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2019 Phoenix Suns - End of Season Player Review

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2019 Phoenix Suns - End of Season Player Review 

Post#1 » by lilfishi22 » Thu Apr 11, 2019 3:53 am

Season ended for us yesterday and while it's been real up and down, there were plenty of positives and plenty of negatives too.

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This thread is for you to give your review specifically about the players. I'll create another thread where you can give your review/comment on the season in general, the front office and coaching.

Suns Players (by MPG)

Devin Booker (26.6/4.1/6.8) - Overall Grade: A-
Our leader, our savior and also our flawed star. Still one of the few reasons I watch the Suns play and while he started off most of the season carrying niggling injuries, he really blew it out the park in the 2nd half of the season averaging over 30ppg with the back to back 50pt games. He really showed some of that leadership which we hoped to see him develop after an all-star level season last year and I'm glad that's been reflected in the glowing reviews his team mates have given about him. Offensively, he could've been better from the 3 but he also played without anyone really setting him up for 3's so while that's taken a dip, he's made a pretty significant leap in both his 2PT% (.455% career v .536% this season) and also his assists (4.7APG last season v 6.8APG this season) while keeping his TO's kind of in check (1.3a:t last season v 1.6a:t this season). He still has ways to go as a leader, a distributor and of our, on defense but for a guy who doesn't turn 23 until the start of next season, I have to say, he's had a good season and he's certainly on the path towards true stardom.

T.J. Warren (18/4/1.5) - Overall Grade: B-
I think it's impossible to talk about TJ without talking about his truly efficient scoring game now. While his career has always had him shooting well from the field, it's never been better than average from an overall efficiency standpoint because he never incorporated the 3PT scoring into his game. With the added 3PT shot this season, he's kept his scoring numbers near the 20ppg mark (per30) while pushing his efficiency comfortably above league average. While his defense didn’t see the same improvement (didn’t expect it to), I still think he’s an incredibly valuable player on the court.

Like his 3PT shooting, it’s also impossible to talk about TJ Warren without talking about his injuries. It’s disappointing to see him play a career low (rookie season he played less but that was more DNP-CD’s) in games despite arguably having his one of his most effective season of his career. It’s becoming a trend for him and it’s something that has to be taken into account whenever we discuss his overall value as a player because when he’s not playing, he has no value.

Tyler Johnson (11.1/4/4.2) – Overall Grade: A-
Anyone who read my posts when this trade went down knew I absolutely hated it. It made zero sense to me and hated the fact that we ate more into our 2020 cap space. But as he got into the rhythm of things and showed the grit, grind and high IQ plays that you expect from a player that’s gone through the Miami Heat player development system, he not only made sense for this team but made sense as a PG next season too. Watching him navigating around and defending PnR’s really helped our bigs learn their role better on defense. We saw Ayton caught in no-man’s-land far less than earlier in the season because Johnson was able to stick with his man and communicate switches with Ayton. And if we’re talking about heads up plays, what about his near 4:1 A:T ratio? He’s no Nash out there but he makes solid heads up plays while taking care of the ball and that’s what we’ve sorely missed for a long time. I’m honestly excited to see him back next season with the rest of the crew healthy.

If there was something I wasn’t too happy about, it’s gotta be his efficiency. He’s never been known as an efficient player and playing for a young and inexperienced team isn’t going to help that but I do hope he gets much better on that end.

Deandre Ayton (16.3/10.3/1.8) - Overall Grade: B
Wasn’t too happy with the pick since most know I wanted us to take Luka who I thought was very clearly the better player now and going forward but it wasn’t a pick that was unexpected. But without going back into that debate and to just provide context, I had below average expectations of Ayton going into the season to say the least.
The first half of his rookie season essentially confirmed everything I didn’t like about him (defense, inability to string offensive skills together, tendency to lose confidence) but as the season when on, I was pleasantly surprised by how much better his defense got. That was one area which I thought would likely take years to see much improvement in so for him to get better in one season is already an achievement and I hope he works more on his ball handling this offseason so he’s able to create more offense for himself. I also want him to get stronger, work on his communication out on the court and of course continue to build his confidence.

