Written by Ryan Weinkauf at The Lottery Mafia
The Phoenix Suns and general manager Ryan McDonough aren’t afraid to think outside the box, and that is exactly what they did with their starting backcourt of Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight. Despite criticism, that investment is starting to pay off for Phoenix, but other parts of the team aren’t performing as well as they had hoped.
The Suns organization loves point guards, and they haven’t been afraid to have a lot of quality ones on their roster. Despite having Goran Dragic, the Suns got involved in a trade with the Clippers and the Bucks in 2013, acquiring young and exciting Chris Paul understudy Eric Bledsoe. There were questions of what Phoenix would do with their logjam at point guard, but the Dragic-Bledsoe pairing thrived, although Bledsoe did miss a good amount of time due to a meniscus injury, but the Suns were the surprise of the league as they came very close to an unexpected playoff appearance.
The following offseason, the Suns decided they still didn’t have enough quality point guards and went out and acquired Isaiah Thomas from the Kings on a pretty reasonable four-year deal. This move was received with a lot less questions and a lot more compliments, but it wasn’t as perfect of a fit as it appeared. Thomas and Dragic didn’t mesh very well, and Dragic became increasingly frustrated with the front office and the direction of the team, resulting in the Suns trading him to Miami as his contract was up at the end of the year. They also made a quick turn on Thomas, trading him away to the Boston Celtics.
But the Suns hadn’t given up on their two-point-guard vision, as they acquired Brandon Knight from Milwaukee at the trade deadline last year to pair in the backcourt with Bledsoe. The Suns signed Knight to a $70 million extension this offseason, making it very clear they were set to make Bledsoe-Knight their long-term backcourt.
14 games into the season, the return on investment is looking pretty good for the Suns, as both Bledsoe and Knight are off to blistering starts.
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