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You could feel it last night during the loss to the San Antonio Spurs, couldn’t you? When Suns’ rookie wing Koa Peat entered the game, you could feel that “disease of what if” beginning to creep in. Perhaps I felt it more than most because I’d spent my morning browsing eBay, looking through the newly released 2026-27 Topps basketball cards and hunting for Peat rookie cards. Side note: I love that they’re doing the 45th anniversary of the 1981-82 Topps cards. Classically beautiful.
So when he entered the game with 5:56 left and the Suns trailing by 30 points in the fourth quarter, I suddenly had a reason to remain engaged for the rest of the evening. And he didn’t disappoint. The first time Peat touched the ball, he attacked the cylinder, drove left, spun right, and banked a beautiful 6-foot shot off the glass for two points. On the very next possession, he found himself in transition and tossed an alley-oop to Michael Jordan reincarnated in Jamaree Bouyea for another two points.
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I felt it deep within my soul. We need to get this guy minutes!
Then reality quickly set in. There aren’t necessarily minutes available for him right now, and one of the primary reasons those two possessions looked so beautiful was sitting comfortably on the San Antonio bench. Victor Wembanyama, the very villain responsible for putting Phoenix in a 30-point hole, wasn’t on the floor to swat either opportunity into the fifth row.
When you’re watching a team that desperately lacks size and rebounding, any opportunity to see a player who possesses those attributes immediately feels like you’ve stumbled upon the solution. You begin convincing yourself that the coaching staff doesn’t know what it’s doing, that players like Peat should be receiving consistent opportunities because they offer something the current rotation is sorely missing.
On paper, that sounds wonderful. In reality, it’s not nearly that simple, and there are legitimate reasons why it shouldn’t happen right now.
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For starters, where are those minutes supposed to come from? Ryan Dunn has been playing out of his mind to begin the season. Are we supposed to…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/koa-peat-development-requires-patience-170000058.html
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Publish date : 2026-11-10 17:00:00
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