Coach Budenholzer continues to ignore Suns player who could actually help

The Phoenix Suns are in a dark place right now, and not just because of their worrying standings in the Western Conference. Devin Booker hasn't looked like himself for most of this season, while Bradley Beal has again struggled with injuries.

Kevin Durant has been brilliant - but when your best player is a 36-year-old with his own history of injuries - what does that say about the state of the franchise? Head coach Mike Budenholzer has had it all to figure out so far this season, although he himself is not immune to criticism after the team's hot 8-1 start. He appears set in his ways with certain things at this stage of his own career.

But why does he keep ignoring Bol Bol?

We must preface this by saying that Bol is obviously not the answer to all of the Suns' problems. In truth he is so bad defensively, that he may not even be the solution to anything. But it is still baffling that coach Budenholzer has barely used him all season when healthy, despite the fact this group needs something. Anything.

There's a reason the franchise saw fit to bring him back on another minimum deal last summer after modest success in his lone season in Phoenix, although coach Budenholzer clearly wasn't told what exactly that success was. In 2023-24 Bol managed 43 games, at a shade over 10 minutes per contest.

Incredibly, it was a head coach in Frank Vogel who is known for his defensive ideals who managed to unlock some of Bol's best qualities. He discovered that if you treat him not only as a net negative defensively - but as a guard trapped in one of the most unique bodies in the league - you can get away with playing Bol for a few minutes here and there.

Let Jusuf Nurkic and Durant worry about the paint, and allow Bol to use his insane wingspan to annoy third and fourth wing scoring options. He's not stopping anybody - but if he can cause an opponent to stall or second guess themselves for just a second - then that particular possession will have been deemed a success.

Bol even saw some postseason action, playing under five minutes in three of the four games during the sweep by the Minnesota Timberwolves. We say this not because Bol did anything to help - he didn't - but again because coach Vogel of all people saw fit to put him out there. So why won't coach Budenholzer given his love of bigs who can shoot 3-pointers?

Already this season he's making Nurkic take more shots from deep than ever before, while he did the same with Brook Lopez and Giannis Antetokounmpo while with the Milwaukee Bucks. This team already ranks a dreadful 22nd defensively (115.0), so surely giving Bol five minutes to see if he can provide some offensive juice has to be worth considering at this point?

So far this season Bol has only appeared on seven occasions, at 5.3 minutes per night. Yet last season when getting effectively twice as much game time, he managed a notable 42.3 percent from deep on over one attempt each night. About what you'd be comfortable letting him shoot when next to Durant and Booker.

Also worth noting is the wholly unsustainable defensive rating of 94.9 the Suns have when Bol is on the court. That would be the best rank of all-time and it is a tiny sample size, but does it not also lend itself to the fact that it may not be as bad as you think defensively? Coach Vogel certainly thought it was worth the risk, and the team gave up 108.8 points when Bol was on the court last season.

Considering they're giving up nearly seven points more without him in 2024-25, it again backs up the claim that coach Budenholzer should give him just a little bit more playing time to see if anything positive can happen. Playing him alongside better defenders such as Ryan Dunn and Durant would also appear to be the right way to go about this too.

Really though with the season slipping away in The Valley, is this not exactly what Bol was brought back for? To break glass in case of emergency to see if the "Bollercoaster" can freak opponents out whenever he has the ball? Every possession is an adventure when he's on the court, and the Suns could do with a bit of that imagination amidst this dreadful run of results. Turn him loose.