Stan Van Gundy: Why Suns are a Strong Favorite in the West

Howard Beck talks to TNT analyst Stan Van Gundy about the Phoenix Suns and where they stand among title contenders.

The following transcript is an excerpt from The Crossover NBA podcast. Listen to the full episode on podcast players everywhere or on SI.com.

Beck: The Suns don’t look like the typical dominant superteam, or even like the Shaq and Kobe Lakers or the Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen Bulls. There’s something about star power in this league that influences, and maybe warps our perceptions of how we view a team and whether they are “dominant” or the odds on favorite.

So this is my pseudo counter to the Suns thing where I think partially because the Warriors fell off due to injuries and they looked like they were a favorite early on. Everybody else in the West is kind of in weird states of disarray or missing pieces. But, I believe in my eyes, when I look at the Suns and say they are deserving of that favorite status. But I also look at it and I think they don’t feel dominant because they don’t have the marquee names in the way that we’re used to them being stacked up in this era.

Does that make sense?

SVG: Well, it does. I think part of it is they’re in Phoenix and they’re not in L.A. They’re not in Miami. I’ll go the other way on that. I look at this Phoenix team and I’ve asked this to a lot of people too. Where’s their weakness? They have done a good job both at the coaching level and the GM level. They went into that series last year. They lose to Milwaukee 4-2 and they come out of it thinking they needed more size; when [Deandre] Ayton was out of the game, they struggled. So they get JaVale McGee. Now they get some injuries with Ayton during the year, they go get Bismack Biyombo. So they have taken care of all of that. I mean, Mikal Bridges, when we’re talking superteam or not superteam, that backcourt is probably the best backcourt in the NBA with Chris Paul still playing at an unbelievably high level and Devin Booker.

And then Mikal Bridges—he’s a star, but just not the way we’re used to seeing a star. The numbers would say he is right at the top as the most efficient perimeter player in the league with his shooting. Cam Johnson has become a great player. They’ve still got [Jae] Crowder in there. They’ve got the three centers and Ayton has gotten better. Cam Payne can play. They went and got Landry Shamet, they brought back Torrey Craig. Like anything that could happen in a game, Monty Williams has got an answer to on his bench. They also do not play a really volatile type of game. In other words, they’re not reliant—they shoot the three well—they don’t shoot a ton of them. They get shots closer to the basket. They’re not going to have this volatility—you’re not going to see many games with the Suns—they might go 4-for-20 from three, but they’re not going to go 6-for-40 from three. That’s not how they play. So there’s not that volatility factor.

They’re in the top three in the league offensively and defensively. I’ve seen them win low scoring, grind-it-out games. They can win that. And if it becomes a shootout, they can win that. The only thing, I guess, they’re not a great defensive rebounding team, but there’s really just not a lot of weaknesses there.

And then in the fourth quarter, to me, they’re the most precise team. They’re the best executing team. They make the fewest mistakes. If you’re gonna beat the Suns, and I’m not even talking about a seven-game series, but even in one game, let alone beat them four times in a series, you’re gonna have to beat them because they’re not going to beat themselves. They’re not gonna make mistakes. They’re not gonna screw up sets. They’re gonna set screens. They’re gonna execute. They’re gonna get good shots. They’re not a lock. Nobody’s a lock. In Milwaukee, getting Brook Lopez back and they’re the defending champions. There’s a lot of teams I like. But they’re pretty dominant. To me, they’re a strong favorite.

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