Brandon Knight 1 of 5 most overated NBA players

[arizonabuck]

from ESPN..........
Brandon Knight: The one-way Sun

Last February, the Phoenix Suns traded a first-round draft pick belonging to the Los Angeles Lakers (and potentially very valuable) to acquire Brandon Knight, then gave him a $70 million contract extension. Knight and Eric Bledsoe formed what appeared to be a promising backcourt for Phoenix.

It hasn't quite worked out as planned this season. The Suns started 12-19 before losing Bledsoe for the remainder of the season to a knee injury, and are 2-17 since. And Knight's play so far has been part of the problem, not part of the solution.

As the combo guard label suggests, Knight can play either point guard or shooting guard. He has seen some success as a scoring guard, averaging 19.7 points on reasonable shooting efficiency.

Unfortunately, as a playmaker he has struggled. He hasn't been able to get lobs consistently to Tyson Chandler for the center's trademark alley-oop dunks. Overall, Knight's 5.1 assists per 36 minutes are accompanied by 3.4 turnovers per 36, including the 11th-most live-ball turnovers in the league.

Those plays generally lead to easy baskets for the opponents, and indeed the Suns allow the second-most fast-break points in the league. Overall, they are 29th in defensive efficiency.

Knight's role in the Suns' bottom-two defense is pretty clear. In addition to the turnovers, he's not a stopper, he rarely blocks shots and he grabs only three defensive rebounds per 36 minutes.

For most of the season, the Suns have been about four points per 100 possessions better on defense with Knight sitting. While that number has improved of late (the Suns still rate as better without him playing), in large part that's because of all the minutes Phoenix is giving to very young players like Devin Booker and Archie Goodwin.

In all, Knight is posting a -1.89 RPM, which is 45th among point guards and 40th among shooting guards.

Knight is only 24, so he has ample time to fill out his game, focus on defense and become an above-average NBA player. But currently there's little to be excited about.

[BobbyLight]

I mean, I know most here will agree with a lot of this, but this article loses all importance to me once they say:

he rarely blocks shots

Just like 90% of the other PG's in the league? Just seems like a ridiculous thing to even mention.

[bdpecore]

I mean, I know most here will agree with a lot of this, but this article loses all importance to me once they say:

he rarely blocks shots

Just like 90% of the other PG's in the league? Just seems like a ridiculous thing to even mention.

Maybe the author was referring o contesting shots?

[JimmyTheKid]

I think most Bucks fans and Pistons fans who watched Brandon Knight play basketball would concur with this article. Suns fans will understand shortly, if they don't already, why he's already on his 3rd team at 24 years old.

[Prince12]

70+ million we got ourselves out of. Think about that.

[MickeyDavis]

He's not Buck anymore. This can go on the Suns board