The Phoenix Suns secured the win against the Minnesota Timberwolves, setting up a first-round series against the same Wolves squad.

As frustrating as the season went, the Suns are still in a perfect position to make it to the second round of the NBA Playoffs. They face the team that made them look good during their three-game regular season match-up. Still, the Suns cannot be complacent; beating the Wolves three times in the regular season doesn’t mean anything going forward as history suggests.

To help their cause, I have listed down the 3 things that the Suns need to address to get them where they want to be. Surely, there are other things but this list can pretty much determine how far along they can get in these playoffs.

Limit Turnovers

The Phoenix Suns have been careless with the basketball all season long. Per Basketball Reference, the Suns are 25th in the league in taking care of the basketball, averaging 14.9 TOs per game, and dead last amongst the top 10 teams out of the Western Conference.

If the Suns want to survive, they have to take care of the ball. For comparison, the Denver Nuggets averaged 11.6 TOs per game in their championship run and over the last 10 years. Only the Golden State Warriors won the championship despite turning the ball over more than 14 times per game in those playoffs, and they did it twice (14-15 & 21-22).

One sure does hope that they fix this as early as the first round, and it seems like they are headed in the right direction. In their last four games, the Suns only averaged 12.7 turnovers with the large chunk of those coming from the game against the Kings where they turned it over 18 times but eventually won by one.

Defend the Arc Better

In a three-point heavy league, the team that limits their opponent’s three pointers made has the better chance to be the victor at the end of the game.

While the Suns are allowing just about the league average for opponent three point attempts allowed, the teams they have faced have shot an average of 36.4% off of these attempts which is only good for 14th place in the league. The Suns have a defensive rating of 114.5 which is good for 13th in the league, but it would certainly help if they can get that number to a much lower rate and enter the top 10. Defense wins championship as they say.

Increase Bench Points

With a team that has the big three of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal, that should get you enough offense in the playoffs. As good as the starting group for the Suns have been in scoring, their supporting cast off the bench has been somewhat inconsistent. Revisiting the top 10 teams in the West, the Suns bench only averages 26.6 points per game which is once again dead last with a net rating of -5.3.

Eric Gordon, who is regarded as the sixth man, is averaging 8.6 points per game in 44 games he came off the bench, and while he’s been a constant threat from three that defenses needs to cover, he’s just shooting 8/31 from three in 4.4 attempts per game this month of April, that’s an abysmal 25.8% shooting performance in 7 games, a far cry from his averages of the last 7 games of March where he shot the three ball at 42.7% clip.

For Gordon, its probably just a shooting slump that he can overcome like many great scorers, but the Suns just needs him to get his touch back immediately.

The addition of Royce O’Neale certainly helps this cause, mainly for his three point shooting and defense. In his 30 games as a member of the Suns, he’s shooting 37.6% from three in 5.2 attempts. He’s contributing about 8 points a game.

Outside of O’Neale and Eric Gordon, another player could be a factor offensively in these playoffs, and that player is Bol Bol. He shoots 61.9% in his minute number of attempts, and perhaps, there could be stretches where they go to him to look for offensive production.

For Bol, the only suspect is his defense, which is probably why we’re not seeing him in the playoff rotation and that’s too bad.

Less Eubanks

As ironic as it may be by talking about increasing bench production but still wishing that Eubanks never see the hardwood again in the playoffs, I really have to do it. This is a player that the Suns lost a second round pick over for tampering, and that’s big for a team who sold pretty much their imminent future to win now.

Eubanks started his tenure with the Suns in a real strong fashion, averaging 6.5 points per game, over 5 rebounds and a block per game while shooting 60% with 3.6 attempts, and while those numbers are a bare minimum for a backup center, there was an added excitement value that he could pretty much jump over people. A sign of change from the past years of mainly soft layups and one-jabstep-15-foot jumpers.

For whatever reasons, his level of play declined, and fast forward to now, the Suns are being outscored when he plays, a walking -10.3 point differential in offense.

To be fair, I believe that Eubanks plays his heart out to help this team every time he steps foot on the floor, and maybe at some point in time during the playoffs, he’ll have his moments.

Despite being the sixth seed, I still believe that the Suns are poised to make a deep run in the postseason, but in a loaded Western Conference, no one is waltzing their way into the NBA finals, not even a Big 3 of KD, Booker, and Beal and their fate could easily be sealed by just a single turnover, a single opponent three point shot, or an unproductive bench.