Grayson Allen’s success stems from his growth and preparation

Grayson Allen’s success stems from his growth and preparation

Suns with a win over Toronto last night getting ready for the Boston Celtics key matchup at footprint Center our next guest has hit 16 three-pointers over his last two basketball games uh eight in a row both times filling it up Vinnie filling it up Grayson Allen to the

Phoenix Suns joins us here on the Arizona Sports Line Grayson thanks so much for joining us today we appreciate it thanks for having me I will start with this I I’ll say something on behalf of the Suns fan base damn dude and have you ever been on a heater like this

Before uh I don’t know about 16 in two games and especially with them being all in a row I don’t think I think that’s a new one for me the numbers too and and it’s not just the threes I think that I it it’s I wouldn’t say you’ve reinvented

Yourself as a basketball player but you have certainly taken your status in your rep to the next level um how much of this was done in the off season where are you at in your career from your Vantage Point uh I think a lot of it is growth and you

Know getting better it being my six season and figuring things out and hitting stride and developing my game more in the off season and then big part of it too is a slightly different role that I’ve had in the last three three years really um and doing a little bit more

Out there on the court or at least being asked to do a little bit more and kind of stepping up and taking advantage of it graceon Allen of the sun’s Our Guest here on ble Mara Mornings in terms of the timing of this and I heard you

Referen this after the the Denver game too you made reference to kind of a a weird rough stretch for you where the shots weren’t falling how I mean it’s always good to win games it’s always good when your shots falling but how much better does it make you feel that

It it came on the heels of one of your rare rough stretches this year Grayson uh yeah it feels good I mean Shooters go through slumps and stretches and um where you miss a few in a row sometimes it happens for a whole game and so it’s nice to quickly kick that

And it it was only two or three games and um you know always kind of have that mindset that I’m gonna shoot a good percentage so if I miss a lot in a row at some point I’m going to make a lot in a row too many in the basketball media

Look at the Suns and they see a couple of flaws the lack of a traditional point guard I know the leadership thing has been bounced around where do you think this team’s at internally how much growth have you seen recently and and how confident do you feel about this team moving

Forward um I mean I feel really good about where we’re at uh we have a ton of offensive Firepower um and if you look at kind of two of our issues this season it’s really been closing out games in the fourth and turnovers um and I think the last two

Games you know even though we didn’t have a good offensive fourth quarter against Denver um I felt like our ball movement was great we just didn’t knock down shots and defensively we were great in the last two games so you know we kind of have that emphasis and locked in on

Try to finish games better and not slow down too much keep our Pace going and um continue to take care of the ball and a lot of that the turnovers come from those dead possessions where we you know get ball at the court slow and don’t

Move that much and you know I don’t think that’s coming from a traditional point guard I think that’s just all five guys being in tune to what we’re doing each possession and helping each other out so I think we’re going to get better with those two things when we will when

We do we’ll be a lot better talking with Grayson Allen of the Suns here on Arizona Sports I want to go back to the beginning of your time with the Suns it happened in a trade that went down right before the beginning of training camp how difficult of a transition is that

When when a trade I mean it’s never easy to be traded or changed teams but when it happens so close to the beginning of training camp was was that a difficult challenge for you to overcome yeah that that made it a little bit tougher this is my third time

Getting traded and this was the the closest to the season um and so coming in I think I came in like literally one day before training camp started um you know I had to get adjusted really quick because then your first preseason game is like a

Week later um so I made it a little Ching but um you know I felt like other maybe first two regular season games were a little uh rough for me and then after that I kind of got in Rhythm um and each week of the Season feels like

It’s been getting better and better so I think I quickly adjusted but it definitely made it a little bit difficult there especially in in October now as a guy who’s going to be an unrestricted free agent you picked a great time to have a career year yesterday Matt ishia the owner of the

Sun said he really wants to keep you wants to keep Roy O’Neal I know this is a bit into the future but is this A place you’d like to be longterm how do you feel about being here with this team in this environment in this

City uh I love Phoenix I love the team we we we have here um we have a great group of guys um I feel like I’ve been embraced and and loved by the fans here um so I have no complaints from being here um and all that stuff with free

Agency and ex signing is all in the future and so I I don’t want to think about it too much and just focus on what we have at hand here but um I love everything about Phoenix talking with Grayson Allen of the Suns here on Arizona Sports going back to the

Shooting I I say this all the time when we talk about Shooters on this show Grayson there’s nothing I enjoy more in sports than watching a shooter on a hot streak and you’ve been on one of those hot streaks uh two games in a row and

