On Thursday night, the Phoenix Suns came into their clash against the Toronto Raptors as the favorite to take home the victory, especially given how shorthanded the Raptors are at the moment. And Grayson Allen wasted no time in making sure that the Suns were in the driver's seat throughout the game. Allen, who woke up feeling dangerous, made seven triples in the first quarter (all of his buckets in the period were from deep) en route to a 26-point night in a 120-113 win.
Simply put, Allen has been everything the Suns had hoped for and more when they acquired him in the trade that sent Deandre Ayton to the Portland Trail Blazers. Allen has always been one of the best snipers in the association, but he has taken his game to the next level, and as of late, he has shot the ball unfathomably well from beyond the arc.
As a result, Suns head coach Frank Vogel could not contain his beaming pride over Grayson Allen. During their clash against the Raptors, Vogel, according to ClutchPoints beat reporter Trevor Booth, pulled Allen aside to “tell him how great of a player he’s been this season”.
One of the Suns' major problems last season was that they did not have enough high-quality players to surround their core after they surrendered most of their depth in the trade that brought Kevin Durant into the Valley. They had to trade away Deandre Ayton to spread the wealth more evenly towards the rest of their roster, and for a while, it didn't seem like they got a good enough return for the first overall pick of the 2018 NBA Draft.
However, Grayson Allen's play has changed the discourse surrounding the trade completely. Allen has become one of Frank Vogel's most trusted players, especially when Allen has been emerging as one of the more pesky defenders on the wing, and his elite marksmanship from deep (he has made 16 triples combined in his past two games) just provides the cherry on top of what has been a stellar campaign from the 28-year old guard out of Duke.
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