Do not trade Daniels because of Summer League Reed
By Adam Maynes
Davon Reed has had a surprisingly good Summer League. But that does not mean that the Phoenix Suns should not move on from veteran Troy Daniels.
The Phoenix Suns may have a problem on their hands, and its the best kind a general manager can ever have. They might have too many shooting guards on the roster, too much depth at one position, and can potentially trade somebody for assets to help them out at another position, potentially making the roster that much better as they head into the 2018-19 season.
However, I do not think that they have such a problem, and that the depth chart that is presumed at the moment for this coming season might be great just the way it is, and swapping Davon Reed for Troy Daniels won’t do Phoenix any good in the near – or long – term.
Davon Reed has had a surprisingly good Summer League. Granted he is playing “hero ball,” as many players do in Vegas as they look to promote themselves for a job somewhere in the league, and thus has inflated numbers than he should have playing alongside Deandre Ayton, Mikal Bridges. Josh Jackson, and Dragan Bender, four players with far more guaranteed roles in the near-term on the Suns than Reed.
Through four games, Reed is second on the Summer Suns with 14.0 points per game, while shooting 51% from the field, and filling out his statline averaging 4.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists.
Even though the talent of the Summer League is vastly inferior to that of the regular season, the fact that he is having a good Summer and Dragan Bender is not, is something worth noting.
That said, while Reed had an outstanding 3-point shooting percentage in college (39.5%), his 28.9% percentage both from 3 and the field last season in general garbage time is enough to question his ability to be a consistent in the NBA. Could he make a significant improvement this coming season? Sure. One would hope that his shooting percentage could only go up from the bottom.
But what if it doesn’t, and what if he isn’t able to make that next step this season, a year that the franchise is hoping will be one that will lead to more wins. At the moment, they need depth, but they also need guaranteed consistency, and Troy Daniels offers that guarantee.
Daniels is a career 40.4% 3-point shooter on 1,078 career attempts, including career-highs in both makes and attempts last season, in 79 games, 183-435 (40.0%). He is a lethal outside shooter, and at the age of 27 (which he will be on July 15), he will be one of the few veterans on the roster, one of only a handful of rotational players with playoff experience, and the kind of player that Suns management is looking for to fill out the roster at other positions.
Do not think that either are going to be starters, barring unfortunate injuries. They are both role players off the bench. Do not overthink the fact that Reed might be a better defender this that his role on the team is that much more important than Daniels’. It’s not.
Both will only receive sporadic minutes behind Booker, and Josh Jackson and Mikal Bridges will consistently get the difficult defensive assignments before Reed, demanding more minutes overall than either he or Daniels as well.
Reed too was not an analyitically superior defender over Daniels last season. While Reed’s 0.2 Defensive Win Share is better than Daniels’ 0.0, Troy’s career-high was set in 2016-17 with Memphis, 0.8. Moreover, between both of their Win Shares (including Offensive), Daniels was more successful with a .042 Win Share per 48min, compared to Reed’s -0.059 due to his offensive deficiencies.
This isn’t an argument for the release of Reed (although I do still believe that this is likely). Like Marquese Chriss and Bender, I’d like to see Reed remain on the roster as I’d rather see him fail here than succeed somewhere else. All three being so young, Phoenix might not know who they have in any of those players yet, so keeping them on the roster as the rebuild continues could very well be advantageous if a team least one of them turns it on.
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That said, at the moment, the veteran experience and consistent shooting makes Daniels a commodity that should not be thrown out to make room for a second-year recent second round pick who has yet to show value in the NBA, even if his Summer League stats are nice, on the surface.
If it is possible for Phoenix to allow both Daniels and Reed remain on the roster, allowing Daniels to backup Booker with Reed playing as a third shooting guard, the Suns will move through the season with good depth, giving the team the best chance to win, while also continuing to develop a player who just might be good enough to retail after this season.
They shouldn’t trade away Daniels for the sake of another young, unproven player, who might not be good enough to help Phoenix win right away, something they must begin doing as soon as possible, for the sake of the franchise and it’s fanbase.