Every team has them. Every team needs them. The fringe guys, the roster ballast, the names that rarely make it off the end of the bench unless the basketball gods intervene. Tier 4 players. Depth pieces. Call them what you will, they’re not the cavalry riding in when the game goes sideways. They’re the fire extinguisher behind the glass. Break only in case of emergency.
Fans don’t always get that. Too often the cry is “play the kid!” as though some untapped solution sits rotting in warmups, waiting
to save the season. But more often than not, these players exist for the grind. They’re insurance policies in sneakers, flashes of potential wrapped in uncertainty, and the faint hope that one day a spark catches. Until then, they wait.
The Phoenix Suns are no different. Their Tier 4 is a collection of maybes, long shots, and developmental swings. And yet, there’s one name buried in there that raised my eyebrow, a player I didn’t expect to see lumped with the depth fodder. But I’ll hold that card for now. No need to tilt your vote before you’ve had the chance to weigh the board yourself.
So here we are. After three rounds of voting, through three tiers of SunsRank, this is where the 2025 preseason landscape rests. The pillars have been set, the wild cards dealt, the cornerstones….uh…cornered.
Now we descend into the basement, where the storylines are quieter, but no less essential. Because even in the shadows of a roster, the margins matter.
And now, onto and into Tier 4. Alphabetically, of course.
CJ Huntley
CJ Huntley arrives as a rookie two-way player out of Appalachian State, a developmental swing who effectively steps into the spot Jalen Bridges occupied a season ago.
He’s an upside play, likely bound for extended stretches in the G League, but armed with the kind of physical tools that can translate when opportunity calls. Big men are rarely ready-made; at 6’11”, Huntley will need time, touch, and repetition to grow into his frame and refine his game. The Suns have the structure to nurture that growth. The question is whether they have the patience. Last year, they didn’t with Bridges.
Isaiah Livers
Isaiah Livers lands in The Depth Pieces tier. He’s a talented yet unproven wing entering his fourth NBA season.
Across three years in Detroit, he logged 94 games with 33 starts, numbers that hint at trust but never permanence. His averages — 6.2 points in 21.8 minutes on 35.8% shooting from deep — won’t command headlines, yet they sketch the outline of a player who can stretch the floor and toggle between small forward and power forward.
The question is less about skill and more about circumstance. Does Livers need a larger role to unlock his ceiling, or has opportunity already told us who he is?
Jared Butler
Butler joins the Phoenix Suns fresh off an impressive 28-game stretch with the Philadelphia 76ers, a run born out of necessity when injuries gutted their rotation. Thrust into extended minutes, he responded with 11.5 points and 4.9 assists in 24.4 minutes per game after arriving from Washington.
Now, he enters Phoenix as part of The Depth Pieces, carrying experience and a non-guaranteed contract, set to battle Jordan Goodwin for the third-string point guard spot. Depth or difference-maker…the coming weeks will decide.
Jordan Goodwin
Speaking of Jordan Goodwin, here he is. A familiar face who logged 40 games with the Suns during the 2023-24 season before James Jones cleared the bench, shifting from upside bets to veteran insurance.
Since then, Goodwin has bounced through Memphis and Los Angeles, adding miles and minutes to his résumé. Entering his fifth season, he fits the profile of a depth piece: 154 games played, 24 starts, and the kind of experience that speaks more to reliability than untapped potential.
He and Jared Butler will be the hinge point of training camp, a preseason storyline that will shape the back end of the guard rotation and reveal which direction the Suns choose to lean.
Nick Richards
That’s right. A player who started 34 games for the Phoenix Suns last season now finds himself slotted into The Depth Pieces. I didn’t put him there, the consensus did. And maybe that’s the point.
Nick Richards isn’t a wild card; he’s a known quantity. At 7 feet, he brings size, touch, and utility, but also well-documented limitations. Behind Mark Williams and ahead of Khaman Maluach on the depth chart, Richards embodies the definition of a depth piece. He’s a talented big man whose ceiling feels visible, whose floor keeps him useful, and whose role is as much about stability as surprise.
And that’s a wrap on SunsRank preseason 2025.
Now the responsibility shifts to you. The final votes that will bring this project to a close. Once the ballots are in, we’ll compile the rankings, gather thoughts from our writing team on who belongs where, and deliver the finished product.
Then, when the season ends, we’ll revisit it all over again, measuring expectations against reality. Thank you for the time, the effort, and the care you’ve put into this process. It’s what makes SunsRank more than a list. It makes it a conversation.
