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Phoenix Suns Share Insight into Grayson Allen’s Role, Career Night

When the Suns acquired Grayson Allen from the Milwaukee Bucks in the three-team deal that included Damian Lillard heading to Milwaukee, Deandre Ayton and Jrue Holiday going to Portland and Allen, Jusuf Nurkić and Nassir Little to Phoenix, nobody expected the type of impact that Allen has had on the Suns’ this season.

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Before coming to Phoenix, Allen had been known and openly had said he was more of a spot-up shooter in Milwaukee, whereas in Phoenix, he has learned to either take the open looks from deep or drive and kick. He’s doing all of this offensively while guarding the other team’s best player. Even Kevin Durant did not see this coming from Allen.

“(Allen’s) not just being a standstill shooter,” Durant said. “He’s handling the ball, he’s making plays in the paint. he’s making plays off the bounce in the pick-and-roll. He probably already did this already, but from watching in Milwaukee and the stops he was before, it was hard to see this type of stuff in his game because of the role he was playing.”

A Career Night

Allen had his best game of the season in last night’s 113-97 victory over the Miami Heat, cashing in on nine threes, which is now his career high, tied the Suns’ franchise record and set this NBA season’s high. He finished the night with 31 points on 9-of-14 shooting from three, four assists, four rebounds and two blocks.

“I knew I was at eight (made threes),” Allen said of recognizing his career night. “I kind of thought I was done for the night. Coach (Frank Vogel) put me in. I was lucky to get that swing, swing from Brad (Bradley Beal). Open corner three. When I got that one, I shot that one knowing that if this goes in, that was nine.”

This is far from the first big scoring outburst Allen has had with the Suns so far. Some other notable games include when he had 32 on Christmas vs. the Dallas Mavericks and 26 points and eight rebounds against the Bulls in Chicago on Nov. 8.

Last night, his scoring helped fill the void of the team missing both Durant (hamstring) and Eric Gordon (knee) in the game.

How Allen Got Rolling

Allen started off the night hot with four threes in the first quarter and seven in the first half alone.

 

He explained how he was able to get into a rhythm from deep.

“I know that Miami has a really good team defensive scheme,” Allen said. “They force you to play with the pass; they are going to crowd; they are going to make you make decisions in a crowd. They are going to make you give the ball up early; they do a good job of getting out late. I knew that going into the game. I got two good ones early, where I am one pass away from Book (Devin Booker) and Brad (Bradley Beal) on the second one. They draw two or three guys and kick it out so, I got two good ones early to go in.

“From that point, it was an ‘are they going to adjust and get out of their gaps and let Brad or Book drive and get into the paint or are they going to keep trying to show and get out late for contests?’ If they mix it up, we can go for a little bit of both, but I was still able to get some of that one pass away shots and take advantage of that.”

Allen is now the league leader in three-point percentage for players with over 150 attempts at 47.3% (78-of-165). Of players with over 100 attempts, Durant is first in the NBA at 47.7 (61-of-128), while Allen is third. 

Devin Booker and Frank Vogel’s Thoughts on Grayson Allen’s Career Night

Devin Booker has not even achieved this feat of nine threes in his 556 career regular season games with the Suns, compared to Allen only playing in 30 with the Suns.

Booker has a career high of six threes, which Allen has eclipsed three times now this season, tying his previous career high of eight two times prior this season.

“Impressed,” Booker said of Allen’s performance. “He is a sniper. Somebody that I have a bunch of trust in on the court. Not only to make threes, but to play make and to defend at a high level. Everybody is going to see the threes made. But people start running him off the line, he is not one of those guys that is one dimensional where you run him off the line and he does not know what to do. He still gets in the paint, still draws fouls and still makes the right play for other people. So, it is super impressive.”

The Suns had 30 assists on 44 made field goals and are now 7-1 this season when they have 30 or more assists. Vogel credited this for clearing the way for Allen’s shooting.

“When our team shares the basketball, the basketball gods reward you,” Vogel said. “And (Allen)’s always been aggressive. Sometimes we don’t get enough shots for Eric Gordon and Grayson Allen, but we’re training our stars to look for those guys and we’re training our role players to make smart plays with one mores. Like when they have one more to those guys, look for them as well, so Grayson and Eric Gordon as well, we’re trying to get more threes for those guys, and it paid off tonight.”

When reflecting back on the trade, Vogel and many others have said that they did not expect this level of output from Allen.

“I always loved his game,” Vogel said of Allen. “I was surprised that he was in he was (included in the trade), I don’t know if he was a late addition, but I was surprised that he was a part of it. And I was like, well, that’s a heck of a piece. I was disappointed about losing (rookie Toumani) Camara, but to get Grayson Allen in that, I was really excited about (that).

“I didn’t foresee the way he’s played for us this year; I think he’s exceeded all of our expectations from that standpoint. A great part of the trade.”

Allen has now scored 10+ points in his last 12 games and is averaging 13.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.9 assists while shooting 50.9% from the field in 33.3 minutes per game this season.

Suns fans erupt as Grayson Allen leads Phoenix to win over Heat

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Brendan Mau is a senior writer covering the Phoenix Suns and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @Brendan_Mau

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