The Phoenix Suns have lost eight of their last ten games and seem to be entering a free-fall despite their win over the Chicago Bulls on Monday night. Before the season started it was assumed that Tyson Chandler and Markieff Morris would be the starting frontcourt and that they would work well together but Chandler is currently hurt and Morris is in the doghouse so Jon Leuer has been getting the starts at power forward. Head coach Jeff Hornacek plans to get Morris involved again but it might be off the bench with Leuer remaining in the starting lineup, according to Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic.
The Suns are actually pretty deep at the power forward position as they have three guys that warrant minutes there and of the three Morris has played the worst. Morris missed a game due to a knee issue last week and then was a DNP- coaches decision before playing just seven minutes on Monday. Hornacek does hope to get Morris going, as he has been a very good player in the past, but it likely won't be in the starting lineup.
"Thinking we could get Markieff going off the bench but it was a small group and they were just trapping him so we weren't able to do that. Jon did a nice job out there with that first group so it'll probably stay that way," said Hornacek.
Leuer has appeared in all 22 games this season for the Suns with six of those being starts and he has played pretty well. In 19.1 minutes per game he is averaging 7.8 points and 5.3 rebounds on 46 percent shooting from the field and 43 percent from three and has a PER of 15.7 which is above average. Leuer has been particularly effective recently with Chandler out and Morris not playing much so Hornacek seems to want to keep it that way.
Leuer and Mirza Teletovic have been splitting the power forward minutes for the most part recently while Leuer is also getting some time at center. Teletovic has been the guy that has really benefited from the frontcourt issues as he has gotten major time recently and taken advantage as he hit the game winning shot on Monday night. The Suns have certainly struggled recently and you would think it is because of Morris' struggles but his replacements have actually played well so it might be tough for him to earn his spot back unless he starts to play much better and Leuer and Teletovic start to play much worse.
