Chaz
observationist
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/nba-windows-the-suns-in-year-2-and-the-ghost-of-channing-frye/
Very good article on Grantland. A lot of hate for Channing Frye on here but he was an important part of the success last season.
I think they can move on successfully without him but I wanted to tip my hat to last years contribution.
Very good article on Grantland. A lot of hate for Channing Frye on here but he was an important part of the success last season.
I think they can move on successfully without him but I wanted to tip my hat to last years contribution.
Familiarity played a role in the joy surrounding this new Suns era, last year. Using vestiges of the Seven Seconds or Less days (Dragic, Channing Frye) as anchors, Hornacek was able to recreate the style of his own heyday and mold a team not only in his image, but also in the image longtime Suns fan have grown accustomed to. The team was stocked with long-range threats, athletes capable of making plays on either end of the court, and players capable of pushing tempo — the designation of “lead guard” befalling whichever of the two players happened to be speeding upcourt with the ball at that moment.
Most satisfying was the notion that we were finally seeing these players, most of whom had come from less gratifying situations on other teams, at their best. Of the nine Suns players who logged at least 1,000 minutes, six had career highs in effective field goal percentage (eFG). Well, technically six. It should be seven — Gerald Green missed his career high of 54.8 by a tenth of a percentage point. That career high was set back in 2012, when Green made an improbable return to the NBA as a member of the New Jersey Nets. It’s important to note that he sustained his eFG of 54.7 percent last season over the course of 82 games and 2,330 minutes, about three times as many as he played in New Jersey.
Effective field goal percentage takes into account both 2-point and 3-point field goals, weighing 3s more heavily to account for the difference in worth. Those career numbers across the board have to do with increased opportunity and scheme. Thirty percent of the Suns’ total field goal attempts came from behind the arc; only four teams surpassed that figure. The Suns also happened to have the second-best 3-point defense in the league, with opponents shooting only 34.1 percent. Making a ton of 3s and preventing your opponent from doing the same seems like a pretty solid formula for a winning season these days.
Staring at the numbers, last year’s Suns appear to be a perfect storm of unsustainable conveniences. How often are you going to have that many guys playing out of their minds in the same 82-game span? And for how many of those players is that uptick in production going to be the new normal?
There was a player who did leave. Unfortunately for the Suns, he might’ve taken their one hope of continuity along with him. Dragic became the team’s undisputed best player, Bledsoe remains their best chance at a future superstar, and Markieff Morris was the team’s unexpected breakout player. But Channing Frye might’ve been the most valuable player to the operation last season.
There are fewer than a handful of players in the NBA who combine Frye’s size, floor spacing ability, and competent post defense. When he was on the court, the Suns played like the best offense in the league, scoring 110.4 points per 100 possessions. No rotation player in Phoenix had a better on-court plus-minus. This is a team that won largely because of its prolific 3-point shooting. And it is now faced with the task of replacing the man who made it all possible.
The Suns obviously took more 3s when Frye was on the court, but they also made a significantly higher percentage of them. When Frye was on the court, the Suns made 39.3 percent of their 3-point attempts, per NBAwowy, a percentage that would put them right there with the Spurs, at the top. With Frye off the court, that percentage plummeted to 33.7 percent, a bottom-five figure. Take away Frye, and you’re left with a bunch of stray lightning bolts, without a rod to cull them.
