Paul Coro

azcentral sports

FLAGSTAFF – Restoring 51 points per game with Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight and T.J. Warren back healthy creates instant offensive improvement for a Suns team that found 17 points per game from Devin Booker once he moved into a starting role last season.

While training camp’s primary focus is defense, the Suns also remain creative in revamping their offensive system to take advantage of their guards’ strengths, be more efficient and maintain a pace that ranked second in the NBA after Earl Watson became interim head coach in February.

Watson did that without starting-caliber point guards. With Bledsoe and Knight going down to injuries, he was forced to experiment on the fly as a new coach with an undermanned roster. But now he has a full training camp and a deeper roster to integrate a new offense. The system will mirror much of what new associate head coach Jay Triano ran in Portland for guards Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum.

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The Suns want to dribble less and spread the defense more. They want to pass sooner and get to predictable pick-and-rolls later.

“Point-five mentality,” said Watson, bringing back a phrase he implemented late last season for quick decision-making. “Pass it. Drive it. Shoot it. Don’t hold it. Cut to the rim. Sacrifice cuts and play with pace.”

The Suns can help their defense with the offensive tweaks. They had the most turnovers (17.2 per game) in the NBA last season, leading to transition-defense problems. The Suns will send more players back to defend off their shots to help “build a wall." Nothing would help their transition defense more than being more efficient with ball-handling and shooting, where the Suns did not rank much better (28th, 43.5 percent) last season.

“I think you’ll see less Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight dribbling the ball at the top of the court and having most of the offense initiated that way,” Suns General Manager Ryan McDonough said. “I think you’ll see more of the ball with wing entry, corner entries, or a lot of play off the elbows with the movement off the ball, dribble handoffs, interchanges and things like that.

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“NBA defenses are so good and sophisticated, unless you have a truly special player, it’s hard to start an offense the same way every time.”

The Suns’ guards are not only similiar to Portland’s star guards in size and scoring ability, but Knight also said the Suns are emulating how clearly Portland defined their roles heading into last season.

“The more talent we have, the more options we have, the more it’s going to open it up,” Knight said. “You can’t key on one guy. I’ve been on teams where you don’t have many options. You know certain guys can’t do certain things. It makes it easier for the defense to load up on one side. When you have multiple threats and different guys who can attack from different places on the court and be very versatile, it makes it easier for the guys you’re playing with. It’s an exciting feeling to know we’re going to share the ball, move the ball.”

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The Suns have the shooters to help open driving lanes for the guards, but they also have enough capable scorers at various positions to take an overall offensive onus off the guards. In recent years, that pressure to score or create has contributed to Bledsoe and Knight ranking near the bottom of NBA point guards in assist-to-turnover ratio.

“It definitely puts pressure on the defense,” Bledsoe said of the new offense.

The Suns quickly took to new sets being implemented in the first training-camp practices this week and will get plenty of video study next week with an intrasquad scrimmage Saturday at Northern Arizona University’s Skydome and three preseason games next week.

“It’s to emphasize that the pass is more important than the dribble,” Watson said of the offense. “The quicker we can pass and the better we can screen, we can eventually get into a pick-and-roll, but we don’t have to start with a pick-and-roll.”

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D-League tickets

Single-game tickets for the inaugural season of D-League affiliate Northern Arizona Suns will go on sale at 9 a.m. Thursday. Starting at $9, the tickets are available for purchase by going to nazsuns.com, calling 800-745-3000 or visiting the box office at Prescott Valley Event Center, the team’s home. The “NAZ” Suns, coached by Ty Ellis, open the season Nov. 12 at home against Iowa.

Reach Paul Coro at paul.coro@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-2470. Follow him attwitter.com/paulcoro.