Handing The Reins Over To Brandon Knight?
Even for those who aren’t as high on Bledsoe, the prospect of trading the team’s starting point guard is troubling considering what Phoenix would be left with. To be clear, I believe Brandon Knight will be a very good player in this league and I definitely don’t think it’s fair to read too much into his limited sample size in the Valley of the Sun.
That being said, the idea that the front office likes Knight so much that they’re willing to ship away Bledsoe — after shipping away Goran Dragic and Isaiah Thomas at the deadline — to place their full trust in a point guard who’s only played 11 (mostly disappointing) games in Phoenix does strike me as odd.
With the Milwaukee Bucks, Knight was a borderline All-Star in the East, averaging 17.8 points, 5.4 assists and 4.3 rebounds per game while shooting 43.5 percent from the floor and 40.9 percent from three-point range. In 11 games with the Suns, those numbers plummeted to 13.4 points, 4.5 assists and 2.1 rebounds per game on 35.7 percent shooting (31.1 percent from downtown).
So Brandon Knight is going to finish with 11 games, 16 games missed, and an eFG% of 43%. Not quite an inspiring start to his Suns tenure
— Scott Howard (@ScottHoward42) April 6, 2015
Forgive me if I’m not quite prepared to buy into this 23-year-old as being ready to run Phoenix’s offense in lieu of Eric Bledsoe.
To be fair, Knight was being asked to play off the ball, something he was unaccustomed to doing. His ankle tweak deprived us of seeing what a Bledsoe-Knight tandem could do, which was particularly harsh since the injury came in a game where Knight looked more comfortable than he’d ever been in a Suns uniform.
He’s still young, he’s got a high basketball IQ and he’s got the leadership qualities this team badly needs. A training camp with the team would greatly help his comfortability with his teammates…but doesn’t that apply if Bledsoe is back next season too?
The Goran Dragic-Eric Bledsoe backcourt worked like gangbusters during its time together, which was too short for anyone’s liking. Is it already time to give up on a Bledsoe-Knight pairing? And even if it is, is Bledsoe really the piece of the equation that needs to go since Knight — a restricted free agent this summer — will likely command a contract in the $10-14 million range per year?
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