Al McCoy: Phoenix Suns’ point-guard trio ‘has been effective, at times’
Jan 2, 2015, 8:59 PM | Updated: Jan 3, 2015, 3:32 pm
It’s no secret that the bulk of any star power the Phoenix Suns have resides in the backcourt.
Head coach Jeff Hornacek recently started committing to a lineup that includes Goran Dragic, Eric Bledsoe and Isaiah Thomas in late-game situations, and the results have been mostly positive.
The Suns recently put together a six-game winning streak before losing a pair of close games, in consecutive nights, in New Orleans and Oklahoma City.
Broadcaster Al McCoy, who calls every Suns game on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM, said on the Doug and Wolf show Friday that the point-guard trio has shown it can lead the team to victory, but that Phoenix does have some vulnerability when it presents such a lineup.
“When you get into a situation where you’re facing teams that have a lot of size — big men, strong rebounders, strong interior defensive players — it becomes more difficult,” McCoy said. “And, as we all know, that’s where the Suns need to improve is interior, more size, power forward; we can go right down the list. But in the meantime, you have to try to win games. And I think we would all agree that Coach Hornacek has done an unbelievable job the last two years in running this ball club, and he has shown with the three guards in crunch time that they could produce victories.”
Thomas has missed eight games this season, while Dragic has missed two. When all three are available for Phoenix, the team boasts a 15-9 record (.625 winning percentage) heading into Friday’s game against Philadelphia.
Dragic leads the trio with 16.9 points per game, while Bledsoe has the best assists, steals and rebounding numbers of the group — 5.8, 5.3 and 1.5 per game, respectively.
McCoy painted a picture of the three-headed PG monster when the group is at its best, pointing to last Sunday’s road victory.
“I thought it was interesting after the recent win in Los Angeles against the Lakers, Kobe Bryant after the game said that they didn’t know what to do,” the legendary broadcaster said. “There were three guards out there. If they defended one, somebody else broke out and scored.
“And that’s what you like to do. And it has been effective, at times.”
