Did we appreciate it enough?
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73288122/2115809240.0.jpg)
This season for the Phoenix Suns was awkward. Maybe not in the traditional “Tom Sandoval is playing a mind game with Ariana even after cheating on her” kind of way. Just sell the house, Sandy. You watch Vanderpump Rules, right? Oh…uh…me neither.
It was awkward because the team never seemingly hit supernova for a continued period of time like most of us predicted, suspected, and hoped for. I thought this team would win 56 games. I was 7 off.
Despite the unmet expectations, the 2023-24 season produced some fascinating statistics. And I’m not simply talking about Grayson Allen leading the league in three-point shooting.
This is the 2nd time in NBA history a member of the Suns led the league in 3PT%.The only other to do it? Craig Hodges in 1987-88. Hodges was traded to PHX mid-season and played 23 games in ’88 with PHX, shooting 49.1% overall on 175 attempts.Allen attempted 445. https://t.co/6dQOhiCBsM
— John Voita (@DarthVoita) April 18, 2024
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24728683/1489028669.jpg)
Only the second Sun to ever do it? That unto itself is impressive considering Dan Majerle, Quentin Richardson, and Steve Nash have all called Phoenix their home.
If you were to define the offensive identity of the Suns offense, it would start and end with their two primary scorers and the way they attack the game. Both Kevin Durant and Devin Booker are mid-range savants. In a league that is either six feet in or twenty-two feet out, pairing the two together has created an offense that you truly don’t see anywhere else.
The shot charts for Kevin Durant and Devin Booker this season. Mid-range savants. pic.twitter.com/qPOndTAl1A
— John Voita (@DarthVoita) April 18, 2024
Those shot charts are more red than Bright Side of the Sun. Side note: let Booker shoot more corner threes. Holy moly.
The art of the mid-range is beyond dead. It’s been buried with the short shorts and the sky hooks of yesteryear. Go watch highlights of the 1976 NBA Finals. The Suns’ entire team are mid-range assassins. But today? It’s a lost art.
Why is there so much red from the mid-range for Durant and Booker? Not only are they shooting them, they are making them more than any team in the league. In some cases, that statement is 100% true.
Durant and Booker made more mid-range shots than 26 teams in the NBA this season. Seeing as they are on a team, that means only three teams collectively made more from the mid-range than those two.
Mid-range buckets this season:435 — KD and Book410 — Thunder398 — Pistons, Pacers394 — Mavs379 — Warriors370 — Clippers367 — Blazers357 — Pelicans348 — 76ers345 — Hawks335 — Rockets330 — Lakers329 — Hornets321 — Celtics309 — Heat308 — Raptors296 — Knicks295 —… pic.twitter.com/rBoPcomCcO
— StatMuse (@statmuse) April 16, 2024
Kevin Durant and Devin Booker put together one of the greatest dynamic duo performances in NBA history, and most certainly in Suns’ history. The highest scoring average in a season for any player in a Phoenix uniform was by Tom Chambers in 1989-90. His next best teammate relative to scoring that year? Kevin Johnson at 22.5 points.
This season, two members of the Suns threatened that scoring record, and both fell short by 7 points of surpassing it. Both KD and D Book averaged 27.1 points this season. That unto itself is a rare feat. How rare? It’s only the fourth time in NBA history that it has happened and with the third pair of teammates.
Teammates in @NBA history to each average 27+ PPG (min 60+ games played):▪️ 2023-24: Devin Booker & Kevin Durant▪️ 2000-01, 2002-03: Kobe Bryant & Shaquille O’Neal▪️ 1964-65: Elgin Baylor & Jerry West pic.twitter.com/uQi1WCAOVZ
— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) April 17, 2024
It’s the first time it has occurred for teammates who were not members of the Los Angeles Lakers.
The 2001-02 Lakers, led by Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, won the title, while the 2002-03 team was eliminated in the second round by the 2003 champion San Antonio Spurs. The 1964-65 duo of Baylor and West did what the Lakers did six times in the 60s: lose to the Boston Celtics.
Due to the tumultuous nature of the 2023-24 regular season, perhaps we didn’t stop enough and appreciate how elite of an offensive season the duo was having. It was the best we’ve seen from any two members of the Suns, and while we will always remember this year for being a rocky road and the embedding postseason result, we will one day look back with gratitude for their efforts.
