.
“Every single possession becomes a Sophie’s Choice for the defense. Given the one-on-one scoring prowess of each, there’s simply no way to have all three adequately covered.
“If they’re healthy is a bigger caveat for the Suns than most other teams, but if they’re healthy, the Suns are a title contender.”
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