In the third quarter of their final game before the NBA All-Star break, the Phoenix Suns got a cold reminder of just how quickly a title-contending juggernaut can appear mortal again. They also got another dose of what Aaron Holiday can do and how important that medicine will be for their ailing backcourt.
Just about three minutes into the second half Wednesday night, Chris Paul injured his right hand throwing a pass. While he barked at the refs for missing the contact and received back-to-back technical fouls, the home crowd grew concerned over his apparent disregard for the ejection itself.
Paul’s focus was on his shooting hand, which he was massaging and wringing out as he left the court. His night appeared to be over regardless of the ejection, and the result of a close February game against the lowly Houston Rockets suddenly felt pretty meaningless.
Head coach Monty Williams didn’t have an update on his status after the game, which in and of itself was telling: The Suns coach will usually let the media know when a player is okay after an injury scare, but when a player has sustained an injury that will require more time for a proper diagnosis, he typically veers on the side of caution by not divulging anything. Paul’s case appears to fall into the latter category.
Devin Booker didn’t seem concerned, saying, “We seen him after in the locker room, he’s fine.” He even went as far as volunteering he didn’t think it was something that would prevent the Point God from participating in the All-Star Game on Sunday.
Mikal Bridges’ outlook wasn’t quite as optimistic.
“I know he’s a little down, but I just told I would pray for him,” Bridges said. “Just keep him in my prayers. Injuries is the last thing I would [wish] on anybody on any team, and I just hope he’s gonna be okay, ’cause I know it’s tough for him being out at certain times in his career, like the playoffs or if we’re rolling and things like that, the last game before the break. It’s tough, and I know mentally, just trying to make sure he’s okay.”
Neither Booker nor Bridges is a doctor, and the results of that MRI will tell us more. But regardless of CP3’s status in the interim, a certain new arrival in the backcourt is making the most of his opportunity.
Aaron Holiday proves he belongs in Suns’ rotation
To be fair, Aaron Holiday has only been in Phoenix for three games. To be even fairer, that’s really all it took to prove he should be earning minutes over Elfrid Payton.
Through his first three appearances, Holiday has averaged 7.3 points, 2.7 assists and 2.0 rebounds in his 13.2 minutes per game, shooting 9-for-13 from the field (69.2 percent) and 4-for-6 from beyond the arc (66.7 percent). In doing so, he joined Bismack Biyombo (2022), JaVale McGee (2021) and Jahidi White (2003) as the only players in franchise history to shoot at least 69 percent in their first three games with the Suns (minimum 13 shot attempts).
Payton, meanwhile, has posted 3.3 points, 2.2 assists and 2.0 rebounds in his 11.7 minutes per game this year. He’s shot just 39.4 percent from the floor and 28.6 percent from 3-point range.
Holiday obviously has the efficiency that comes with “small sample size theater” on his side, but it’s telling that he’s already made as many 3-pointers in his first three games as Payton has made all season in 38 appearances. It’s eye-opening that in 444 minutes with the Suns — whose players post gaudy plus-minus totals as part of a historically great team — Payton is a -1 overall, while in just 40 minutes of action, Holiday is already a +15.
And most of all, it’s telling that on Wednesday night, when the Suns lost their starting point guard in the third quarter, on top of their backup already being out in Cam Payne, they turned to Devin Booker and the new guy rather than stick with Payton. Holiday finished his night with 9 points, 6 assists and 3 rebounds in 20 minutes off the bench, while Payton logged only 3 minutes and didn’t play in the second half.
A few days ago, Williams was hesitant to make any bold declarations about his rotation after Holiday’s first game in Phoenix. But even with Payne and Landry Shamet still set to return, he did say he wouldn’t be surprised if Holiday worked his way in there.
“We don’t know what the rotation is going to be going forward, but the way he defends, the way he scores the ball and his confidence level, I wouldn’t look at him as a third-level guy at all,” Williams said. “He very well could be in the rotation, just because of his ability to handle the ball, defend, and he’s just not afraid. The more ball-handlers you can have on the floor, the more toughness you can have on the floor, the better.”
If Wednesday’s game was any indication, James Jones, Monty and the rest of the Suns were cognizant of their need to upgrade those Payton minutes. Fortunately for them, Holiday is already delivering on that front, and he’s doing so in their time of desperation with Payne, Shamet and now possibly Paul sidelined.
Holiday’s game
So what does this Holiday bring to the table? Well, if you ask the Suns, a lot of what the other Holidays — Jrue and Justin — bring to their teams.
“I keep saying we got a Holiday, so you already know what it is,” Paul said after the Suns’ win over the LA Clippers Tuesday night. “They hoop, play hard, defend, great teammates.”
“Great teammates, work hard,” Booker added. “We worked out in the same gym a couple summers ago, and just watching him and his two brothers get after it every day, I’ve always had a lot of respect for them from a distance. Aaron coming in here, he fits right in. He’s a winner, he makes winning plays, he has a high I.Q. for the game and plays both sides of the ball.”
On the defensive side of the ball, what Aaron lacks in size with his 6-foot frame, he makes up for with a 6-foot-7 wingspan and defensive tenacity. He certainly takes after his brother Jrue in hounding opposing ball-handlers up and down the court.
