Phoenix Suns: 5 takeaways from 2017-18 exit interviews

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4. T.J. Warren doesn’t sound open to a sixth man role

With T.J. Warren signing a four-year, $50 million extension and Josh Jackson struggling out of the gate in his first season, for the first few months, everyone assumed Warren would be the team’s starting small forward for the foreseeable future.

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Once the calendar flipped to 2018, however, Warren struggled to stay on the court and failed to improve the two biggest shortcomings of his game — spreading the floor from 3 and becoming a plus-defender — despite posting career-high scoring numbers.

Jackson, meanwhile, experienced one of the most eye-opening midseason turnarounds for a rookie we’ve seen in years. He stepped into the starting role with Warren and Booker going down with injuries, averaging 17.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game on 44 percent shooting from January on and even serving as the team’s No. 1 option on offense at times.

With Jackson proving himself as a franchise pillar alongside Booker, and Warren’s game starting to feel much more suitable for a microwave bench scoring role, the conversation had come full circle to when the Suns first selected their rookie wing in June: How long before he earned the starting job over Tony Buckets?

Triano wasn’t ready to bite heading into a new season, but he admitted the thought had crossed everyone’s minds before the year began.

"“It’s early to look at that,” he said. “Obviously we thought about that early in the year whether we wanted to throw Josh into the fire, but Josh seemed to like coming off the bench. He obviously grew as the season went on and I think a lot of it will depend on the complete makeup of the team. “Can you afford to play both of them? Does one need to start, one come off the bench? They’re both very efficient at what they do. They both play at different speeds and I want them to both grow and I think a lot of it will depend on the complete makeup of the roster, not just trying to figure out one position.”"

Jackson said he spent the season trying to get comfortable no matter what role he was in, which makes sense for the rookie to defer to his more experienced teammate. Warren, on the other hand, seemed taken aback when asked about a potential sixth man role in the future, shifting back and forth on his feet and laughing uncomfortably while he answered questions.

"“I haven’t heard anything [about that]. Just continue to be myself and continue to do what I’ve been doing.” But would you be okay with a sixth man role? “Whatever is…I mean, I don’t know. The season just ended. I’m a basketball player first of all, so I’m ready to compete.”"

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