The Phoenix Suns remain one of the feel good stories of the season. So good in fact that trade rumors sending Dillon Brooks to the Los Angeles Lakers to try and steal their vibes are now being made up.
That won't happen, and we know there are tougher challenges ahead for this group. But they're in the thick of the playoff hunt and at worst look like a play-in team right now.
Suns' need for draft picks lessened thanks to emergence of young players
The dark cloud hanging over The Valley is the reality that they have few draft picks coming down the road for the rest of the decade. The cost of chasing superstars like Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal.
That is obviously a bad thing, but the franchise at least know they have to be competitive in order to keep Devin Booker engaged, and it's not like they have the temptation to tank either. Their picks for the most part don't belong to them.
But over the last month or so, head coach Jordan Ott has done the unthinkable and begun to get something out of the draft picks that the Suns already have in the building.
Ryan Dunn is already a firm part of the rotation, while Oso Ighodaro just had perhaps his best game as a professional in the win over the Sacramento Kings. His value is trending upwards again.
Rookie Rasheer Fleming has found himself getting more minutes recently, and anything he can provide right now is like found money for coach Ott's rotation.
You almost never really escape Rasheer Fleming or beat him on the drive, that 7’5” wingspan is just suffocating
— skwid (@iamskwid) January 3, 2026
Even lottery pick Khaman Maluach, having had some stellar G League performances, finally saw some action, again in that win over the Kings.
To be clear, he is still incredibly raw. Fleming also has a long way to go, but you can see the upside with the size and shooting touch he possesses.
Koby Brea hasn't even gotten a look in yet, and you could argue he was their most exciting performer during Summer League play before the season.
To have two out of these three guys already looking like something is going to propel this re-tooling forward in a big way, plus there's the continued improvement of Dunn and Ighodaro.
Another important part of the puzzle is understanding which veterans and unsigned players to bring in, and the front office have already nailed that aspect.
Collin Gillespie, Isaiah Livers, Jamaree Bouyea and Jordan Goodwin making up a large part of the rotation at this point.
But for coach Ott to be trusting the youngsters and actually getting winning minutes out of them for a competitive roster. That might just be the most impressive aspect of his tenure so far.