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Jeff Hornacek's Juggling Act

Big or small? Fast or faster? Present or potential?

Those are the questions Jeff Hornacek faces on a game-to-game basis. The Suns’ head coach has a dilemma. It’s the pleasant kind of problem, the type most head coaches wish they had.

But it is still a dilemma.

“We’ve got a lot of guys that can play,” Hornacek said.

Indeed, there is no shortage of players he is comfortable using. That surplus, however, is countered by the finite number of minutes: 240 to be specific.

Keep in mind that those must be divvied up among:

  • Seven of the top eight scorers from last season’s 48-34 team. That’s seven guys who have paid their dues and proven themselves as productive players within Hornacek’s schemes
  • Isaiah Thomas, one of just four players in the league to average at least 20 points and six assists per game last season
  • Alex Len, the Suns’ only seven-footer and a 21-year-old just a year removed from being selected fifth overall in the draft
  • T.J. Warren, the reigning ACC Player of the Year and college basketball’s third-best scorer a year ago
  • Anthony Tolliver, a sharp-shooting forward brought in to replace some of the pick-and-pop production supplied by Channing Frye last season
  • Other young talent, including Archie Goodwin, Tyler Ennis and Zoran Dragic

Even a generous rotation of 10 players receiving steady minutes would still leave at least one capable talent on the bench.

That’s why Hornacek is, for now, throwing conventional rotations out the window.

“You’d like to say you have a set rotation, but I think with this team it’s probably going to be more feel of who’s playing well that night,” Hornacek said. “[The] group of guys that is playing well together will play longer and guys can’t worry about that. The next game will be their game, who knows?”

The Point of Overflow

When General Manager Ryan McDonough floated the idea of acquiring Eric Bledsoe to Hornacek last summer, he asked the rookie head coach how he would make the combination of Bledsoe and Goran Dragic work.

Hornacek’s response was simple: play them together.

The inspiration for that answer stemmed from his own playing days. Like Dragic, Hornacek had started out as a point guard, but had just enough length to man the off-guard spot. Just as that trait had allowed he and Kevin Johnson to form one of the best backcourts in the league, Hornacek felt Dragic’s size would enable him to play alongside Bledsoe.

Bledsoe Blocks, Dragic Scores

It worked. When both players started last season, the Suns sported a 23-11 record. Opponents simply couldn’t account for such a lethal duality of speed, passing and slashing.

Their success, however, only highlighted the drop-off that occurred when either of them was unavailable due to rest or injury. When that happened, the dual threat at the heart of Hornacek’s up-tempo offense was lost. In the end, the difference was just enough to keep the Suns out of the playoffs by a single game’s margin.

The Suns set out to further fortify their game-changing strength during the offseason. They saw an opportunity in the form of Isaiah Thomas, who was coming off a career year and personified the speed and playmaking ability Hornacek needed in surplus.

Two months after acquiring Thomas via sign-and-trade deal with Sacramento, Bledsoe re-upped with Phoenix for the long-term. Suddenly Hornacek’s best-case scenario had been realized: a trio of starting quality point guards that would ensure his system could remain intact 48 minutes a game.

The Trickle-Down Effect

It doesn’t take a PhD in calculus to figure out the side-effect of the Dragic-Bledsoe-Thomas trio. There is a combined total of 96 minutes per game available at the guard spots. (That's assuming Hornacek doesn't run an ultra-small, three-guard lineup, which he did for two brief, successful spurts in the preseason).

All three point guards – coming off seasons in which they produced All-Star-caliber numbers – figure to gobble up most of those 96 minutes. Divided evenly, that’s 32 minutes per guard. Those are starter-quality minutes, but not enough to risk wearing a player down over the course of the season.

After Bledsoe’s midseason injury in 2013-14, Dragic’s playing time steadily climbed as the Suns fought to remain in the playoff race. In January, he logged a manageable 33.9 minutes per game. In April, when Phoenix was clawing for that last win, his playing time had leaped to 39.3 minutes per contest.

That risk is more than solved now, even if one of the point guard trio goes down with injury. A healthy backcourt, in fact, reverses the issue. Gerald Green was the first guard off the bench last season, and played extremely well as a fill-in starter while Bledsoe recovered. Thomas brings a similar heat-check threat, but adds a playmaking element as a point guard.

