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: Mat Ishbia’s hiring of Brian Gregory as GM was initially considered questionable and attributed mostly to Gregory’s MSU ties. What are your thoughts on Gregory’s performance so far?
zenzino: I didn’t know much about Brian Gregory, but I had a good feeling about him, mostly because of the reports that he was a big part of drafting Dunn and Igodaro. I never paid much attention to the MSU ties. Mine was always a wait-and-see attitude. Mat’s a smart guy; he knew there would be Michigan talk, so he needed to make doubly sure BG was the right hire. BG got hired because of the year he spent with the Suns before that, not ‘mostly due to Gregory’s MSU ties’. I’m sure the fact that Ishbia knew him previously got his foot in the door, but performance opens that door.
I’ve said it in the past, BG’s ability to unfuck the Suns in record time is nothing short of miraculous. Not only was he a huge part of the culture and mindset shift in the FO, but he also was big in bringing in Ott as head coach.
Even if you ignore how well the KD trade worked out when the Suns’ hands were basically tied by KD only wanting to go to Houston and the super-exciting draft we had last year. Just look at this offseason alone. We thought we were essentially sitting this draft out with a late 2nd-rounder, and BG gets the Suns a first-round pick (someone who was projected as a mid-first-rounder and the guy they wanted) for next to nothing.
I was against the Suns waiving and stretching Beal’s contract. I thought they should just eat it for two years and be done. I was wrong. Because of the college-type family atmosphere and culture this team established, BG was able to extend 4 key players on team-friendly contracts that come close to covering the $20M in dead cap hit. That is hella impressive.
I’m all-in on BG. He should have been executive of the year last season, and he damn-sure should be this season.
Ashton: While I was writing this up, CBS Sports dropped an article of the Fifteen Worst Contracts and ranked them. Eagle-eyed Suns fans jumped on this, but essentially the Suns have two worst contracts ranked. Jalen Green (13) and Booker (6). Granted, there is no official metric for these rankings and is really only an opinion piece, but that is not good. Add in Beal’s dead money on the Suns balance sheet, then one really has to ask themselves if the Suns are doing a good job in the FO?
Yes, there will always be hits and misses, and that comes with the business. I think BG has drafted well and was able to extend existing talent at cheaper costs.
But as far as a Key Performance Indicator? I think it is trending down for Brian Gregory. The front office deserves to be questioned.
Rod: I was skeptical at first, but Gregory has already far surpassed my initial expectations. Like many, I cringed a bit when he kept repeating “aligned” over and over when he first took over the job, but now I can see what he was trying to get across back then.
He’s played a big role in forming not only a solid team under trying circumstances, but he’s put together a group of players that truly like playing together and want to be here. Getting three players back on very friendly deals as well as signing another to a very favorable extension is largely a result of this. Don’t for a second believe that they all would have signed those deals if they didn’t really want to stay in Phoenix.
He’s drafted well and manipulated the few picks he’s had to move up in the draft to get players he wanted. I wish we’d had him as GM earlier before the Suns had traded away control of all their own first-rounders to acquire Durant and Beal. I think we would likely be in a much better place right now if he’d been the one whispering in Ishbia’s ear instead of James Jones back then.
Q2: It has been said that the Suns are in a “half-hearted rebuild” since moving on from the failed “Big 3” (Booker, Beal & Durant) experiment, mostly because of their refusal to also trade Devin Booker. What are your thoughts on trading Book and its possible effect on the Suns’ rebuild?
zenzino: This one makes my head hurt. I’m sooooo tired of the ‘trade Book for picks’ trope. After the Nash era, it took the Suns 12+ years just to make it back to the playoffs. And they had lottery picks. The Jazz started a full rebuild when they had their own picks as well as a haul from the Timberwolves. Finally, 5-years later, they might not be tanking this season. It took the Thunder 7 years for their full rebuild. Same for the Spurs. Full rebuilds take time… and luck. And that’s if you have your own lottery picks.
Let’s look at the two big trades this summer:
Jaylen Brown – Celtics get Paul George, 2028 1st & 2nd, 2030 2nd, 2031 1st. Basically an expiring contract for a player who barely plays, a 1st round in two years and another in 4 years. All going to be late rounds because of Jaylen Brown, Tyrese Maxey, and VJ Edgecomb. An utterly useless haul if a team was rebuilding now. If the Suns got this kind of return, they’d be on the 10-12 year plan for getting back to the playoffs (and be more of a laughing stock than the Celtics currently are).
Giannis – The Bucks did a little better. Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakučionis, 2026 13th pick (Nate Ament), 2030 1st swap (useless), 2031 1st, 2033 1st, 2033 2nd. They got some young talent, but none of them come close to filling Booker’s shoes. They had their own #5 pick this draft so that helped. Still, except the 13th pick, all the others are 5-7 years down the road. Not much help to the Bucks now.
So, if two Finals MVPs are mostly garnering picks far into the future, trading Book wouldn’t help the Suns much in the next 4-6 years.
