Suns travel to Utah for preseason opener; Alexander’s a ‘natural worker’

Now past the conclusion of training camp, Monty Williams will use the flight to Utah on Friday to map out the rotations and lineups for his Phoenix Suns.

Ahead of the preseason opener on Saturday against the Jazz, Williams said the Suns don’t have any injuries worth noting outside of the usual bumps and bruises.

“With the huge ramp-up, you got guys with soreness … just guys with things we’re watching right now,” Williams said Friday. “Because we’ve gone from pretty much 20 miles per hour to 100.”

The coach noted Thursday he will likely look at keeping his top names around 15-18 minutes.

Williams will give an update at shootaround Saturday on forward Jae Crowder, who had his first practice on Wednesday after attending to personal matters. Crowder also just finished a three-month bubble stay in mid-October that ended with the NBA Finals, so if there was anyone to watch for with general soreness, he’s at least one.

Utah will also mark the first stay of a handful where the Suns will play consecutive games against the same opponent in the same location. There’s an obvious competitive imbalance this type of scheduling format presents. As an example, if the Suns happen to face the Los Angeles Clippers back-to-back nights when Kawhi Leonard is dealing with an injury, that’s a fortunate turn. But for the sake of minimizing travel to maximize how safe the league can keep everyone, the Suns will play the Jazz again on Monday in Salt Lake City. They’ll do it again for the last two preseason games, that time in Phoenix against the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday and that Friday.

The Suns have one of these stretches early in the schedule. They’ll travel from Phoenix after the home opener to take on the Kings in Sacramento on Dec. 26 and 27.

Shooting guard Devin Booker was asked about his thoughts on this, if he thinks the reduced travel will help for recovery and so on.

He shook his head and laughed while he answered.

“I have no idea. I’m just going out there and playing both days, I know that,” Booker said.

TY-SHON THE WORKER

The Suns have signed one player to a two-way contract thus far, Creighton rookie guard Ty-Shon Alexander.

Alexander, 22, was a prospect a lot of draft experts had a solid second-round grade on, with some putting him near the first round.

The second round of the draft gets goofy. Front offices around pick No. 15 or so will just start taking their guy and look aside from value. That’s how prospects like De’Anthony Melton (46th overall, 2018), Dillon Brooks (45th overall, 2017) and Malcolm Brogdon (36th overall, 2016) continue to slip through the cracks of the first round despite having clear NBA skills and potential, sometimes to the point of going undrafted.

It’s still happening in the last five years. The 2016 class alone saw Alex Caruso, Dorian Finney-Smith, Bryn Forbes, Danuel House, Derrick Jones Jr. and Fred VanVleet all not get selected. That, of course, is more undrafted players that worked out than the last few drafts combined, so it’s not like there’s a trusted formula here. As a reminder, it’s mostly about luck, but guys who do NBA things in college consistently are a better gamble most of the time.

For Alexander with the Bluejays, that was defense.

Ty-Shon Alexander is a high-level guard defender. He masterfully navigates screens, forces ball-handlers to reject screens, is physical and slides well to cut off driving lanes.

Look at his efforts against Myles Powell, when he helped hold Powell 3/16 shooting: pic.twitter.com/zLOvPZAAah

— Jackson Frank (@jackfrank_jjf) April 17, 2020

Who better than Williams to provide the full scouting report:

“He’s a worker,” Williams said. “You would think a guy in that position has to be a worker but you can tell that’s who he is. Got a big, strong body for a guard. Just well proportioned. He can shoot the ball. He hasn’t had a lot of reps, because most of our guys don’t like coming off the floor but I like what I see in him. He’s got a nice body, he’s got a nice feel for the game, he can shoot the ball, he’s got good feet — when he gets into his shot or he’s coming off screens, you can tell he’s been well-coached or he’s got naturally good feet.

“Defensively, he looks like he’s gonna be capable of taking hits, staying in front of people and being able to switch on bigger people because of his size. I like what I’ve seen so far from him.”

In his third and final year at Creighton, Alexander averaged 16.9 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.3 steals per game, shooting 43.1% from the field and 39.9% at three-point range.

Like most guys in his pre-draft range, Alexander’s deficiencies have a lot to do with his limitations athletically and on the ball. Alexander is not a point guard or much of a ball-handling threat, and possesses the 3-and-D skills of a wing at a much smaller size. That makes him a tweener of sorts, but the appeal is clear.

The Suns also got someone who is going to fit right in with what they do. Alexander said he’s been doing two-a-days every day, staying after practice to get more work in and then coming back to The Lab later in the evening for seconds.

That’s a perfect fit for his fellow guards off the bench like Jevon Carter and Cameron Payne, who were working often at The Madhouse during the offseason as the practice facility neared completion, and are surely joining Alexander for some of those night sessions.

“He’s a fighter, man,” Booker said of Alexander. “Very talented, big guard, good size too. He has all the attributes it takes. And a really good listener. He’s coming around, he’s asking questions — you can tell he’s really in-tune with practice and wants to be better.”

The Payne-Carter duo in the bubble established an identity off the bench in Orlando, one of full-court pressure defensively and a high pace offensively.

Alexander has found some like-minded individuals.

“I hope I can get the opportunity to pick up 94 feet with them,” he said with a smile.

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