Meet the NBA's Most 1-Dimensional Teams This Season
Two-way balance wins NBA championships.
It's not quite as catchy as the normal slogan, but it holds the most truth. If teams hope for full-fledged title contention, they should become both the unstoppable force and the immovable object.
But few clubs have the luxury of attaining that. Most have some type of specialty.
Sometimes it's born out of necessity. Teams with punchless offenses or glass-jawed defenses may have to neglect those units to build fully functional ones at the opposite end. For others, they wind up one-dimensional by accident. When roster moves to jolt a stagnant attack or solidify a splitting stonewall don't work, they must hastily build an identity on the fly.
The 2015-16 season is swimming with specialists. Using a combination of the stat sheet and the always reliable eye test, we have uncovered the campaign's six most one-dimensional outfits.
Phoenix Suns: Explosive Offense, Shoddy Defense
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Scoring isn't an issue for the Phoenix Suns.
Powered by the potent backcourt combo of Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight, the Suns light up the scoreboard with volume (106.3 points per game, third) and efficiency (102.5 offensive rating, eighth). Bledsoe and Knight do the bulk of the heavy lifting (44.0 points, 11.8 assists combined), but Phoenix also boasts a deep collection of long-range snipers (39.3 three-point percentage, third).
Move away from point production, though, and the Suns' problems are both glaring and numerous.
They're surrendering 103.6 points per 100 possessions, the league's seventh-worst rate. They have the worst field-goal percentage against (47.0). They lose track of three-point shooters (37.4 percent, 27th) and have been bullied around the basket (60.2 percent shooting inside of five feet, 28th).
"We just need to refocus our defense," Suns coach Jeff Hornacek said, via ArizonaSports.com's Bryan Gibberman. "I think our guys have gotten to the point where they're just trying to score and not worrying about the other end and we've given up a lot of points."
The offense isn't sharp enough to carry this team. Phoenix ranks as a bottom-third team in both assist percentage (52.2, 27th) and turnovers per 100 possessions (16.0, 23rd).
Assuming the Western Conference flashes its typical depth at some point, the Suns defense must improve if the team hopes to snap a five-year playoff drought.
Milwaukee Bucks: Prolific Passing, Little Else
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The Milwaukee Bucks don't waste many passes.
They don't throw a ton of them (302.5 per game, 18th), but the ones they do all have purpose. Only the Golden State Warriors and Atlanta Hawks have a higher assist percentage than Milwaukee's 64.8. The Bucks sit at No. 5 with 24.1 assists per 100 possessions, and they have six different players averaging at least three dimes per 36 minutes.
But all that distributing hasn't moved the needle much for this inconsistent offense. The Bucks are 22nd with 99.8 points per 100 possessions, which wouldn't be such a damaging number if this defense were still elite.
It's not. It's hemorrhaging points at an alarming rate—106.7 points per 100 possessions. That's the third-worst defensive rating in the league and more than seven points higher per 100 possessions than Milwaukee allowed last season, when the Bucks didn't have Greg Monroe manning the middle or Jabari Parker logging major minutes.
"Yes, they're young. Yes, they've had injuries," wrote BrewHoop's Frank Madden. "But neither the players nor coaches seem to have any idea how to fix what's going wrong defensively; forget being elite, they don't even know how to be not terrible right now."
Prolific passing game aside, little has gone to plan for Jason Kidd's Bucks. The offense still lacks a go-to scorer, as Giannis Antetokounmpo paces the club with just 16.1 points a night (tied for 45th overall). The defense can't close out possessions with the NBA's only sub-73 defensive rebound percentage (70.3).
Milwaukee was a popular sleeper pick entering the 2015-16 campaign after last season's surprise playoff run. Something other than its assisting needs to awaken.
Sacramento Kings: Running, Gunning and Rarely Defending
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Tune in at the right time, and you'll see the Sacramento Kings playing nearly elite-level offense.
They boast six double-digit scorers, led by All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins' 28.2 per game. They have the league leader in total assists (203) and assists per game (10.7) in four-time All-Star Rajon Rondo. They're a strong shooting team both inside (59.5 percent inside of five feet, sixth) and out (37.4 from three, fifth), and they're aggressive in the open court (17.4 fast-break points per game, third).
All of those ingredients add up to an offensive rating of 102.1, tied for No. 10. They've also failed to help the Kings climb out of the cellar.
Sacramento is on pace to have its 10th consecutive losing season. The culprit is a defense that leaks uncontrollably.
The Kings have held only three opponents below the century mark and seen nine clear 110 points. They sit 26th in defensive efficiency (106.1 points allowed per 100 possessions), 29th in field-goal defense (46.9 percent) and dead last in defending the restricted area (68.7 percent).
"We're just not collectively together yet. Connected to the point of [understanding] you can't play good for 48 minutes," Kings coach George Karl said, via Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee. "There's always going to be moments where the game goes the wrong way. We've just got to hang in there."