Subjectively, I'm not a big fan of goofy personalities which I think he has and sometimes I do feel like he's more bark than bite because of his goofy personality talking about dominating and being a bully but shows up like a door mouse when going up against average NBA C's. Maybe it's just his thing and I'm not against it as long as he practices what he preaches off the court and that's true domination of his competition on both ends of the floor.

Overall, I’m satisfied with his rookie season, largely because he pretty much met my expectations.

Mikal Bridges (8.3/3.2/2.1) – Overall Grade: A
I thought we gave up a little too much for an older rookie and didn’t really know what to expect coming into the season but he started to impress me very early onwards. While the entire team and coach were still trying to figure out the schemes and roles, Bridges came in and stuck to what he knows translate in the NBA, defense and shooting. He somehow (very quickly) became one of the most consistent players on the team even though his box score wasn’t deserving of headlines. I loved watching play team defense with those Extend-O arms of his and being a fantastic help defender everywhere on the court. As the season progressed, he reached further into his bag of tricks and started to put the ball on the floor more, showed his passing acumen and even taking guys off the dribble to get to the rim. Post-ASW he was averaging 3apg while logging less than 1tpg. He’s easily one of my favourite players on the team because of his smart plays, defense, hustle and his overall ability to positively impact the game even if it doesn’t show up on the boxscore
This offseason, I think he needs to continue to get stronger (as most young players do), keep working on his ball handling and of course, keeping shooting.

Kelly Oubre (16.9/4.9/1.6) – Overall Grade: B
I still don’t like that he takes dumb shots, doesn’t pass enough and I still think he’s a bit inconsistent defensively when he’s not locked onto high profile defensive assignments but he’s come a long way to getting me to want him on this team going forward. His ability to be an x-factor on this team has helped us win some games on both ends of the court and being only 23 (turns 24 in Dec), he upside is still as high as ever. While his first month or so of games weren’t exactly spectacular, it was after we brought in a PG with experience that he started to really show what he can do for this team. If we can retain him in the low $10-12m a year, I think I would be comfortable even if he isn’t able to improve on his weaknesses going forward.
In the off season, I think he needs to work on my playmaking (as he’s mentioned himself), working more on his right hand and of course, like the rest the team, 3PT shooting.

Josh Jackson (11.5/4.4/2.3) – Overall Grade: D+
Honestly, this poor grade is largely to do with expectations going into the season (and even Summer league). He was ultra-productive towards the end of last season when he pretty much had the greenlight to do what he wanted and put up some very respectable rookie numbers (on very ugly efficiency) and in my mind, he was going to build off that and come into this season being a little less productive but more efficient. Unfortunately, he came in even less productive and even less efficient (with respect to his TO’s) and very quickly became one of the worst players in the entire league. Whenever he showed some improvement and what I thought was a turn for the best in terms of his consistency, he’d chuck it down drain (pun intended) with some horrible performances. I do have to commend him for improving his 3PT shooting towards the end of the season but consistency, not flashes if what I’m looking for and he needs to do better than one streaky month of good shooting to turn around his reputation as a poor shooter.

I just don’t know what to do with him. He’s still young, still has a ton of potential and some of his best games leaves many Suns fans drooling for more but with our current wing depth situation, his contract situation ($7m next season, $9m season after) and his overall lack of real progress from last season, I just see him as the most likely candidate to be moved. I wouldn’t be made if he was moved or if he stayed but no matter what happens to him, either he or his replacement has to come in next season and bring the heat

