With Dario Saric out for the NBA Finals, the Phoenix Suns will have to make-do with the roster they’ve got.
The Suns were already running a bit small, but now the only players taller than 6’8” are rookie Jalen Smith (6’10”), Deandre Ayton (6’11”) and Frank Kaminsky (7’0”) to go up against a Bucks team that that likes to play two of Bobby Portis (6’10”), Giannis Antetokounmpo (6’11”) and Brook Lopez (7’0”) at a time, while the Suns always only stay with a one big at a time.
Let’s take a look at the minutes distribution between them in the playoffs, by dividing their total minutes by the team’s total games:
Full Playoffs —
- Suns bigs: Ayton 36 + Saric 11 = 47 minutes per game
- Bucks bigs: Giannis 38 + Lopez 30 + Portis 16 = 84 minutes per game
Finals, Game 1 —
- Suns bigs: Ayton 39 + Saric 2 + Kaminsky 4 = 45 minutes
- Bucks bigs: Giannis 35 + Lopez 23 + Portis 14 = 72 minutes
What does that tell us?