Here at Valley of the Suns we're ending 2024 by counting down the top 10 players of the last 12 months, and we've already had a mix of old and new. To the surprise of many, it was former player Eric Gordon who kicked things off, despite having a far from smooth single season in Phoenix before bailing for the Philadelphia 76ers.
That was followed up by a rookie who has given the organization a reason to feel optimistic, despite a troubling season that has now seen them fall below .500 for the first time since Christmas of 2023. Hardly the sign of a franchise going in the right direction, although number eight on our list might be able to change that in the coming months in ways you wouldn't expect.
Which is why Josh Okogie takes that spot on our top Suns of 2024.
On the surface this could feel like a puzzling one. After all, the Suns got off to a hot 8-1 start this season, and that was achieved with Okogie out of action as a result of a hamstring issue. To this point he's only appeared in 19 games - and managed just over 15 minutes on those occasions - and he has a single start to his name.
This despite everybody from Kevin Durant to Devin Booker missing time through injury, with the likes of Ryan Dunn and Josh Okogie favored for more run when that has been the case. Why then is Okogie deserving of this spot? Unfortunately part of the reason is because - much like Gordon - there wasn't a ton of competition to land here.
Other players such as Yuta Watanabe who promised so much - or Bol Bol who had much lower expectations - failed to catch on in any real way. Yet for all the coming and going and players missing time through injury or failing to live up to expectations, Okogie has been a constant of sorts in The Valley, and is also one of the longest tenured players at this point as well.
He's also capable of doing what most everybody else on this roster cannot, and that is defend elite wing scorers for an entire game. That alone is the reason the Suns brought him back on a two-year, $16 million deal this summer - and although a trade market has yet to materialize for Okogie - you get the sense that will happen closer to the deadline.
Okogie doesn't have the upside of Dunn or the shooting ability of O'Neale or Grayson Allen, and he's not a table-setter like Tyus Jones or Monte Morris either. This has meant he's fallen through the cracks at times - although when called upon - he generally does what you would expect him to do.
Kevin Durant on Josh Okogie: "Coach trusts him, we all trust him, so when he gets out there, we put him on the best player...he's shooting the ball well this year. So I think he's earned himself more minutes. Coach feels the same way, and hopefully he keeps building on it" pic.twitter.com/SW9WbSw1oV
— Gerald Bourguet (@GeraldBourguet) December 28, 2024
We've mentioned it before, but there were a pair of games on an ugly West coast road trip earlier this season where Okogie outscored Booker on two occasions. That can't and shouldn't happen - but when you combine scoring outbursts like that with being one of the best on-ball defenders on the team - that kind of output should not go unnoticed.
Also getting lost in the mess that this season is becoming is the fact Okogie is shooting a career high 40 percent from deep, albeit on less than two attempts per game. On the defensive end, the team are considerably better when he is on the court (giving up 112.3 points per game), compared to their season as a whole (bottom 10 in the league at 115.2).
It is just unfortunate for Okogie that he plays in a similar spot to Booker, Beal, Jones, O'Neale and Allen, and isn't the two-way threat that most of them are. On his night he's the best defender though, and he's given this Suns team some memorable moments on that end across the last 12 months. His future may lie elsewhere, but Josh Okogie has helped this group the way he was meant to.