2014-15 Post-mortem: Grade The Suns

[Shabazz]

Eric Bledsoe: C-
The stats look good (18.5 PER, 17, 6 and 5), but as anyone who watched the team this season knows, Bledsoe's year was pretty much a bust. He didn't take the step forward expected from a player on his side of the aging curve. He only brought energy sporadically. He showed no leadership qualities on the court. His body language was poor. His turnovers came in ways that they shouldn't from a lead guard (telegraphed passes, poor ballhandling, throwing passes out of bounds). Most important, he never really showed the capacity to run a half court offense (initiate the offense early, get guys in their places, probe the D, run pick and rolls, etc). All in all, not a very encouraging season from McD's prize acquisition.
I don't know if last offseason's summer-long trip to Alabama was because of his contract situation or something he does every summer, but I think he would be well served if he came back to Phoenix early this year to develop some chemistry with his teammates in informal workouts.

Brandon Knight: INC.
Hard to judge him based on his time here and in his defense, he walked in to a bit of a shit show. He seems to be a lot more intelligent that Bledsoe, both on and off the court. He's known as a dogged worker and showed some leadership qualities. The concern is while his strengths can complement Bledsoe's (good shooting to play off Bled's driving game), his weaknesses are redundant (neither is much of a half court PG).

Gerald Green: C-
Would have been a 'D' if not for the late season flourish. Gerald can wonder aloud all he wants about why he didn't get time, but the fact is that when he did early in the season, he hurt us more than he helped us. He fell victim to the poor, early-season roster balance, and too often came in looking to get his - because he was sharing the court with IT - instead of looking for the best shot for the team. His poor shot selection and ball-handling/passing were deadly when combined with his atrocious defense. Personally, I like Gerald and what he could bring to the team if he's reigned in a little, but it's hard to see him back next season.

Alex Len: B-
Len alternated between showing signs of how great he can be with showing how far he has to go. At times, his mid-range shot looked beautiful, but more often than not (look at this shot chart. dear God, it's a dumpster fire in the mid-range) he'd brick it. His teammates clearly didn't pass him the ball enough, especially early in the season when he'd share the floor with IT, but when they did he'd often get stuffed, blow easy layups or brick a J. Combine his teammate's lack of faith in him with their reluctance to pass in general and his usage was comically low for a starting center.

The most encouraging period for Len was from the point his finger was fully healed until his first ankle sprain (his lift wasn't the same afterwards). During that time, he showed the ability to be a terror on D, a very good rebounder, and had a pretty good understanding of NBA defense for a second year player. He also showed enough offensive flashes to remain hopeful that that side of his game will progress. I can only imagine what he'd look like with pass-first PG.

Markieff Morris: C+
Like McDonough said, he was probably our most consistent player, but that's damning with faint praise. He's a very skilled offensive player, a good passer, a good mid-range shooter, but he just doesn't have the length to match up with the upper tier of power forwards in the league. He defense was actually pretty good to start the season, but by April he was routinely getting abused. His rebounding remained sub-par all season. I kind of like the edge he plays with (that leads to the Ts), but he will also often come across as petulant rather than tough. Demerits for the off court incident and being his brother's brother.

Marcus Morris: D
Another grade that would have been worse if not for a late season uptick. I came in to the season thinking that his contract was actually not bad, and it's not, but I just don't like him. Part of it is that he's not that good at any one thing. Part of it is the dust-up with Horny (who are you to be chewing out your coach?). Part of is was his redundancy on the roster and blocking TJ time. Mostly, it was his reluctance to pass, until the end of the season, that bothered me. He was another gunner on a team full of them, but he's not enough of a shooter or scorer to justify that mentality. Again, $5M a year is not that bad for a 10/5 player with some ability to space the floor. I just think we can find less of a headache and more of a roster fit for less money.

