Here Are 5 Reasons Why Kevin Durant, Devin Booker And The Phoenix Suns Are In NBA Play In

Here Are 5 Reasons Why Kevin Durant, Devin Booker And The Phoenix Suns Are In NBA Play In

Welcome into Flex tape he is flex the former coach the basketball Savant the genius in the sunglasses and I am your humble servant ASO who will be helping take you through plays today is simple we’re going to take a look at a handful of plays when it comes to the sun’s

Defense and flex what are you trying to show us here yeah just focus concentration and awareness right we talk about a lot of this on the pregame and postgame shows and these are just a couple clips that kind of dumb it down a little bit and show you how some people

Are worried about these breakdowns but when you actually look at them you see that they’re very fixable and very correctable with just communication and focus yeah well let’s take a look at the first one and this one comes to us from the 76ers game the other day and why

Don’t you walk us through this screenshot here of what we’re looking at yeah so real quick they’re coming in transition you got Nick baton who sees Kelly UB all by himself in the corner now what I want people to pay attention to is the three suns in the center of

This picture okay there’s a 76 on the weak side all by himself on an island at the three-point line but you got nerk you got Brad B and you got KD at Center cord and it looks like all five Suns players are fixated on these two guys on

The strong Side Kelly UB and Nick Paton and that’s a problem because that’s a lack of focus and awareness there’s clearly a guy on the other side of the court and someone has to do something about that if you look at the next slide

Oh go ahead well I was just going to say also they have a a five on four defensive advantage that out yes because there is obviously somebody lagging behind when it comes to to Philly so they should have the advantage in this situation yes absolutely so there’s five

On four defensively if you just look at it schematically book is probably gonna close out to Kelly UB you got Grayson on baton and it kind of looks like Maxi is is Bill’s responsible for Maxi now there’s a guy that’s not in the frame which is a little bit disturbing because

This should be a easy pickup but KD is on an island and nerk is floating around and so yeah it’s not a good look and this is focus and concentration and transition defense so walk me through this next frame so Kelly makes makes a cut to the Lane correct correct Kelly

Takes a cut to the Lane and once again you see five Phoenix Suns players surrounding Kelly UB but once again our mystery guy in the corner just sitting there all by himself no one picking him up and that is a complete breakdown and now you see the Sixers have all Five

Guys in the frame but it’s a little too late for that at some point I would I would imagine Kevin Durant probably should have shot out to the corner or at the very least uh uh uh nage but it didn’t happen and then you’ll see you’ll see the end result Kelly has multiple

Options here too because he’s got three guys at the top of the key essentially with just Brad Beal guarding them as well so that’s a breakdown as well right a huge breakdown yeah you you literally he’s got multiple options he can go corner he can go wing and then you play

Best shot at that point so the suns are in a terrible defensive situation and this is something that’s very fixable okay so let’s take a look at the final frame here and Kelly kicks it to the corner and this is what you’re talking about nerk doesn’t have the time or the

Foot speed to close that Gap here correct no time no foot speed to close that Gap in NBA forms that’s considered wide open you’re going to see eventually the play play out but that is too open in the NBA these guys are too good that’s sitting on an island that’s what

I call get a cou of Coffey type of shot in the NBA well let’s take a look at the full play here as Kelly kicks it and it’s an easy three I mean it’s that simple that that they make the shot so this is how do you fix this what what is

Causing the issue here that leads to a breakdown like that defensively it’s all communication and if you looked at the score the Suns will up 15 and so that’s lack of concentration lack of awareness and it’s it’s just a little bit of uh sloppiness in transition and so when

You’re up 15 these plays don’t really bother you as much but when you get to the fourth quarter and you see some of these collapses and you see the game get tight these are the plays you got to go to I know people fixate on the sun’s

Fourth quarter issues but if you clean up these little things in the middle of a game you don’t have those problems in the fourth quarter and so in essence in transition you just got to be more aware people have to talk and you got to know

There’s an open guy in the corner we got three guys sprinting down it’s a five on four defensively somebody’s got to get to a man so you’re coach Flex you’re holding the clipboard uh is this a thing that you fix in practice by by just harping on it in film and then harping

