Soko also shares his views on high school star Jalen Green signing on for NBA's Pathway program
Wednesday 6 May 2020 11:31, UK
Ovie Soko believes his beloved Phoenix Suns have made important steps forward this season but adds the organisation must continue to focus on the development of their team culture.
Phoenix Suns
Season record: 26-39
13th place in Western Conference
The Phoenix Suns have made strides this year. Those strides did not always translate into winning games but I believe this young Suns' young unit has made genuine progress this season.
The Suns made a really bright start to the 2019-20 season despite losing one of their main guys, second-year center DeAndre Ayton, for 25 games after the 2018 No 1 overall draft pick violated the terms of the NBA/NBPA Anti-Drug Program by testing positive for a diuretic.
To me, the Suns grew a lot this year. I like the team culture I feel is developing in Phoenix under head coach Monty Williams.
Devin Booker made took some important steps forward this season, too. We have known he is the team's best player for some time and he is fantastically talented. This season I felt he started to understand that he also needs to show some form of leadership.
'Book' showed us a more rounded game this season. You could see the renewed faith he had in his team-mates throughout the year as well as improved defensive effort. Commitment to defense from your star player goes a long way. You only have to watch The Last Dance to see how the work ethic of a superstar player can set the standards for the rest of a roster. It communicates to the locker room the effort and sacrifice that have to made in order to win.
Booker scratched the surface of that type of leading by example this season and he was well-rewarded for that with his first All-Star selection which I was really happy to see.
I also liked the season Suns small forward Kelly Oubre was having until he went down with a right knee injury at the start of March.
Traded away by Washington in December 2018, he came to Phoenix with a chip on his shoulder and has proved he is going to be a key piece of this Suns team, and is capable of being an important role player on any team he plays for over the rest in his future career.
We saw Oubre start to blossom this year. His three-point shot was a bit streaky but ultimately he is one of the rare guys in the NBA. He has got a little bit about him on the offensive end and he will always be one of your better defenders. He has amazing two-way potential and I think he has a really high ceiling.
I loved what center Aron Baynes brought to the Suns team this year. He introduced a completely different element in terms of tough interior defense and spreading the floor with his three-point shooting - nobody saw it coming. He blew a lot of people away.
It was a real shame he got injured just a month into the season. I'm not sure how things will develop when Baynes and Ayton are both fully healthy. Ayton is supposed to be the young superstar guy but it seemed like Baynes fitted better into the offense and the plays Phoenix were running.
The Suns were less fluid on the offensive end when Ayton came back but I will not criticise him for that because he missed such a large chunk of the season.
The Suns looked like a much more stable organisation this year and a big part of the credit for that has to go to head coach Monty Williams.
At an NBA level, you have to build a culture to win consistently. There are tons of talented guys throughout the league, players good enough to heat up and win you a game on a given night. But to win over a longer period of time and to win enough for it to translate into a possible playoff berth, that is a totally different kettle of fish.
A huge change with the Suns this season was seeing the team play for each other and buying into the culture, the 'hard-hat' mentality that Williams has introduced. You could see their togetherness.
The NBA can be very difficult for young talented players and the Suns have a relatively young unit. For them to show a real commitment to playing the style the coach wants, it means a lot and it is something they can build on now.
When you have a group of younger guys that are buying in despite a few growing pains, that speaks loudly about where their heads are at.
The Suns do not have a rich history to fall back on like the Boston Celtics or San Antonio Spurs do when the team suffers a couple of down years. The Celtics and Spurs can use their winning tradition as a teaching tool and it makes it that little bit easier to get young players to buy-in.
The Phoenix roster is definitely missing a piece or two but I feel the team has made a real effort this year to take the first steps to getting to the next level. You can see the intent to do that is there and that will be massively important.
Phoenix must continue to build on what they have done this season. They will have to do that to have any chance of keeping their most talented stars, especially Booker.
To keep their better players, teams must be able to show their vision and plans to achieve consistent winning. It's cut-throat, guys want to win and we have seen superstars move at the drop of a hat. Booker is no different - he is a true competitor who I know desperately wants to win.
Forget setting targets like 'make the playoffs in 2021' - that detracts from the importance of the process of building a culture. I just want to see Phoenix continue to grow.
Building a culture is something that happens over a period of years. Look at the Golden State Warriors, they did not just get Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson and suddenly become NBA champions. They took it step-by-step and built themselves up to the championship level.
Because they worked on the culture of the organisation consistently, once they had all the pieces, it seemed like they came out nowhere to win the title. Did they really? No, they didn't!
There is a long-term blueprint there to follow for this young Suns team.
