-In an Authentic Way
The Purpose of this article is twofold. First, I’d like to watch games from better “Angle” someday (figuratively and realistically). Second, as a fan of the sport, I’d like to bring a perspective that I find it more enjoyable which doesn’t necessarily neglect all stats and current jargon, but it aims to find nuances that makes the game quite “delicious” and “tempting” regardless of the results of their ongoing matches.
I’m inviting you to a risk-free journey of viewing a sport from an alternative perspective. Inspired by Seth Godin, I’m trying a new recipe. You will be still finding vast amounts of analysis of the game, performance and so forth out there somewhere, which I believe the majority of them are valid and informative ones and mine doesn’t completely reject those amazing stuff. It is simply different.
So, in my mind, I’m envisioning a layout of my writing as follows; I’ll first share a template of how I will “look at” Suns Team and then give my observations thru some terminology “borrowed” from different disciplines because I believe they capture better than current ones. Then you hopefully will find it “interesting” and “Readable” enough. Eventually, I’ll get to a point where it is worthy enough to share your feedback. Yeah, that’s the plan.
Now, Pick Your favorite background music or you can listen to what I’ve chosen for you, find something to slow time for yourself (nurturing yourself with a snack or meal alongside your beverage for instance), and finally check out this meme and let’s begin:
Suns is currently on a 17 winning streak and counting. They may have a season which may shatter all team records by the end of the year. Faces are wearing a smile that Coach Monty has put on, and it is very entertaining to watch their games. Here are 9 reasons I think they are more than fun to be around and why I’d call a difference-maker this year alongside other championship contenders.
1- Attention to Detail: In this league, you didn’t have to reinvent the wheel for success for a long time. Then LeBron appeared, Steph Curry happened, and these iconic players brought almost a new dimension to the reality of basketball. Now that we as basketball audience is so blessed that we witness both overall quality of the league has increased noticeably compared to 15 years ago. Today, Average player’s versatility is much more impactful than any “good” players of early 2000s with one dimensional skill sets. Back in the day, as you used to build teams based on players known for their one dominant feature, today you must put many other “Blessings” of these players into consideration. Before I fill you up with so many examples and how it is executed, let me thank my inspirer David Aldridge, who is now at the climax of writing at The Athletic. I wanted to thank him for being a pioneer at this sport. Back to the point, here is how I think Suns organization has succeeded in that department of building a team that’s cohesive.
(S is the highest and F is for failing)
a. First Touch: Almost all players of Suns team have an exceedingly high profile with first touch abilities. If I may elaborate, their first interaction with the ball has tremendously improved since CP3 is around. It is a little hard to notice behind any screen (whether it is tv, computer or smartphone one) but if you ever go to the game, watch closely how they behave as soon as they receive the ball. A+
b. Footwork Quality: I feel like when you have masters such as CP3 and Book in a team together, it turns into a trend among other players. Every time Bridges is defending with his feet, Crowder setting up his foot for almost certain assist record for whoever passing the ball and of course DA making opponent team’s fans curse his defender due to easiness of how he gets to the basket makes the game as enjoyable as they outscore their opponents. If majority of the team reaches to the similar level in this field, teams should fear more than one of the stars shining a bit more than others. A+
c. Body Usage: when I was playing for my middle school team, our coach would pause the game if the scorer had a layup and not getting fouled while doing so. He would ask to re-act the same sequence of events; He’d ask the defendant to make his presence felt by the attacker and him to finish again despite the contact. Sometimes, 4 or 5 takes would bore us to death as a 6th grader but, hey that rehearse would make it so much easier during the actual games. I feel like this might elevate certain players to be considered “next level” if they insert to their routine. B-
d. Reflexiveness: Well, individually, I think most of the sets are well executed regardless whoever is on the floor, however, there is still another notch they can get to. Thanks to their imminent problem solvers as of now, but during playoffs you need 3rd, 4th and 5th guy to be cool, calm, and collected to disperse the attention your key “scorers” get. The only way you can do that is to put them into “pick your poison” situation. So far, Warriors seems to be the only other team who has that. A
e. Consistently Improvement: Anyone who has played team sport knows that comparison can be your curse or blessing. Therefore, great coaches make their difference by navigating that notion in a team. I feel like Coach Monty has done very well in terms of cultivating a culture that all those 15 guys are part of the team, yet you can only do so much due to available minutes. At that point, every player has to make a choice about their path to stardom. Do they settle on a mindset of outdated term “role player” or, do they push the envelope each given time and transform themselves into a player you must consider at minute distribution? C+
