Phoenix Suns: 5 Reasons To Keep Watching In A Lost Season
3. Mirza’s Future
Mirza Teletovic has hit a bit of a shooting slump over the last few games, but he’s been one of the lone bright spots in the season since Jeff Hornacek was fired. Teletovic leads all bench scorers in made three-pointers by a wide margin, and he’s in the middle of a career year, averaging 11.1 points per game on 40.6 percent shooting from three-point range — both career highs.
Though he’s a defensive sieve, Teletovic’s trigger-happy approach, positive outlook and trademark skills as a stretch-4 have quickly made him a fan favorite. On the right team — preferably a competitive one — it’d be easy to envision Teletovic being an underrated and highly appreciated bench piece who knows his role and fills it well.
As an unrestricted free agent this summer, the offers should come rolling in. While most Suns fans would be fine with him accepting a well-earned payday on a team with a more optimistic outlook for the 2016-17 season, it’s hard to not be a little bit selfish and hope that he sticks around past this summer.
After all, the Suns will have plenty of cap space to use and I have a hard time seeing them putting it to use on this summer’s top free agents. If they’ve got money to blow, Teletovic is one outlet for some of it. Even Teletovic himself said that he wants to stay past this season as recently as Feb. 19, when he dropped 25 points on the Houston Rockets.
“To be honest, I came here to accomplish certain things,” he said. “And I would feel disappointed if I didn’t stay. I know I’m also in a one-year deal, but I’ll try to stay here as long as possible and I want to do things I came to do here.”
Upcoming free agents often say all the right things and then go in a completely different direction when the time for action comes, and nobody could blame Teletovic if he wanted to get the hell out of Dodge. But with Teletovic averaging 15.5 points per game on 40.6 percent shooting from deep since the start of February, Suns fans should keep an eye on his role with the team and enjoy his always green light while they can.
Next: No. 2