Four games into the season, the Suns’ defense is already looking like a problem that won’t stay quiet.
Phoenix is 1-3, and every game has ended with the same ugly number attached to it: 122 points or more allowed. That’s a far cry from last season, when the defense was the team’s identity and the energy came from chasing, swiping, diving, and turning every possession into a fight. Right now, that version of the Suns feels gone.
Dillon Brooks didn’t sugarcoat it after the latest stumble. “We’re 30th in defense, so that’s not great.
That’s terrible.” The team had spent three days drilling the issue in practice, then came back home and watched Denver light them up from deep anyway.
The breakdowns are piling up in the same places. Rotations to shooters are late.
Again and again, the Suns are arriving after the shot is already gone. Jamal Murray and Christian Braun combined for 14 threes, and Brooks and the rest of the defense kept getting caught closing out too slowly on kick-outs to Braun.
Ott even said Braun was “a guy that’s made five all year.” But once a shooter gets clean looks, the math changes fast.
The switching and double-teaming around Nikola Jokic has created another mess. On play after play, the aggressive coverage left one help defender trying to account for two Nuggets on the perimeter.
That kind of scheme can work, but only if everyone is locked in and moving together. Right now, the timing is off, and the mistakes keep feeding the next one.
There’s also been too much sleeping in the corners. Brooks and Bridges are often parked there, and the lapses show up in different ways: missed backdoor cuts, slow reactions, lost rebounds. Devin Booker’s league-worst 137.2 individual defensive rating gets attention, but the issues are spread across the floor.
The frustrating part is that the Suns had three full days to address it. Offensively, they looked sharper outside of Jalen Green. Defensively, the same holes were still there.
The roster was supposed to bring length and physicality, but that edge hasn’t shown up where it matters most. Phoenix is grabbing just 27.7 defensive rebounds per game, and only Golden State has been worse at finishing possessions. With Mark Williams out and Oso Ighodaro missing a couple of games, the frontcourt has been thin and young, and Khaman Maluach is being asked to carry a big role early.
Ott laid out the trade-off himself, saying the team is “so concerned on the glass” that players are retreating to rebound instead of pressuring the ball. The result is a defense that spends too much time reacting and not enough time dictating.
Last season, that athleticism created steals and transition chances. This year, it’s being used to clean up mistakes that should have been stopped before they started.
That loss of pressure changes everything. The Suns ranked third in steals last season, and that disruption helped fuel the chaos offense.
Without it, the team becomes more ordinary, more half-court dependent, and a lot easier to defend. It also leaves them vulnerable to nights like Jamal Murray’s 39-point outburst, the kind of game that can tilt everything.
The lineup decisions are already starting to matter, too. Jalen Green’s defensive rating is 130.7, while Collin Gillespie’s is 120.3, and Ott chose Gillespie next to Booker down the stretch instead of Green.
And the next test is a tough one. The Warriors can shoot it from deep, they hunt threes, and they have Stephen Curry. Golden State hit 22 threes at 45% in a win over the Clippers on Sunday night and has won four straight since losing to the Suns.
If the defense keeps sitting near the bottom of the league, the questions around the starters are only going to get louder. Winning can cover some of that, but only for so long.
The message now is simple. The film is there.
The talk is over. Close out on shooters.
Box out your man. And if the Booker-Green-Brooks-Bridges group can’t defend together, Ott has to stop forcing it and lean into the lineups that actually get stops.
In Other News...
Suns Finally Get A Chance To Look Whole Against Warriors
For the first time in a while, the Suns are heading into a game with something close to a full deck. Mark Williams is the only player listed out ahead of the matchup with the Warriors, and Oso Ighodaro is back after missing time with an oblique strain and even got into the recent loss to the Nuggets. It is the kind of roster update Phoenix has been waiting for, especially after spending stretches piecing together lineups and trying to keep the rotation steady.
Collin Gillespie has already pointed to Ighodaros return as a lift for the way the team plays, which makes this a useful chance for Phoenix to see what the group can look like when it is closer to whole. The timing matters too, because the Warriors are the sort of opponent that can expose any lingering chemistry issues. For the Suns, this is less about one night and more about finally getting a clearer read on what the team can be when the availability report is mostly clean. [Read more 🡒]
Warriors Get A Huge Boost For A Tough Suns Test
The Suns are about to see a much different Golden State team than the one they faced in the first meeting. Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Brandon Podziemski are all available this time, giving the Warriors a major lift as they come in riding a four-game winning streak and trying to keep their offense rolling against a Phoenix group that has generally had a cleaner injury report.
For Phoenix, the challenge is less about availability and more about matching up with a healthier, sharper opponent. Golden State still has several players out or questionable, but the return of its top names changes the tenor of the matchup, especially for a Suns defense that will be tested by one of the leagues more dangerous attacks. [Read more 🡒]