3 goals for Ryan Dunn's rookie season with the Suns
By Luke Duffy
1. Average six points per game
In his two seasons with Virginia, Dunn went from averaging 2.6 points per game in his freshman year, to 8.1 last season. That kind of growth is notable - and although we've already said scoring shouldn't be his main focus as a rookie - if he can put up some points and show modest improvement he could be in for a long career.
Six points then seems like a manageable task, one that casual fans would likely look at and consider Dunn a bust if he does manage to average that over the course of a campaign. Right now he's not a 3-point shooter in any way - although he's already working to change that - but his strong frame should lead to some points in the paint.
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Playing next to three stars means the looks are going to be there for Dunn, and simply finishing off a couple of broken plays each night is going to be a great sign for his development. Shooting about 52 percent from the free-throw line in college is unacceptable at the next level, while the trips to the charity stripe each night (1.5) has to rise at the next level as well.
This is more a long-term goal, because at some point Dunn is going to have to develop a couple of go to moves for coach Budenholzer to validate giving him room to grow. Defensively there's no question he will help - all that needs to be figured out is how much and how quickly - but six points across half a season (and hopefully more) sounds about right.