The Suns are a team that manipulates volume

You know this by now: I love discovering and learning new things related to basketball or related to the Suns. I’ve already talked about it here, but once again, it’s a video from the Dreamcast Show that inspired me in the production of this article about maximizing possessions (a domain that is important in Jordan Ott’s playing philosophy).

This season, the Suns don’t win because they shoot better, but because they shoot more. Phoenix is not elite in shooting (15th in shooting efficiency this season), but Phoenix — and some of its players — is a team that manipulates the volume of play.

You know this: a possession is gained and preserved in three different ways.

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First, by securing an offensive rebound. Phoenix grabs almost 13 offensive rebounds per game, with an Offensive Rebound% of 31%, which places them near the top of the league in that area. A possession is also gained by forcing a turnover, and Phoenix is also very well positioned in that category, ranking top 3 in steals per game (10.4), but also top 3 in Opponent Turnovers% with 17.1%. The quality of this team in these two areas is no longer in question, but what often hurts them is converting those opportunities (because of major shooting inconsistency).

Finally, it’s good to gain a possession, but it’s even better if it is preserved so you can attempt a shot. Here, the Suns are less good: 19th in offensive TOV% and 15.4 turnovers per game, which is huge for a team that creates so many “easy” situations.

To better visualize this possession gain, I imagined a small formula: (OREB/g + STL/g) – TOV/g — it’s not perfect science nor an absolute truth, but a trend indicator with a margin of error. And with this formula, the Suns gain on average +7.8 possessions per game.

For comparison, the best defensive team in the league, OKC, is at +6.3. Houston, who are the best offensive rebounders, are at +9.8. The Celtics, who are the team that loses the ball the least this season,…