The Phoenix Suns still have not played a full game yet with their full roster healthy, meaning that players have played in roles’ they may not have expected to, or had an uptick in minutes. No one has
taken advantage of the Suns’ not being whole more than Collin Gillespie and as a result, Suns fans have been most surprised with him to start the year.
I’m not surprised by both Gillespie’s strong start to the season, or Suns fans voting him first by a strong margin. After helping the Suns comeback from 19-down in the fourth quarter against the Clippers late last season, he started a few contests down the stretch at point guard, and carried his strong end to last season over to the start of this one. He’s leading the team in bench scoring, averaging the second most assists and shooting 38% from three on 7 attempts a game.
Gillespie’s minutes stayed the same in Jalen Green’s first game back against the Los Angeles Clippers Thursday and in Dillon Brooks’ return on Saturday. With the point guard struggles the Valley has had since Chris Paul left town after the 2022-2023 campaign, it doesn’t shock me Suns fans are surprised to see strong production coming from the position from someone outside of Devin Booker.
Gillespie has spent time playing alongside Booker and the rest of the starters. Late in games, his floor spacing and ball handling have given the rest of the team more space and allow Booker to not have to defend the other team’s top perimeter player.
Looking at the rest of the voting, I wasn’t surprised that both Mark Williams and Royce O’Neale got the second and third most votes. Despite still being on a minutes restriction, Williams has been a strong defensive anchor for the Valley, and is looking more and more comfortable on his new team and system as the games go by.
For O’Neale, he’s averaging career highs in minutes, points and three-point percentage all at the age of 32. To start the year, he came off the bench behind Ryan Dunn, but started over him in the team’s last game and in the second half last night after Green re-injured his hamstring. His shooting has helped space the floor for Booker, which in turn, has helped Williams have more space to operate down low.
O’Neale and Grayson Allen are one of the NBA’s top duo’s in three-pointers made roughly 10% of the way through the season. Expect O’Neale to continue to start alongside Allen, if Green misses time after re-injuring his hamstring.
The Suns’ odds to reach the playoffs remain long according to FanDuel Sports Book, but with all the rotational inconsistency the Suns have had to deal with, the Valley has had some surprising players step up so far.
