The glaring problem with Tyus Jones’ comments after joining Suns.
No doubt about it, the Phoenix Suns managing to steal Tyus Jones will go down as one of the deals of the summer. A point guard who started all 66 games he played for the Washington Wizards last season – putting up 12 points and over seven assists each night – being signed to a minimum contract.
If there was one area the organization was seriously lacking last season, it was at the point guard position. Not only has the front office worked hard to remedy this situation during the offseason, they’ve arguably gone too far in the other direction.
As if to make this situation more tricky, Jones’ comments about his role could create tension.
That’s because in his press release after signing with the Suns, Jones mentioned that “I can significantly impact a team that has a real opportunity to challenge for an NBA title as their starting point guard”. Positive as all of that sounds – and again the importance of getting a guy like Jones cannot be overstated – it creates some problems if he thinks he’s going to start in Phoenix.
You could argue that this doesn’t matter anyway, that closing out games is what’s most important. That might be true, but that in itself also creates another problem that we also need to address. Starting first with the stance Jones has taken publically that he thinks he’s going to start, and who is going to make way for him to do so?
Can you convince Bradley Beal – making $50 million next season – to come off the bench? The optics of that don’t look great, barely a year removed from trading for him. If not Beal then the only other option is Grayson Allen. You know, the guy who lead the league in 3-point shooting at 46.1 percent last season.
Allen’s defensive abilities at this point are underrated, and he also inked a new four-year, $70 million deal prior to the playoffs starting. Even if the Suns see him as their best trade asset – which at this point he clearly is – bringing him off the bench is only going to lower his value, which right now is at its highest since he entered the league.
Jones for Beal makes more sense in terms of the balance of the starting five, although defensively the Suns are going to struggle no matter who he replaces. Devin Booker might have elite stretches on that end, but there’s only so far starting center Jusuf Nurkic can take you when he’s being asked to do too much as it is.
Flipping to the end of games, and again the whole point of Jones is that he can bring order and the ability to get the Suns to run some plays when the game slows down and it becomes more difficult to score. All well and good, but to do so the team are going to have to do without Beal’s elite scoring, having put up over 30 points per game in two seasons in the past.
If they have Beal out there as well – as most anticipate they will – then it will be the release valve that Allen’s 3-point shooting brings that will be missing. That’s also without considering Royce O’Neale, who has similar skills to Allen but whose fit next to Booker and Kevin Durant in particular looked nice during the playoffs last season.
No matter how you look at this though, somebody will lose out ahead of next season. Either the Suns stretched the truth to get Jones to sign, or one of Beal or Allen is going to have to come off the bench. Harsh on Allen given he had a career year, and not exactly what Beal signed up for either. It will be interesting to see how this situation is resolved in the coming months.
