At The 1
With Brandon Knight, Gerald Green, Marcus Thornton, P.J. Tucker, Reggie Bullock, T.J. Warren and Danny Granger all capable of playing the shooting guard position, however, it’s no wonder minutes at the 2 have been scarce for Goodwin. There simply aren’t enough minutes for everyone, even if Granger has yet to suit up and Bullock rarely gets any action.
But Green and Thornton are both unrestricted free agents this summer, whereas Goodwin represents a young cog that will be a part of Phoenix’s prolonged rebuilding process. With the playoffs slipping away and Knight missing the last few games with that ankle injury, Hornacek has experimented with playing Goodwin at the 1 in some lineups.
Since Knight went down with the ankle injury against the Golden State Warriors, Goodwin’s taken on more responsibility in the backcourt as a distributor. In the last four games, Goodwin’s racked up 11 assists in 65 minutes — not bad for a guy who has a total of only 48 assists to his name in 79 career games.
That was a fantastic pass from Goodwin. He and Warren showing how effective it is having D-League team that runs same plays @BakersfieldJam
— Matt Petersen (@TheMattPetersen) February 21, 2015
Bledsoe noticed Goodwin’s playmaking ability after last night’s game against the Knicks, which featured a few lineups with Archie at the 1.
“He’s much better at finding the open man and keeping his head up and being in attack mode,” he said. “I think that the D-League kind of helped him a little bit to get his confidence there.”
I know, I know; by now, Suns fans are probably pretty jaded with the whole concept of playing point guards at the shooting guard position and vice versa. But Hornacek thinks that playing Goodwin at both positions in some of these less conventional lineups will pay off in the long run.
"“We’re always telling Archie, ‘You’re going to get a reputation. If your reputation is you never pass it, when you go to drive you’re going to have three, four guys in on you. But if you make passes out, then all of a sudden those guys aren’t going to come help, and now you’re going to take your guy one-on-one and on a full speed like that you’re going to have the bucket.’ So I think he’s done a much better job of looking at where he can pass the ball and consequently, he gets more good looks.”"
Next: On Defense