3 Suns players to watch vs. Denver in second preseason game
By Justin Lee
Keita Bates-Diop, F
Keita Bates-Diop is one of the players Suns fans were excited about adding to their favorite team’s bench. Why? Well, because he is one of those guys that just does everything you need for him to do. However, he had somewhat of an underwhelming performance against the Pistons.
Sure, like we said before, it’s just preseason, so it’s not that big of a deal; however, he played 18 minutes and didn’t have much to show for it. He wasn’t very good outside of the rebounding, in which he had five rebounds. That’s not a great thing to see for the first preseason game, but it also isn’t something to panic about.
He shot 1-5 from the floor and two fouls with three points. Bates-Diop was a -4 on the floor, too. That is why he is a player to watch on Tuesday against the Denver Nuggets.
Bates-Diop will be a good rebounder regardless because he is a guy who takes pride in that, but you would love to see him be a bit more efficient from the floor. The three-point shot looked fine, as he was 1-2 from beyond the arc, but everything else was iffy. Let’s watch him and see if he can find a better way to get involved in this game besides his rebounding, which is great.