What to expect from Suns center

On a one-year, $3.3 million contract that will only count for a $2.1 million cap hit, Plumlee represents a definitive upgrade over Drew Eubanks at the backup center spot. The Suns were able to bolster their center rotation with an experienced, reliable veteran who is already thinking about how he can fit in with this group.

“Just a lot of talent,” Plumlee said. “Guys who have won big, and guys who are in their prime. So I think that was really attractive to me, and to me, that’s what the offseason and training camp’s about: just coming in and figuring out, like, how can you complement what they do so well?”

With over a decade of NBA experience under his belt, Mason Plumlee is who he is at this point. The question is, what can this 34-year-old big provide off the bench for the Suns?

Mason Plumlee looks to bounce back

Mason Plumlee was ranked sixth on our list of top-15 center targets for Phoenix, and he might have been higher if not for two concerns: whether the Suns could actually get him on a vet minimum deal, and his recent injury history.

He wound up fitting within the Suns’ price range, but on the injury front, Plumlee is coming off a year where he was sidelined by a sprained MCL for two months in the middle of the season. That limited him to 46 games and undoubtedly impacted his production, which dropped to 5.3 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 14.7 minutes per game on 56.9 percent shooting overall.

The LA Clippers signed another quality backup in Daniel Theis once Plumlee went down likely contributed to his struggles as well. But Plumdog has a clean bill of health now, and he’ll have a full offseason and training camp to get acclimated to his new surroundings.

“Yeah, I mean, it feels great to be healthy, and I look at every season as a fresh start,” Plumlee said. “So just excited to be here. I’m thrilled to be here this year and looking forward to getting to work.”

In the two seasons prior to last year, Plumlee played in 79 and 73 games. He’s no spring chicken at 34 years old, and he struggled when he used to be on the court, but that was mostly as a byproduct of the injury. The hope is that a fully healthy Mason Plumlee will look better (and a little more spry) than he did last season.

Even in an injury-riddled year, though, the Clippers backup big man brought some desirable traits to the table.

Pick and Roll Plumdog

Mason Plumlee’s greatest strength on the offensive end is his ability to execute in every phase of a pick-and-roll. It seems like a simple enough task for a backup big in the pros, but the Suns certainly didn’t enjoy that same comfort with their second unit, due to Eubanks’ flaws and their lack of a backup point guard.

Phoenix signed Monte Morris — a former Denver Nuggets teammate or Plumlee’s — to plug the latter hole, and Plumdog should be able to fill the former.

For starters, Plumlee uses his chiseled, 6-foot-10, 250-pound frame to set sturdy screens. According to The BBall Index, he ranked in the 93rd percentile in screen assists per 75 possessions, and after a few seasons of freeing up elite creators like James Harden, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, he’ll be able to do the same for Phoenix’s Big 3.

“All just, like, elite scorers,” Plumlee explained. “So it’s been a privilege in these more recent years of my career to play with some really good wing players, and I’m looking forward to this situation.”

The Suns should be too, because Plumlee will carry over the same bone-crunching screens that Jusuf Nurkic brings to the table in the starting lineup. Plumlee, however, is a more reliable finisher in those situations. According to Cleaning The Glass, which filters out garbage time, Plumlee had shot 70 percent or better at the rim for five straight seasons until last year, when he dipped to 66 percent.

Overall, Plumlee still ranked in the 95th percentile in points per possession as the roll man in pick-and-rolls (1.21). Booker, Beal and Durant are obviously not on the same level as Harden in pick-and-roll manipulation, and Plumlee is no longer the high-flying lob threat he once was, but he’ll bring more vertical spacing with his rim-running than Nurkic or Eubanks did last year:

Plumlee isn’t just limited to screening and diving, however. He also placed in the 88th percentile in passing creation quality, and as a capable playmaker in the short roll, Plumdog can fill a similar role to Nurkic with that second unit.

He may not have a jump shot to speak of — Plumlee didn’t make a single shot outside the paint last season — but he knows how to put pressure on the low man when he catches the ball in those situations, using one power dribble to force that defender to help before either dumping it off to the open man in the dunker spot or kicking it out to an open 3-point shooter.

That’s particularly valuable on this Suns team, whose opponents will blitz and trap the Big 3 quite often. They need that screener to be able to diagnose those gaps and rotations in real-time before finding the open man, which Eubanks just wasn’t able to do.