On it during practice to get these guys to communicate is that is it as simple as that that to fix this kind of breakdown it I mean this is the type of stuff that I would sit down with my guys if I’m coaching them I’m showing them

The film and then I’m holding them accountable the next time like it’s one of those things where I’m going to show you you can’t let this happen you got to communicate better and if I see that you’re closing those gaps and being more aware on on on transition defense in the

Next game then I did my job but if you continue to make the same mistake then I start throwing chairs all right well that’s kind of how it works around here too with the with the content as well let’s take a look at the next play We

Move into another play from the 76ers game this is earlier in the game this is another communication breakdown right I mean yeah espo again three guy Four Guys cluttered in the paint a wide openen buddy hee okay if you just look at the basis of this you got Brad be on the

Ball B Bow’s in no man’s land it’s just it’s just a bad play I think Frank vogle called this one out but this is just unacceptable you got a guy with his back to the basketball doesn’t even know what’s going on I think that’s Eubanks who is Eubanks even guarding in this

Situation no one he’s guarding no one that’s and this is what I’m talking about and so boo thinks he’s on ball I mean I’m Sorry Brad Beal’s on ball boo thinks he’s got the defender right in front of him it looks like Eubanks is out on the island but ultimately this

Looks like at the end of the day when you see it break down it’s a clear uh bbo should have shifted down and contested that well so they kick it and buddy heel gets you said the last one that we looked at was considered wide open this is super duper uh extra

Special wide open and if that’s the case because there’s nobody within what would you say 10 feet of him here yeah 10 15 feet man that that in in NBA terms that is just inexcusable man that’s that’s you can get a coffee run in the stands

Get a cheeseburger uh pick up a beer for the for the friend and get back and take the shot it’s just that’s just too open and that’s the type of stuff that is clearly espo it’s not that the Sixers are better than the Suns it’s not that they’re running a foreign offense

Similar to Golden State right the high peak Golden State days where they were running complex offenses this is just simple Elementary stuff that can’t happen against a Sixers team and you saw you see it right there is this not knowing who you’re you’re matched up with or is

This is bullbull doing the right thing because Drew Eubanks isn’t anywhere near the guy he’s supposed to be guarding like is it some combination of the two here because to to me if if you know your assignment why are you nowhere near the guy you’re supposed to be Onre and I

Can’t imagine that Bobo’s assignment was Buddy heill on this it doesn’t sense so it doesn’t make sense so you start to look at this and and you wonder if this is complete breakdown of communication between every defender on that court in some way shape or form

Right and so in that play Bobo has to cut that had to cut that Gap shoot over there make that tough maybe run him off the three-point line but I’m I’m starting to wonder if boobo thinks he’s in the right place and again this is coaching this is this is communication

This one of those moments where you’re like okay guys we’re going to be in transition people are going to run switches on the court you have to communicate and I think that’s the biggest problem when I go to Suns games and I’m sitting close you can hear them

Talking and there’s not a lot of communication going on I like to think that’s something that’s going to be corrected going forward let’s take a look at the play in full speed here and I mean it it’s just simple I mean it’s that it’s that simple right there uh so

What where are we going next here I believe we’re looking at the Hawks uh Hawk Sons early in a game and you say you told me prior and it’s pretty obvious when we when we’ll see the shot here they’re in a 221 Zone correct y they one what we call a little hyperd

Zone so let’s take a look at at at this first slide here so 221 hybrid Zone you’re saying yeah it’s like a hybrid Zone they like to call this a hybrid Zone a man Zone where the part of the defense is in zone and then the other

Part of it could be in in kind of a semi man but this is a problem because you got two Defenders up top you got Brad B on KD up top you got three Hawks up top okay so there is a clear if you look at

The Circle in the arrow there’s a clear Gap in the middle of that uh zone right there and you want to attack that but you don’t want to make it where people can sit up put the put the beach chair and just take a shot and that’s kind of

What this play becomes you see him look at the Zone he sees it you know there’s a couple options here if he wants to drive straight to the paint then you got backside Defenders so me being a basketball player if I see this type of zone I’m just walking to the middle and

Taking a shot and you’ll see what happens so I mean that’s exactly what he does I mean he he basically pulls from a couple feet beyond the beyond the AR but this is a typical NBA shot now this isn’t 10 15 years ago where that’s long

