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I’m not going to say anything negative about Brandon Knight. You’ll do that below.
On Monday Phoenix Suns guard Eric Bledsoe joined Jon Bloom and Eddie House on 98.7 FM Arizona Sports to let an adoring public know that despite Knight’s cut in playing time, his sometimes backcourt mate is remaining “positive.”
Eric Bledsoe reveals how Brandon Knight has handled his time on the bench. https://t.co/lWEoZTnrSp
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) February 28, 2017
“It’s just, it’s frustrating for him,” Bledsoe said. “He’s still young at the end of the day. He’s 24 years old. Anybody who’s been starting their entire career at the age 24, it’s kind of frustrating coming off the bench. I stay in his ear the whole time … you got to fight through it. Everybody at some point has got to buy into a new role at some point in the career.”
This is of course only partly true, as he’s still young at the end of the day but older than when the day began.
Either way, let’s take a look at Knight’s struggles in statistical form, if for no other reason than I recently learned how to drop these numbers into articles and I’ve been trying to do it more. Never stop learning.
| Rk | Date | Opp | MP | FG | FGA | FG% | 3P | 3PA | 3P% | FT | FTA | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PTS | GmSc | +/- | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43 | 2017-01-21 | @ | NYK | W (+2) | 20:04 | 5 | 12 | .417 | 1 | 4 | .250 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 7.1 | -4 |
| 44 | 2017-01-22 | @ | TOR | W (+12) | 23:55 | 3 | 6 | .500 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 8.2 | +17 | |
| 45 | 2017-01-24 | MIN | L (-1) | 22:22 | 3 | 7 | .429 | 0 | 1 | .000 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 7.8 | +11 | |
| 46 | 2017-01-26 | @ | DEN | L (-7) | 29:04 | 8 | 11 | .727 | 1 | 2 | .500 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 17 | 14.3 | +1 |
| 47 | 2017-01-28 | DEN | L (-11) | 15:51 | 1 | 8 | .125 | 0 | 3 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -2.3 | -32 | |
| 48 | 2017-01-30 | MEM | L (-19) | 16:10 | 1 | 4 | .250 | 0 | 2 | .000 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1.5 | -9 | |
| 49 | 2017-02-01 | LAC | L (-10) | 8:16 | 0 | 3 | .000 | 0 | 1 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | -2.4 | +1 | |
| 50 | 2017-02-03 | @ | SAC | W (+2) | 18:47 | 5 | 9 | .556 | 2 | 4 | .500 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 7.0 | -5 |
| 51 | 2017-02-04 | MIL | L (-25) | 7:10 | 1 | 5 | .200 | 0 | 2 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | -0.8 | -10 | |
| 52 | 2017-02-06 | @ | NOP | L (-5) | 24:06 | 5 | 11 | .455 | 0 | 3 | .000 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 8.4 | +9 |
| 53 | 2017-02-08 | @ | MEM | L (-19) | 26:25 | 5 | 11 | .455 | 2 | 4 | .500 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 16 | 10.1 | -2 |
| 54 | 2017-02-10 | CHI | W (+18) | 15:26 | 3 | 6 | .500 | 0 | 2 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 5.4 | +8 | |
| 55 | 2017-02-11 | @ | HOU | L (-31) | 20:01 | 1 | 8 | .125 | 0 | 2 | .000 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | -4.6 | -37 |
| 56 | 2017-02-13 | NOP | L (-2) | 18:12 | 4 | 8 | .500 | 1 | 1 | 1.000 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 6.8 | +4 | |
| 57 | 2017-02-15 | LAL | W (+36) | 20:47 | 5 | 10 | .500 | 1 | 4 | .250 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 9.3 | +5 | |
| 58 | 2017-02-24 | @ | CHI | L (-7) | |||||||||||||||||
| 59 | 2017-02-26 | @ | MIL | L (-4) |
That doesn’t look too bad. I was talking about the chart, not the numbers. For his part Bledsoe is saying all the right things.
“What you don’t want to do is have a bad energy in the locker room, you know, on the court and it shows to the rest of the league.”
Yes. That can be very damaging to team morale and trade value.
There are 23 games left in the 2016-17 season. What would you like to see from Brandon Knight between now and then?