Phoenix Suns' Hakim Warrick Finds Consistency, Provides Spark Off Bench For Suns

We are all worried about a precipitous drop-off from Hak to be certain, but I really think having the “defined” role as the scoring energy off the bench helps his confidence and should facilitate him remaining comfortable throughout the year. All bets are off if major injuries force him into a starting role. Personally, I think he has done better than expected considering the PG play (Telfair & Price, we are talking about you..>!) that normally is with him when he is on the floor.

I had thought about this yesterday,,,If we can get Telfair or Price to give us any semblance of reasonable back-up PG play this year, there is no reason Hak can’t average 14ppg and 6 rpg off the bench this year. If we can get Brown to stop chucking up bad shots and find the open man, it’s bound to even improve from that. Really glad to see Hakim being a light of sunshine out there…

Let’s Go Suns…!

I have been a fan of Warrick since he played at Memphis and I really felt like he got away from his game somehow. Good to see this laid out in writing. I think he can be productive in the role he is in. Great job.

If he plays like this all year consistently, he’s a bargain. This is what we should expect of him. Maybe a bit more rebounding and D if we can squeeze it out of him.

But I like his game. And, also, I think he expects a high level of himself, which is the best aspect to his game. He was on a college championship team (with ’Melo), and knows how to win.

I like him at SF and playing fast. He’s a perfect player for the run-and-gun to score on transition (fast and athletic). If we can do more of that, he’s a great asset.

For a bench guy and two new pgs running the offense, its not a bad thing to have at all. To move him from his PF position to SF somehow gives him the ideal fit and it seems to be working even on the defensive end where he doesnt have to guard bigger guys and be pushed around like a toothpick.

He is knock down with his 14ft jumper and other teams haven’t showed respect for that yet and he seems to have toned down the catch and jump from anywhere on the floor. Although last night when he pulled that Dr J esque move, at first I thought ‘oh no here he goes’ but the outcome was a thing of beauty..

He’s just something altogether new we can throw at the opponent.

I like the fact he is playing both forward positions to get more playing time. He has 6th man of the year potential no doubt about it.

When Redd gets on the court will he be our starting SG? If he is and Dudley goes back to the back up SF will that impact on Warricks minutes?

He knocked Chilly out of the rotation.

I was all for trading Hak for a conditional 3rd round pick before the season, but he’s impressed me by bringing a lot of energy and showing off a much improved shot. I thought with Morris playing well we wouldn’t see much of Hak anymore, but he’s played his way into the rotation at the 3 spot. I still cringe when he takes that step-back fadeaway, but all in all he’s impressed me coming off the bench. Can’t say the same for the Brown Hole.

1. Rubio
2. Norris Cole
3. Morris
4. Brooks
5. Irving

The reason being since we basically signed him as a replacement for Amare so there was immediately a lot of pressure on him to produce. I mean, no one was expecting Amare like production from him but his explosive athleticism, decent jump shot from 12-15 feet, and ability to get to the charity made for a perfect pick and roll partner for Nash meaning everyone thought he was going to break out.

Now, those expectations have calmed, and instead of him starting which really exposes his deficiencies in rebounding and defense, we have him coming off of the bench which is a role he is much more suited to play.

The guy provides instant offense off of the bench for us and can either play the perfect pick and roll partner for Nash or create his own shot….by just jumping over everyone else.

Warrick is kind of like Channing Frye in regard to his streakiness so he will go through some frustratingly bad stretches (Like Channing’s shooting slump right now) but when that does happen I hope we don’t lose faith in him and let him work out of his funk since I think he should easily be able to average 11-12PPG/50%FG/70%FT and more importantly get to free throw line and just provide some energy to the team and crowd with his absolutely sick dunking ability.

Hak has a pretty nice post game. As a PF, he didn’t get to use it all that often because he’d just bounce off his defender. Perhaps we can see him use that more. I like perimeter players posting up if they have an advantage, especially when our bigs can shoot like they do.

(though I can’t find any BSotS articles before this season anymore _).

Go to the archives and click 2011.

I’ll freely admit that I was one who expected too much from Warrick and then was disappointed when he failed as a starting PF, and even struggled as a backup PF. The constantly-changing rotations didn’t help him at all as he was trying to find his fit on the team, and his poor interior defense and rebounding made him a poor fit as a PF.

There’s no way he’ll be able to bulk up. With his slight build at age 29, his body is pretty much a finished product. Playing more of a mid-range and perimeter-oriented game was the best way for him to improve his value and he seems to have found his place as a backup 3. His defensive and rebounding weaknesses are more manageable there. Of course this means that, barring injury, Josh Childress stands to get even less playing time than last year. Wow.

I think that Warrick being the team’s leading scorer through seven games speaks as much to the problems endemic to the Suns roster as it does to Warrick’s palingenesis.

Does Nash make everybody around him better? Yes.

Can he turn role players into scoring phenoms? No.

To evaluate the Warrick situation a little further, let us turn to the (in some occasions) horribly inneffective application of extended statistics.

Last season Warrick averaged 8.4 ppg, 3.7 rpg, and .511 fg% in 17.7 mpg. Compare this to his career averages of 9.8 ppg, 4.2 rpg, and .498 fg% in 20.8 mpg.

If we multiply his statistics last year to compare them with this career minutes played, the numbers are 9.9 ppg and 4.3 rpg with a better than average field goal percentage. In other words while he may have failed to meet expectations,

Suns fans set the bar very high for Warrick on day one, constantly comparing him to a former Suns player and judging him based on those expectations. Suns coaches set the bar a bit lower, yet still expected him to exceed his career averages (10 pts, 4 rebs on 20-22 minutes) by a wide margin in the Suns’ system. He disappointed everyone on both fronts.

maybe that is just because the expectations were unrealistic…

To explore further:

Through 6 games (small sample size) Warrick is averaging 12.7 ppg, 3.5 rpg, and .483 fg% in 23.3 mpg. If we scale these numbers down to compare them to his career averages they would be 11.3 ppg and 3.1 rpg on worse shooting.

So what gives? Is 11.3 and 3.1 really that much better than 9.9 and 4.3 over an identical sample time? The answer is that the statistics fail to tell the story adequately. What I contend (and what I think most others agree with) is that watching Warrick play this season it is obvious that he is contributing more this season than he did last year.

The question now is whether Warrick can sustain his level of play for the whole season. We’ve all seen plenty of examples of a player having a good 5 or 10 game stretch (or even half a season for that matter) where they outperform their normal skill set. Is this what Warrick is doing now? Is he at a peak? Or is this a new valley?

I am hoping it is a new valley. This is the valley of the sun, after all (even though technically it’s really a basin).