Northern Arizona Suns G-League Draft Recap

Northern Arizona Suns will be an important part of the Phoenix Suns organization this season as the parent franchise is in the midst of a rebuild.

The Northern Arizona Suns had four picks in the G-League’s 2017 Draft the first, sixth, 11th and 35th selections. The NAZ Suns took Eric Stuteville with the first pick, Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson with the sixth pick, Jay Wright with the 11th pick, and they chose to pass on their last selection.

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Stuteville is a 6-foot-11, 250 lb center who played the last four years at Sacramento State of the Big Sky conference. Stuteville averaged 11.6 points and 6.3 rebounds per game while playing 26.8 minutes per game. Stuteville shot 63 percent from the field for the season which was the best single-season mark in Sacramento State program history. Stuteville also posted a solid 21.5 Player Efficiency Rating or PER last year and showed flashes of being an elite shot blocker in his time at Sacramento State. During this time he had a block percentage of 10 percent in his junior season, but regressed back to six percent last year.

Stuteville was known for being a tough-nosed high motor player in college and will bring that to the NAZ Suns. He played three games for the Kings Summer League team in Vegas this year.

The Suns’ next pick Hollis-Jefferson, who bears a familiar name as he is the brother of Brooklyn Nets wing Rondae Hollis-Jefferson. Rahlir played at Temple from 2009-2013 and was a stat sheet stuffer averaging 8.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.7 steals, and one block per game in his final season. Rahlir went undrafted and has bounced around since 2013. Rahlir played one season in Luxembourg for AB Contern of the Total League. He returned to the United States in 2014 to play for the Delaware 87ers of the then D-League where he averaged only 5.2 points per game and playing a slim 16.7 minutes per game. Rahlir signed with the Saint John Mill Rats of the National Basketball League of Canada, but never played a game for them. This past year he played for Orangeville A’s of the National Basketball League of Canada.

There Hollis-Jefferson returned to his stat-sheet stuffing days of college by averaging 18.1 points, 7.24 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 2.2 steals and nearly one block per game. Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson, much like his brother, is known for his defense and won Defensive Player of the Year in the NBL last year. Hollis-Jefferson is a rangy 6-foot-6 wing that will bring extreme toughness and defensive grit to the NAZ Suns.

The NAZ Suns dealt Wright to the Lakeland Magic for a protected first-round pick in next year’s draft.

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Both of these draftees will provide the Northern Arizona Suns will a solid defensive base built on toughness. The G-League is known for experimentation of different concepts and philosophies primarily on offense, but players like these will allow the Suns to throw a variety of defensive tactics at opponents.

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