De'Anthony Melton (5/2.7/3.2) /Elie Okobo (5.7/1.8/2.4) – Overall Grade (for both): C-
Decided to put Melkobo together just because I didn’t think neither guys brought much to the table consistently but unfortunately we needed to play them out of necessity because of our PG situation. I will acknowledge that playing in the most difficult position to learn in the NBA when neither have much experience at that position is basically setting them up to fail. So while I’m not particular impressed with what I’ve seen from them, I can at least understand why they were bad. On the positives, playing them did give us a glimpse of where they could be good. Okobo in particular showed much more IMO as an off the ball scorer than he did as a playmaker where he often just over dribbles only to pass it to someone else who has to initiate another play. Likewise with Melton, his playmaking is still rubbish but defensively, the kid is a ball hawk and his spot up shooting was a bit of a surprise.
Like I mentioned, they came into a situation where they were expected to play a position of high expectation and it was unfair to put those expectations on them. They both of a lot of work to do and I would be a lot more comfortable with them on the court if they were 3rd stringers rather than starters or 2nd stringers.

Jamal Crawford (7.9/1.3 /3.6) – Overall Grade: B-
Gave Jamal his own paragraph (albeit a short one) because I thought he brought more than just his on court performance. He’s every bit of 39 and that often showed on the court but it’s really him getting into the ears of our young, inexperienced players who lacked a real mentor earlier in their career where I think his real value is. He’s well respected among his peers across the league and he has the ears of our young guys which I think is as big of an asset to them as it is to Igor who I felt at times didn’t quite have the full attention of his players. I don’t know what his plan is and whether he would stick around but I would have no issue if he were to come back next season to play a similar role but less on the court.

Dragan Bender (5/4/1.2) – Overall Grade: D
Overall this season could be considered a disappointment. He shot well last year from the 3 and really only had to shoot more and do a little more on the court for him to clear his admittedly low bar and unfortunately, I don’t believe he did. The last 8 or so games he played well but the rest of the year was filled with inconsistency, hesitant shooting, rookie mistakes and just an overall lack of impact. For a guy who didn’t have his 4th yr option picked up, he certainly played like one this season.
If he’s happy to stick around on a cheap deal, I’m happy to take him on since I still love the theoretical twin tower line up with him and Ayton, who I think make a very complementary front court pair but if he was paid a few bucks more to go elsewhere, I wish him all the best.

Richaun Holmes (8.2/4.7/0.9) – Overall Grade: A
Love Holmes. Love the energy he brings, love his weak side defense and I just love what he represents. He was one of the few bright spots this season imo and I thought he made Ayton’s poor games a lot more tolerable just by being a really good bench big. For a guy who was traded for a 2nd rounder to often finish games for us (while Ayton sat), I think we got a helluva player. Going forward though, he turns 26 by the time next season starts and he’s a FA this off season so it’s hard to know what happens to him but if I had a guess, we’d probably bring him back on a cheap deal largely because he seems to have a positive effect and has a good relationship with Ayton.

Troy Daniels (6.2/1.4/0.5) – Overall Grade: C
I still have a sore spot for Daniels because the guy is a near elite level shooter and that is a very valuable skill to have. If you think about it, is he really that much worse than to a guy that a lot of people seem to like, Seth Curry? He comes in with very inconsistent PT and is always able to hit wild shots. I didn’t particularly like what we did with him this season. We should’ve moved him in the offseason and if we didn’t we should’ve played him. I didn’t understand nor did I like how we kind of wasted his season. He obviously has his flaws but he should’ve had more consistent playing time, especially since we were sorely lacking good shooters on this team

Others (Jimmer, Spalding) (don’t care) – Overall Grade: N/A
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Re: 2019 Phoenix Suns - End of Season Player Review 

Post#2 » by MathiasPW » Thu Apr 11, 2019 12:19 pm

First of all, great writing, man.

Agree on everything except Booker, because his great individual stats don't reflect his impact on the floor, which during the 1st half of the season was largely negative as he killed ball movement, had terrible body language, constantly barking at teammates and refs, and insisted waaaaaaay too much on ISO "I should be Captain Marvel instead of her" basketball.

