Hedo Turkoglu should feel much more comfortable with coming off of the bench. (Photo Courtesy: Yardbarker.com)
The Suns are off until Thursday, which means there is little Suns news out there. Big news came out on Sunday that Hakim Warrick was going to replace Hedo Turkoglu into the starting lineup. In his first game as the starter, Warrick struggled while Turkoglu played really well off the pine. Even though these two will be up and down throughout the year, this was a good decision by Alvin Gentry at the right time.
It didn’t show on Sunday, but this move makes the Suns better defensively. Warrick is a bit undersized at the power forward spot like Turkoglu was, but he makes up for his lack of his size with his athleticism. He isn’t a great rebounder or shot blocker, but he is active with his hands and is on pace this year to have his best year in the steals category. Putting Turk on the bench enables him to return to his more suitable small forward spot, which allows him to guard guys that are closer to his body type. In too many games this year, Turkoglu was guarding guys much larger and more athletic than himself.
The swapping of the two players also makes the Suns better offensively as well. The pick-n-roll between Warrick and Steve Nash is becoming very difficult to stop. If you close your eyes for a second, you could see the two look exactly like the Nash/Amar’e Stoudemire two-man game that we saw the past several seasons. Now that Warrick is a starter, he will get more minutes with Nash that he was receiving before off the bench.
No longer a starter, Turkoglu can now do what he does best offensively and that is initiate the offense. We heard a lot of talk going into the year that he would have been able to do with Nash on the court at the same time, but that never materialized. Nash was the two-time MVP for a reason and that wasn’t for letting someone initiate the offense. Turk can now do that with the second unit and Gentry can move Goran Dragic to the two spot. Look for him to be much more consistent going forward.
There was no question that a change to the starting lineup needed to be made. The Suns were struggling defensively and weren’t clicking on all cylinders offensively with Turkoglu in the starting five. If we are basing the new lineup change on Sunday’s game, then it was a poor decision. You can’t base the decision off just one game though. Hopefully this team can get back to their winning ways with the new starting five Thursday night in Golden State.
Original Story:
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