One Phoenix Suns player who can open his season much like Larry Fitzgerald

So what might he average?

Saric has “only” averaged 4.4 attempts per game in his career, his career-high being 5.1 in his second season, and 4.0 last year between Philadelphia and Minnesota (although his shooting percentage in Philly was a poor 30.0% – which is why I took it out of the earlier numbers – he did average 5.4 attempts in those 13 games).

Phoenix Suns

If the Suns are going to enter the land of the launchers, they’re going to need a number of players to vault their attempts considerably, with Saric and his expectedly-high shooting percentage at the heart of it.

With Rubio running the offense, fans should not be shocked in the least if Saric began the season averaging a new career-high of around 7.0 per game, over 2.0 about his career-average. If his shooting percentage is around 38.0% at about his two season aveage, he will average over 2.6 made per game.

That alone is around 9 points per game on 3’s alone, and if he then stays at around his career-average of 2.9 2-pointers made per game (on possessions with Deandre Ayton steps out towards the arc to open the lane, Saric should be able to get a few defenders off their feet on head fakes giving him room to cut), he could see his scoring average leap in the early weeks to around 17 points per game – including free throws, of which his career average is 2.0 per game.

A scoring average of 17 points would put him over 4 points per game higher than his career-average, while nearly 3 points higher than his career-high.

While Dario Saric has nowhere near the pedigree and prestige of Larry Fitzgerald, Phoenix Suns fans would be equally as pleasantly surprised if he shattered his early career numbers at a level similar to the Cardinals wide receiver.

Saric may very well be on the verge of having the hottest start of his career, one that if on par with Fitz, could be the most interesting and exciting start by an individual player on the team.