The slumping Suns are making a lineup change for Saturday’s game in Chicago, having announced that Bradley Beal will be reinserted into the starting five, with Tyus Jones moving to the bench (Twitter link).
Beal, who has been coming off the bench since January 4, will start alongside Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, Royce O’Neale, and Nick Richards. It will be the first time this season that Jones will be part of the second unit — he had been previously been available for 54 games and started all of them.
The Suns, who have lost seven of eight games and are just 26-29 on the season, have been searching for the right lineup combinations for much of the year. The team’s most-used five-man group, which featured Jones, Booker, Beal, and Durant alongside recently traded center Jusuf Nurkic, had a net rating of -17.1 in 119 minutes.
A handful of other starting lineups featuring Jones have also struggled to outscore opponents. Jones, Booker, Durant, Richards, and Ryan Dunn have a -4.4 net rating together, while the starting five that the Suns deployed on Thursday coming out of the All-Star break (Jones, Booker, Durant, O’Neale, and Richards) has posted a -23.7 net rating in a small sample size (31 minutes). Saturday’s starting lineup has played just eight minutes together.
John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter video link) predicted on Friday that Jones’ time as a starter would soon come to an end, referring to it as “long overdue.” As Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic (Twitter video link) points out, Booker has been functioning more like the point guard in the first unit, with Jones spending more time off the ball.
Still, speaking today to reporters shortly before the club announced its new starting five, head coach Mike Budenholzer defended Jones and his importance to the team.
“He organizes us. He brings leadership, stability,” Budenholzer said, per Rankin. “He’s a point guard. He’s that guy that’s looking to get everybody involved. Has a comfort level with that spot. He’s been good.”
The. Jones Pg mold many of us grew up with is simply dead .
Once Chris Paul retires it will officially be 6 ft under
Everyone can handle the ball , penetrate , kick and space the floor now and you need less entry passes to the paint further depleting a Pgs duties
Nowadays it’s probably more profitable to be able to guard the perimeter at a high level than it is to be able to run / set up an offense for a PG
Very different era
Jones is the 9th man for a playoffs team
Suns are supposed to be 6th seed
76ers are supposed to be 6th seed even without Embiid the entire season
2 superstars = 6th seed East
3 superstars = 6th seed West
Where are you getting this, Silli???
Id want to know as well. Random theory I have is Davey, aristotle and Sillivan all share the same brain cell.
Half are AI or chat gpt induced so your not wrong Tallballer
We should get use to it as in 5-10 years this will be much more commonplace and easier to recognize
*Idk what Daveys excuse is
Davey bot will just say “you dont know ball”
hi helo
They only put him on the second unit to try to get him to waive his no trade clause. It’s a shady move on the team’s part
‘Bout time!!!
The West is brutal. Somebody had to drop for Phx to get in. Kings?
2 years in a row I thought the Suns did a great job getting role players on min deals to fill out their roster, two years in a row I was WRONG. I hope it was just a smokescreen from Jones’ camp last offseason saying he turned down a lot more money to be a starter on a competitive team, I don’t think that gamble paid off.