f. Direct Contribution Index (made-up term): Comparing to rest of the league, I feel like Suns has more than 4 players that have high DCI in any given night. That’s a blessing to a coach in terms of creativity and combinations. In addition to that, it minimizes the “off” game nights, dependability on your star players and essentially preserves the overall mental stamina of your team in general. This is more than sitting your starting five at the 4th quarter. This is about having 10–13 players having the similar walk and body language of confidence in themselves of your star players in practice. S
g. Number of “bench warmers”: This is not their Achilles for sure but something they need to get better. Not that you have a narrow rotation line that excludes 8+ players pretending they are part of the team such as Rockets but some players act like this is granted to them. It is psychologically not easy to be on the floor at garbage time all the time, but you are still one of 4,374+ (BR Article) players have appeared in at least one NBA game and act like it is just “cool”. I will try to zoom in those “other” players sometime, but it is so hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that some players are settling into becoming towel guys and pursue a career somewhere else I mean when I think of all basketball enthusiasts all around world, having a contract with one of those 30 teams should by itself motivate you to keep pursuing a dream. Shoutout to the coaching staff and players that Suns is doing well with deep rotation but hopefully this can last till the end of championship run. Otherwise, CP3 will likely run out of gas, Book will run more iso plays and Crowder will be pissed. B+
2- Decentralization of Decision Making: Since Monty took over, his challenge has been authoritarianism in good decision-making in this team. It was either him, whoever is point guard or Book had to make the call how they finish the play. But since Cp3 blessed the Valley, the idea of decision making seems smoother than ever. I don’t want to give all the credit to him since maturity of DB, leadership material of JC and some other major contributors are definitely factor but I subjectively feel like team now has a new vibe compared to last year. It is not really about efficiency in scoring, but how quality each play has evolved this year. I remember NBA.com had these fun puzzles many moons ago, which a player would showcase possibilities of what he can do at a certain possession and how deadly it is for him to meet the ball at that particular point on the field. However, anyone knows that if you are a “role player” your options shrink significantly. You become this persona that “helps” star player do their thing. Then, contracts, team vibe, coach mentality and some other factors kick in and you “accept” this “average Joeness”. But in Suns team, I feel like one of the primary factors why they are successful is the decentralized decision-making system. Whether it is Payne or Johnson on offense, or Nader in defense, they feel empowered to call a “play-action” and take the initiative. They are not just there so they can only create for Book. The way how DA is affecting the game is at the remarkably prominent level, but because the narrative in the NBA is still about scoring, it won’t be recognized as much as it should. Overall, this brings a new perception to all players in the team. It does polish Book’s legacy, solidifies “floor generalness” of Cp3, yet it calibrates so many of your players on the team organically. Management did a phenomenal job to bring players that suit into this idea, and this is sustainable for a number of years to come.
3- Gamify The Game: I had long conversations with some NBA players before due to my former profession and the common denominator for them was they see this game as a “business” more than a passion project. They need to execute day in and out and preserve their abilities of what they do on and off the court. It seems so normal to me to think that way since you are playing almost every night for 6 months and the enthusiasm can die after a while. However, players need to find new ways to engage with the game other than contracts, fans and team habitat. This may sound a self-improvement demagogy to some and to a certain extent it is, but I feel like it is extremely necessary for them to “challenge” themselves each game individually. I’m sure many players already do that with different schemes, and it is great, but mine is more about a collaborative mindset to curate some potential gains in the team. It seems to me Suns is currently doing this with an obvious bond among team players. When they score, rebound or extra pass for a better look, almost all team is involved with their gestures. It’s very important to control this “vibe” especially when things go not so well. Sometimes, gamification can give as much motivation as any powerful speech and teams have to recognize that with younger players. Their attention span will never be questionable with the gamified structure of recognition of success.
4- Mental Fortitude: when I was the 4th point guard in my middle school team, my coach reminded me quite often that a team mindset is as good as their point guard. I wasn’t the most athletic point guard, but I guess my mental fortitude made me a first guard later. I was told that it was not about having toughness, but they used it in the context of keeping a calm cool, collected throughout the game with a bit sprinkle of composure. Of course, my truly little experience doesn’t give me credentials to evaluate their mental fortitude, but what reminds me is that it is as vital as your stamina, as essential as your physical strength and as core as how you define success. It is mental fortitude that one concept that distinguishes great players from good ones. I believe Suns is very fortunate in that department. Players like McGee or Shamet seem feeding from the overall fiery calmness and even at the last minutes, players enjoy that thrillers if that ever occurs. Body language is so important for fans to nurture the energy level in the arena, and it seems like they are doing a decent job.