You know last night you felt it from the crowd every time you touch the ball at a certain point there was just this Buzz this energy and then you deliver again what’s going through your mind when that energy is coursing through the building like that when you’re ready to release

Or or are you just able to like pull the the Billy Chapel from for Love of the Game and and clear the mechanism and just focus on what you’re trying to do uh like during those moments there’s actually not a whole lot going through

My head but you can kind of feel like it slows down a little bit you’re just really locked in I mean I could definitely feel the energy of the crowd um and when it when you kind of get in that little hot streak at home too it’s

A lot more fun because you have the crowd getting louder and louder behind you each shot you make but uh in the moment like not a whole lot of thoughts going through my head it’s just all all Focus all feel and all Instinct a and your shooting percentage and what you’ve

Done this year it’s beginning to and will continue to take pressure off guys like KD and and Kevin Durant already talked about that and and what a benefit it is to to not be swarmed all the time talk about your responsibility to knock these shots down just to kind of relieve

The pressure that teams naturally want to put on Devin Booker and Kevin Durant yeah well we have three really talented uh scorers and book Katie and Brad and um you know they score differently book A lot of times up top in ball screens KD in the post and Brad

With a lot of movement in ball screens too and you have to defenses have to pick are they going to let those guys play one-on-one or two on two and stay home or are they going to help in and throw an extra Defender and last game against the Raptors they doubled every

KD post touch from the beginning of the game like the whole first half and we got a lot of Threes because of it and there’s other games where they pull a third guy over and the pick and roll and you know that leaves the skip passes

Open to the corner where we can swing around and get open threes so it forces teams to really pick their poison offensively whether are they going to let these talented scorers like KD Brad book and just go and get their Rhythm shots that they’re so good at or

Are they going to help off and give open threes to the other guys on the court yeah before we let you go I wanted to focus away from your offense away from your shooting for a second uh focus on the defense and I heard you talking too after the Denver game about the

Commitment you’ve made to improving on the defensive end of the floor what what led to that and and where do you think you are on in that development right now on the defensive end Grayson um I think what led to it was just what I was asked to do from a role

Perspective that kind of started in Memphis when uh they when I was playing and I started starting in my second year there and I was asked to have some of the tougher defensive assignments and guard the primary ball handler on the other team um and then that started the FOC focus on it

And then two years in Milwaukee with through holiday I felt like I learned a lot from watching him and uh being with him in practice and kind of learning some of the stuff he does uh when guarding the ball and being an undersized guy and being able to guard

Guys in the post too so um learned a lot from him and I feel like I’ve been improving each year um you know this year I feel like almost every game I’ve guarded the primary ball handler of the other team and you know so it’s just that effort of

Navigating screens and and trying to keep those guys in front as much as possible um so that we don’t have to get in help defense and rotation and make the night difficult for them well Grayson thanks so much for spending a few minutes with us this morning it’s

Been a heck of a lot of fun to watch this year and especially the last two games yes good advice stay hot stay hot Grayson good luck against Boston thank you I appreciate it thanks Grayson Allen son’s uh guard joining us on the Arizona sports line I want to

Repeat the stat that I threw out there earlier uh nobody Dan Marley and Quinton Richardson in Sons history have two games each of eight or more three pointers wow Grayson Allen has been here for 50 he’s played in 57 games as a son he’s done it six times well it’s just a

Matter of time before he reach and you talk about this team evolving how about this Bradley Beal has 62 drives in his last three games uh that 20.7 drive per game average would Place him second only to Shay gilis Alexander if it was extrapolated over the entire season

That’s Evolution that’s good data too yeah how about that take that for [Laughter] data thanks for watching Bickley and marada click to see the latest Bickley blast and hit the button in the middle to subscribe to Arizona Sports

Phoenix Suns guard Grayson Allen joined Bickley & Marotta to talk about the current hot streak he’s on from downtown, and the playoff push the team is on right now.

Video: Felisa Cárdenas and Ed Cole/Arizona Sports

Photo Credit: Jamie Schwaberow/Getty Images

Subscribe to the Arizona Sports daily newsletter: https://bit.ly/3QWcj1x

Read articles from Arizona Sports: https://arizonasports.com/

Download the Arizona Sports app: https://arizonasports.com/the-arizona-sports-98-7-fm-app/

Sign up for texts from Arizona Sports: https://arizonasports.com/text-alerts/

Listen live to Arizona Sports: https://arizonasports.com/listen-live/

Follow the team: https://bit.ly/3R0PIAJ

ARIZONA SPORTS SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArizonaSports/

X: https://x.com/azsports

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@arizonasports987

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arizsports/

ARIZONA SPORTS PODCASTS: https://arizonasports.com/category/podcasts/