Phoenix Suns: 4 goals for the organization in 2017-18
By Drew Zlogar
2. Reach the league’s top 20 in individual stats
The Phoenix Suns should have a goal this year to have someone representing their squad in the top 20 of the most talked about statistic categories (points, assists, rebounds, and field goal percentage, etc.).
There are more categories that are tallied by the league, but if the Suns had someone in the top 20 of those four categories, they would be proving to have legitimate building block players. Last year, the Suns had only one player (Eric Bledsoe) who was in the top 20 of any of these categories (15th in assists per game at 6.3). Devin Booker was 25th in scoring (22.1 points per game) and T.J. Warren was 28th in field goal percentage (49.5 percent).
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This is a more difficult goal to set since it is more individual-based, but if the Suns had a player in each of these categories’ top 20, it would show fans and management that they have the proper building blocks to move forward with.
Having a player like Booker, who is one of the premier young scoring guards in the league, to jump from 22.1 points per game to 23.0 per game — which would have been top-20 worthy — shouldn’t be that big of a leap for the guy who scored 70 against the top team in the Eastern Conference during the regular season.
T.J. Warren would’ve had to jump from 49.5 percent to 51.6 percent to be considered a top-20 shot-maker, which isn’t out of the question for 2017-18, especially for a player who is coming off the most productive season of his career.
Rebounds per game, will be the most difficult category to see a Suns player crack the top 20 in. Last year, the Suns’ second-best rebounder to be considered in the category was Alex Len at 6.6 rebounds per game — nowhere near the 20th-best rebounder in the league, Zach Randolph, who snatched up 8.2 per game. However, Len, who is trying to show why he should get paid big bucks, would have a valid argument if he cracked the top 20.