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: Should the Suns be starting Collin Gillespie at point guard while Jalen Green is out?
Ashton: First of all, I think we have a mole on the board. The Fantable questions are being leaked to the writers before we can even comment on them.
You can easily look up Mathew Lissy’s post on CG for stats after the Utah Jazz game.
If 13 assists can’t turn you with “Bookover” doing his turnover
thing, then something is wrong in stating that CG should not start. Unless you are on the “Great Green Hope” train to lessen the load on Book. Last I checked, Green is questionable for Memphis.
OldAz: A case can certainly be made that Gillespie would bring a needed element to the starting lineup, but this also makes it seem like Allen is their biggest problem in the slow starts, which is far from true. Still, until Green is available, it would be nice to see more of his distributing skills like that pretty feed to Williams in the 3rd quarter of the Jazz game. Ultimately, I hope this is a moot point with Green getting back on the court quickly. I believe the team’s biggest need is time together: Time for development and building chemistry, which is another reason we need Green on the floor.
Rod: Yes. With Green out, I think he should be starting over Grayson Allen. Collin’s a real PG with good skills and has shown to be a solid 3-point shooter, which I think makes the switch from GA to him at worst a lateral move if not an improvement. Collin has the PG skills and instincts that I believe will make the Suns’ offense run more smoothly and efficiently…which could lead to the Suns falling behind early in games and then having to try to dig themselves out of a deep hole, a thing that happens less frequently.
If the Suns do this and insert Mark Williams into the starting lineup, I think they would make a big difference.
Q2: It’s a very small sample size so far, but do the Suns’ offensive and defensive ratings (23rd and 29th, respectively) concern you?
Ashton: This is where I expect Rod and Guar Guar to simply do one-word answers. Rod will not do it though.
Yes.
I think we need to move on to Q3, because I am really curious how The Table responds to this question.
But in a few words. It is bad.
OldAz: I hate it when I open my email to read this week’s questions only to find I have already given my answer a few hours earlier in the comments on an article (premature pontification?). In this case, that literally happened on a John Voita article preaching patience. I won’t cut and paste my comment here, but I will summarize the exact same thoughts:
I refuse to get caught up in the results of these early games and want to see what this team looks like after about 20 games. There are just too many new pieces, young players, all learning new teammates, a new coaching staff and a completely new system at both ends. Culture matters, and right now the Suns are making it clear that effort and energy are the keys to playing time. It is totally expected that they will have stretches (sometimes long stretches) where the communication is off or players are thinking instead of reacting, and the results are pretty ugly. There will also be moments when their energy and hustle come together and work well. Team defense and motion offense take time to develop. This all culminates in the really low rankings after only 3-4 games, with a couple against very good veteran teams.
I think it is also important that the Suns set their culture and expectations for rookies to earn playing time. We have not seen much of Maluach or Fleming with KM, only seeing time when Williams was out on the back-to-back, and even 2-way Livers has gotten time over Fleming. The rookies will get their chance, but it should come when they show that they are ready to earn those minutes and know where to be and what to do. We are all too familiar with the results of simply running out young players and letting them reinforce bad habits (call it McDufus “timeline” PTSD). This is an important part of their development and I expect it will benefit them in the long run.
Let’s all ignore the rankings and even a lot of the results for the first 20 games. Instead, watch for development and progress and hope they win a few games when the good stretches outnumber the bad. The goal this year is progress and hopefully by the end of the season they are playing more consistent basketball and challenging last season’s sub-par record.
Rod: Not yet. They’re just a few games into the season and have played 2 of those against teams expected to contend for the championship. Add into the equation injuries, a boatload of new players, a new coaching staff, a new strategy on both offense and defense,…well, it’s just going to take more time for things to gel than we’ve had so far.
I’m far from ready to hit the panic butten or throw in the towel. If I don’t see some progess by Christmas, I stilll won’t panic (I wasn’t expecting much this season to begin with) but disappointment will come and I’ll likely have an even less rosy outlook regarding the Suns’ future.
Q3: What advice would you most like to give head coach Jordan Ott?
Ashton: Well, what do you know? The mole has reached one of the writers. Check out Suns Reacts Survey by Holden Sherman. I am trying to make sure John Voita is working overtime to link these articles to my statements while he figures out how to make sure the comment sections work. Love ya man!
This is a game of Whack-A-Mole. You can pick literally any topic and be right.
But clawing out of the 20-point holes is not fun. There are multiple causes behind it, but in the end, it just sucks the life out of the game.
