The Phoenix Suns have completed the first-quarter of their 2024-25 regular season - and outside of Tyus Jones - there hasn't been a ton of consistency. When fully healthy this roster looks like it could be a genuine contender, only we haven't gotten to see that much so far this season.
With Kevin Durant currently out with an ankle sprain, we are also seeing this Suns team at their very worst. Even with Devin Booker and Bradley Beal out there, they were recently on the receiving end of a loss at the hands of the New Orleans Pelicans, in what was only their fifth victory of the season for a franchise in turmoil.
Why Thompson? After all he's hardly set the league alight since landing with the Dallas Mavericks in the offseason, and his 13 points per game while shooting 36.6 percent from deep on 7.7 attempts each night are pedestrian numbers. Then again, at 34-years-old, what did the Mavericks or anybody else expect?
But that is exactly why the Suns need to find their version of what Thompson is providing, because it will only help the whole team win more games, with or without their trio of stars healthy. The Mavericks boast Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving as their two best players, while Dereck Lively II, Daniel Gafford and even P.J. Washington can all claim to be more important than Thompson.
Every bucket from Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and Klay Thompson in the win last night…
They combined for:
79 PTS | 26-50 FG (52%) | 15-31 3PT (48.3%)
Scary hours in Dallas. 👀
pic.twitter.com/vjLB0qfNFw
— MFFL NATION (@NationMffl) December 8, 2024
Yet he's started all 20 games he's appeared in to this point - and after a rocky start to their own campaign - the Mavericks are 16-8 and up to second spot in the Western Conference. The kind of territory the Suns had occupied after their hot 8-1 start, and which they have slipped further away from ever since.
Luckily for the Suns, they have a pair of players already on their roster who fit the bill. The problem is, neither are going to get to start games anytime soon like Thompson does. Beal in theory should fill this role, but he's both never won a championship and at 31-years-old doesn't look quite ready to fade into the "I don't care, I'll just shoot when I'm open and nothing else" phase of his career.
Aside from Beal then it is Royce O'Neale and Grayson Allen who most closely resemble Thompson's productivity. O'Neale has been an excellent sixth man so far this season - and although the 43.8 percent he's managing from deep is scorching - it is coming in a different way to that of Thompson. O'Neale is making these shots at an elite rate, but he doesn't have the gravitational pull of Thompson.
Which leaves this tricky situation to Allen to try and solve - and although he's given it a bash recently with some of his teammates out injured - he's failed to recapture the electrifying form of a season ago. He's the closest the Suns have in trying to replicate what Thompson does for the Mavericks, but the differences between the pair remain vast.
The organization could look to available trade targets such as this one to try and get their own version of Thompson, but it would likely go nowhere. They just don't have the roster construction or position available for a player like him - and there aren't many in the league anyway - to slot into this role. If Beal could somehow take this challenge on though, this team would surely win more games.