Your weekly Inside the Suns analysis straight from the BSotS community who live and breathe the team.
Welcome to Inside the Suns, your weekly deep down analysis of the current Phoenix Suns team.
Each week the Fantable — a round table of Bright Siders — give their takes on the Suns’ latest issues and news.
Fantable Questions of the Week
Q1 – After the Denver game, quite a few pundits have said Ryan Dunn may be “the steal of the draft”. What are your thoughts on Dunn?
GuarGuar: Dunn has looked absolutely fantastic during the preseason. The reports about him changing his shot mechanics look to be true. He’s been confident letting it fly and he’s been hitting them at a pretty nice clip. His career high for made 3s in a game in college was 2 and he just hit 6 against Denver! The defense we already knew about but it’s great to see it translating at the NBA level too! Super excited about this kid.
OldAz: It is totally unfair to compare rookies to established players, and even more so when said player is beloved locally. That being said, imagine Mikal Bridges, with similar wingspan, but 2 inches taller and 5-15 pounds heavier. Imagine that the Suns got him at pick 28 instead of pick 10. That is literally what I think they may have if Dunn can keep himself on the floor with a sufficient 3 point shot. Oh yeah, Mikal’s shooting form was soooo much worse that what we have seen from Dunn so far, so I am really bullish on this becoming a reality and me not having to complain anymore about the Suns needing to find a PF.
Rod: They may very well be right. Even if his overall percentage from three drops to 33-35% in the regular season, he’s still a steal at 28. If it stays above 40% — especially at a high volume — I don’t know how you could call him anything else. Right now my only worry with him (and it’s only a small worry) is him hitting the “rookie wall” at some point during the season. Him being surrounded by many other really good to great players should help in adjusting to the NBA’s 82 game grind though.
Q2 – The Suns’ regular season opener against the Clippers is less than a week away. Who are your starters and 2nd unit backups?
GuarGuar: My starters are Jones, Beal, Booker, KD, Nurkic and my second unit is Monte, Grayson, Dunn, Bol, Oso.
I don’t anticipate Oso playing over Plumlee so early but that’s what I personally would go with! We also should be staggering our stars heavily so not expecting to ever see a full bench lineup out there unless it’s garbage time.
OldAz: Starters are easy as I assume Nurkic will be healed up by then. Jones, Beal, Booker, KD, Nurkic. This leaves Morris and GA as the backups at guard, and I think Dunn has earned a shot at one of the forward spots and O’Neale at the other. The only tough choice among the backups is if Oso has passed Plumlee for the backup center spot. In my mind, this is just a matter of time as Plumlee is a minutes eater that won’t hurt them too bad, but also does not bring a ton of upside whereas Oso has the potential to be a nice connector with enough scorers around him. Bol could also give O’Neale a run at a forward position if he can emulate what KD brings with his size and shooting.
Rod: My starters are still Tyus Jones, Brad Beal, Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Jusuf Nurkic. My 2nd unit backups… well, there’s still some uncertainty there.
Ryan Dunn has certainly jumped into the 2nd unit lineup but who’s getting bumped down? The most likely guy would seem to be Royce O’Neale but he’s still too good to be left racking up DNP-CDs. Grayson Allen certainly isn’t going to get benched to make room and neither is Monte Morris. Dunn is way too small to play center but is he too small to slot in as the Suns’ backup PF? Probably in the NBA but he did get minutes at PF and as a small-ball center in college so who knows (other than Bud). Bol Bol hasn’t really shown me a enough in the preseason games to call him a lock for the backup PF spot yet.
And at center… oh boy. Plumlee has the experience and the extra bulk but Ighodaro has great instincts and his passing would be a great help. I still have Plum penciled in for the backup 5 on opening night but after that who comes in for Nurk on any given night might depend on what team they’re playing and who their backup center is.
I think Bud is going to have a hard time getting his rotation down to 9-10 players but it’s not a bad problem to have! Monte, GA and Dunn are definitely on the 2nd unit but I think early on we could see as many as 12 players getting rotation minutes as Bud figures out the best fits in those 2nd unit roles.
Q3 – Some fans have suggested playing Oso Ighodaro at power forward. What are your thoughts on this?
GuarGuar: I am not a huge fan of this idea. I get it because it gives him more opportunity to get minutes if Bud is set on the Nurk/Plum big man rotation to start. But we get value from Oso as a 5. Him being a 4 is similar (not exactly like) to the people that clamored for Ayton to be a 4. It may work in small stretches but over the long run Oso needs to be played as a center.
OldAz: Between Bol and Dunn, I don’t see the value here. To me, whomever gets minutes at the forward spot has to be able to hold their own offensively and not as a passer/facilitator. If Oso is in at PF, who is playing center that is a plus scorer on the offensive end? More realistically, I think Oso takes minutes from Plumlee at Center where they can surround him with scorers.