Super long distance this is this is a normal shot and KD is the closest guy here to him but really can’t close it out yeah that’s that’s that’s a practice shot in basketball now like that’s the that’s a shot that everyone takes that’s a shot people are comfortable taking and

This is early in the basketball game with a minute into the basketball game is suns are Up 3 to five this is one of those moments where the game just started and you you don’t know who’s hot you don’t know who’s feeling it yet and

It’s kind of one of those dare you’re in a dare situation you’re like what a g just start let’s see if you can make this and that happens a lot in basketball but I like I like this to be a little bit more contested I think KD

Could shift up a little bit more make him make one more pass book will rotate you got nerk on the backside so simple as simple as maybe coming up two three feet changes the Dynamics of this whole play well should should KD on this play

Be similar to where Brad Beal is is that I mean that feels like what the spacing was intended to be on it that’s a great call and that’s the stuff we want to show people here Brad Beal seems to be in the right situation uh KD is just

Again two to three feet too low if he is above the three-point line none of this happens and again the pro probably he’ll shift over to the left side wing and then book will have to operate coming higher but you want to at least get them

Into the action he just dribbled up the court and walked into a three and in this situation you don’t mind if KD overplays a bit because if he gets past you into the lane this is designed to have some help right that’s right well nur’s on the backside so if he comes

Nk’s going to go on the backside and you’re going to go into automatic uh you know help the helper mode so yeah and and again one of the kiles heels of the Phoenix Suns are giving up to many threes if you’re not generating enough threes you can’t give up that many

Threes and so I I’m I’m okay giving away the paint in some situations but giving up wide open threes that that’s going to hurt you later on yeah and let’s watch it in full speed here uh and really it looks like it’s just a slight adjustment

In that because once he catches that if you’re there he can’t he can’t hit that three you know so again slight adjustment in this defensive uh in these defensive strategy whether it’s scheme or communication you can fix this that the point here is a lot of this is

Fixable correct that’s the point the point of breaking down all these clips is to show you how you go from worried to huh like this is what we want we want to get the people to understand that you know when we talk about the Suns have to

Take away the three-point line it’s not a matter of talent it’s not a matter of them not being able to do it it’s a matter of focus and concentration two or three moves left or right and none of this happens and so I’m this is this should be optimistic because this is all

Fixb let’s take a look at another play here from uh the Atlanta game later uh in the game suns are up by four late in the fir or excuse me by 9 late in the first first half uh and walk us through what we’re looking at here okay this is

The one espo that blows my mind these are the ones that that are are coach Killers this is the one that drives you crazy because this is a simple inbounds play okay and you got boie he’s going to rub off to the corner with capella sitting there okay that it looks like

He’s going to start to the corner and you have two guys there you want to talk about those two guys that are defending bogy oh yeah you got Roy there and then you’ve got Eric Gordon now now to me you look at this and where they’re positioned you’d think Eric Gordon falls

Behind him Roy goes up to the top right but is that the right the right rotation here is that what it should be or is Eric Gordon in the wrong spot yeah so this one is one where again a lot of this stuff is hybrid a lot of this stuff

Is communication so this could be as simple as before we get to this point Royce O’Neal communic Kon to Eric hey I got I got corner you got top or vice versa Eric going saying hey I got corner you got top what this tells me here is that neither one of these guys

Communicated and these are the ones that bother me cuz these are the most fixable this is a very simplistic NBA set and it’s really simple you got an action to the corner and you got a potential action to the top now who’s going to the corner and who’s going to the top well

Let’s take a look and find out here uh everybody went to the corner and nobody went to the top it appears there we go so so no one went to the top so both guys followed bogey to the corner and this was a clean inbounds play I don’t

Know what to call this espo if all those other ones you were get this guy is so open I mean I what do you call that well if we call other one super this is like a Superman situation it’s it’s so huge it’s a superhero kind of kind of amount

Of distance here but I looking at this when when you see Eric Gordon going to try to get back to him that fast does that suggest it was his assignment because Roy seems to seems to have followed Bogey and Eric seems to be the one in in a panic situation yeah I mean

