Welcome to our Phoenix Suns Season in Review series, where we revisit every player who suited up during the 2025–26 campaign through the lens of expectation, reality, and what it ultimately meant.
Player Snapshot
- Position: SF/PF
- Age: 27
- Contract Status: Two-Way, RFA this offseason
- SunsRank (Preseason): 16
- SunsRank (Postseason): 16
*SunsRank is based on Bright Side writers’ ranking.
Season in One Sentence
Livers provided replacement-level minutes off the bench when guys went down with injury.
By the Numbers
The Expectation
Coming into the season, the Bright Side community thought Isaiah Livers was going to be the 17th man on this roster, and the Bright Side writers had him slotted in at
16. None of us thought Livers had a ton of long-term upside at 27 years old, and the roster is already full of wings. At 6’6”, he wasn’t really tall enough to get a lot of sustainable minutes at the power forward spot. Livers was expected to come in when Allen or O’Neale went down with injury and provide enough to not sink the team while he was on the court.
The Reality
Isaiah Livers managed to do just that. He played just 36 games, averaging 9.6 minutes in those games. He played 15 minutes or more just six times this season and never broke double digits on the scoreboard. His +/- on the year was +11. Livers wasn’t a starter; he wasn’t even a regular rotation player. He didn’t play in any of the last ten games of the season, and by then Rasheer Fleming had surpassed him anyway. In a word, Isaiah Livers was… fine, I suppose.
What It Means
Isaiah Livers is not a long-term piece for this team as they continue to build on what they accomplished this season. According to Spotrac, Livers enters restricted free agency this year. Whether or not the Suns keep him will likely be determined by Ishbia, Gregory, and Ott’s view on how ready Rasheer Fleming is for the rotation and whether Koby Brea and CJ Huntley are ready to come in and fill these kinds of fringe roles.
Defining Moment
Isaiah Livers’ defining moment of the season came on January 25th, in a 111-102 loss for the Suns at home. In this game, Livers delivered a season-high 9 points on 4-of-4 from the field. He also chipped in 5 rebounds, 2 steals, and a block in his 15:02 of game time.
This game highlighted how useful Livers could be in the Suns’ rotation, but also probably showed us how low Livers’ ceiling is. But he did have this incredible moment as the clock wound down in the third, beating the buzzer and building a little momentum for the Suns going into the fourth quarter.
Grade: B
Some people may view a B as generous, but I don’t. Livers didn’t provide much to this team, but for someone who we expected to be the 16th or 17th man on the roster, getting almost 360 minutes of replacement-level play is overperforming. Look at the other two guys around him on the preseason SunsRank. Jared Butler didn’t make the roster, and CJ Huntley got cut during the season before being re-signed on a two-way again.
Livers might not be back again next year, but he provided real value for the Suns this season.
