Having Jaylen Smith play as a bench big forward could help the Suns turn things around

The previous section mentioned that Abdul Nadir's performance was disappointing, and his playing time should be allocated to more efficient and rhythmic players, in which the original author proposed to arrange For Cameron Johnson to play more of the third position, and then let Jaylen Smith take the role of substitute big forward.

Let "Stix" play the fourth place

I'm sure this will cause some controversy, but allow me to make my own point.

Scheduling Johnson to play more small forwards will give second-year striker Jaylen Smith the fourth place on the bench. Although Jaylen is 2 meters 03 tall, he is underweight, weighing only 102 kilograms, so he is called "Stix".

Note: When Jaylen Smith played at the AAU, the manager gave everyone a nickname based on the characteristics of the players. Jaylen was the skinniest kid on the team at the time, so the coach called him "Stix."

I know I'm saying this to refute the previous idea that Johnson was given the No. 3 position.

But if the Suns are currently happy to have Johnson play as a fourth-placer, why not send the 10th pick rookie on the field for a while — and let the team and the league as a whole see how he performs?

I mean, he couldn't have played worse than Abdul-Nadir, right? he shot 30.8 percent from the field and 20.0 from three-point range. Give Nadir's average of 3.3 shots per game to other players, and I'm sure Jaylen can play a -5.9 net efficiency value like Nadir.

Jaylen Smith is following the path he should have taken, and the big young man needs extra time to grow. The 21-year-old's rookie season is not the norm in any sense.

When Jaylen found himself in the lottery area, he and his family sat in a fried chicken shop called Buffalo Wild Wings. He didn't play in training camp, and the team he played for reached the Finals, where he only got 156 minutes of playing time this season.

Jaylen's response was to work hard. So far, in the second season of Jaylen's career, he has reached the mileage marker for increased usage. He dominated the Summer League, winning the Las Vegas Summer United All-Team team with an average of 12.5 rebounds per game.

He also excelled in preseason, averaging 21.5 minutes in four games and averaging 9.5 points and 8.0 rebounds. He's shown his rebounding skills and shooting ability; he's also playing more comfortably defensively (which is one of my biggest concerns after watching him play last season). If he's going to go to the next level, the logical pace increases his playing time in the second line-up.

But where on the team to give him even playing time? How does he adapt to the rotation? As mentioned above, give him Nadir's time and then let Johnson take the third place on the bench, with Jaylen playing as a substitute big forward.

This is not a permanent solution. Just as the Suns also experienced a wave of "switching To Frank Kaminsky to start" after last season's 8-8 start, this could be something Monty Williams is trying to change and inspire Nadir to be better.

That helps the Clippers as the team explores whether Jaylen Smith will be part of the rotation of the team that is on the way forward. The cut-out game footage will also become meaningful and available to other teams. If James Jones is bound to trade Dario Sharic and Jaylen Smith in the future, then he should show more of his "assets".

Regardless of how Monty arranges his appearance next, the Suns with those options are lucky. Of course, personally, I'd rather watch him else, or any player, play than Nadir. Nadir is the worst player in the squad, but I'm thankful we still have other options.

Maybe the Suns' unsatisfactory start made us lose more opportunities to see Jaylen Smith play. I'm okay with that, and I like Monty's idea of giving Claude the extra 6 minutes of Nadir's game because he desperately needs to get out of a bad start, averaging 28.8 points per game, 8.5 shots per game, and scoring only 8 points.

Anyway, Monty, don't go to Nadir.

Text/John Voita

Translation/Sam Presti

【Talk】

On November 2, Beijing time, the Suns announced that they would not implement Jaylen's third-year team option, which means that he will become an unrestricted free agent next summer.

As soon as this news came out, it could be said that it was both surprising and reasonable. Part of the surprise was that the Suns gave up the 20-year No. 10 Lotto show so quickly, and after jumping cameron Johnson to taste the sweetness, Jones seemed addicted, leaving defenders such as Halliburton, Neismith and Cole Anthony out of the game (the Suns lacked a substitute defender at the time, after all, no one knew that Payne could play so well behind the line), but instead chose a big man at the back of the market.

If the Suns had found a substitute for Ayton, they could have traded draft picks downwards, one could have reduced their salaries, and the other was able to get additional returns, which was better than giving up now.

In fact, Suns fans still have expectations for Jaylen, and he wears glasses, quite like James Worthy. He has a soft shooting feel, a good foot at the bottom of the basket, and although the confrontation is insufficient, it wins positively enough, although he really does not have much playing time. However, from a transaction point of view, the attributes of Jaylen's expired contract have a certain appeal to some reconstructed teams, more than 4 million, it does not hurt to try it, and the Suns can also take this opportunity to exchange some championship puzzles as much as possible.

In short, hopefully both the Suns and Jaylen Smith have a bright future.