Sports Illustrated asked its staff writers to predict the pecking order of the Western Conference ahead of the new season, and Chris Mannix has the Phoenix Suns at 10th, missing Grayson Allen's outside shooting badly.
Mannix believes Suns can't replicate what Allen brought
Mannix kept it simple when explaining why he believes the Suns could end up missing the playoffs altogether by stating that the Suns "are going to miss Grayson Allen’s shooting, and I don’t trust that front line."
He accepted that Miles Bridges is an upgrade on the perimeter, although he is a different kind of player from Allen and will be looking for an extension of his own before long. Many assume that Luke Kennard will be the Allen replacement in Phoenix, but that won't be the case.
While both Kennard (last season) and Allen (his first campaign with the Suns) have led the league in 3-point shooting, that is where the similarities end. Allen was capable of being a secondary creator and had more in common with Collin Gillespie than Kennard. If his shots are not falling, he offers little else.
There's a reason he hasn't been able to stick anywhere else.
It is that inability to bring another elite skill to this group that could be his undoing, while Allen remains an underrated defender and has more athleticism than Kennard. Mannix doesn't reference this when talking about the Suns' chances of making the postseason, but being a two-way guard/forward hybrid will be hard to replace.
Bridges is the better scorer and is more capable of creating his own shot at all three levels, but he is going to demand a lot more of the ball than Allen ever did. He also has the potential to be the better defender given his stocky frame, but we have never seen him produce at a consistent level on that end of the court.
Should that happen, trading an unprotected first for him in 2033 may begin to feel better, and a surprise All-Star case could develop.
Suns still right to cash in on Allen with value at peak
Although Mannix is not wrong with his assessment (Allen was also the second longest-tenured Sun prior to being traded to the Charlotte Hornets), they moved him at the perfect time.
He will turn 31 years old next month, has always seemed to get injured when the team needed him the most, and has never held more value throughout the league. If nothing else, Bridges is a talent upgrade.
But Allen understood his role perfectly in The Valley and helped the team win 45 games last season while shooting 41 percent on 6.6 attempts per night in three seasons there. That kind of output will not be easy to replicate.
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