“He’s Just a Hooper”: Suns Former Teammate Not Surprised by TJ Warren and His Sensational Play
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TJ Warren being called a superstar may be premature. But what Warren has done for the Indiana Pacers in the bubble is what a superstar does. The Pacers have a perfect 3-0 record inside the bubble and it is in no small part to TJ. His three-game stretch is unlike anything we have come to expect from Warren and this play may bode well for the Pacers in the playoffs.
Warren wasn’t on the Pacers before this season. He spent his entire career with the team that drafted him in 2014. That team was the Phoenix Suns and they enjoyed four seasons with TJ. Phoenix did not make the playoffs even once in this period, and Warren was a basic role-player.
He was traded away from the Suns on the 2019 Draft in a three-team trade with Miami and Indiana. Pacers essentially gave up ‘cash considerations’ for Warren. He averaged 14.4 points in Phoenix on 49.7% field goal efficiency. TJ Warren dropped 53 points on the 76ers, 24 on the Wizards, and 32 on the Magic in the restart.
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Former Phoenix Suns teammate Devin Booker spoke about Warren after a game-winning buzzer-beater against the LA Clippers:
“He’s just a hooper. That’s the term to describe TJ. What he did in the last couple of games doesn’t surprise me at all, I have seen years of that, one of my favorite players to watch and he has been since he was my teammate.”
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TJ Warren: The Bubble MVP?
There are just eight games to play in the bubble regular season. After the first three, you can say that TJ Warren may just be the bubble MVP. He is averaging 39.7 PPG through the first three games. His shooting splits are absolutely insane. Warren has been an absolute sniper, shooting 65% from the field and 61% from three. Warren isn’t known to be a playmaker, but he is keeping a strong dribble on him right now, having committed only one turnover in these three games.
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It is interesting that Booker didn’t talk about the Warren trade. Today, Warren could have been a solid piece for their strong bubble season themselves. However, considering how the Suns essentially freed up money to get the likes of Kelly Oubre Jr. and Ricky Rubio, this may just be a win-win trade.
SOURCE: House of Highlights YouTube
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