This is something that is bound to happen in the future, but it is only rehearsed in advance. Paul has now reached the end of his career, and the two main players of the Suns are still on the rise, so there will inevitably be a time in the future when Paul leaves, leaving two young players to continue to play on their own. A large part of the Suns' improvement in these two seasons has been due to Paul's training of them. As one of the most experienced point guards in the league, Paul has the ability to take them to a new jest, so that's what we're seeing, and the Suns become a Finals-level team.
Paul's absence in the previous period was barely a management polishing of the remaining teams. They have to take this step, or the future will only get harder and harder. From the perspective of winning percentage, the team's winning percentage has decreased during Paul's absence. This is also reasonable, the lineup is incomplete, and there will definitely be more or less problems. What fans did not expect is that the sun also maintains a good chemical reaction now, so people not only speculate that even if Paul leaves the team in the future, the sun will be able to run smoothly for a long time.
Paul was not directly involved in the race, did it have any impact on the progress of the Suns? The simplest effect is that on the organization module, the sun can only be downgraded. They couldn't find a replacement for the same level, so they had to use a few barely usable organizational modules to temporarily keep the system running. The direct replacement, as everyone knows, is Payne.
Payne actually played well, although compared to last season, this season's level is a bit down. This high probability is a state factor, because his performance reduction is limited to scoring, and the average score per game has improved, but the shooting rate has declined a lot. The overall hit rate dropped by 8 points and the true hit rate dropped by 10 points. Although Payne was not a major scorer, this early reduction in efficiency did have a lot of impact on the team.
So Paul's absence, the most test is whether Payne can withstand this pressure. Apparently, he still carried it. During Paul's absence, Payne's average assists per game increased directly from 4.8 per game to 9.8 in the season, and in that game against the Knicks, Payne even delivered 16 assists. Arguably, Payne ensured that in a game without Paul, the team still had qualified organizers to help the team output.
But Paul's role in the team is not just organization, but also scoring. Although Paul has less than 20% of the round, as a figure who could once be called Mr. Key, Paul's scores are often at the most critical moments. This time, the sun also came up with a way to deal with it. Paul's scoring task was evenly spread out among Booker. In fact, this is paul's task before joining the Suns, and the scoring problems of the team's outside line are basically left to Booker to deal with. It's just that after the playoffs, especially the Finals, Booker's scoring ability is more problematic, and the handling of the ball is more delicate. In addition, Booker continued to play his potential as a two-way defender, and his average assists per game increased by 3.8, in other words, paul originally filled this part of the vacancy, the Suns have found a timely replacement. Judging from the current performance, the effect is OK.
At the beginning, many fans felt that the main purpose of the Suns' introduction of Paul was to raise the chemistry within the team to a higher level. Of course, this role has been reflected in last season, but now the sun is more chicken thief, he not only wants Paul to develop his own players, but also to let some players take over this part of Paul's experience in the future, so that the sun can continue to run. Under Paul's cultivation, his two sons have achieved even better results. Booker went from a scoring-only data brush to a leader who could take care of both leadership. In the polishing of this period, Ayton has grown from a starting level inside line to an All-Star level five player. All of this is inseparable from Paul's blessing on them.
Of course, there is also a saying that the Suns do not want to put their lifeblood in the hands of others, so they are perfecting their players as much as possible, so that the characteristics of each player are more balanced. Use individual balance to create a more reasonable team team. This brings us to a new problem, where players must play in a way that meets traditional requirements. Because the requirement of the new era is the functionality of each player. The more prominent the functionality, the greater the blessing on the team, and the easier it is to find the right position for you.
Fortunately, the sun's current main forces are more or less traditional. Booker is a top defender in his traditional style of play and has a good scoring ability in the mid-range. And like many old-school scorers, his shooting percentage is actually more terrifying when he faces high-pressure defense. This has been proven on previous playoff trips.
Second is Ayton, who is not much like a traditional player, but his style of play can take into account both genres. Ayton has the potential to become a top center, at least his physical talent can, which is the main reason why he can be a champion. Unlike many of the center cores that now occupy a lot of the ball, Ayton is that his demand for the ball is actually relatively low. This is also related to the sun's long-term tactical strategy. The Suns deliberately trained Ayton to be a center who can play without the ball, which is a bit of what those interior players meant. And Ayton is not taking the big weight route now, if there is a more suitable big tonnage player, Ayton can swing to the fourth position, and the weight is no longer a barrier to limit Ayton.
Combining this to look at other players, I feel the same way. From the first position to the fifth position, everyone has this balanced attribute, and the prototype of the Sun lineup is basically completed. So it is foreseeable that the Suns will inevitably break up with Paul in the future, and after the breakup, the Suns will only have a short period of pain and will not affect the fundamentals of the team. The management is fully prepared at this stage, even if Paul announces his retirement after the offseason, it will not affect the full operation of the team now. I have to say that when the Suns exchanged paul's hand for this deal, there was indeed something. It's just that for Paul's fans, this is a bit of a chicken and egg.