Archie Goodwin: C+
I thought it was a pretty encouraging season for Archie. No 29 point games, but there were signs that he's been addressing his deficiencies, namely outside shooting and ability to finish. His overall FG% went down, but his 3p% and FT% went up. He's one more jump from being a viable shooting guard in this league. Obviously he's got a long way to go, but by all accounts he's the hardest worker on the team, first in/last out kind of guy and I think he'll be a good player in time. One thing working against him is he's not a good complement to either Bledsoe or the bricklayers we have at the SF spot. He'd have a lot more room to drive if he was surrounded by competent shooters. I'd like to see him improve his ball-handling this summer as well.

I consider him a piece for the future.

TJ Warren: B-
He never really had much of an opportunity until it was too late, but showed signs of being a really good scorer. His off the ball game is already at a veteran level. However, his shot creating skills were predictably not as good as they looked in college. He's starting from a good place though. If he can just become a respectable shooter from 3 (and from the line), the rest of his game will flourish. 53% shooting from a rookie wing player is pretty great.
Like Archie, he's another player that would be better when surrounded by shooters. The mid-range was often clogged for him this year. His D needs work, but it wasn't as bad as advertised. He competes on that end, but like most rookies looked lost at times.

Brandan Wright: B+
Wright was really good for our team and probably wasn't even used correctly. His biggest weakness (defensive rebounding) prior to the trade was one of our team's biggest weaknesses, but he really held his own on that end. He's efficient, smart and he competes on D. Basically, he's an ideal backup center and I hope he's with the team again next season.

PJ Tucker: B
For as much ennui as he causes Suns fans (super duper extreme DUI, missed buses, offensive hubris), he's the only Sun that brings it every night on the court. He defended and rebounded all year. His 3 point % regressed as he moved away from the corners without actually having improved his above-the-break shooting. But he's the kind of player good teams need. He just may be better suited for a bench role, where he can come in and spell players at the 2, 3 or 4. I go back and forth on PJ all the time, but ultimately, I think he brings good value for his contract and should be back with the team next season.

Marcus Thornton: D
Meh. Nice knowing you. You should have been Brandon Bass.

Reggie Bullock: F-
Not sure what other grade you can give a player that finished with a -3.1 PER and 1-16 (!) from the field as a Sun - and looked every bit that bad doing it.

Earl Barron: F-
One day, someone will explain the Earl Barron thing to me. He shoots 30% from the field. Doesn't rebound or defend well. Yet two different regimes saw fit to bring him in 5 years apart. How good does a player have to be in the locker room to have a job while being that bad on the court? What was the appeal here? Does he have nude pictures of Sarver? IT JUST DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE.

Jerel McNeal: C
I certainly wasn't pining for a poor man's Anthony Johnson, but he did play for the Suns D-League affiliate, so, um..

Jeff Hornacek: C-
Not as bad at Xs-and-Os as some on this board make him out to be. IMO, that's a strength of his. Every time he speaks i find myself agreeing with his philosophies. I honestly think he was just put in an untenable position this year. I can't remember a roster with more redundancy. Even the post-Amare "small forward extravaganza" had players with diverse skill sets. Other than Len, Plumlee, Tucker and sometimes Markieff, we had a roster made up, top to bottom, of players that were primarily scorers. To get 7/10 players in your rotation to fundamentally change the way they play was an impossible task. We also entered the season with playoff aspirations, so our young players like TJ and Archie were getting squeezed out by higher priced veterans like Marcus and Green, despite the latter pair struggling badly.

I think the "inmates running the asylum/tech" issues were a little overblown and partially a product of the redundancy and its resulting frustration. Give Hornacek a more balanced roster next season with willing passers, defenders and rebounders and he'll look a lot more competent.

Ryan McDonough: C-
He drafted TJ (good), Ennis (Meh) and Bogdan (?). He signed Isaiah (good contract, poor fit) and Tolliver (right idea, good contract, didn't work out for some reason). He guaranteed Shavlik's contract (huh?), signed the Morris Twins to reasonable, tradeable, extensions (OK) and Bledsoe to a whopper deal after a summer of acrimony (holding out hope, but off to a poor start). He traded Tolliver for bupkis, 2 second rounders for Brandan Wright (A), Shavlik for a player that we thought had upside (A) and then gave up the farm, including our crown jewel asset, for Brandon Knight (D, but the grade could go up or down depending on how the next two summers play out). Got a pick back for Isaiah (OK) and came away pretty well in the Dragic trade considering Dragic was leaving anyway.