Normally, one player’s addition leads to another’s subtraction in the rotation. Luckily for Hornacek, most of his roster is multi-positional. Green’s 6-8 frame – which allows him to post up opposing two-guards on most nights – allows him to shift to small forward easily enough. He played much of his career at that position.

Spring-Loaded Green

Shiftin positions on a deep-across-the-board roster, however, is akin to taking residential streets filled with traffic lights instead of the freeway during rush hour. It is still a traffic jam, just with a different look.

“You can just go down the line with our three point guards,” Hornacek said. “That kind of limits [point guard] and [shooting guard] minutes if you play those three guys quite a bit. You have Gerald Green. You’ve got Archie. You can slide Gerald to the three. Then you’ve got Marcus [Morris] and P.J. [Tucker] and T.J. [Warren]”

­­This is where different skill sets matter. Green excels in transition and at getting hot in a hurry. Tucker’s calling cards are defense, rebounding and corner threes. Warren wreaks havoc with mid-range jumpers and off-the-ball cuts, as well as put-backs on offensive rebounds.

Again, Hornacek’s choice could be determined by the situation more than habit. Green could be riding a hot streak. The Suns might need Tucker’s hustle to wake them up. If the offense stalls, Warren is an option.

“We’ve got a lot of things we can do,” Hornacek said. “If somebody’s not playing well, we’ll give someone else a shot. Sometimes you’ve just got to understand maybe it’s not their night and they play less minutes. Some nights they’re rolling and we play them more.”

Posts, not Points, of Release

Frye’s departure meant Phoenix would lose its fifth-leading scorer and a starter. It also provided an outlet for the overflow of depth on thee perimeter. His 28.2 minutes per game were spread between both the power forward and center spots. Subsequently, playing time at those positions became available upon his departure.

Markieff Morris, whose numbers have improved in each of his first three seasons, becomes the primary option to take Frye’s starting spot. He has shown the ability to post up, face up and spot up. The latter skill becomes more important now that he’ll see more playing time with Dragic and Bledsoe, who need the floor spread for their drives to the rim.

Again, versatility helps here. The Suns signed Anthony Tolliver, a sharp-shooting forward who is just big enough to man “the four.” Markieff’s twin brother Marcus (6-9) is also capble of sliding to the bigger forward spot.

Bledsoe to Morris

Even Tucker has seen a lot of minutes at that position during the preseason. He is big enough and rebounds well enough – Tucker was second in rebounding among all NBA players 6-6 or shorter last season – to hold his own on defense while forcing opposing fours to contest his three-pointers on the other end.

If matchups or momentum allow Hornacek to feel comfortable with a smaller lineup, Markieff Morris becomes a small-ball option at center. Otherwise, his options in the middle are returning starter Miles Plumlee and Alex Len.

Plumlee showed what he can do last season: block shots, rebound, and be a the rolling big man for the point guards. Len is a different breed of rim protector, using his length to alter shots and thus staying in rebounding position.

Shavlik Randolph adds a recently uncovered dimension: outside shooting. The Suns’ oldest player showed Hornacek some new tricks with his stroke from beyond the arc in the preseason.

Plumlee, Len and Randolph will all have a part in filling in after Frye’s departure, a task Hornacek knows will require a improvement from all of them.

“It will put Miles and Alex and Shavlik with a little more responsibility,” Hornacek said. “They’re going to have to be out there…it will put a little more pressure and responsibility on our bigs to be in there a little bit more.”

At the End of the Day…

“You’d like to say you have a set rotation, but I think with this team it’s probably going to be more feel of who’s playing well that night. [The] group of guys that is playing well together will play longer and guys can’t worry about that.”

— Jeff Hornacek

Hornacek’s message to his players Year Two was the same as 2013-14: nothing is set.

“No spots are guaranteed,” he said. “If somebody came back form the summer and is a better player, they could take your spot. It’s open and these guys know it. That’s what makes them compete.”

Ideally, that will lead to a stable-full of impact players at Hornacek’s disposal, ready to use when a certain situation calls for a specific skill set or need.

There are other factors outside of Hornacek’s control. Injuries happen. The idea is to be prepared if/when they do, much as the Suns did last season despite Bledsoe and their first-round pick (Len) missing a combined 77 games.

Hornacek, however, is depending on the players – not injuries – to solve his depth “problem.”

“If everybody’s healthy all year long and playing well, they may play less minutes but it’s going to make our team better,” he said.