Troy Daniels saw his playing time dip in 2018-19 for the Phoenix Suns, but he did not let that stop him from doing what he’s always done well, shoot.
After playing in 79 games last year for the Phoenix Suns, Troy Daniels only played in 51 games this year. He started 15 times last year, but only once this season. His playing time also went down, from averaging 20.5 minutes to just 14.9 minutes.
Daniels dealt with a concussion during the beginning of the season that caused him to miss some games, but he was healthy for most of the 2018-19 season. He lost his minutes due to the myriad of guard and forward additions the Suns made such as Mikal Bridges, Jamal Crawford, Elie Okobo, De’Anthony Melton, Trevor Ariza, Tyler Johnson, and Kelly Oubre.
This past season was Daniels’ fifth full season in the NBA, and he has consistently shot the ball well from the 3-point line. He carries a career 3-point field goal percentage of 40%, and this year he shot 38.1%. Daniels has earned the title of being a legit 3-point threat in the NBA. This means that he will likely hang around the NBA for a long time considering that he is still only 27. Not bad for an undrafted player out of VCU.
All in all, the season was an uneventful one for Troy, and that might be putting it lightly. He averaged 6.2 points, 1.4 rebounds, and 0.5 assists per game. He had multiple DNP games, and it seemed like he was forgotten about at times.
His best scoring game for the campaign came against the Miami Heat in December. He scored 18 points with all of them coming via the 3-pointer in a 6-for-10 shooting night from deep. His career high is 32 points. It is disappointing that he did not break 20 points at least one time this season, but that can be attributed to his lack of playing time.
Whenever Daniels did play, he always seemed to play well. Check out this stat from NBA.com’s season rewind on him. He was just one of two players in the NBA this year to play less than 15 minutes per game and shoot over 38% from three on at least 150 total attempts.
I think I speak for a lot of Suns fans in saying that he should have played more at times this year. He can be a lot of fun to watch when he gets it going and brings out that flamethrower.
Daniels is an unrestricted free agent this offseason. Bringing him back will most likely not be very high on the priority list for the Suns. Re-signing Oubre and giving more minutes to young guys like Bridges, Melton, Okobo, and whoever the first round pick ends up being are all key reasons as to why the Suns do not need to bring Daniels back.
However, having a weapon like him on the bench is never a bad thing, and I would be happy if the Suns do bring him back.