Rod: If Nurk turns out to be a solid threat from 3, then it might actually work if you play the two of them together but otherwise I don’t think so. Playing him alongside Plumlee in the 2nd unit would be a big mistake IMO. With the emphasis on shooting 3’s, the only time the Suns should ever have two non-three point shooters on the court together would be in garbage time. If he could ever develop a three-point shot (or even a reliable mid-range shot), I’d be all for trying it but I don’t think it’s likely to work well just yet.
As always, many thanks to our Fantable members for all their extra effort this week!
Rookie & Two-way Players Report
Ryan Dunn – 22.9 mpg, 11.0 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 1.5 apg, 1.3 spg, 1.8 bpg, 0.8 TO, 2.3 PF, 41.2% FG% (14-34), 44.4% 3P% (12-27), 50.0% FT% (4-8)
Oso Ighodaro – 24.4 mpg, 5.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 3.0 apg, 0.5 spg, 1.0 bpg, 2.0 TO, 2.5 PF, 52.4% FG% (11-21), 0.0 3P% (0-1), 0.0% FT% (0-0)
Jalen Bridges – 7.2 mpg, 0.8 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 0.5 apg, 0.0 spg, 0.3 bpg, 0.3 TO, 0.8 PF, 7.1% FG% (1-14), 8.3% 3P% (1-12), 0.0% FT% (0-0)
Collin Gillespie – 13.7 mpg, 10.0 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 3.3 apg, 0.8 spg, 0.3 bpg, 1.8 TO, 1.0 PF, 54.5% FG% (12-22), 45.5% 3P% (5-11), 84.6% FT% (11-137)
TyTy Washington Jr – 11.2 mpg, 4.0 ppg, 1.0 rpg, 0.7 apg, 0.0 spg, 0.3 bpg, 1.0 TO, 0.0 PF, 41.7% FG% (5-12), 25.0% 3P% (1-4), 50.0% FT% (1-2)
Statistics courtesy of RealGM.com.
Last Week’s poll results
Last week’s question was “After seeing the Suns play in preseason games…”
64% – My expectations for them in the regular season have gone up.
34% – My expectations for them in the regular season are about the same as before.
02% – My expectations for them in the regular season have gone down.
A total of 129 votes were cast.
Suns Trivia/History
On October 18th, 1968, The Original Sun, Dick Van Arsdale, scored the Suns’ very first basket at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum as the Suns went on to defeat the Seattle Supersonics 116-107 in the new NBA franchise’s first-ever regular season game.
Van Arsdale played a team-high 45 minutes in that game, scoring 21 points, grabbing 7 rebounds, and dishing out 2 assists. Gail Goodrich led the team in scoring with 27 points and was one of two Suns players to get a double-double in that game by adding ten assists in 42 minutes. The other double-double came from center George Wilson, who scored 16 points and pulled down 19 rebounds in 41 minutes.
The Suns would get off to a great start winning four of their first seven games. However, eventually they would come back to earth as they just won 12 games the rest of the way on the way to a league worst 16-66 record.
On October 18, 1977, 6-time All-Star Walter Davis made his NBA debut for the Phoenix Suns in a 100-83 win over the Golden State Warriors. Davis started his first game as a rookie scoring 20 points in his debut while adding 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 5 steals(!). Davis went on to win Rookie of the Year, make his 1st All-Star appearance, be named to the All-Rookie 1st team and the All-NBA 2nd team that season.
Quotes of the Week
Monte Morris on Devin Booker: “He’s bringing that [Team] USA dog in here, especially getting after it on the defensive end. I think y’all are gonna see a lot of that this year.” pic.twitter.com/agYaxwjyei
— Gerald Bourguet (@GeraldBourguet) October 15, 2024
Ryan Dunn on his 3-and-D label:
“There are lot of great 3-and-D players in this league. My mindset coming into this year was probably being a 3-and-D guy to start. I’m not saying throughout my career I can’t probably expand my game, that’s a good start for me to have.” #Suns pic.twitter.com/trRovR9Bc5
— DANA (@iam_DanaScott) October 15, 2024
Important Future Dates
October 17 – Suns vs Lakers on TNT (7:00 pm AZT)
October 18 – Preseason ends.
October 19 – Last day for players on fully non-guaranteed contracts to be waived and not count at all against a team’s 2024/25 cap. They must clear waivers before the first day of the regular season.
October 21 – Last day of the 2024 offseason. Roster limits decrease from 21 players to 18 (2:00 pm AZT). Teams will be limited to carrying 15 players on standard contracts and three on two-way deals as of this deadline. Last day for teams to sign a player to a rookie scale extension (3:00 pm AZT). Last day for teams to sign an extension-eligible veteran player with multiple seasons left on his contract to an extension. Last day for teams to convert an Exhibit 10 contract into a two-way contract.
October 22 – 2024/25 regular season begins.
This week’s poll is…