'Not a good basketball team': Suns' issues are in the spotlight

The Phoenix Suns are free-falling in the Western Conference, leading to major questions about their super-team roster construction and much more.

Following a strong November in which they won seven of their last eight games, the Suns have only three wins in December. At 10th in the Western Conference, Phoenix (14-13) holds a one-game lead over the Golden State Warriors (13-14), who have won three consecutive games.

Phoenix's poor start is due to many factors, none bigger than the limited availability of Bradley Beal. Battling injuries, he has appeared in only six games and is now sidelined with an ankle injury, set for re-evaluation in early January, per TNT's Chris Haynes. 

With his acquisition by the Suns in June, Beal was expected to turbocharge the superteam pairing of Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, but Phoenix has struggled instead.

"The issues Phoenix is dealing with transcends health," Sports Illustrated's Kevin Hicks wrote. "This is not a good basketball team at this juncture."

Two other major issues hindering Phoenix are the lack of versatile two-way players and an absence of another facilitating point guard. 

Phoenix's roster is poorly assembled, lacking two-way depth, one of the most important elements of modern roster construction. The roster features good offensive players (Jusuf Nurkic, Eric Gordon, Grayson Allen and Yuta Watanabe) and solid defensive players (Josh Okogie, Keita Bates-Diop and Jordan Goodwin) but lacks role players who can consistently execute on both ends.

Okogie and Bates-Diop are shooting below 30 percent from three, and Goodwin's efficiency stands barely above their low marks (30.7 percent). Compounding the team's woes, Watanabe — who is supposed to be a sniper — is shooting just 34.8 percent from deep, a significant drop from last season's 44.4 percent.

The poor roster construction plays a major role in head coach Frank Vogel's in-game adjustments and how he mixes and matches lineups. 

Changes to the lineup significantly impact how the team operates. For example, playing Gordon and Allen alongside Durant and Booker helps space the floor but creates negatives on the other end. Conversely, substituting in Okogie and Bates-Diop bolsters the defense, but the offense falls off a cliff because opponents can help off the two non-shooters and hound Booker and Durant. 

Throughout the offseason, pundits harped on Phoenix's need to add a true point guard to deal to Booker, Durant and Beal. Instead, Phoenix stood pat, and Booker was made the point guard by default. He is a good playmaker (8.2 APG), but facilitating isn't his biggest strength. 

Here is a prime example of what an offense possession can look like without a true point guard: