Phoenix Suns Player Grades After First Half of the Season

Mid-Season Grades for the Phoenix Suns: The New Guys

With the Suns having made additions at different points in the season, they also have some guys who might have not played all too much with the Suns, but deserve grades for their contributions nonetheless.

Bismack Biyombo – 8.5 PPG, 6.4 RPG (.615/.529)

The Suns originally signed Bismack Biyombo via a 10-day hardship deal, but after he came out of the gates hot, they decided to lock him up for the remainder of the season. With his surprising play, the veteran big naturally earns himself a high grade on this list.

As another pick-and-roll toy for Chris Paul to play with, Biyombo and the Point God immediately established chemistry when playing together this year. As a hyper-efficient player, Biyombo finds himself sporting career-high scoring numbers despite playing his fewest minutes per game since the 2013-14 season.

Also without his emergence as a dependable third center, James Jones likely holds onto Jalen Smith and decides not to pull the trigger on bringing back a fan favorite which I’ll speak on next.

Grade: B+

Torrey Craig – 7.7 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 1.3 APG (.588/.375/.000)

While not exactly a “new guy,” Torrey Craig has only played three games with Phoenix this year. But in this quick stint, he has been equally as useful as the last.

During his first game back with the team, he even dropped 14 points while shooting 6-9 from the field. He sat mostly during the Los Angeles Clippers contest right after, but in Phoenix’s last game before the break, he came through with another efficient performance, adding nine points on 6-4 shooting.

Major takeaways are usually slim when dealing with such a small sample size, but from what he has done so far, it appears that Craig will once again embody a difference maker for this team.

Grade: B

Aaron Holiday – 7.3 PPG, 2.7 APG, 2.0 RPG (.692/.667/.000)

Like with Craig, Holiday’s time with the Suns has been minimal, so his numbers—especially his percentages—can be deceiving.

But although expecting Holiday to shoot above 60.0 percent from the field and three for the rest of the season feels quite foolish, he has looked capable of shouldering a significant load at point guard with Chris Paul out.

His most recent game stands as the best evidence for this notion, as he dropped nine points while playing over 20 minutes following Paul’s exit. Again like Craig, you do not want to make a mountain out of a molehill with his play at this point, but you can also be happy with what you’ve seen.

Grade: B