The Suns couldn’t be happier with their choice in this year’s NBA Draft, and the feeling was mutual as Kendall Marshall met the media in Phoenix on Friday.
“I’m extremely happy to be here,” he said. “Best case scenario, this is exactly where I wanted to be.”
The team’s management echoed much of the same sentiments they expressed on draft night, gushing over the player and person they feel they’ve gotten as someone who can be a leader for the franchise. Marshall explained why he feels the fit is a good one in Phoenix.
“You look at the way Steve Nash distributes the ball, and how he’s been able to be successful with that, Phoenix has been able to get up and down the court and I feel like I can thrive in that system,” he said. “But as well as off the court, I feel like there were great vibes between me and the management and the coaches. I really feel like we really connected on and off the court. That’s something I was excited about.”
Marshall said it would be tough to compare his game to anyone currently in the league, but did express a desire to borrow some of the skills that have made others successful.
“I feel like I have a very unique game,” he said. “There are players such as Steve Nash, the way he uses pick and rolls and the bounce pass, where I may try to steal things out of his game. Jason Kidd is very versatile, and being a big point guard the way he’s able to rebound, I’d love to take that out of his game. I have so much to learn, and I’m excited about it. I do plan on learning from those players that have been in this league for a while.”
One of the skill sets Marshall needs to improve upon is his defense. But he’s the first to admit it, and believes that the way teams defend in the NBA will help his cause.
“I feel like I can definitely get better (defensively),” he said. “I know it’s something that I have to work on. But I think the defensive schemes are highly underrated. People don’t realize in the NBA, with the spacing, how important that is. I’m looking forward to really learning those concepts and trying to make it as tough as I can on the opposing point guards in this league.”
On the offensive side of the ball, Marshall said his pass-first mentality was instilled in him by his father at a very young age. As for whether or not that will work for him in Phoenix, Marshall pointed out the way other point guards around the league are used, and feels his success will be helped along by the team’s style.
“I think it’s all about the team,” he said. “You look at players like (Russell Westbrook) and (Derrick Rose) who are extremely dynamic, that’s what their team needs. Then you have other guys such as (Rajon Rondo) and (Ricky Rubio) who maybe don’t have to get 10 dunks and run super-fast, but they’re still able to get the job done. So I think it all depends on what the team needs and hopefully what I’m able to bring to the Phoenix Suns will make us successful.”
Suns head coach Alvin Gentry will be responsible for bringing Marshall along in his system, so it’s probably a good thing that he was 100 percent on board with the team’s draft night selection.
“People throw phrases out like ‘he’s a player’s coach,’ Gentry said. “Well, he’s a coach’s player. And by that I think it’s almost as if you will have a coach on the floor. I love what he does as far as pushing the basketball. Obviously we’re an uptempo team. But more than anything the cerebral part of it is really important where I think he’s going to be a guy that can very much control the game.
“At the end of the day, I wanted him, and I think everyone else really wanted him.”
Suns GM Lance Blanks certainly did. And as the team treads into the very uncertain waters of free agency, where its face of the franchise appears more and more likely to be gone, Blanks is confident that with Marshall, the team made the right choice.
“No matter what happens through free agency from our analysis, there’s a risk of tough times in the near future,” Blanks said. “And you need a stabilizing force — not only in the locker room, but on the court and in the community. You need someone basically that can represent what we’re about. And from A-Z, Kendall embodies all of those things.
“He’s not the perfect person, just like none of us are. But he is the perfect person for us at this time in the organization’s history.”
