Ryan Dunn just took a massive step towards earning more minutes for Suns

The Phoenix Suns continue to confound expectations this season, and all of the players on this roster have played their part in making this a playoff bound team.

Already we've shown love to a ton of guys on the roster, with second year forward Oso Ighodaro quietly making a leap despite having had a rough start to the season.

Ryan Dunn's 3-point shooting will earn him more minutes

Less talked about has been fellow sophomore Ryan Dunn, despite the fact he has started 11 games to Ighodaro's seven and on any given night can look like the natural successor defensively to Mikal Bridges.

The common belief regarding Dunn has always been if he could just figure out how to consistency shoot the three-ball, that he would earn himself more minutes in the rotation. That is starting to happen.

You might remember during the early portion of his rookie season that the 23-year-old connecting on a scorching 44 percent of his makes from deep. They're Grayson Allen numbers.

That productivity quickly fell off a cliff, with Dunn finishing the campaign shooting 31.1 percent from 3-point territory on 3.6 attempts.

Right now he's in and around the same output (31.9 percent), although his efficiency has risen some as he's taking 2.7 efforts. January has brought with it a notable uptick in how many are going in however.

Dunn taking 2.8 each night, only he's made an impressive 36 percent of those looks. Even better, across the last six games (four wins), he's gone 7-of-14 from beyond the arc.

Even if that number again reverts back to the mean for Dunn, he's done enough to warrant getting some extra run from head coach Jordan Ott, to see how long he can keep this hot streak going.

If he could stay around 34 percent for the remainder of the season, it would change the trajectory of his role in The Valley completely.

Coach Ott will soon have to make room for Jalen Green, and Dunn looks like one of the players who could lose out when that happens.

But if he continues to defend elite scorers with the enthusiasm that we've come to expect, as well as knock down more of these efforts from deep, then the comparisons to Bridges will look even better.

The Suns already have elite sharpshooters in Allen and Royce O'Neale, while Collin Gillespie and Dillon Brooks play their part each night as well.

They sit just outside the top 10 in 3-pointers made on the season (36.5 percent), but Dunn has the opportunity to help that number rise.

In any given five-man group he is the third or fourth option offensively, and if his output can take the next step from 3-point range, the whole team are going to benefit.

We've had false dawns with Dunn in the past shooting the ball, before he quickly regressed to a level we had come to expect from him. This time it feels different, and if this is for real then it raises the Suns' floor.