The President Of Basketball Operations And GM For Phoenix Suns, James Jones Words About Grayson Allen To Media…
An afterthought at the time in the Deandre Ayton trade, Allen has been one of the most consistent Suns in 2023-24.
“We targeted Grayson (Allen) as someone who can help us,” James Jones said at media day ahead of the 2023-24 season, just days after acquiring the guard as part of the Deandre Ayton trade.
It was a drive-by mention in a longer answer about the trade return, but Allen proves night after night that he is invaluable to this Phoenix Suns team.
Nearing the halfway point of the regular season with the Suns sitting at 19-18, Allen is second on the team in games started (32) behind Jusuf Nurkic (35) as well as second in minutes (1069) behind Kevin Durant (1110).
He’s also second in 3-point percentage (47.2%) behind Durant (47.4%) and the two of them are second and third in the entire league behind Milwaukee Bucks guard Malik Beasley (47.7%).
But it’s Allen’s multiplicity on offense that makes him such a weapon.
Allen keeps defenses honest with his pairing of effective shooting and ability to attack off the bounce. At the same media day, Allen likened himself to more of a Dwyane Wade-type of player for much of his early career, preferring slashing to shooting.
Now in his sixth NBA season, jump shots make up 63% of his shots, but he’s still managing to rank fourth on the team in drives per game (6.4) and first outside the Big 3 of Durant, Beal, and Devin Booker.
The two elements of his offense — shooting and attacking — play into each other, which is something Allen acknowledged after a career-best 9-of-14 night from deep in which he tied the franchise record for most 3s made in a game.
“I try to make the same read whether the previous shot has gone in or not. You kinda know that after hitting a few, they’re gonna close out a little harder,” Allen said. “They were leaving their feet early to try to contest and run me off the line, and so I knew I needed to get downhill, get to the paint.”