Phoenix Suns guard Jalen Green discusses joining the team
New Phoenix Suns guard Jalen Green on joining the team after being traded from the Houston Rockets for Kevin Durant.
The Phoenix Suns might have more moves in them as they’ve been reshaping their roster around four-time All-Star Devin Booker.
What’s the appropriate grade for this team as presently constructed?
Overall, a C.
The Suns aren’t playoff contenders, but they could develop into one to challenge for a spot in the play-in tournament.
The Sacramento Kings (40-42), Atlanta Hawks (40-42), Dallas Mavericks (39-43), Chicago Bulls (39-43) and Miami Heat (37-45) reached the play-in last season with losing records.
The Heat made the playoffs as an eighth seed in the East.
Phoenix has a younger squad from a season ago with six players 23 years of age or younger who would be on their 15-man standard roster if the 2025-26 season started today. Here’s a breakdown:
First 5
Projected starting lineup: Devin Booker, Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, Ryan Dunn and Mark Williams.
One-line summary: Two scorers, two defenders and a big who has been injury prone, but he puts up double-double numbers when healthy.
Fans have been calling for a point guard, but the Suns had one last season — Tyus Jones.
Former coach Mike Budenholzer penciled him as the starter, but Booker ended up the main facilitator and Jones became a spot-up 3-point shooter.
After one season in Phoenix, Jones landed with Orlando in free agency.
Booker averaged a career-high 7.1 assists last season to go with 25.6 points a game, just a bucket shy of the career-high 27.8 he averaged in 2022-23 with Chris Paul at the one.
Look, Booker is going to have the ball. He once again showed he can score and facilitate last season, but can Booker and the athletic Green, who scores off the bounce, flourish together?
Green has averaged just 3.4 assists in four NBA seasons. He cranked out a team-high 21 points a game for Houston last season, but Green has been inconsistent and has never shot higher than 42.6% from the field in a season.
The Suns will need him to shoot a better percentage to exploit how teams guard Booker.
Brooks always takes on the challenge to check anyone, as does Dunn. The Suns were 27th in defensive rating last season.
Brooks and Dunn can address that deficiency. Brooks shot a career-high 39.7% from 3 last season. That’s going to be major for him to play off Booker and Green and space the floor.
Dunn only made 31.1% of his 3s as a rookie. He’s been working on his deep ball and tweaked it in terms of having more explosion on the shot.
In three Las Vegas summer league games, Dunn knocked down 37.5% of his 3s on 5.3 attempts a game. The Suns would welcome those numbers from him this season.
Dunn isn’t a natural four in terms of bulk, but he’s listed at 6-8. Indiana reached the 2025 finals with a similar starting lineup to this projected one for Phoenix in terms of height.
Suns PG: Booker 6-6. Pacers PG: Tyrese Haliburton 6-5.
Suns SG: Green 6-4. Pacers SG: Andrew Nembhard 6-5.
Suns SF: Brooks 6-6. Pacers SF: Aaron Nesmith 6-5.
Suns PF: Dunn 6-8. Pacers PF: Pascal Siakam 6-8.
Suns C: Williams 7-0. Pacers C: Myles Turner 6-11.
Gillespie’s role, Suns playing two bigs?
Here’s a potential next five off the bench: Collin Gillespie, Grayson Allen, Royce O’Neale, Oso Ighodaro and Khaman Maluach.
Gillespie could play the last four minutes of the first quarter with Booker and open the second with Green in the backcourt. He has similar qualities to Pacers guard T.J. McConnell, who played a huge role off the bench in Indiana’s run to the finals.
Booker has played the whole first quarter for the last few years of his career.
The idea of playing two bigs at the same time is certainly in play as the Suns have done it this summer with Maluach and Ighodaro.
Maluach has been shooting 3s in summer league. Form looks good, but he made just 23.6% of his 3s in three games. The Suns encouraged him to launch in Vegas.
We’ll see if Maluach still has that green light in the regular season.
Whoever plays the four must hold up on the boards, especially against bigger teams. Kevin Durant averaged six rebounds last season at power forward.
O’Neale grabbed 4.7, Booker averaged 4.1, while Dunn and Ighodaro each managed 3.6.
The Suns finished 25th in the NBA in overall rebounding last season, but 18th in defensive rebounding. Phoenix must improve in this area to compete in the West.
Nick Richards may be seen as insurance at the center position.
He’s in the final year of a three-year, $15 million deal.
Being traded shouldn’t be viewed out of the equation, but with Williams’ injury history and Maluach being 18 years old, Richards may be more valuable in Phoenix than people think.
Williams has played in a total of 106 games in his three NBA seasons.
O’Neale and Allen provide the experience that’ll lead to seeing minutes even if it is coming off the bench. They’ve been starters and one could easily begin the season as a starter.
Allen and O’Neale have been mentioned in trade talks, but both shot above 40% from distance last season in helping the Suns rank third in the league in 3s.
The Suns landed Koby Brea, another pure shooter, in the 2025 draft. He led the nation in 3-point shooting at 49.8% in his final year at Dayton in 2023-24. A second-round pick, Brea drilled 43.5% of his 3s in his final college season at Kentucky.
He went 4-of-5 from 3 in his summer league debut and 2-of-5 in his second game with a sprained left thumb. With his thumb taped up, Brea missed his four deep hoists in his third game, but defenses started playing tighter defense on him after that 4-of-5 display.
Brea, a two-way player, sat out Phoenix’s final two games in Vegas.
Two-way players can only see action in a limited number of games, but the Suns know Brea can splash it. He’ll likely get a chance to show and prove at some point in the season.
Phoenix Suns forward Isaiah Livers on his role after signing two-way contract
Forward Isaiah Livers signed a two-way contract with the Phoenix Suns and hopes he can space the floor and defend the opponents best player.
CJ Huntley and Isaiah Livers are also two-way players. Huntley is an undrafted rookie who Suns assistant DeMarre Carroll compared to Cleveland Cavaliers big Jarrett Allen, while Livers missed the entire 2024-25 season with a hip injury that required surgery.
Rasheer Fleming, the other Suns’ draft pick this year, is an intriguing talent. He looks like a natural small forward, but he can play the four. He started at power forward in Phoenix’s final summer league game in Vegas.
Can hit 3s, score off the dribble and defend on switches. The quicker Fleming can develop on an NBA level, the earlier he can challenge for minutes.
Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
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