Also, the Suns would only trade Book to someplace he wants to go. Which would limit their return. I think he’s earned that. Whether you agree or not says more about you than anything else.
As much as it was refreshing to watch the never-quit, gritty Suns team play last season, the losing record in the second half made it less fun. I don’t want to watch them play hard and lose for at least the next 5-7 seasons.
So, no. I don’t agree that this is a ‘half-hearted rebuild’. It is a smart rebuild given the lack of draft picks and the dead cap hit. The Suns are going to put out a competitive team that’s fun to watch for the next 4 years and in 2030 we might see some bigger changes.
It’s not a coincidence that Brooks was eligible for a 4-year extension and the Suns opted for a 3-year. If Bridges is extended, I expect the same. I don’t think the Suns will sign any veterans past 2030.
And, for all the Book trade proponents out there, please stop. Not. Gonna. Happen. Ishbia and BG have made it crystal clear that they are ride or die with Devin Booker. Deal with it. Let it go. The only way Book gets traded is if he wants out. And I don’t see that happening.
Ashton: And that is the big question. Do you want to do a full-on rebuild or a soft rebuild with little assets? This question ties nicely with Q1 on Booker’s contract and if BG can handle a full-on rebuild.
The first obvious question is what do the Suns get in return for Booker? Very few teams want to take on a max contract or unable unless they really think it will push them over the edge into the Finals. The formula is usually “we will trade you a bad contract for your bad contract for salary matching purposes”. The second formula is “we will take Booker’s contract off your hands for a few bits and pieces that another third-party team will help us with, mainly because we get picks”. No, keep in mind that it is probably not picks going to the Suns but to another team that wants to hoard them.
Quite honestly, I do not think the Suns would get anything of appropriate value for Booker. Add that Suns fans would probably be enraged that they are now buying tickets to the Suns vs. Kings game to witness the race to the bottom in the West, you know, where the Suns can’t tank.
I have to remind myself sometimes that the Suns did make the playoffs last season. I find that much more palatable this season than watching the inverse. I have no desire to watch a team without Booker, and neither should you. I was not a fan of the Steve Nash trade to the Lakers, though it worked out well for the Suns, because I found it disrespectful for a player that gave legions of Suns fans so many good memories. I would say the same about trading Book, a true Valley Son.
Rod: First off, trading Book would only bottom out the Suns, make the draft picks they’ve already traded away more valuable, and likely turn Phoenix into a franchise that many – if not most – NBA players would dread being traded to or sign with rather than one whose players re-sign at a discount to stay.
Yes, the Suns would get some draft picks back for Book, but any of them would likely turn out to be lottery picks, and using only late first-rounders to do a full rebuild would be more of a strategy based on hope/luck than anything else.
Right now, the Suns have managed to put together a tough, competitive roster that was a very entertaining team to watch last season. Entertaining was not a word that could be honestly used to describe the Suns in the two seasons previous to the last one…and they weren’t very good either despite all of the top-end talent they had.
Is this team a championship contender? No. They are an extreme long shot for that and aren’t likely to much more than that for a while, but I don’t see any way that trading Book would accelerate their ascension to that level any faster than the course they’re currently on.
Q3: What do you believe is the key (or keys) for the 2026-27 Suns to surpass their 45 win total from last season?
zenzino: Health. Numero uno. Had Brooks and MW not gotten injured, the Suns had a legit shot at the 5th or 6th seed.
I think it would be foolish not to assume that MW is going to miss 15-20 games. Maybe with Man Man improving, it will lighten his load. Hopefully, the Suns choose which games he misses rather than injuries deciding. Then he’d be available at the end of the season.
Between Green, MW, Brooks, and GA (Book can always be counted on to miss 10-15, nbd), there were a lot of missed games. However, I am counting on Jalen Green to play almost (if not all) 82, and Brooks’ injury was an accident that is highly unlikely to happen again.
Defense is two on my list. I don’t see them letting up. It’s a core part of Ott’s philosophy. After a year together, I expect them to be even better. Especially with the development of Sheer and Man Man.
Third, is Green and Bridges working out how they fit within this offense. How to use Book’s gravity and also how to take pressure off of Book. While I expect the defense to be good from the start, I think the offense might take a little time to gel.
The teams behind the Suns (except the Kings) got better and the teams ahead of them didn’t fall off to the point where they would be easy pickings.
Aside from the top 4 teams, there is definitely parity among the rest. Even if the Suns were able to improve by a few games and get the 5th or 6th seed, I’d consider that a success.
Ashton: Do not trade Book!
For one, I am in the camp that the Suns will not surpass their season record from last season. But, if they did, it starts with the obvious: injuries. Stay healthy and beat the teams that you are supposed to beat. For that, the bench minutes have to climb significantly for starting players’ rest. If it doesn’t, then the starters are going to try and be heroes with more minutes in close games and increased risk of injury.
That is really my big two. No injuries and player development. Sure, we can walk down the road of increased 3pt and FT shooting percentages or even better to elite defense to keep games close. But that would be my two areas of focus. Oh, maybe three, just keep the game entertaining!
