Every day, we’ll take a closer look at another member of the 2026-27 Phoenix Suns, examining what they bring to the roster and what their role could mean for the season ahead as we count down to training camp and the preseason.
Jordan Goodwin
Guard/Forward, 6’3”, 215 pounds, 28, 6th season
The 2025-2026 Phoenix Suns season was defined by surprises. Few expected them to make the playoffs, not many saw Dillon Brooks averaging a career high in points per game, and after getting an invite to training camp, few were prognosticating
Jordan Goodwin would become a reliable rotation for Jordan Ott and his staff. His second stint on the Suns, the three-year $19 million deal he inked this summer puts him in Phoenix for the foreseeable future.
Averaging career-highs in nearly every statistical category, the coaching staff trusted Goodwin to start in Game 1 of the playoffs and when the team clinched their playoff birth against the Golden State Warriors, he had 17 points, four threes and nine boards.
Building on the best season of his career and locked into a longterm deal, he’s set help anchor the team’s defensive rotations, recreate the gritty identity many teams viewed the Suns as from a season ago and play wherever he’s needed on a given night.
Last Season
It was not a guarantee Goodwin would make the team’s roster last season. Signed in late August, he beat out Jared Butler for one of the team’s final roster spots.
Mostly playing a reserve role for the Suns last season, Goodwin was a key part of the team’s rotation. With his improved shooting and ability to guard multiple positions despite being undersized, the coaching staff trusted him late in games to make big plays, which was best on display in the team’s miraculous comeback against the Minnesota Timberwolves when the team rallied from eight down in the final 50 seconds to win.
While he missed a brief stretch in late February and early March after suffering a calf strain in the team’s double overtime thriller against the Orlando Magic, Goodwin remained mostly healthy throughout the regular season, playing in 70 games. At the end of the season, he started a few games after Collin Gillespie started to struggle and the team was struggling. He started in both play-in games and in Game 1 of the playoffs against the Oklahoma City Thunder but was sidelined the rest of the series after going down early in the contest with calf soreness.
His best game of the year? His career-high 26-point contest against the Thunder back in January when the Suns rallied from down double digits to defeat the defending champs.
Contract and Roster Context
Goodwin inked a three-year $19 million deal with a player option for the final season to return to Phoenix in June. The contract increases in value by year and starts at 3.55% of the cap up to 3.72%, an important metric to be paying attention to in the second apron era of the NBA salary cap. The deal is the largest and longest of the veteran’s six-year career.
He can’t be traded until January 15th, 2027.
What He Brings
Toughness.
Jordan Goodwin is the Suns version of the Thunder’s Alex Caruso or the New York Knicks’ Josh Hart. No task is too small for him, and he’s comfortable playing any position from shooting guard to power forward. He helps keep Devin Booker and Jalen Green fresh on offense by taking on the other team’s best perimeter scorers and is able to battle inside to secure offensive rebounds at an elite rate for players his size. He ranked 42nd in the entire NBA in total offensive boards. Amen Thompson and Dyson Daniels were the only guards ahead of him.
Another reason Goodwin has become so valuable to the team? He’s finally hitting threes consistently. Knocking down more than 37% of his triples on nearly 4.5 attempts per game. When he shot 5.6 triples per game in February, the most attempts per game he shot in any month of the season, he hit the deep ball at a 40% clip. His ability to space the floor is what makes him more valuable to the team than he was in his first stint on the Suns when he hit just 29% of his threes.
What Needs to Improve
It would be in the Suns’ best interest if Goodwin could become a consistent ball handler and playmaker. With Grayson Allen now in Charlotte, the team lacks any strong ball handlers off the bench outside of Collin Gillespie. After bringing in sharpshooter Luke Kennard this offseason, the main objective of the team’s second unit should be to get as many threes up as possible.
Goodwin started his career playing point guard, and he’s listed as one on Basketball-Reference, but in most lineups he played in last season, he was not the team’s primary ball handler. When he was with the Washington Wizards and in his first stint with the Suns, he had point guard responsibilities, but his second stint in Phoenix has had him playing mostly the two-four spots. It’s definitely something he is capable of.
Prediction
I expect a similar year from Goodwin a season ago, but with increased volume. Last year, he averaged 22:27 minutes per game; I expect that number to jump up to closer to 25-27 minutes per game. The team knows what they have in him, and their trust in him clearly increased as the season went on.
Look for a small statistical increase and a larger impact on both ends.
Stat Prediction: 74 Games, 9.4 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 1.3 APG, 43/39/71 shooting
Final Word
Jordan Goodwin is an important part of the brand of basketball that the Phoenix Suns are trying to build. He’s someone a lot of the league had doubted (even the Suns did) and proved people wrong. Now there’s no proving people wrong; he’s gotten paid. The team clearly believes in him. With higher expectations and a contract after a career year, it’s time for his impact to increase.
