Phoenix Suns center Bol Bol has not been a part of the team’s rotation during the early stages of the 2024-25 season. Bol has only appeared in 2 out of the team’s 13 games this season for 11 minutes.
Head coach Mike Budenholzer stated on October 31st that Bol Bol wasn’t in the rotation due to the team’s depth.
“We have great depth and sometimes when you have great depth, some guys don’t play,” Budenholzer said. “He’s been good in practice. We’re excited about him. He’s going to have his opportunities to impact games and help us both offensively and defensively. Just the hard part of the NBA, hard part of having a lot of really good players, good depth.”
Jusuf Nurkić’s new role
However, Budenholzer’s answer makes no sense, given what he wants out of the center position. On September 30th, Budenholzer stated that he wanted starting center Jusuf Nurkić to shoot more threes.
“He’s been given instruction to work on and shoot and practice 3s, and we’re going to want to see that in games.”
Nurkić has followed the team’s instructions, taking a career-high 40.7% of his shots from behind the arc and averaging 2.9 per game in 12 appearances this season. Unfortunately, the results have been poor, as threes haven’t been a core part of Nurkić’s shot profile.
Before this season, Nurkić only took 6.8 % of his shots from behind the arc, averaging 0.6 per game. He made 28% of those attempts during his career. Given Nurkić’s previous track record, defenders are not respecting his three-point shot.
82.8% of his attempts have been wide open with 6 feet of separation from the defender, averaging 2.4 per game. He is shooting 31% on wide-open attempts. Nurkić’s poor performance on wide-open attempts has contributed to his shooting 25.7 % from behind the arc this season.
Nurkić’s new role has led the team to perform worse with him on the court. Phoenix is averaging 55.3 points, shooting 44.6% on 43.9 attempts per game in 24.6 minutes. However, when he is off the court, they average 60.9 points, 45.8% on 45.4 attempts per game.
Why Bol Bol should start at center
Given Nurkić’s career track record and the early results this season, this experiment should be discontinued.Furthermore, the Phoenix Suns have a big man who can be better in the role. Before the NBA, Bol shot 52 % on 2.8 attempts per game in 9 outings at Oregon during the 2018-19 season.
Since joining the league, Bol has taken 27.4 of his shots from behind the arc, averaging 1.2 per game. His efficiency has worsened in the NBA, as he has shot 32.7% from behind the arc for his career.
Although Bol’s efficiency has declined, he is still better suited to be a stretch five than Nurkić. Consequently, Budenholzer should start Bol until the trade deadline in 2025.
At the deadline, Phoenix should check if Brook Lopez is available. Lopez played for Budenholzer for five seasons. During those seasons, Lopez took 48.1% of his shots from behind the arc, averaging 5 per game and making 35% of those attempts.
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