The Phoenix Suns have been long criticized for not addressing their lack of a true point guard. On the contrary, Devin Booker has been filling in for this position whenever required, averaging 27.1 points and 6.9 assists, with a 1.63 assist-to-turnover ratio in the regular season. However, the Suns legend Charles Barkley believes the ‘Big 3’ can play more freely with a facilitator to feed the offense.
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The Suns have already fallen to a 0-2 hole against the Minnesota Timberwolves for the opening round of the playoff series. In a recent episode of ‘Inside the NBA’, Chuck called out the organization for not addressing crucial concerns at the trade deadline or through free agency. He pointed out that the Suns were ‘in trouble’ for ignoring the need for a PG and “a big body”,
“They never addressed the point guard situation. They definitely needed a point, and they needed a big body. That’s one of the things we talked about at the trade deadline. They need to have those three guys finishing instead of initiating their offense, and they could play at a much faster pace.”
The analyst also highlighted how Minnesota is a big team. Thus, the offense has largely suffered, even with the sharpshooter trio of Booker-Bradley Beal-Kevin Durant. On that note, Barkley suggested, “They didn’t even need a great point guard. They just need a serviceable point guard, and I thought they needed a bigger body.”
Currently, within the Suns’ lineup, Beal and Booker have often embraced the role of a point guard and facilitated offense for the team. Beal has the maximum six assists from the side, in both the games. As evident from their assists averages per game, the Suns definitely need to find a good floor general who could relieve Booker and KD of the ball-handling burden.
The Suns’ ‘No Point Guard’ scheme has been a concern for many
NBA analysts have continuously been pointing out the need for the Suns to fix their point guard situation. Former Suns player Trevor Ariza had also raised similar concerns in one of his recent appearances on Shannon Sharpe’s ‘Club Shay Shay’ podcast. He highlighted how the Suns’ Big-3’s chances of winning a championship could only be possible if they fixed their current point guard situation.
However, other veteran players like Rajon Rondo feel that they could still get going with their ‘No PG’ scheme. After the loss of a pass-first point guard Chris Paul, the Suns acquired Bradley Beal this season, who is a talented, high-scoring shooting guard. However, with Beal and Booker being two SGs on the team, the exclusion of a traditional guard looks visibly concerning for Phoenix.
The former Laker showed his faith in Devin Booker and claimed he could be an ideal floor general for the team. In the two playoff games, Book has been struggling to facilitate and even score efficiently. However, seems like the only way the Suns could now resolve their underlying issues is by adding a traditional PG to their roster.
