Relief for Suns at media day with latest comments from Grayson Allen

The Phoenix Suns held their media day to officially open the 2024-25 season on Monday, and there were plenty of talking points right out the gate. This included on the status of Kevin Durant and his potential contract extension, which owner Mat Ishbia was open and honest about.

Bradley Beal also took to the stage and spoke about how it is hoped we'll see "the Beal everybody hoped" that they would last season, but who was limited to just 53 games through injury. Then it was time for Grayson Allen to speak to the media, with everybody unsure if he would address the elephant in the room.

Allen tackled it head on, and it was exactly what this franchise needed.

The 28-year-old - who is coming off a career year last season - also looked noticeably bulkier, but in the best possible way. On that Allen mentioned that he was now up to 230 pounds, miles above the 195 he was listed as last season. He appeared comfortable and happy - not to mention just flat out broader - as he fielded questions.

Then the conversation turned to the addition of Tyus Jones, and what that would mean for him personally. Not only did Allen lead the league in 3-point shooting percentage last season at 46.1 percent, he did a fantastic job filling in for Beal when he was injured. He's also played for new head coach Mike Budenholzer with the Milwaukee Bucks in the past.

This could have been awkward - Allen also signed a new deal prior to the playoffs beginning - but he handled what bringing Jones in means for him personally with class. "I think he (coach Bud) knew I would be good with it (coming off the bench), so I just gave him a hard time jokingly. There wasn't much of a conversation, I think we're going to have a great team with Tyus out there as the point guard."

If you go back to last season, two key problems the Suns had were with the lack of a true point guard, and the often serious and bad vibes this group emitted. There's obviously no stat on the "vibe check" - so you may not read too much into that - but the franchise did finish 25th in turnovers, at 14.1 per game.

Jones automatically fixes this glaring issue, but there are plenty of individuals coming off their best season in the league who would not be cool with taking what is perceived as a backwards step and coming off the bench. So the selflessness of Allen in being so open to doing so speaks not only to his character, but it is also one of those little things that all add up when trying to win a championship.

Allen was prepared to go even further in endorsing Jones as an automatic starter, stating that "there's not many guys out there like Tyus. Not a whole lot of point guards out there that play like Tyus, so I really think he is the perfect fit for our team. I think our team is better with him at the point."

That is likely true - and Allen as the sixth man makes a ton of sense too - but the Suns won't have it all their own way with this. Defensively they look extremely small with Jones, Beal and Devin Booker out there starting together, whereas Allen last year gave them some more juice defensively. Now that he's added some muscle, he looks like he could help on that end even more.

But to be so disarming and honest about embracing the change in role for the good of the team is as big a plus from media day as the organization could have hoped for. Grayson Allen is serious about helping this team win it all, and he's gladly going to come off the bench to try and make that happen.