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Phoenix Suns: What to expect from Brandon Knight

By Luke Swiatek

PHILADELPHIA,PA - NOVEMBER 19: Brandon Knight #11 of the Phoenix Suns goes up for the reverse layup against the Philadelphia 76ers a game at the Wells Fargo Center on November 19, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2016 NBAE (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA,PA - NOVEMBER 19: Brandon Knight #11 of the Phoenix Suns goes up for the reverse layup against the Philadelphia 76ers a game at the Wells Fargo Center on November 19, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2016 NBAE (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Photo by Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images
Photo by Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images /

Next stop – Phoenix Suns

About that pick: it was originally supposed to convey in 2015, but due to protections, didn’t convey until 2018, when it finally turned into … Mikal Bridges, who obviously the Phoenix Suns ended up trading for from the Philadelphia 76ers.

Essentially, the Suns traded Ennis, Plumlee, Zhaire Smith, and the Miami Heat’s unprotected 2021 first round pick for Brandon Knight. Yikes.

Still, Knight was expected to be a very good player in Phoenix. Despite not being known for playing great defense, Knight was still young, athletic, and 6-foot-3 with a 6-foot-7 wingspan. Putting him next to Eric Bledsoe at the point of attack could’ve been something special.

However, injuries hampered Knight in his first half-season with Phoenix. Due to ankle issues and a bone bruise, Knight only played in 11 games for the Suns before he was shut down for the year, leaving the Knight experiment with inconclusive results.

However, that didn’t stop the front office from giving Knight a five year, $70 million deal, the same as Bledsoe had received a year prior. They gave up a lot to get Knight, and weren’t about to let the young guard with so much potential walk away so easily.

Read. Phoenix Suns - Projecting the 2018-19 rotation. light

However, the next three years were not very kind to Knight, mostly in the form of injuries.

In the 2015-16 season, he and Bledsoe only played a combined 83 games due to adductor strains for the former and a torn meniscus for the latter. In their absences, then-rookie Devin Booker began to come into his own as the star of the team.

Unfortunately for Knight, this meant he was moved to the bench for the 2016-17 season to allow Bledsoe and Booker to start.

He didn’t play after the All-Star break despite being healthy, and was eventually officially shut down, presumably to help the Suns tank for draft positioning down the stretch.

Knight then missed all of the 2017-18 season with a torn ACL, and hasn’t played for the Phoenix Suns since.

His time in Phoenix has been his worst of his three stops. He did average a career high 19.6 points per game in the 2015-16 season, but his overall scoring average as a member of the Suns is comparable to his average from Detroit.

He also has shot worse from deep in Phoenix than he has elsewhere – never a good sign for a point guard. In Phoenix, he’s shot 33.4 percent from 3-point range, compared to 36.7 percent elsewhere.

At his age, he should be better than he was as a rookie, and he certainly shouldn’t be regressing below where he was in Milwaukee, so what’s the problem?

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