Troy Daniels had only appeared in 30 games this season before Monday night. After a strong outing, he should have played himself back into the Phoenix Suns rotation.
For a team with 12 wins it is surprising that the Phoenix Suns have not given a veteran like Troy Daniels more of a chance this season. Especially considering Jamal Crawford, who is 11 years older, gets run out there nearly every game. Against the Heat, Daniels got a chance and responded with possibly his best game of the year, and certainly his most important.
In his mere 17 minutes of play Daniels was a +17!!! This was also not a product of garbage time, it came during the 3rd and 4th quarter of a three point win. Daniels was also right in the middle of the action scoring 14 points on an efficient 5-for-6 shooting, including a perfect 3-for-3 from deep.
“He is like a mini Devin Booker”, is what Suns color commentator Eddie Johnson exclaimed multiple times as Daniels got going. While this sounds ridiculous on the surface, if Daniels does what he basically did on Monday and scores 8 points in three possessions and has those stretches every few games, that’s all you could want from him.
All of this begs the question, how could he not even get a chance on this year’s Phoenix Suns team when he had a solid role on a team that won more last year? Daniels is actually still shooting 40% from three, and actually started taking more 2-pointers and making 10% more than last year.
While it certainly is not likely that Daniels returns this summer, it is not something that can be completely out of the picture. Daniels by all accounts seems to be a good teammate, who is active on the bench, and has multiple times over his tenure in Phoenix given brutally honest quotes about what the team, and himself, need to do better and that how they sometimes play is unacceptable.
For one of the worst three point shooting teams in the league it would make sense to bump up the playing time of the best shooter on the team and see if he can jump-start the offense. With the stretch run of the season coming up there is not a lot of reason for both the Suns and Crawford to keep playing him significant minutes. Along with Elie Okobo and De’Anthony Melton not yet being reliable enough to knock Daniels completely out of the rotation.
For the last quarter of the season it would be smart for the Phoenix Suns to continue switching around their rotations to include Daniels more. He could very well end up being a net-positive for the team and the Suns can get more of a look at another younger player on a cheap contract with an elite skill.