Suns can't let barely known players derail this important season again

In a worrying throwback to last season's Phoenix Suns team under head coach Frank Vogel, there have been worrying inconsistencies across the last two games. A statement 127-100 win when finally back to full health against the Los Angeles Lakers was a great way to let the Western Conference know this team is for real.

To follow that up with a disappointing loss - to a Brooklyn Nets roster missing Cam Thomas no less - was unacceptable. Other moves in the conference look to have given the Suns an advantage this season, but they can't rely on the play or lack of from others to reach their ultimate goal.

They also can't let Tyrese Martin score 30 points ever again.

We are big basketball fans here in The Valley, but we'd be lying if we said we knew who Tyrese Martin was prior to this game. Even if we'd heard the name - and again full disclosure we had not - you would think that a fully healthy Suns roster would have no problem containing a 25-year-old who played in the G League last season.

The Suns have struggled defensively so far in this campaign, but they have players in Devin Booker, Grayson Allen and Royce O'Neale who are capable of keeping scoring guards quiet for stretches of a game. But to watch this one back was to see a team who didn't pay enough attention to Martin's scouting report - if an in-depth one even existed - and get punished for it.

He went a ridiculous 8-of-10 from deep - and did so while coming off the bench - and the Suns can simply point to the fact that Martin won't get hot like that every night. This was just a combination of being unlucky enough to catch a relatively unknown player when he was feeling it, and not knowing enough about him to shut it down quickly.

That does happen, it just can't again at any point this season. When the playoffs do roll around, whoever the Suns match up against are going to have guys off the bench who won't command nearly as much attention as the stars they will face. Just like Martin, although his best teammate on the night was Dennis Schroder.

When that happens, they need to be as capable of keeping them quiet - or at least allowing them to shoot their team out of a game by game-planning effectively - as they do the superstars on the other side. Martin has played 22 NBA games, 16 with the Atlanta Hawks and six with the Nets, and has career averages of 2.9 points and a sizzling 46.4 percent from 3-point range.

A simple glance at Basketball Reference will tell you that Martin's main skill is shooting from deep, yet the Suns let him get whatever he wanted off on the night. To his credit though, he has also managed seven points per game with Brooklyn this season, and watching him back looks the part of a rotation player for a rebuilding group. This can't happen again all season.