Discerning Comments | Suns trade Paul Payne No. 1 shuffle no point guard lineup for the championship?

On July 17, Beijing time, the Suns traded with the Spurs, trading Cameron Payne for air, freeing up a spot to sign Ball Ball while saving $26.4 million in luxury taxes and creating a $6.5 million trade exception.

At this point, the two key figures of the Suns No. 1 who helped the Suns enter the Finals in 2021 were all purged and left the team, Chris Paul was reduced to a chip in exchange for Bradley Beal, and Payne became a victim of the team's vacating places + saving money.

After purging Paul and Payne, the Suns lacked a real point guard on the lineup. There were the Celtics and Clippers, who tried to compete for the championship with an unorthodox point guard lineup but failed. Now that the Suns will be trying to compete for the title with an unorthodox point guard roster that has upgraded their talent at the top, can they do it?

The number one is shuffled

In the 2020-21 season, the Suns went from missing the playoffs the previous season to reaching the Finals with 51 wins, and the No. 1 reinforcement was key. Paul joined, Payne was contracted for his excellent performance at the park the previous season, and the Suns had a high-profile starter and a reliable backup at No. 1.

But over the past two seasons, Paul's performance has slipped as he gets older. Payne didn't keep his 44 percent three-point shooting percentage in 2020-21, which has been 33.6 percent and 36.8 percent over the past two seasons, respectively, and overall efficiency has dropped significantly. In the 2023 offseason, the Suns chose to clean the two.

Paul was sent to the Wizards in the Beal trade and then transferred to the Warriors. Payne's non-guaranteed contract was converted into a guaranteed contract and is now sent to the Spurs.

The Suns traded Paul and Payne to understand that last season's playoffs, the performance and attendance of the two disappointed new owner Ishbea.

Today, there is no orthodox point guard at Suns One, and according to Charania, Beal will enter training camp as a starting point guard, with Jordan Goodwin as a backup point guard. Devin Booker and Eric Gordon can both play this role, but neither of them is an orthodox point guard who puts passing first.

Can a no-point guard team really compete for a championship?

Judging from previous interviews, Beal and Suns new coach Vogel are not worried about the lack of orthodox point guards in the Suns, and they are emphasizing the containment of multi-giants and multi-point play. Beal, Booker and Durant all have strong containment and a certain ability to hold the ball, and each has the ability to play off the ball, which is where the Suns are strong.

But without a point guard lineup, can you really win the championship?

The Celtics, Clippers, including the original Durant and Irving teaming up (no Harden period) are all counterexamples, the dual core relies on strong offensive ability, containment power to instigate the attack, the team's offensive efficiency is good, but the high-end game encounters the opponent's targeted defense, the dual-core respective ball holding weaknesses, organizational weaknesses are used, the game is easy to enter the rhythm of the star's singles, it is difficult to produce the effect of orthodox point guards with points.

The Suns chose to upgrade the outside duo to the Big Three, which is the biggest difference between them and the Celtics, Clippers, and Nets. Even if one of the points is trapped, the Suns have two other points to catch the ball and attack or instigate subsequent tactics.

On the offensive end, the Suns' upgraded no-guard lineup has a higher margin of error than other no-point guard lineups. Under the premise of health, lack of organizational skills may not be a constraint to the Suns' championship, and they may be able to compete for the championship with unreasonable play. Vogel himself is not known for building offensive systems, preferring to rely on stars on the offensive end, which may be bad for other teams, but not necessarily bad for the Suns, who have three top scorers.

The problem lies in these two aspects:

1. Health

In the past two seasons, Beal, Booker and Durant have not been very present, and they all face injury risks. Especially now that the Suns are taking the route of "four high salaries + a group of base salaries", even if the Suns' basic salary recruitment level this year is far beyond expectations, depth is still their weak link, once the core players encounter injuries, the overall competitiveness of the Suns will decline a lot.

2. Defense

There is no shortage of defensible players in the Suns, such as Okogie, such as Butters Diop, Yuta Watanabe and Gordon, who are also well-defended role players. But whether Okogie and Diop can truly become the team's fifth man depends on their projection level. Crucially, none of the Suns' four high-paid core players are defensively strong types. Are the Suns sure they can pick up a championship on offense?

Today's Sun seems like a mad experimenter, trying to challenge cognition.

In the context of the entry into force of the new collective agreement, the Sun tried to compete for the championship with an alternative game that crazy broke through the super tycoon line. There are multiple precedents for failure of the non-core lineup based on the outside dual-core, and the Suns chose to upgrade the outside dual-core to the outside Big Three to make up for the shortcomings of the non-guard.

Betting on everything with solar success? Everyone is expecting results.