T.J. Warren isn’t a prototypical 3 and D role player, but he can still be a key piece of the Phoenix Suns bench this season and going forward.
In today’s NBA, the term “bench player” is often thought of synonymously with “role player.” Which is in part understandable. Teams want options off the bench that well compliment their star players in the starting lineup. But that’s not all a bench should be.
The Houston Rockets are a great case study. The team won a league high 65 games last season but ultimately came up short of the finals, losing in seven games to the Golden State Warriors. There are a lot of reasons they didn’t win a championship.
The most obvious reason is the injury to Chris Paul combined with the fact they were playing against arguably the best team of all time. But they had the lead in both game six and game seven before ultimately losing, and they couldn’t hold onto it, so there has to be another reason.
When it came down to it, the Rockets tired out in the second half of both games. They couldn’t rest their most important players because they couldn’t trust their bench to play without James Harden. Which isn’t to say there weren’t good players on their bench.
Luc Mbah a Moute is a great defender. Gerald Green and Ryan Anderson are good shooters. Before Paul’s injury, Eric Gordon came off the bench as one of the league’s best three point shooters. But other than Paul, Harden was their only player used to putting up big scoring numbers, and the offense couldn’t function without him.
Unfortunately for the Rockets, star players can’t play all game every game throughout the playoffs. And for the Phoenix Suns, when Devin Booker is off the floor, they need someone who can score the ball.
Last year, the Philadelphia 76ers turned their struggling bench unit into a quality group by adding Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilyasova at the end of the season. While neither is a particularly great role player, both were good options off the bench, as they added the scoring the bench was so badly missing.
And that could be T.J. Warren. His below average shooting and defense make him a poor fit in the starting lineup. Guys like Mikal Bridges and Josh Jackson can be considered much better role players around Devin Booker.
But Warren’s abilities to get to the basket and score consistently do make him a great centerpiece on the bench. He averaged over 20 points per game last season, and he would help the team keep putting up points when it’s main scorer in Booker isn’t on the floor.
Lou Williams and Manu Ginobli played that role throughout their careers, and even James Harden was once in that role in Oklahoma City. Warren is more at the level of Williams than the latter two Hall of Famers, but he can still be a key piece of the Phoenix Suns bench going forward.
T.J. Warren just turned 25, and he’s on a reasonable contact for the next four seasons. He doesn’t fit well with Devin Booker, and he isn’t a prototypical 3 and D role player. But Warren can still be important to the Suns bench this season and in the future.