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Re: 2019 Phoenix Suns - End of Season Player Review 

Post#3 » by jcsunsfan » Thu Apr 11, 2019 3:53 pm

I think I agree pretty much with your evaluations. I would keep Bender over Jackson for two reasons.

1. I think Bender's upside is higher. We know he can shoot, we know he can get stronger. He knows it too based upon his exit interview.
2. He also plays a position of need. Jackson does not. We could lose Jackson AND Warren this off season and still be find at sf as long as we keep Oubre and Mikal.

As an aside, I also think we could cheaper than what Jackson will cost us.
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Re: 2019 Phoenix Suns - End of Season Player Review 

Post#4 » by lilfishi22 » Fri Apr 12, 2019 1:39 am

MathiasPW wrote:First of all, great writing, man.

Agree on everything except Booker, because his great individual stats don't reflect his impact on the floor, which during the 1st half of the season was largely negative as he killed ball movement, had terrible body language, constantly barking at teammates and refs, and insisted waaaaaaay too much on ISO "I should be Captain Marvel instead of her" basketball.

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I don't disagree with your assessment. I think he played some awful basketball prior to ASW but then it was really a learning experience for most of the young guys. He started the game with 3 rookies (Melton, Bridges, Ayton) and he had to be the leader out there. As the season went on, he focused more on playmaking, taking better shots and of course deferring more to the other guys on the team that had about half a season of NBA games under their belt by that time. The addition of Oubre and TJo certainly gave him a bit more help out there too

I think he needs to stop barking at refs so often since they do give him a lot of his BS calls though.
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Re: 2019 Phoenix Suns - End of Season Player Review 

Post#5 » by ImNotMcDiSwear » Fri Apr 12, 2019 9:16 pm

Really well-considered assessments. I find myself having little room to deviate. Bravo, lilfishi
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Re: 2019 Phoenix Suns - End of Season Player Review 

Post#6 » by NTB » Fri Apr 12, 2019 10:03 pm

Booker - A-
Ayton - B+
Oubre - B+
Mikal - B (still my fav player)
Holmes - B
Warren - B
JJ - C
Daniels - C
Bender - C-
Crawford - D
Okobo/Melton - D-
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Re: 2019 Phoenix Suns - End of Season Player Review 

Post#7 » by Damkac » Fri Apr 12, 2019 11:27 pm

Those ratings are way to generous for a 19 win team.

Booker B+
Ayton B-
Warren B-
Holmes B-
Bridges C+
Oubre C+
Melton D
Crawford E
Okobo E
Daniels E
Bender F
Jackson F

Didn't watched Tyler Johnson enough to rate him.
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Re: 2019 Phoenix Suns - End of Season Player Review 

Post#8 » by lilfishi22 » Sat Apr 13, 2019 12:38 am

Damkac wrote:Those ratings are way to generous for a 19 win team.

Booker B+
Ayton B-
Warren B-
Holmes B-
Bridges C+
Oubre C+
Melton D
Crawford E
Okobo E
Daniels E
Bender F
Jackson F

Didn't watched Tyler Johnson enough to rate him.

Oh a 19-win team they really should all be F's if we go by W/L metrics

I'm looking at the players individually in regards to expectation. I don't think it was unfair
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Re: 2019 Phoenix Suns - End of Season Player Review 

Post#9 » by GoodBehavior » Mon Apr 22, 2019 9:33 pm

Agree for all the ratings except for Booker.

Booker rating should be a B- / C+. A- is way too generous. He closed out the year on a strong note but the vast majority of the year, it was very average to even below average. Three point percentage was down (perhaps due to injury). Shot selection and decision making were very questionable at times. Constantly trying to take over in the 4th quarter with bad results. Yelling at everyone for mistakes when he himself has made plenty. And defense was a fat zero.

I love his offense but there's no way the Suns will make a deep playoff run if his defense doesn't shore up. Against loaded backcourt (Nets, Warriors, Clippers etc), Suns got murdered because of his defense. Lavert and Klay just crapped all over him. In fact, the Suns played the Warriors better when he wasn't playing.

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