Can The Suns Keep Winning Amid Injuries?

Early Success and Early Injuries

12 games into the 2024-25 NBA marathon, the Phoenix Suns are 9-3, finding themselves near the top of the Western Conference standings.

Amid their early success, injuries continue to plague the starting lineup. They’re certainly not the only team laboring with injuries. But with the quest for championship contention that the Suns are chasing, consistency and continuity are must-haves.

Unfortunately for Phoenix, the injuries seem to continue happening what feels like every other day. Phoenix will be without Durant for at least two weeks awaiting his injury re-evaluation. Since Durant went down, Phoenix lost big man Jusuf Nurkic for a game with an ankle sprain. Star guard Devin Booker has rebounded from his week-long food poisoning illness, which resulted in some pretty rough outings before his 31-point performance in Salt Lake City on Tuesday.

Watch all of Booker’s FGM here.

Bradley Beal left Tuesday’s contest halfway through their fourth quarter with some tightness in his left calf – the same leg that suffered from a knee bruise in Phoenix’s last game versus the Kings.  Beal seems confident that there is nothing to worry about: “—It should be alright, a little precautionary. Got one tomorrow”. Unfortunately for the Suns, Beal was inactive for their loss against Sacramento on Wednesday and remains questionable for their NBA Cup matchup against OKC on Friday.

On top of everything, Booker had a pretty violent run-in with John Collins, resulting in both players banging their knees very hard. Fortunately for Book and the Suns, the All-Star remained in the game and everything seems to be fine moving forward.

Can the Depth Hold Up?

Throughout the league, the majority of teams face this question.

What makes this different for Phoenix? They were plagued with injuries last season, resulting in an embarrassing performance in the first round of the playoffs. The Suns cannot afford the injury bug to claim additional victims, yet they can’t necessarily control it. Budenholzer and Co. have found a way to win nine of their first twelve games, despite ranking 13th in offensive rating and 15th in defensive rating.

Phoenix has played 15 lineups with at least 20 possessions this season, living that “next man up” mentality. Bench pieces like Monte Morris, Josh Okogie, and Oso Ighadoro have all found themselves as key parts in Phoenix’s rotation to assist with recent injuries. Rookie Ryan Dunn has found himself in the starting lineup with Durant out.

In last night’s loss versus Sacramento, 2-way guard Ty-Ty Washington Jr. found himself getting some minutes, scoring eight points in 16 minutes. Ty-Ty could be another player that Bud may lean on through this injury-riddled stretch.

Since Dunn is unable to replace Durant’s offensive production, the Suns will need to continue to find ways to win games without Durant’s heavy load of scoring in clutch situations.

What Should We Expect?

With sporadic injuries, it is hard to envision who and what we will see on the court.

Unlike the prior coaching regime, Budenholzer and his staff have provided this team with a successful foundation of how they should play offensively and defensively — which has been demonstrated through early numbers.

Phoenix wants to shoot threes—we know that. But what about it is unique? Outside of ranking fifth in three-point frequency, Phoenix also ranks fourth in corner three-point frequency, a statistic they ranked 20th in last season. Their focus on getting quality shots at a high volume matches the name of the game in the modern NBA.

On the defensive end, they are holding opposing teams to 117.5 points per 100 positions on transition – ranking eighth, while being 25th in OREB% (23.7%). Last year, the Suns ranked 14th in transition defense (127.0 per 100 possessions), while being ranked eighth in OREB% (28.2%).

Phoenix has seemingly sacrificed offensive rebound opportunities to completely stabilize transition opportunities, a foundation Budenholzer brought to Phoenix to clean up an important weakness.

Most notably, they are 9th in turnover rate (13.2%), up from a 25th ranking last season (14.9%). With Monte Morris expecting more minutes going forward, he fits right in with this ball-secure environment. While Morris is on the court this season, Phoenix has a turnover rate of 12.0% – which is in the 87th percentile, according to Cleaning The Glass.

While Durant’s exact return date is unknown, the Suns will face an uphill challenge on both sides of the ball, looking for help from their depth pieces to hold this winning boat afloat.