Phoenix Suns lineup and depth chart: Small forwards
- Mikal Bridges
- Jae Crowder
- Cameron Johnson
- Abdel Nader
Because of his play in the second half of the season, especially in Orlando where his minutes shot up due to Kelly Oubre’s absence, the small forward position is Mikal Bridges’ to lose and he won’t be losing it any time soon as Bridges keeps getting better each time he steps on the floor.
Jae Crowder is a player that has to be on the floor so you will see Crowder sliding over to the power forward position at times taking over for Cam Johnson. He is also a true Swiss Army knife that can guard all 5 positions on the court as Shandel Richardson from si.com quotes Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra from the post-game press conference in the Bucks series;
"“He’s a competitor so he’s going to do whatever is necessary,” Spoelstra said. “He does it on both ends. It’s not an easy series for him. He has to sacrifice his body and play against the MVP, sometimes play against a 7-footer, sometimes put him on guards. He’s basically guarding one through five in this series.”"
Adel Nader is a solid shooter but with the talent in front of him, he is definitely just an “in case of emergency break glass” type of player.