Barely used Suns player fails to take rare opportunity to impress

The 2025-26 season has absolutely not gone to plan for Nigel Hayes-Davis with the Phoenix Suns. Brought back to Europe to some fanfare as a result of being a EuroLeague Final Four MVP after several brilliant seasons over there, the 30-year-old has barely gotten a look in with Phoenix.

Hayes-Davis fails to make most of extra run versus Denver Nuggets.

So it was a surprise to see head coach Jordan Ott reach deep into his bench during the 130-112 loss to the Denver Nuggets, with Nikola Jokic surprisingly playing and putting up a triple-double after he was expected to miss the contest with a wrist sprain.

Coach Ott ended up playing 13 players, which went against his template that had led to some impressive wins already. Hayes-Davis was one of those players, and he saw a surprising 13 minutes of action, well up on the 8.3 minutes he has averaged for the season.

That number was even lower in November as coach Ott looked elsewhere for answers, and he saw just 6.4 minutes of action. During that period he had more fouls per game (0.8) than he did points (0.3), so it is no wonder that he was in danger of falling out of the rotation completely.

So to see him fail to register a single point and commit one foul, leading to a game score of minus seven in 13 minutes was nothing short of a disaster. Rookie center Khaman Maluach wasn't given nearly as much time to impress (four minutes), yet arguably did more.

Although the thought process behind signing Hayes-Davis was that he could take a few of the departed Kevin Durant's minutes and score some, that has failed to happen. Worse still is the fact he does not fit into coach Ott's defensive system, with Isaiah Livers preferred when he is healthy.

Hayes-Davis will likely see out the rest of the season in The Valley, but it will surely be back to Europe for him after that. Especially with newer additions like Jamaree Bouyea joining the party and immediately offering more.

This was a chance the front office were right to take, but the loss to the Nuggets proved that it is not going to pay off. The Suns are frisky and competitive in every game, and Hayes-Davis is not up to the task of contributing to that on a nightly basis. A shame, because he looks like such a great guy.