The Suns are off to a red-hot start. The scary part? They’re not even humming yet

Sometimes, it takes a while for new head coaches to put their fingerprints on a team. And sometimes, it really, really doesn’t.

Over the years, Mike Budenholzer has established a pretty clear blueprint for how he wants his teams to play — a set of principles forged in the fires of his years as an assistant (and, before that, a player!) under Gregg Popovich, and one he’s stuck by across 10 seasons as a head coach in Atlanta and Milwaukee. For good reason: Bud went 484-317 with the Hawks and Bucks, a .604 winning percentage. He missed the playoffs just once in a decade; in that same span, he won 50 games five times, 60 games twice, and an NBA championship.

So while the specifics of his task would differ when he took over the Phoenix Suns — succeed where Frank Vogel struggled in finding a way to maximize the offensive talents of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal; minimize the defensive liabilities on a team seemingly light on high-end stoppers; get the most out of the many bargain-bin contributors dotting a roster devoting $150.6 million to its three stars — it seemed reasonable to expect his general approach to remain roughly the same. And sure enough: Eight games into the 2024-25 NBA season, the Suns are 7-1, tied for first place in the Western Conference, and they’ve arrived there by beginning to look a lot like a Coach Bud team.

Kevin Durant reacts after scoring against the Trail Blazers on Nov. 2, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

How these Suns are getting stops

The shift starts on the defensive end. Think back to the Hawks teams built around Al Horford and Paul Millsap, and the Bucks teams built around Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez. Coach Bud teams tend to play conservatively on the defensive end, worrying a lot less about creating turnovers on the perimeter than avoiding fouls and protecting the paint, typically by having their big men sink back in drop coverage while point-of-attack defenders fight over the top of screens.

The goals: keep your hugest dudes near the basket to limit layups and dunks; keep your perimeter defenders close to their assignments to limit 3-point…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-11-08 20:41:00

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