5- Playbook: I promised to stay away from acknowledgement of this success of our Suns via highlighting stats and therefore you will find minimum numbers and stats in these writings. Not that they are not credible or boring, it just won’t be my take (who can deny the Godly John Schuhmann who is a senior stats analyst for NBA.com). However, I want to mention about how complicated yet simplified their set plays are. Because at the end we remember things with the stories surrounding them. Even when you learn a new language, you are encouraged to create little stories around words so they can be transferred from your RAM memory. I have this theory that the success of a play can be measured based on the options right at the exact moment of shooting at the basket. The quality of offense or defense can be evaluated based on that argument. From that angle, I feel like they crystalized a mentality which makes their offense almost unstoppable as long as they are not missing shots. Probably my illiteracy is speaking, but I wish there was a way AWS would extract certain plays that demonstrate how enriched and enhanced Suns offense with multi-dimensional plays. Having said that, I’m not denying the iso plays for DB or the temper controlling ones for CP3 from mid-range, but it seems anyone with the ball has more than 2 options the majority of time. If they get to the level where they have a majority of 2.5 to 3 (which they do sometimes), then first expectations will turn into “duh” moments and we will inevitably stumble into new never-ending arguments of “who is the best”, “is this a dynasty in the works” and so forth. Just next time you are watching the game, try to notice how many options ball handler has at the moment of “Act”. There it is another reason to enjoy the game of Suns.
6- Narrative: There are currently two major components in our lives when it comes to how we value our life. Who is controlling the narrative of our story? And what is your perspective? Now, if you have satisfying responses to these questions, it can clear so many unknowns in your life for accountability and responsibility. And not only that, but also you can verify and validate your decisions. In fact, Sun has made a revolutionary change about that. Their story is now belonging to them, and the narrative is under control. The character traits they display on and off the floor give them luxury to even manipulate it if needed. They are in particularly decent shape but maybe, which is an important one, they might need to add an additional layer towards this championship run. I feel like that’s one of the reasons why they lost the championship last year, losing the control of the narrative.
7- Be A Changer: Well, this is speculative and I’ll definitely be biased about it since this classification is made by yours truly. I feel you can explain much better if you highlight any progress of a team, company, or community with 4 phases.
In order, Pre-conception Changer > Game Changer > Perspective Changer > Culture Changer.
I’ll the leave meanings of them to your wisdom and elaborate Suns’ position as of today. I genuinely believe we can think of them as perspective-changers in the current state, that anyone and almost everyone thinks of Suns differently compared to 2 years ago. Opponents approach differently, fans expect differently, families of players and coaching stuff embraces this journey differently. The only one who is still stagnant with their comfort zone is the in-game entertainment teams (I mean when will you bring fresh ideas accommodating this team’s fascinating success story?) So, GM, Coaching Staff and their entire crew is cruising toward “cultural shift” not only in the Valley but in the overall perception of Suns Basketball. The scale of this shift is totally up to “success story” but it is very promising.
8- Intellectual Capacity: Another “Borrowed” term from business, I feel like they are in the top 5 who have the highest intellectual capacity among all NBA teams. (Warriors, Nets, Jazz & 4 teams Lakers, Nuggets, Bulls, Mavs are racing for the last spot) This is not a new idea but what’s new is that how they are utilizing this capacity. In my humble opinion, I think intellectual capacity can be formulated as Intellectual Capital + Will Power + Ability to execute + Perspective + some fortunate (conscious choice over the word “luck”). What good of knowing this formula is that you can articulate your strategy much better than preaching every game to convince your players that you are a championship contender. I feel like Coach Monty is doing a fantastic job because of that. He is very much capable of empowering his players with a narrative that not only boosts their confidence but also eases their way into becoming a direct contributor to the success. Whether it is explaining their interchanging role game by game, or constantly reminding them about the big picture with the help of leaders in the team, he deserves most of the credit for how it is transcribed to the players. I feel like players enjoy these dynamic roles and responsibilities instead of complaining about not taking enough shots or minutes each game. Sometimes, having a peace of mind and not causing a problem is as crucial as being a sharpshooter. (ex. Lakers). If they can sustain this optimization, again being very biased about it, so you are more welcome to not quote me on that, they are my championship contender over Warriors this year. Let me conclude with a cliché that if they don’t have season ending injuries, our Suns finally enjoy a championship parade this year.
9- Team Identity: The business guru,the influencer Gary Vaynerchuk, listed the top 13 ingredients necessary for business success. I don’t know about how you could argue measuring these qualities, but I can attest to that having those qualities can be a beginning of a longer story than a fable. Here are those 13 traits: Gratitude, Self-Awareness, Accountability, Optimism, Empathy, Kindness, Tenacity, Curiosity, Patience, Conviction, Humility, Ambition and Kind Candor. Most of them are self-inflicted traits. However, it does define team identity regardless of what system or strategy the coach wants to play. I feel like Suns number one priority was to bring in players who could buy into that. It wasn’t credited enough, but it was such major criteria, and it seems like working very well.
As at the ending of Ratatouille, the one and only Anton Ego says, “Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere!”. We are witnessing that Suns is on its way to be A Culture Changer and they are doing it artistically.
Next: What each player brings to the table when things are not going so well?
