The NBA's best 3-point shooter by percentage (49.4) plays basketball for the Phoenix Suns. No, it's not Kevin Durant or Devin Booker. It's starting guard Grayson Allen, who the Suns traded for just under a month prior to the start of the regular season.
“He's a hell of a basketball player in so many ways,” said Suns first-year coach Frank Vogel.
Wednesday, Allen became eligible for the four-year, $75 million extension known by Spotrac, which lists contract for players, as the “Dinwiddie Exception,” after Lakers guard Spencer Dinwiddie. Instead of being confined to a percentage of his previous salary (Allen is earning $8,500,000 on the second year of a $18,700,000) deal, Allen could extend for up to four years, with the first-year salary and subsequent raises being based off league average salary, which is $9.7 million.
Since Allen is making below league average, he qualifies for the extension.
Here are the reasons why Allen should be re-signed by the Suns.
Elite 3-point shotmaking next to elite superstars
The Suns' Big 3 of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal need shooting around them to bring spacing off-the-ball. Grayson is someone who can provide something that not a lot of players in the NBA can, which is an ability to drive as well as shoot.
“The consistency of his 3-point shotmaking, I think, would be top of the list,” said Vogel. “But he’s a good all-around basketball player. There’s a lot of shooters in this league that aren’t good basketball players.”
Allen's 3-point shotmaking is one of his best qualities. He does it while spotting up and shooting from deep, according to Bball Index, which says Allen rates in the 98.3 and 97.5 percentile in those statistics. Allen also is someone who ranks about 99 percentile in offensive-rebound positioning, since he is driving to the basket constantly.
“He's an incredible shooter that plays with a lot of confidence,” said Durant. “We're going to need that from ‘G' as much as possible, that aggression, downhill, driving to the rim but also knocking down that three and his defense as well.”
Suns NET rating in starting five with Big 3, Jusuf Nurkic
Allen along with his shooting is irreplaceable on the offensive end. He has the best 3-point percentage in the NBA (47.9) and adds to the Suns' offense in points/per 100 (+6.4), effective-field goal percentage (+3.8), turnover percentage (-2.2%). The Suns' five-man lineup with Allen + Booker and Durant + Beal + Nurkic has a point-differential of +7.0 and ranks in the 75th percentile with 124.5 points per 100 possessions.
Support from Mat Ishbia
Ishbia is someone who has not been afraid to spend in his first year-plus as owner.
“Yeah, so I don't know what the second tax apron is,” Ishbia joked.
“The way I look at it is this: we're trying to win…we're trying to win a championship. We're going to try to do it this year, and then we're going to try to do it next year and sign the free agents…We hope and expect to have both those guys (Allen and Royce O'Neale) back, along with keeping this core team together. Because we love our team, and we're going to compete at the highest level and hopefully in the playoffs here very soon, hopefully you can see them all play together.”
Is Allen interested in staying?
Yes, Grayson Allen has said in public he would like to be in Phoemix.
Via The Arizona Republic:
“I haven’t been thinking about it or playing for the contract or anything, but I feel really blessed to be in a position where I’m on a team I fit perfectly on in an important year for me career wise,” Allen said before Monday’s game at San Antonio. “Very blessed to be playing this well and given the opportunity I’ve been given to help the team out as much as I have.”
“I try not to think about it too much,” said Allen about his specific contract numbers. “One, because it’s not a done deal until it’s signed. You don’t want to count it, start counting stuff too early before it happens. Another part of is it’s March and we’ve got 11, 10 games left. We’re getting at a time where you don’t want to have stuff like that on your mind cause it’s an individual goal for me and right now, it’s the Suns and team stuff. I don’t want to think about that kind of stuff too much.”
Allen, the Suns play the Denver Nuggets and Nikola Jokic on Wednesday. Allen is fourth on the Suns in scoring, averaging 13.5 points while shooting just under 51 percent.
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