Rod: There are a lot of things worth mentioning here, but I’m going to start off by pointing to Jordan Ott. I didn’t criticize him much last season for essentially playing small-ball most of the time because I saw it as him sticking with the players he trusted the most rather than him just wanting to play small. After Maluach and Fleming spent time getting their feet wet in the G League and showing good progress and the additions of Bridges and Peat, he needs to start playing bigger, more physical lineups this year. They need to work at getting to the basket more and not rely so much on threes because – as we all saw last season – those threes just aren’t going to fall every night, and the Suns’ offense needs to be more multi-dimensional.
Without an overpowering offense (which the Suns won’t have), defense is going to be extremely important this year. Everyone has to play D and play hard all game long. With the depth they have, they should be able to utilize that to limit minutes in such a way to keep players fairly fresh during games, and they shouldn’t be afraid to play more than 9-10 player rotations at times to do so.
Injuries will also be a key, but those are largely due to bad luck and something that can’t really be controlled. But, keeping everyone’s minutes down through utilizing the team’s depth could also help avoid some of those.
And one key, specifically aimed at Book but a good thing for all, is to play efficiently. The Suns need to be efficient on offense and play using the old sniper’s motto, “One Shot, one kill.” It was great to see the Suns rank 5th in offensive rebounding last season, but this year I would rather them just simply not have as many offensive rebounds to go after. Get down the court, put the ball in the hole, and get back on defense. I want the Suns to be one of the leaders in defensive rebounds this year.
As always, many thanks to our Fantable members for all their extra effort this week!
Suns Trivia/History
On August 13, 2020, the Suns defeated the Dallas Mavericks 128-102 to finish their perfect 8-0 run in the Orlando Bubble. No other team did this. This was the first time NBA regular season games were played during August and will likely be the last, as the 2019-20 season was delayed for several months during mid-season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Unless such an event happens again, the Suns will go down in NBA history as the only team to ever go undefeated during the month of August.
On August 14, 2008, the Suns signed Lou Amundson as a free agent. While Amundson rarely made a big impact on the scoreboard, his enthusiasm and high-energy style of play quickly made him a fan favorite off the bench. In the 2009/10 season, he was part of the near-legendary “Bench Mob” made up of Lou, Goran Dragic, Jared Dudley, Channing Frye and Leandro Barbosa, who weren’t just good enough to hold a lead but at times could blow games open. Then coach Alvin Gentry utilized the bench mob like a hockey coach, structuring the minutes so that the entire second unit would be on the floor together to start the second and fourth quarters in every game. Lou is also remembered as the prankster who once filled Shaquille O’Neal’s ride up to the brim with popcorn.
On August 16, 1987, former Sun Nick Vanos and his fiancée, Carolyn Cohen, tragically died when their plane crashed after takeoff from the Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, Michigan en route to Phoenix. Vanos and Cohen were among the 154 passengers and crew that died in the crash. Vanos was 24 and had just finished his second season in the NBA after being selected by Phoenix in the second round of the draft with the 32nd pick. Vanos played college ball at Santa Clara University, the same college where Steve Nash would play almost ten years later.
On August 18, 2005, the Suns signed Pat Burke as a free agent. Burke is still the only Irish-born player to make an NBA roster. He rarely made an impact on the court but became a fan favorite during his two years with Phoenix… and not just because of his play.
Pat Burke’s Hair Restoration Tonic
On August 19, 2005, seven weeks after the trade had been agreed upon, the Phoenix Suns completed a sign-and-trade with Joe Johnson, sending him to the Atlanta Hawks. Phoenix acquired Boris Diaw and two lottery-protected first-round picks in 2006 and 2008.
The 2006 draft pick acquired from Atlanta in this trade was originally owned by the Lakers, traded to Boston, and then traded to Atlanta. The Suns then traded this pick – which eventually was used to select Rajon Rondo — back to Boston for a 2007 1st round draft pick (which originally belonged to Cleveland) and cash considerations. That 2007 draft pick was used to select Rudy Fernandez, whose draft rights were then traded along with former Suns GM James Jones to Portland for… cash considerations. The 2008 1st round pick (15th) was eventually used by Phoenix to select Robin Lopez.
Important Future Dates
Sept. 28 – Media Day
Sept. 29 – Training Camp opens
Oct. 5 – Suns @ Pistons (preseason) 4:00 PM
Oct. 7 – Suns @ Bulls (preseason) 5:00 PM
Oct. 10 – Suns vs. Spurs (preseason) 7:00 PM
Oct. 14 – Suns @ Spurs (preseason) 5:00 PM
Oct. 16 – Suns vs. Jazz (preseason) 7:00 PM
Oct. 20 – 2026-27 NBA Season Begins
Dec. 15 – Most players signed to new contracts can be traded
Jan. 5 – 10-day contracts may now be signed
Jan. 10 – All NBA contracts are guaranteed for the remainder of the season
Jan. 15 – All players signed to new contracts can be traded
Feb. 11 – Trade Deadline
Feb. 19-21 – NBA All-Star weekend 2027
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