Being bullied at the bottom, the No. 1 pseudo-giant in the West was born! If you don't respect Harden, you really have to pay a price
This season, the NBA has unwittingly entered the second half of the sprint, and the situation in the West is very complicated. The Thunder and Timberwolves firmly hold the top two positions, and here in the Clippers, Tyronn Lue took the initiative to reduce the proportion of Harden's ball handling, began trial and error, and to put it bluntly, it was still a paving for the playoffs, but the Clippers had little problem biting the first two dark horses. The defending champion Nuggets, maintaining a winning rate of about 7 percent, are silent and have no sense of existence, but they must be the most difficult bone for other giants in the playoffs. These four teams are locked in the top half, plus the Pelicans have the strongest forward combination in the league: (Zion and Ingram are in the top 10 in the league from the ability to make damage, to the ability to make cakes), and the attendance rate is also stable; The 6 direct tickets to the playoffs in the West are over like this? What about the Lakers, Suns and Warriors?
The Lakers' problem is obvious, James can't do efficient output on the court, including maintaining the basic line on the defensive end, so the Lakers are not very stable in playing any team, and the winning rate is hovering around 5%. The Warriors have been suppressing young people for a long time, overtrusting Klay, and with Green's long suspension, they have dug too much hole for themselves. Fortunately, the Warriors' schedule is not difficult in the second half, and the overall performance of young people such as Podzemski + Kuminga + Davis is very impactful, sharing a lot of pressure on Curry. After Paul's return, the Warriors still have a chance to continue the Northern Expedition. But in comparison, the Suns have the most serious problems, with 33 wins and 24 losses in the first 57 games of the game, although they also have a 57.9% win rate, but they fell to eighth in the West! They were bullied by the bottom in turn, and the first pseudo-giant in the West was born! If you don't respect Harden, you do have to pay the price!
Starting from a statistic, the Suns have 25 games left, and the opponent's overall winning rate is 56%, which is the most difficult in the league! In the words of the team's reporter Larkin, it is hard to believe that the team can lock in a direct ticket to the playoffs, Booker and Durant's two cores are too tired, and there are injury hazards! The most embarrassing thing is that the team is not strong when it is weak, and it is easier to collapse when it is strong! The Suns' net efficiency value in the final quarter of this season, including the shooting percentage, is at the bottom of the league, which is still based on having Durant averaging 28.1 points + per gameBooker averaged 27.6 points per game, on the basis of two super scorers! Beal averaged 18 points and 4.5 assists per game this season, from lower back injuries, to Achilles tendon injuries, to hamstring injuries, he has become a burden, we just ignore it! And the Suns are still working hard to strengthen, including trading O'Neal and Roddy at the trade deadline, signing Thaddeus Young, etc.
But does the Sun have a lower limit? Let me give you a few examples: At the beginning of the season, they met the Spurs twice, one was a 20-point reversal, and the second was a direct defeat, allowing Wembanyama to score 38 points and 10 rebounds! All teams in the league can bully the Spurs, but the Suns can't! Including the 19-point reversal by the Grizzlies in January, and the Grizzlies played a 35-18 climax in the final quarter, and the Suns collapsed directly! Including the Trail Blazers who were at the end of the crane in December last year, the Suns once led the opponent by 16 points, and were beaten by the opponent 38-20 in the third quarter, and finally lost by 5 points, and Durant scored 40 points! Including the latest loss to the Rockets, he also led by 16 points at one point, and then was turned around by the Rockets substitute twin stars: Whitmore and Amen Thompson, and then the Rockets were on fire, and the Suns lost again! This season, the Suns have been reversed in countless games, which has also attracted the dissatisfaction of Booker and Durant.
Durant averaged 5.6 assists per game + Booker averaged 6.9 assists per game + Beal averaged 4.5 assists per game, which seems to be a lot, adding up to 17 times, but Durant and Booker are equivalent to holding the ball for 200 rounds to deliver 40 assists, and the assist ratio is too low! What's more, some games are not a simple assist: the value of a traditional point guard is not only to pass the ball to teammates and provide assists, but also to control the pace of the game, including de-pressing, leading role players to blossom, and evenly distributing the shooting rights of the team's core. In the simplest example, Harden did just that, and Trae Young was able to balance his shots with the percentage of finishes from his teammates, including the league's new generation of Haliburton, who simply made the regular season easier and did more with less.
When Durant was in the Nets, he refused to play the role of a ball-holding core, in fact, he couldn't get used to Harden's playing mode, and in Durant's eyes, he preferred to join forces with Irving, Booker, Beal, and other "hero terminators" who are good at singles. When Paul was on the team last season, the Suns media also criticized Paul for Durant not being able to touch the ball for a long time, including Paul was sent away early last summer, after the Suns traded to Beal, even if Beal was plagued by injuries, even if the team repeatedly collapsed in the last quarter, but on the trade deadline, Durant and Booker's attitude is still that they don't need point guards!
After the Suns changed their new owners, they could do whatever it took to strengthen them, from the inside to the front, hoarding many people who couldn't use it, including Little, Yuta Watanabe, Goodwin and others who have left, including Gordon, who often complained that they couldn't touch the ball, to put it bluntly, the Suns were the two-person rotation of Durant and Booker, and others couldn't get involved. The final record says it all, the Suns from the difficulty of the schedule, to the way Durant and Booker lead the team, returning to the top six has become a luxury, and if you don't respect Harden, you will have to pay the price.