It looks like Eric is recovering it looks like Eric may have identified hey that’s my mixup I’m going to run out there and close and yeah I mean every indication is that it looks like Roy is comfortable it looks like he he was clear I’m going to the corner where you

Going it looks like Eric said oh Dam that’s my guy and he darted out and so you get a wide open three and again espo that is just me and you talking in the in the middle of a basketball game there has to be communication this is so

Fixable that it doesn’t it’s not as alarming as some people would think and I’m I’m certain Frank vogle pulled a lot of this stuff out and showed them this type of stuff but um the idea is to just uh communicate make sure we got top and

Wing covered and none of this happens on this play but if you look at the film you’ll see how easy this was and you’ll see the cross up let’s let’s look at what it winds up being here and really I mean it’s just an easy lob or inbound

Play there for the open three and those those communication things costing extra threes we’ve talked about it on the show a lot when the Suns hit more threes than their opponents even by one or two they are they’re record is significantly better right it’s that it’s the assist and if you can elimate

Some of the turnovers but this when you’re looking at it and these simple communication things you know it seems very fixable if you tighten that up and then all of a sudden it shifts the Dynamics of what is most important and the next one we’ve got is from uh

Actually the uh the Wednesday game against the nuggets the win here and this is early on and we talked about this kind of on our watch along but the sun seemed to and this was one of the first indications uh scheme wise want to double yage here even though it came at

The detriment of giving up the threes yes so the the Nuggets were 10 for 40 last night from the three-point line 25% uh that’s the basketball game because we talk about it all the time if you look at the three-point line you can pretty much see who won a basketball

Game in this new NBA era now this is what we call and when I’m coaching book is at the 50 yard line right and he’s he’s right in between Joker and right in between Michael Porter and if this is the actual scheme books in a perfect

Spot you want to sit at the 50 yard line you want to make Joker feel like I could be coming or maybe not and you want to give him hesitation to feel like he could just pop it out to Michael Porter now uh from coaching perspective this is

Just me speaking this is my perspective I’m sitting down if I’m Devin Booker I’m hedging a little bit higher to Michael Porter and I’m kind of letting Joker get the one-on-one with KD because he’s inviting a double which tells me he really doesn’t want that the offense is

Looking for Michael Porter if he weren’t looking for Michael Porter he’d be more aggressive here so I I this is one of those ones where you don’t know what Frank’s true scheme was systematically it looks fine but preference wise i’ like to stay home on Michael Porter Jr

And let and and give all that up to to Joker and the pain in these situations do the bigs have some tells whether they’re actually going to back down their man or not that that a guy in Devon Booker’s position well whether he’s at that 50 or if he’s up a little

Bit further look at to try to gauge is he actually going for that basket yeah so when I when I was always in this spot you can just tell when a big is trying to invite the double um because they’ll take a power dribble and then they’ll

Look directly at the defender and if the defender starts to creep out a little more there’ll be a little bit of a shoulder roll that kind of says please come back it’s just a weird tendency but the way I coach my kids is when you see that tail don’t come back because you’re

You’re telling me you don’t really want to have this battle in the post you’re preferring I take debit and you get the three and so again my preference here I would have stood home I wouldn’t have allowed it but if you watch what happens Devon kind of creeps closer and closer

And it becomes what it becomes so there it is right there now this let’s talk about this ESO because this important for people to understand this the difference in space between where Devin was and where he is now is literally h a foot yeah it’s it’s a couple really A

Step Beyond the free throw line there you go so he was he was right in between the free throw line right and now he is below the free throw line that’s the indicator that nerk need I mean that not nerk that joker I’m sorry keep doing that that’s the IND yeah that’s the

Indicator Joker wands because he’s saying that’s his line that’s his he’s saying you get below the free throw line I know you can’t recover and so that’s what he was waiting for the whole time and then you see what plays out well but in in this case too if you’re coaching

It depends on who’s guarding the guy too right yes if this was a switch scenario and you had Eric Gordon or Grayson Allen who are on the floor as well on nerk you’re more likely to want to go go double right because because you know that that guy can’t handle handle him in

A one-on-one situation but when you have Kevin Durant who’s a seven-footer who’s who’s very Savvy defensively who had five blocks in this game uh you should hedge a little less right yes that’s that’s to me that’s coaching and some people say well why is De is Devon