Ultimately you have to judge him on what we came in to last summer with, what we started the season with and what we ended the season with. Last summer we were in a great place - 3 picks in the way in a strong draft, assets to play with and a young roster. We came in to the season with a mismatched, poorly balanced roster that led to hurt feelings and ugly departures. And we ended the season out of the playoffs, stuck in NBA purgatory (THE PHOENIX SUNS ANNUAL 13TH PICK IN THE DRAFT) and with more, but lower quality assets than we started it with. Despite some good moves, not a good year for McDonough, although he's in a position to quickly correct some mistakes and position us better if he's willing to be bold. Let's all hope he is.

Pour one out for: Goran, Zoran, IT, Shav, Plumlee, Ennis, Tolliver, AJ Price and Seth Curry.

[LazarusLong]

Shabazz: A ... I like your use of the word "ennui"

[The Bobster]

Eric Bledsoe - C- - Not a point guard, not a shooting guard. Not a leader.
Gerald Green - D - One-dimensional, if he's not hot he's not helping.
Brandon Knight - Inc. - Good player, would keep him over Bledsoe.
Alex Len - B - Shows lots of potential, needs some good luck.
Markieff Morris - B- Wouldn't mind if he's traded, needs attitude adjustment.
Marcus Morris - D+ - Move him.
Archie Goodwin - C+ - Needs a dependable shot, has great athleticism.
T.J. Warren - C+ - Should have gotten a lot more minutes.
Brandon Wright - B - Very good role player, contributes without the ball.
P.J. Tucker - C+ - Solid player, sometimes tried to do to much.
Marcus Thornton - D - Salary cap throw-in.
Reggie Bullock - D- - Who knows what he can do?
Earl Barron - D - Solid D-League player, NBA bench-warmer.
Jerel McNeal - D+ - Not a whole lot to judge him by.

Jeff Hornacek - C - Average coach IMO.
Ryan McDonough- C- - At least he didn't give Frye $8 million per.

[Mori Chu]

Great post, bazz. I think you're too hard on Markieff given how well he played for most of the year and given his cheap contract and so on. He was also clutch at the ends of games. Otherwise I agree with your ratings. Bledsoe is the guy who really disappointed me. I don't know if we can build a great team around him as our starting PG.

[Shabazz]

Great post, bazz. I think you're too hard on Markieff given how well he played for most of the year and given his cheap contract and so on. He was also clutch at the ends of games. Otherwise I agree with your ratings. Bledsoe is the guy who really disappointed me. I don't know if we can build a great team around him as our starting PG.

Markieff put up slightly above average numbers on an average team. I took team performance into consideration and gave him a slightly above average grade.

His statistical profile is actually really strange. 30th among power forwards in PER. 23rd in Offensive RPM. 4th in WAR. 5th in defensive RPM. So the part of his game we all think he's pretty good at (offense) he's got very poor advanced stats. His defensive reputation is poor, but statistically he looks quite good.

[Superbone]

Great post, bazz. I think you're too hard on Markieff given how well he played for most of the year and given his cheap contract and so on. He was also clutch at the ends of games. Otherwise I agree with your ratings. Bledsoe is the guy who really disappointed me. I don't know if we can build a great team around him as our starting PG.

I agree that everything was pretty much spot on except Markieff should have gotten a B.

I don't know if we can build a great team around him as our starting PG.

I am positive that we can't.

[SDC]

putting on the opposing team's GM's hat on, i want only two players from the suns team: keef and green

if monta opts out (tyson chandler's contract is also expiring+they wont sign rondo), both dragic and green should sign with the mavs.

[Furlanfufi]

Great post, Bazz.

The thing about Kieff is that his style of play kills any offensive movement.
He thrives on old school plays, one on one contested mid range jumpers. I don't think a team can be sucessful nowadays playing like that.