Sacramento doesn't have the firepower needed to hide an overly generous defense. Unless this group takes pride in playing both ends of the floor, this ignitable offense won't produce anything more than hollow stats.
Detroit Pistons: Surging Stoppers, Stumbling Snipers
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Andre Drummond has cemented himself at or near the front of the Most Improved Player race with nightly contributions of 18.6 points, 16.7 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 1.5 blocks. Bolstered by the big guy's rise, the Detroit Pistons have jumped from 21st to 11th in defensive efficiency, shaving more than four points per 100 possessions off their opponents' production.
But the Detroit offense has failed to launch around him. In fact, it's taken a sizable step in the wrong direction, dropping from 17th to 24th in offensive efficiency.
The problem is clear—the Pistons can't shoot. At least, they haven't been able to yet this season.
"Our shooting, particularly from three-point range, it's baffling to me," Stan Van Gundy said, via MLive.com's David Mayo. "You can have that on any one game but we haven't shot it well all year. And we've got some guys who are shooting it really, really poorly who are good three-point shooters."
Marcus Morris is more than seven points below his career three-point average (28.4, 35.7). Kentavious Caldwell-Pope's conversion rate is over three points lower (30.2, 33.3), as is Anthony Tolliver's (32.3, 35.4).
It doesn't help that Brandon Jennings, a career 35.1 percent shooter, has yet to make his season debut. Nor that Jodie Meeks, a 37.3 percent sniper, was lost in Detroit's second game to a fractured foot.
But understanding the causes of this problem won't make it go away. Not when the Pistons have bottom-third marks in field-goal (41.9, 28th), three-point (31.7, 24th) and true-shooting (49.6, 30th) percentages.
Houston Rockets: Beard's Freebies, Nothing Else
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It's tempting to say the Houston Rockets have zero dimensions. They're in the league's lower half on both sides of the ball and don't remotely resemble the squad that played in last season's Western Conference Finals—even though the personnel is largely the same.
But this Rockets outfit, two-way struggles and all, still has one elite ability: getting to the charity stripe. Houston ranks second in both free-throw attempts per game (29.7) and free-throw rate (0.353), which is absurd since it only has one player among the top 25 in freebie attempts.
That player just happens to be the NBA's best at that particular skill: James Harden, who averages 11.8 trips to the foul line a night. That's how he's the NBA's second-best scorer (29.5 points per game) and also a 39.8 percent shooter (29.0 from three).
Thus ends the list of strengths for the Rockets.
The Rockets have disappointing shooting marks at all three levels, sitting 26th from the field (42.1), 29th from long range (30.9) and 24th at the line (73.4). They own the league's third-worst field-goal defense (46.8) and 27th-ranked defensive efficiency (106.3 points allowed per 100 possessions).
They have already made a coaching change (from Kevin McHale to J.B. Bickerstaff) and have reportedly shopped their biggest offseason addition Ty Lawson, per Basketball Insiders' Steve Kyler. They've struggled to keep Dwight Howard on the floor or get Harden off it.
"This team entered the season poised to seriously compete for the title," wrote Red94.net's Rahat Huq. "Suddenly, the same unimaginative offense of years past has produced underwhelming results, with both James Harden and the shooters surrounding him going completely ice cold. The defense has been downright embarrassing."
Even Harden can't find enough free throws to compensate for Houston's myriad troubles.
Chicago Bulls: Dominant Defense, (Still) Sputtering Offense
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Fred Hoiberg was supposed to bring more than a fresh voice when he took over for Tom Thibodeau this summer. Armed with a modern pace-and-space offense, Hoiberg looked ready to help this defensive power find its two-way identity.
That may well happen at some point, but for now, the Chicago Bulls are banking all their success on one side of the ball. And it's the same one that made them perennial playoff participants under Thibodeau.
Chicago has one of the NBA's stingiest defenses. The Bulls sit fifth in defensive efficiency and second in field-goal defense (40.9), and they've held all but five of their first 16 opponents to double digits.
But scoring remains a constant struggle. The Bulls lead only the bottom-feeding Philadelphia 76ers, Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers in points per 100 possessions (97.4). Four of the top six players in Hoiberg's rotation are shooting below 40 percent—Derrick Rose, Nikola Mirotic, Tony Snell, Joakim Noah—and Pau Gasol is hitting a career-worst 43.7 percent of his shots.
"The record looks nice and there remains hope that better things are ahead, but the Bulls aren't scaring anyone around the league right now," wrote ESPN.com's Nick Friedell. "Anyone who has watched this group with a close eye knows that there are many flaws just below the surface."
For now, the Bulls have one reliable contributor: Jimmy Butler, who's been good for 20.2 points on 45.0 percent shooting a night. But even the reigning Most Improved Player is a bit of a question mark thanks to a nagging heel injury he's been unable to shake.
On paper, the marriage between Hoiberg and this roster should produce a powerful attack. But this is still a defense-first group until further notice.
Unless otherwise noted, statistics used courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com and current through games played Dec. 2.
