I’m making one final plea. A desperate Hail Mary, not to save the season, but to salvage what little dignity remains. Bench Tyus Jones. Please, Phoenix Suns, hear my cry.
This team is a ghost of what it was supposed to be, a contender reduced to a collection of missed opportunities and misplaced faith. Once, they were favorites. Now? FanDuel doesn’t even have them making the playoffs. They sit at +370. That’s how far we’ve fallen.
Tyus Jones has not been the answer. The stats prove it. The eye test confirms it. Every lineup data point screams it. He has a -3.9 net rating (Monte Morris is +3.9, mind you), and it’s -5.7 in the first quarter of games. And if the Suns start slow, they lose.
And yet, there he is, still running with the starters, still draining momentum instead of creating it.
I’m not alone in this. 69% of the fanbase agrees: Devin Booker and Bradley Beal should be the backcourt. Not just because it’s the best option, but because it’s the only one that makes sense. Beal isn’t going anywhere. His contract guarantees that. Booker, we pray, remains the franchise cornerstone. If that’s the future, why waste time fighting it?
27 games remain for the Suns and it’s time to move on from Tyus with the starters. It isn’t helping. And I do not see a world in which he is with the team next year. So what’s the point? It’s not like the team is playing out this season and seeing how his productivity meshes with certain players. And if they did? They would like what they find.
When you look at Tyus Jones and two-man lineups, you find that he is the issue more often than not.
- Tyus and Booker: -46
- Tyus and Durant: -15
- Tyus and Beal: -11
- Tyus and Royce: -38
- Tyus and Allen: -11
- Tyus and Plumlee: +30
Oh crap. There it is. That Tyus and Plumlee line is the one Budenholzer has latched on to. That is why we see way too much of both. I’ve figured it out. Someone, please delete that line! Remove that stat! Stop the count!! Perhaps then Budenholzer will finally move off of his love affair with Tyus Jones and give us a chance once again.