Through 23 games, the Suns are 11-12 and if the season ended today would be the 9th seed in the Western Conference and subsequently out of the NBA Playoffs. That is a pretty far cry from the team that was 2 games away from the NBA Finals last season. We all know the story about Amare Stoudemire heading to the bright lights of New York City in the off-season, however it seems the Suns early struggles are deeper than simply missing their most dynamic player.

It is certainly not time to write off the Suns just yet, however early returns are not favorable. I feel at times like a broken record, but it is the same perennial story over and over: lack of rebounding and a legitimate inside presence on defense. I was apparently overly optimistic on the prospects of Robin Lopez filling this void.  A fully healthy Robin Lopez is more than capable of blocking and altering opponents shots, however it has become obvious that Lopez will battle injuries for the rest of his career. Lopez is also an inferior rebounder than one would expect for his size and tenacity for the game. After watching him play over the past two seasons it is evident that he has the potential to be a decent rebounder if he would simply pull the ball down with two hands. Lopez has a tendecy to try and tip the ball in on the offensive end, rather than grab it and elevate or reset the offensive set. Until this begins to happen, we can continue to expect  5 rebound performances from our starting Center when he returns.

Currently, the Suns are 30th in the league in Points Allowed (109.5) and 28th in Rebounds Per Game (39.0). What’s even worse is that opponents are averaging 44.0 Rebounds Per Game against the Suns. That gives the Suns a rebounding differential of -5.0 which is good for last in the NBA.  This is not common knowledge, but the Suns actually out-rebounded their opponents over the the previous 2 seasons.

The most alarming aspect of the Suns season thus far, is their inability to make the 3-Pointer on a consistent basis. In the past this was the Suns formula to success by bludgeoning the opponent with shots from beyond the arc. The 2009-2010 Suns were deadly hitting on 41.2% of their 3′s. This season it has plummeted to 37.2%. Steve Nash, Channing Frye, Grant Hill, Goran Dragic and Jared Dudley are all substantially below last season’s 3-Point Field Goal %’s. Jared Dudley has had the biggest drop off going from  an unreal 45.8% last season to a meager 31.1% thus far.

If this team continues to shoot poorly (by their own lofty standards) and rebound at an anemic pace, the Suns may finally find themselves in the lottery and subsequently rebuio