The intensity of the regular season and the playoffs is really different!
The Suns beat the Timberwolves 4 times in the regular season, but in the playoffs, the Suns were swept by the Timberwolves and became the first and only team to be swept in the first round of the playoffs.
Where the hell are the Suns losing? Obviously, they can't match the Timberwolves' defensive intensity, and they can't match the Timberwolves' height.
With the exception of Conley, the Timberwolves have a size advantage in almost every alignment, which invisibly creates a huge rebounding advantage.
G1, the Timberwolves won 24 rebounds.
G2, the Suns won two rebounds.
In G3, the Timberwolves won 22 rebounds.
In G4, the Timberwolves won 11 rebounds.
In four games, the Timberwolves grabbed 55 more rebounds than the Suns, an average of 14 more rebounds per game.
Behind the huge advantage in rebounding, the Timberwolves also have an excellent defensive system, and their defensive system is naturally related to Gobert, but unlike the Jazz defense back then, which was completely pointed at Gobert alone, this Timberwolves team has very good defensive resources on the outside and forward, and has an extremely good defensive rotation. With fast rotation on the outside and an iron gate on the inside, the Timberwolves' defense in key rounds almost suffocated the Suns.
Compared to the Timberwolves' defense, the Suns' defense is simply too poor!
Nurkic is on the court, and Huazi can use Gobert to cover and play directly on the list.
If the sun is changed to five small, Huazi can kill indiscriminately in the forbidden area.
The sun is shrinking inward, Huazi is not afraid, and directly pulls out the outside line!
He is also not afraid, he can pass the ball out, and the other players of the Timberwolves can then hit the ball to the player who is in the open position on the weak side through rapid transmission.
Compared with many new-generation superstars, who are not invested enough on the defensive end in pursuit of gorgeous offensive statistics, Huazi also goes all out on the defensive end, often responsible for marking the opponent's outside headline. So much so that Yang Yi once pointed out that if Huazi could put more energy on the offensive end, he would play better data.
When the Suns knew that Edwards was going to come out and take over the game at the final moment, but they didn't have any way to deal with it, Vogel's presence would naturally be questioned.
But in reality, the Suns themselves don't match Vogel's tactical needs.
Vogel is a very traditional defensive coach who is not very good at tuning the offense. And the Suns are not a problem because they have a big three, but defense is a big problem. Because theoretically speaking, a defensive coach to lead an offensive team can indeed complement each other when it is built.
But Vogel's team was built on the principle of having enough tall, strong, athletic defensive stalwarts at his disposal. The defensive system he built with the Pacers and the Lakers was all based on the team's abundant defensive resources.
But the problem with this Suns team is that whether it is Nurkic or Eubanks on the inside, the ability to protect the rim is average, and at the same time, it lacks the ability to sweep large areas. In this team's rotation lineup, there is only Durant who has a large enough size forward to provide some help to the frame.
It is precisely because the Suns' roster structure is too bad that they have a large lineup of Nurkic, which is easy to be named by opponents, and the small lineup becomes Durant with 4 guards, and often loses rebounds and loses inside. It can be said that the structure of the Suns' roster is decided, and the defense of this team is not good in any way.
A team that can't defend well no matter what, their winning code is attack. And when they got Beal, the outside world once expected the offensive firepower of Booker + Beal + Durant, which could be 1+1+1≥3. But it is clear that this beautiful vision has not become a reality.
Booker, who was originally expected to be picked up by the offensive organization, has been in an up-and-down state. There is no doubt about his singles ability, but he doesn't show what it takes to drive his teammates.
From the Thunder, to the Warriors, to the Nets to the Suns, Durant has seen that he has the best single efficiency in history, but he does not have the ability to control the game like James.
As for Bill, before he came to the Suns, the most glorious season was actually played by Wei Shao. And after "breaking up" with Wei Shao, his singles efficiency plummeted, and as for offensive organization and defense, it was completely impossible to count on.
There are 5 people on the court, three singles points, and there is a surplus of singles resources on the court, but due to the lack of an organizational guard on the court, these three singles points are often fighting separately on the court and have not yet formed a joint force.
It can be said that from the moment the Suns decided to use Paul as the main bargaining chip in exchange for Beal, there was no real No. 1 position in the team, and there was a lack of sufficient defensive resources, the Suns' end was already doomed.
It was bound to be a mistake to trade for Beal, but before the mistake, the Suns chose to toss, and the starting point of their toss was to trade Durant for overdraft forward resources and future methods.
When facing the Nuggets last season, in the context of Yang Yi's prediction that "the brother will play the teacher to death", their size was wildly targeted by the Nuggets. For the size injury exposed by the Nuggets last year, the Suns were stunned that they did not strengthen in the position they needed to strengthen, but instead frantically piled people in the backcourt, and the team's roster structure was destined to be impossible to play well.
When the Suns were swept out, it only proved once again that Durant's vision for selecting teammates was really not good. From leaving the Warriors to today, Durant has continued to squander his last peak, but found that behind the uncomfortable change, Durant's fate is purely self-inflicted.
In the next few years, the Suns will not only have to carry a number of big contracts, but the first-round picks they can move have already been moved, which means that if they continue to build a Big Three, the team's roster has no room for adjustment, and their only adjustment may be to change coaches.
And at the first moment of the game, Shams had already revealed that the Suns' Big Three had lost trust in Vogel, and Vogel was already on the verge of leaving class.
When a defensive coach plays extremely twisted with a team that has no defensive resources, this in itself shows that the Suns and Vogel are not compatible. But a team with a serious lack of defensive resources still wants to challenge for a championship?