“There’s shooting everywhere,” Plumlee said of the Suns. “You talked about the (Big 3), but, Grayson (Allen), Royce (O’Neale), there are just so many weapons that can space the floor. So, just making sure you get them the ball where they want it and when they want it.”

Much like Nurkic, Plumlee can also be used as an occasional connector on the perimeter or at the elbows. The offense won’t run through the center position — nor should it — but Plumlee can function as an offensive hub while Phoenix runs split cuts off him every which way:

In his last healthy season, Plumlee ranked in the 84th percentile in role-adjusted assists per 75 possessions. As a strong screen-setter, rim-running lob threat and secondary creator who won’t let the ball stick when he catches it in the short roll, he’s already a sizeable improvement over what the Suns had last year.

Mason Plumlee provides the other basics

Hopefully a return to full health — with no midseason knee injuries — allows Plumlee to get back some of his bounce. But even in a season where he missed two whole months, he was a dependable finisher in the dunker spot:

Plumlee loves a good reverse dunk, twisting and turning his body in midair to finish reverse layups that didn’t even need to be reversed in the first place. It’s an amusing little quirk in his game that looks pretty stylish as long as he’s making them.

Aside from Plumdog’s affinity for a good reverse finish, he checks the main boxes you’d want from a backup big.

“Well, I think first and foremost, competing,” Plumlee said. “I think there’s so much talk about this skill, that skill, whatever; I see myself as a competitor first. So that’s something that I want to bring here.”

He certainly brings it on the glass, where Plumdog ranked in the 85th percentile in offensive rebounds and 96th percentile in defensive rebounds per75 possessions. Plumlee also ranked in the 81st percentile in put-backs per 75 possessions, so even though he’s not the most agile crasher, he used his stocky frame to carve out space, good anticipation to time his jump for the right moment, and decent touch to get his hands on unlikely tip-ins:

Many of those came through sheer effort and willpower, but his stationary bunnies and length deserve some credit too.

Defensively is where Plumlee will have to prove himself. Watching him defend pick-and-rolls or move in rotations, he’s not exactly fleet of foot. Guards and wings will try to target him on switches, and a Mason Plumlee closeout on the perimeter necessitates sound rotations, since it’ll usually result in a blow-by.

He’s similarly flawed to Nurk in that respect, so the hope is there is the Suns have viable alternatives at the 5 if they need their defense to be more switchable. It’s a risky prospect, since their best options are either putting too much on Kevin Durant’s plate (again), a relatively-unproven-at-the-5 Bol Bol, or two rookies:

That being said, Plumlee is a willing, frequent deterrent around the rim. In fact, no one contested more shots at the rim than him last year on a per-75-possessions basis.

“Yeah, it’s definitely part of the position,” Plumlee explained when informed of that stat. “I don’t know advanced stats that well, but yeah, that’s what I’m here to do. So I want to do that at a high rate, and I’ve never been an elite shot-blocker, but to alter, make finishing tougher around the rim, is really important.”

Obviously Plumlee is not the best rim protector, as his 0.4 blocks per game last year could attest. But holding opponents to 6.2 percent worse shooting at the rim while contesting that many shots is still pretty impressive.

It may not always look pretty, with Plumlee’s roots firmly planted in the paint and limbs swatting at shots like the Whomping Willow. But as long as he’s making these kinds of efforts to alter shots at the rim, he’ll be doing his part:

The waning athleticism and questions about whether he can get back to pre-MCL Plumlee means there are some valid concerns here, but armed with only vet minimum deals, any center who was a realistic target for Phoenix would’ve had flaws of some kind.

Is Mason Plumlee the type of move that solves all the Suns’ problems or makes Nurkic expendable? No. But he’s a clear upgrade over what they had behind their starting center before, and Plumlee is an experienced vet who knows his role, hits the glass hard, sets good screens, and rolls with intent.

Surrounded by talent like Durant, Booker and Beal, this is the type of two-way role player who can still be valuable in the right system. He’s accustomed to playing drop coverage, which is what coach Budenholzer frequently stuck with in Milwaukee, and he can improve those second unit stints by simply being serviceable and determining shots near the basket.

The addition of Mason Plumlee won’t make or break Phoenix’s season; as a second tax apron team, their path back to contention was always going to start and end with the Big 3. But by quietly upgrading on the margins, the Suns are pushing toward a more reliable eight- or nine-man playoff rotation, and that’s all anyone could’ve realistically hoped for this offseason.