Isaiah Thomas on less minutes with the Suns: “It’s a tough situation”
The Phoenix Suns bolstered their guard core by signing Isaiah Thomas in free agency in the offseason. Thomas came from the Sacramento Kings, where he became the majority starter at point guard and had a breakout 20+ points per game season. The King still didn’t seem to be committed to Thomas fully, so he went for Phoenix.
Goran Dragic and Eric Bledsoe occupy the starting guard positions for the Suns, putting Isaiah Thomas in more of a sixth man role. His minutes are much less than they were coming off of arguably his breakout year, and he’s still adjusting.
From James Herbert of CBSSports.com:
“It’s a tough situation,” Thomas said. “But you’ve just got to be ready for whatever circumstances coach puts you in. You gotta be ready when your name is called, but I’m not going to sugarcoat it. It’s tough.
“It’s not what I expected,” Thomas continued. “But coach has a tough job. Putting all of us on the floor and trying to mix up the minutes, it’s tough for him. So it’s not just tough for us as players, we just gotta be ready when our name’s called and just know, I mean, coach is trying to do what he thinks is best for the team to put us in a position to win. But the key word is it’s a tough situation. For all of us.”
Somehow I think Jeff Hornacek is fine with his situation – having three highly capable playmaking guards at his disposal. Phoenix is 9-6, they’re fun to watch and hard to guard, and with more of a legitimate inside presence they would be especially scary.
Isaiah Thomas and Gerald Green are the best two-man bench scoring package in the league. If Hornacek can have guys bought in and ready to embrace the situation, this team is still prepared to make noise.
