Will the Phoenix Suns be hurt if Knight is ever out?

The Phoenix Suns re-signed point guard Isaiah Canaan recently, but is he really a good enough backup point guard?

There is one fact that every Phoenix Suns fan knows about the 2018-19 roster: depth at point guard depth is the weakest of the five traditional positions.

Suns General Manager Ryan McDonough attempted to bolster the position slightly by re-signing former Sun Isaiah Canaan in early August, but while Brandon Knight is the surefire starter when the season kicks off, there are too many questions about his health and skills at this point to guarantee that he can be counted on for the long-haul.

That said, Phoenix can carefully rely on Knight to hold down the fort this season because he has had an extended period of time to recover. With his injury occurring in July of 2017, he’ll have had over 14 months of true recovery time before the start of the 2018 preseason, hopefully more than enough to be fully healed.

While there is obviously a fear that Knight might suffer from some sort of a post-injury lag; he could re-injury himself; or he is just flat out not the same player he was in 2015-16, Suns fans can take some solace in the fact that knee injuries are generally not the end of a player’s career.

As an organization, Phoenix has had two prominent players suffer from season-ending knee injuries and come back to play and succeed right away.

In 2015, Eric Bledsoe tore his meniscus after 31 games forcing the end of his season. However, he came back and played in 66 of the team’s first 67 games the following year before being shut down in the franchise’s effort to tank. Bledsoe believed he could have still played and was none too pleased, a primary issue that eventually led to his infamously grammatically incorrect “I don’t wanna be here” tweet three games into 2017-18.

Way back in 1994-95 the Suns were one of the league’s top teams, and remained so, even though Danny Manning tore his ACL in February 1995.

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Manning’s recovery stretched a full 12 months and he returned to play in February 1996, although his return was not enough to help the Suns make one last deep trip in the playoffs.

However, the following season he played in 77 games and over his final three seasons with Phoenix he missed a total of 17.

All that being said, with point guard being such an important position for the offense to flow well – hopefully taking some offensive pressure off of Devin Booker and hopefully putting the ball in the right spot for Deandre Ayton to succeed in the post – if Knight goes down at any point for an extended period, is Isaiah Canaan the one to help at least keep Phoenix’s head above water?

On their way to tying the franchise record with 62 victories, the 2004-05 Suns suffered a strange six game losing streak in the middle of January. A team that was 31-4 prior to the first loss, and had won 18 of their previous 19 games, suddenly couldn’t buy a victory.

In the midst of the streak, the general, Steve Nash, went down with an injury that caused him to miss three and three-quarters games. The team’s scoring average dropped to 86.25 per game.

Leandro Barbosa stepped in as the backup point guard, but could not manufacture the offense the way Nash could. Worse still, by coincidence, Barbosa even got hurt missing two of those games and Joe Johnson was forced to lead the crew, to no positive effect.

While the 2018-19 Phoenix Suns won’t have nearly as much to lose in the short-term as the 2004-05 Suns potentially could have, that brief moment in an otherwise great season is an example of what could happen to the current incarnation should Knight not be able to play and instead the current young Suns are (once again) forced to rely upon inferior talent at point guard.

This is, of course, no disrespect to Canaan and Shaquille Harrison, both decent point guards, best suited to be the backup or third PG on a roster.

But let us not forget how poor the team played last season with each of them, and the other six point guards that interim head coach Jay Triano was forced to run out there at times, and how even Harrison couldn’t get Ayton the ball in the right spots in the Las Vegas Summer League against inferior overall defensive talent than he faces during the Regular Season.

As much fun as it was to watch Canaan in Phoenix for 19 games last season, he is a volume scorer, averaging only 36.9% from the field for his career. He did average 3.8 assists per game last season (4.0 for Phoenix), a career-high and a pretty giant leap over his second highest assist average of 2.1 set in his second season in the league.

As a rookie, Shaq appeared in 23 games for the Suns (including two starts) and averaged 2.4 assists. His offense though was far more efficient than Canaan’s, as he shot 47.6% from the field, although only 23.1% from beyond the arc.

Either one of those guards (if not both) can be okay off the bench for the Suns.

Canaan is entering his sixth season in the NBA and even has three playoff games with Chicago including two starts under his belt.

Shaq is entering his second season and plays with a level of energy that might only be matched on the roster by Josh Jackson.

That said, while one could point to those two as good depth to play behind a fully healthy Knight (and I would venture to guess that – assuming no injuries – Canaan will be the backup, Harrison the third point guard, with Elie Okobo switching between the fourth point guard in Phoenix and the starter in Prescott), yet the moment that Knight has to let his knee rest for a few games, or another injury crops up that takes him out for a time, and any potential momentum that the Suns might have gained could be lost.

Certainly Knight is not seen as an be-all and end-all point guard, someone who is going to raise Phoenix’s status in the league by himself or even guide them to the playoffs, he is going to be tremendously important to the success of the Suns this season, regardless of how many wins the team eventually finishes with.

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To keep the growth process moving in a positive direction, whether Knight is on the bench getting a second quarter rest or out entirely for a few games, there will be a lot riding on the backup point guards, at this point specifically on Isaiah Canaan, to keep the team moving.

Is there enough depth there to guarantee that the team will not be too hurt in Knight’s absence?

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