Coach “Rookie” Ott, Call the timeouts and reset the team when teams are threatening to go up by 20. Roll out the Starbucks coffee cart, whatever is needed.
Look, most of the logical fanbase expected a rebuilding year, but going down 20 in multiple (all) games is not going to cut it. Lean on your veteran staff.
Also, keep CALM and Play Defense.
OldAz: Tune out all the noise and be patient and dogged in what you are trying to accomplish. See my answer to #2 and hold fast to what appears to be your philosophies on player development as well as offensive and defensive style. Fans and media can be impatient, but growth and development take time and patience.
Rod: Stop letting Devin Booker play as the point guard. I love Book as a shooting guard and a secondary distributor but as a point guard he just doesn’t have what it takes to be successful in the NBA. The thing that probably frustrates me the most with him trying to initiate the offense is his seeming insistence on basically walking the ball across halfcourt instead of moving along with a bit more speed/haste.
The Suns have had many players actually bring the ball crosscourt on the inbounds so far this season, and I can’t think of anyone who does it as slowly as Book. I swear I think he’s trying to emulate CP3 – who also walked the ball up the court – but Book is never going to be CP3 so he needs to unlearn that lesson if that’s where he got it from. It just gives the other team more time to set their defense and prepare for the inevitable double-team trap they are going to spring upon him to try and force a turnover…which it all too often does.
Instead, Book needs to already be downcourt waiting for the ball to arrive and a play designed to get him set up for a good shot is run. Not letting Book do what he actually does best just isn’t helping the team so get him back to playing how he plays best and let someone else play point.
As always, many thanks to our Fantable members for all their extra effort this week!
Quotes of the Week
“We’ve got to figure out ways to start the game so we’re not exerting all our energy to get back into it.” – Devin Booker
“He (Booker) needs to shoot them even if it looks like a bad shot. I played against Devin a long time. He’s a natural scorer. Finds ways to score. He just need to be a little selfish out there.” – Dillon Brooks
“We were resilient, competitive, high character. Tough. That’s who we are. Scrappy.” – Jordan Ott
“To get out there and play and compete, but the goal and the objective is to win. I’m pretty pissed off we didn’t win.” – Collin Gillespie after Suns OT loss to Jazz
Suns Trivia/History
On November 1, 1996, 8-time All-Star Steve Nash made his NBA debut for the Phoenix Suns in a 96-82 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. In that game, he scored no points, made no assists, and got no rebounds, steals, etc. It wasn’t until the following night (Nov. 2), Nash recorded the first assist and basket of his Hall of Fame career in a 110-95 loss to the Houston Rockets. He played 12 minutes, scoring 9 points along with 1 assist, 1 rebound, and 1 steal. Although Steve played the fewest minutes of any Sun in this game, he led the team in getting to the free throw line and shot 6 of 7 for the night.
On November 2, 1990, the Suns defeated the Utah Jazz 119-96 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium in Japan in the first regular season game played outside North America by any major professional sports league. Tom Chambers led the Suns with 38 points and 10 rebounds, while Kevin Johnson scored 29 with 10 assists. 1-time All-Star Cedric Ceballos made his NBA debut in this game, scoring 2 points and grabbing one rebound in just 2 minutes of court time.
On November 2, 1999, 4-time All-Star Shawn Marion made his NBA debut for the Phoenix Suns in a 107-102 loss to the Denver Nuggets. Marion recorded his first NBA double-double in the game with 14 points and 14 rebounds. He would get 6 more double-doubles during the rest of his rookie season plus 1 more in the first round of the playoffs.
Important Future Dates
Nov. 6 – Rosters set for NBA G League Opening Day (5 p.m. ET)
Nov. 7 – NBA G League Tip-Off Tournament begins
Jan. 5 – 10-day contracts may now be signed
Jan. 10 – All NBA contracts are guaranteed for the remainder of the season
Feb. 5 – Trade deadline (3:00 pm ET)
Feb. 13-15 – 2026 NBA All-Star weekend in Los Angeles, CA
March 1 – Playoff eligibility waiver deadline
March 28 – NBA G League Regular Season ends
March 31 – 2026 NBA G League Playoffs begin
April 12 – Regular season ends (All 30 teams play)
April 13 – Rosters set for NBA Playoffs 2026 (3 p.m. ET)
April 14-17 – SoFi NBA Play-In Tournament
April 18 – NBA Playoffs begin