“He has an impact on the game in a number of ways,” Williams said. “Defensively, he guards the ball, he’s a pest, he’s not afraid. He’s like a version of Jrue — he’s just physical, he seems to have a great base guarding the ball.”
Wednesday’s game provided a perfect example, when Holiday snuck in for a steal on the Rockets’ inbounds pass for a layup, right after he had just scored on a floater:
“He just continues to play the kind of basketball we like to play,” Williams said. “Defensively, he just gets in your stuff, comes up with balls. I thought the inbounds play under the basket where he stole it and laid it up, like, that’s Aaron.”
The family resemblance can be uncanny at times. Mikal Bridges played with Aaron in his first EYBL game going into the last year of his circuit, and growing up as a Philadelphia 76ers fan, he was intimately familiar with Jrue Holiday’s work.
Watching Aaron up close, Bridges asked his friends, “Yo, why does he look like Jrue Holiday?”
“Bro, that’s his little brother,” they responded, at which point it clicked as to why he seemed so familiar. Knowing his older brother’s game, Bridges hasn’t been surprised by what the 25-year-old Aaron is bringing in Phoenix.
“It’s tough to come from a different team, but he fits right in,” Bridges said. “I keep telling the bench, I’m like, ‘Yeah, we got a Holiday on our team, man. Them boys be guarding.’ So he’s just picking up full[-court], disrupting the game.”
It’s not just being a swarming defender that’s winning the Suns over, however. Offensively, he certainly hasn’t been shy about launching 3s when he spots an opening:
“Offensively, he’s just not afraid,” Williams said. “We want him to be aggressive. He’s trying to make the right play. I like his toughness, he’s not afraid to mix it up.”
Holiday has also been crafty with his floaters, shooting 30-for-56 on those attempts this season, per NBA.com:
“I don’t think many teams are allowing or teaching guys to shoot 2s like that anymore, but I think you enforce or encourage shots that guys are confident shooting,” Williams said. “If that’s a shot that he feels like he can make, I want him to shoot it.”
With both Payne’s instant offense and the threat of Shamet’s 3-ball out the picture, the Suns could use some scoring pop from their reserve backcourt. Holiday is quickly showing he may be capable of providing it now that he’s landed on a winning team.
“I like his willingness to take shots,” Williams said. “There was one play where it was just a muddy offensive set, he dribbled all over the place like [Steve] Nash and then just went to the basket and laid it off the glass. I’m like, ‘He’s got some moxie and some toughness.’”
Aaron Holiday isn’t just scoring for himself, of course. He’s also done a nice job setting up his new teammates during his limited action, with 8 assists to 4 turnovers in 40 minutes with the Suns.
“He’s just a hooper,” Booker said. “He knows the game, he plays the game. I haven’t talked to him about it, but I’m sure he’s watched us play and studied us a bit, especially going against his brother in the Finals last year. So I think he has an understanding of what type of basketball we play and what type of culture we have here.”
From drives leading to dump-offs for Phoenix’s diving big men, to simple but crisp feeds to his cutters, Holiday is already showing he can serve as a dual threat on offense from either guard spot.
“I didn’t see him out there thinking,” Williams said after Holiday’s impressive debut. “That was the cool thing. Sometimes when you step out there and you don’t know what’s going on, thinking kind of slows you down. I didn’t see that. He was just out there playing. The guys on the sidelines were talking to him, trying to help him out, but he just played, so that was a really good sign.”
For his part, Holiday said it’s pretty easy to fit in on a team like this that’s so cohesive on both ends of the floor.
“It’s just how disciplined they are,” he observed. “Everybody’s on a string out there, offensively and defensively. People aren’t playing for themselves, the ball’s hopping around, and defensive-wise, everybody’s talking, everybody’s together. So that’s something that really stood out to me.”
Holiday has said all the right things about contributing whatever Phoenix needs him to contribute and filling whatever role the team needs him to fill. From his perspective, the Suns were the NBA’s No. 1 team before he arrived, so his job is to help them keep that going.
The challenge comes from whether Chris Paul’s injury will sideline him for a period of time. Booker seemed confident it was nothing serious, but if the Point God is forced to miss his first games of the season, Aaron Holiday obviously isn’t going to bridge the gap, even with a healthy Cam Payne back in the picture.
However, that’s an unfair standard to hold anyone to, let alone the new combo guard who’s already exceeding expectations. The Suns can turn to Goran Dragic or the buyout market in that kind of pinch, and Holiday will get to learn from this Hall-of-Famer either way.
“Man, that’s probably the best point guard to ever play the game,” Holiday said of Paul. “So me coming in, that’s somebody I’m obviously gonna sit by and learn from. It’s a blessing, honestly. I get to go to work with him every day and pretty much pick his brain.”
The good news is, heading into the All-Star break, the Suns have a 6.5-game lead over the Golden State Warriors for the NBA’s best record, giving them a fair amount of breathing room should Paul have to miss any time. Perhaps even better, Aaron Holiday is proving he belongs in the rotation, and he was doing so before Paul going down made it a potential necessity.
