3 young players the Phoenix Suns need to develop

3 young players the Phoenix Suns need to develop.

3. Toumani Camara

Developing an organization’s own draft pick, albeit a late second rounder, may sound obvious, but that is not a certainty given the position the Suns have put themselves in. Owner Mat Ishbia has been incredibly aggressive in trying to build a winner in all areas since buying the team, and that can often mean sacrificing long-term goals in order to win now.

Toumani Camara is a rookie who is going to find playing time hard to come by next season, but is also a player who the Suns have to develop right away. Camara had a strong showing in Summer League out in Las Vegas (thanks in part to the backing of his family who came across from Belgium), and in those contests showed the kind of game that fans warmed to right away.

Camara moved well without the ball, cut with intensity and defended opponents extremely well. We try not to read too much into this as a result of it being Summer League, but these are easily transferable skills that the Suns are going to need as part of their rotation next season.

Camara isn’t likely to start anytime soon, but giving him 15-20 minutes a night as part of the second unit, and trusting him to lock down some known scorers, would be a nice start. He’s not going to see his number called often offensively, but he won’t care. Camara is going to make a living on the defensive end of the floor with this group, and provides a lot of what is sorely needed.

He gives the Suns a young player who will be able to grind through the rigors of a regular season, and work extremely well next to Durant, Beal and Booker in certain lineups. The temptation may be to ditch his growth in favor of the proven Gordon, and come the postseason that may well happen, but the sooner the team works on making Camara better, the sooner they’ll profit.