Phoenix Suns: Who Belongs In Their Backcourt For The Future?

Brandon Knight

The Good:

Brandon Knight has a place in the NBA; it’s just been hard to figure out where that is since his only successful stint in this league was a half-season he spent with the Milwaukee Bucks. But there’s no question that when Knight is on, he’s capable of putting up pretty big numbers.

On the season, Knight is averaging 19.4 points, 5.1 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game, but a few games — a 38-point outing, a 37-point outing and a 30-15-10 triple-double, for example — have shown Knight is talented enough to be a productive player in this league. He’s signed on through the 2019-20 season and if he can continue playing off the ball as he has been alongside Booker lately, there could be something there.

“If you saw the last game against Golden State, we were able to move Brandon off the ball, give him a break and let him be more of a spot-up shooter, which he’s great at as well,” Watson said of the performance, in which Knight scored 27 second half points and made seven triples.

The Bad:

However, Knight has shown very little chemistry sharing the backcourt with Bledsoe. He’s a woeful defender, he’s similarly injury-prone and his shot selection can be horrendous for a starting guard when the shots aren’t falling. Knight’s streaky scoring makes him hard to trust and he just hasn’t stepped up as the team’s lead playmaker in Bledsoe’s absence.

Knight’s other problem is how injury-prone he is, along with the fact that he envisions himself as a starting point guard in this league. Until he shows signs of cohesion with Bledsoe while playing off the ball, his fit — and future — in Phoenix will continue to feel up in the air.

The Verdict: Bench Him Or Trade Him

Ideally, the Suns would be able to get Knight to buy into a sixth man role, abandoning the dual point guard lineup that really only worked with Bledsoe and Goran Dragic to begin with. That’d allow them to transition to Booker as the team’s more traditional starting 2-guard, since it’s only a matter of time before he makes Knight expendable — if that day hasn’t come already.

Knight’s erratic play and streaky scoring makes his game best suited for coming off the bench, but if he’s not keen on embracing that role, the Suns would be better off boosting his trade value back up and dealing him at their most convenient opportunity.

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