Looking for a cutter here because he’s he’s got his head turned looking back towards the lane but what is he what is he actually looking for he’s look he’s looking to see if there’s a help defender on his man he he’s right now diagnosing where his guys are and he’s

Saying if I come completely is there someone in position to pop out and help me with Michael Porter and he makes that this is what we call taking a picture right you you take a quick snapshot and see where you’re at when he takes a snapshot he realizes there’s no way in

Hell if I go all the way I’m going to get back I’m I I am or anyone else is going to get back in Michael Porter spot but he’s already in no man’s already we’ll see when we go to the video here or when we go to the next shot here

Devon can’t close that space in the time that yish hits that pass right that’s true no way I’m not in the NBA these guys are too gifted they’re too talented it happens too quick again still shot of this some people may look at this and

Say well Devin is doing a good job of contesting this and he made a vant effort to contest this but that is not a tested shot in the NBA that is what we consider a wide open look in the NBA the end result of it looks closer than it

Was but no that’s too easy and if he misses that you know then you then you won but if he makes it it was a bad defensive possession we’ve talked about a lot of communication errors or or not knowing who your man is but here this

Feels like and we saw it play out throughout the game a schematic thing where I don’t know that I I feel like that’s a no win situation for Booker if the game plan is to try to go down and double team he can’t he can’t close out there’s obviously everybody else is

Trying to stay home because you know how well jic can pass so of course you’re going to give up that that look right oh that listen I looking at this play as many times as I did Devin couldn’t play it better um with where he was he was in

No man’s land you got to understand what the coaching preference is there if the coaches are saying we don’t want to give Joker this open look then they did what the defense wanted them and got it out to Michael Porter to take what most would say is a deep shot again we know

In the NBA that’s a pretty common shot so it’s all about preferenc here I thought Devin did a really good job of managing the situation he was in but me personally I would have stood home and let jok go to work oh and KD does what

He can in this matchup too where he holds strong on yers but let’s see how it plays out I mean it’s pretty obvious Michael por Jun is going to sink that three that’s right so those are those are the plays we have and so to sum it

Up the Suns fix some of these communication errors so guys know where each other are on the defensive end and whose assignment is is what and you if you Tinker with the scheme a little bit you can cut down on these threes that have that have hurt them throughout the

Year 1 million per and I want to I want to end this on a positive note the first four Clips we showed you the Philly games the Atlant games I went back and looked at the Denver film and I didn’t see those those errors so the purpose of

This is to show you something that they were doing last week and then look at what they what they did yesterday and I didn’t see all those now this play in particular this is a schematic feel I don’t think that was a bad defensive play that was just kind of showing how

They can uh you know maybe maybe take some threes away in that type of set but I’m seeing Improvement espo and I think I think the key now with is to take a deeper dive into the tape and now look at situations where the suns are able to

Fix some of those you know some the lack of communication and and and run people off the three-point line because I think they’re already doing it and in a playoff series it becomes a little different because you’re playing the same team perpetually so you stay in in a fair Fairly similar defensive scheme

Unless you need to make adjustments right so that should play part in it as well because these guys will be more familiar with the gu that they’re playing as well so the communication becomes a little bit easier in those situations too right yeah you know what

They say ESO after the game after game one of a playoff series you know everybody’s plays yeah you know so now what what happens in playoff series is the defense tightens up because you know the personnel and then you’ve seen all the first actions that teams run out of

Their playbook where it gets tricky is you got teams that will run first actions in the regular season like for instance the Atlanta play the Atlanta play that miscommunication with bogy went to the corner that was their first action right if they played it right

They have to go to option two what you see in playoff series is team’s audable into the second read and the third read of an offense and that’s where it becomes a chess game but you want to at least take away that first read and in

Atlanta the Suns didn’t do that but as as we’re going later into the season I’m seeing spurts where they’re starting to take away the first action so playoffs is a whole different thing man I’m M po just running the telestrator he’s Flex uh the former coach and basketball

Savant this has been Flex tape peace out

The Phoenix Suns have struggled all season with defense. Flex and Espo breakdown why exactly that is and is it correctable in the final few weeks by looking at five specific plays.

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