What is the projected starting lineup?
With Devin Booker out for a short time, the starting lineup will look decidedly different from what is expected when all players are healthy.
So when Booker returns, what will the starting lineup be?
Knowing this alone will answer at least two other glaring questions: who is the starting point guard, and who is the starting small forward.
Without a star, running point guards Canaan and Harrison at the starting spot doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Yes, Canaan has started before, even for the Phoenix Suns, but he is not a starting point guard in the NBA, and is best suited for a reserve spot.
If the Suns agree with this point of view, does that mean that Devin Booker will be the starting “point guard” and Phoenix really is attempting to copy the Rockets and Warriors’ ways?
Then regardless of how the point guard spot is handled, the Suns acquired two veteran forwards this offseason in Trevor Ariza and Ryan Anderson. Both were regular starters for the Houston Rockets who were one game – and one untimely injury to Chris Paul – away from upsetting the Warriors and heading into the Finals for the first time since 1995.
Yet Phoenix has two young starters already on the roster in T.J. Warren and Josh Jackson, both of whom are presumably good enough to start on almost every team in the league, and both who are presumably better in many ways than Ryan Anderson.
My personal presumption is that Trevor Ariza is the starting power forward, but then does Ryan Anderson start at Small Forward and let both Warren and Jackson come off the bench? Or are one of the two Phoenix draft picks starters with the other pairing up with Anderson to play with the reserves?
Knowing this will give fans greater insight into what exactly the roster was built for, and what the future holds for the young Suns.