Nobody believed that Ryan Anderson was coming to the Phoenix Suns to be a savior, but no one thought he was going to be this ineffective after three games either.
The Phoenix Suns do not have a long-term answer at power forward, but they do have Ryan Anderson, who has played that position for many years – at times to some critical acclaim.
Anderson is an above average 3-point shooter, the kind of player that helps with spacing when the shots are going in, and the perfect compliment to Devin Booker who needs to have outside shooters to dish to with confidence as he struggles to find his feet as a point guard.
The problem though is that through three games, Anderson has looked absolutely awful and is currently shooting at the worst rate of his entire career.
Having started all three outings thus far, Anderson is averaging the fewest minutes since his third year in the Association (22.3), although only less than four minutes off of the pace from last season.
However, he is averaging the worst 3-point shooting percentage of his career, a God-awful 16.7% which would make even Josh Jackson blush.
His overall field goal percentage isn’t much better, 26.3%, which both translates to one particular thing: what the hell is he doing on the court?
These are not only career lows, but they are far below his lowest percentages at any point in his previous 10 seasons, so shocking too when you consider how much he is being paid: $20.42+ Million.
Now, let’s be real: he is not going to shoot this poorly all season. He had been playing with James Harden and Chris Paul the last two reasons so the shots he was getting were mainly coming off of passes where the ball was placed perfectly in his hands and a defender was so far away that he had all the time he could need to line up his form perfectly and take his shot.
But this doesn’t mean that he is going to shoot 40% this season.
Heck, he might not even average 35%.
Playing with a player who is this bad at the one thing he needs to be doing in the NBA, is like playing with a catcher who cannot hit a ball to save his life in the MLB (ahem – Alex Avila): the team is basically playing four on five on offense, a tremendous advantage to the defense who can basically ignore that one player who can’t score to save his life.
Ryan Anderson playing this bad is killing the Suns’ already perilously-managed offense, and if he never regains his form and becomes an above average (or at least average) 3-point shooter again, it will absolutely kill their chances at trying to become even relatively competitive this season.
Anderson has started out as ice cold as it get’s this season on offense, and needs to find a heater, quick.
Nobody thought that he was going to be all that good with the Suns this season, but then again, nobody thought that it was possible for him to even be this bad.