Coach Spins' Clipboard: The Suns Playbook, Breakout Bucket-Getters, and the Lakers 'Big' Issue
Plus Isaac Okoro's hot streak, Buddy Hield's shot selection, and AJ Griffin's Push Shot
Good morning, world. Kevin Durant is a Sun, Cam Thomas is a bucket, and AJ Griffin is very good at shooting. Let’s talk hoops.
Monty Williams, the Right Coach for This
The Phoenix Suns are an overnight favorite to win the Western Conference this year. Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, and Devin Booker are three of the best and most well-rounded perimeter players in the entire league. Durant is a mid-range sniper who is unguardable one-on-one, can handle ball screens, and spot-up effectively next to other stars. Paul is the most cerebral point guard of the last 20 years, manipulating ball screens on every possession, killing teams at the elbows, and being a really good shooter in his own right. Booker is tremendous off movement, handles contact well while staying balanced, and can handle the ball or come off down screens.
The Suns don’t put a ton of pressure on the rim as a team. They never have, leaning in instead to lots of 3-pointers created by their stars and, with the elite nature of their mid-range shooting, that they’ll make enough shots that defenses dare them to take. Rolling threat Deandre Ayton prevents teams from over-helping, and his gravity in the dunker spot gets catch-and-shoot triples for others.
But Monty Williams deserves a ton of credit for how he has constructed his playbook. It’s the perfect fit for this trio to have just enough movement around them to score in bunches and to prevent defenses from taking away any one player. In particular, Monty uses three key elements in his playbook to accomplish this: the Exit action, the Zoom action, and the Spain pick-and-roll.
This edit from coach Rob Gardiner looks at their playbook by formation (Horns series, elbow series, ball screens, etc.) but if you watch for exit, zoom, and Spain, you’ll see that they’re present in every series.
To me, that’s what to focus on with the Suns: not how they get into the action, but what action they depend on to score. The Horns series and Elbow series flow together so nicely because Elbow is essentially just Horns with a cross screen. Put Booker or Durant at the elbow and different results can emerge. It’s so simple for the offense but complex for the defense — especially with these three guys running it.
Constant double drags will be annoying to guard with Paul, KD, and Booker involved. One will be the handler, one will be the first screener (and high single-side bump guy), and Ayton will set the second screen before rolling. Just that simple action (known as ‘Train’ in the video above) should open up either lobs or throwback shots to 3.
All the Exit actions help occupy helpers so that Ayton, Bismack Biyombo, and rollers get open at the hoop. It’s a cheap ploy on the weak side but works almost every time. Think about Durant being a handler coming off to his right while Booker zips to the corner off a baseline screen and Ayton rolls simultaneously. Do you live with the KD pull-up, the Ayton slam on the roll, or a shooter like Booker in the corner?
Spain action is really effective because of how smart Chris Paul is and how good of a shooting threat Devin Booker can be off those gut actions. Put KD in as the handler and CP3 at the nail as the second guard in the Spain set, where he could use his crafty (and borderline illegal) screening methods to help get KD open — or better yet a switch onto a little — to operate one-on-one.
As for those Zoom actions, those could be my favorite in Phoenix. There’s so much firepower here that they can get the ball in the hands of Durant, Booker, or Paul with momentum, zipping off screens from the corners to make quick reads and decisions. Durant loved wide pindowns in Oklahoma City and Brooklyn; Zoom functions in a very similar way. Booker and Paul are already great here, and we could see CP3 in the corners more now that the Suns have two other All-Stars to handle.
There is no shortage of ways to seamlessly slide Durant into the already-existing playbook and structure built in Phoenix. It may take a little bit of time on the fly to make it happen, as well as adding more elbow and mid-post ISOs for Durant to be lethal when he has a mismatch in his favor. On paper, I absolutely love this big four in Phoenix for the ways they all exacerbate each other’s strengths. Their offense is going to be dynamic — and the defense won’t be too shabby either.
The Value of Professional Scorers
The week leading up to the trade deadline is always a unique one. Teams will hold out players on the block to avoid injuries. Traded players miss games due to the travel and onboarding process mandated by the league. We see some wonky rotations, and with that comes opportunities for guys typically in a lesser role to step up and have breakout games.
Two players seized the opportunities before them last week: Cam Thomas of the Brooklyn Nets and Jaden Hardy of the Dallas Mavericks. Known for their bucket-getting prowess, both were inserted into heavy roles in the absences of other star players and cashed in with great performances.
Thomas was absolutely absurd, drilling back-to-back 40 point performances, willing the Nets to victory over the Washington Wizards and keeping them alive against the Los Angeles Clippers without Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving.
Thomas is fantastic when he’s given a long leash. He’s fairly efficient, gets to the free throw line a great deal, can operate out of ball screens, and is a threat from literally everywhere on the floor. His playmaking for others isn’t at an incredibly high level, but the value of showing up and getting that many points cannot be understated.
The same goes for Jaden Hardy. On Monday night, the Mavs visited Utah for a game that could have major ramifications for seeing down the line. While the Mavs were shorthanded due to the Irving trade, they decided to sit Luka Doncic for the evening for rest. Hardy got more minutes and to play with the ball in his hands, and he dropped a career-high 29 points.
Hardy was great down the stretch, controlling the ball and knifing into contact to live at the free throw line. His closing offense helped keep the lead for the Mavs and helped them score a major road victory.
In an age of scouting where microskills get analyzed in great detail and advanced metrics play a huge role in determining value, the value of going out and being a primary scorer for your team has seemingly decreased. Hopefully this week has been a reminder of just how potent players like these can be and why it’s important to have them in a rotation.
Who knows if Hardy will maintain a role for Dallas once Doncic and Irving are held side-by-side, or if Cam Thomas will stay as a focal point on offense for a deep Nets team. At the very least, we’ve been reminded that impact scorers can change the game for a team in the regular season and are a major advantage for any team that has them.
Isaac’s Okorner 3s
Isaac Okoro has found a little more consistently of late on the offensive end. His positive play has contributed to the Cavs taking Kevin Love out of the rotation entirely, as he’s finally marrying sturdy offensive performance with his impactful defense. This week (a four-game sample), Okoro has averaged 11.5 points per game and shot 7-13 (53.8%) from 3-point range.