Few players on the Phoenix Suns will enter the 2025-26 season with more pressure to succeed than second year forward Ryan Dunn. After a promising rookie season in which he initially showed far more range from deep than we saw from him in college - before eventually cooling off - Dunn is even more important to this version of the Suns.
They have entered a rebuilding phase - despite consistently using the word "re-tooling" - around Devin Booker, and how long it takes to get back to relevancy will depend on how quickly his supporting cast can hit top gear. Dunn most certainly falls into that category, which makes his role in The Valley this coming season an easy one to figure out.
Dunn has to develop into a Mikal Bridges type two-way menace.
It is foolish to try and recreate what the Suns once had in getting all the way to the NBA Finals in 2021, but they should be looking to find players who fit the most successful roles from that roster. Still having Booker is obviously a help, although the squad is painfully lacking in a floor general and leader in the same vein as Chris Paul.
Mikal Bridges was one of the most beloved members of that team, and there is reason to believe Dunn can replicate the success he had on both ends of the court. Fans have already taken to him thanks to how hard he plays and what a pleasant surprise he was for the franchise last season. In fact there's a case for him starting this time out, although Dillon Brooks surely has that spot locked down.
From the moment he was drafted through his first offseason as a pro, presenting Ryan Dunn On The Rise ☄️ pic.twitter.com/LeeV1z9n0S
— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) August 8, 2025
Even if it is Brooks who begins the campaign with the starting five, this only adds to the comparisons between Dunn and Bridges. In the current New York Knicks first two seasons in Phoenix, he started 56-of-82 and 32-of-73 games. He would go on to become an ironman after that, and it would be great to see Dunn pick up that trait as his career progresses.
But the point is it took Bridges a couple of seasons to become a regular fixture and to have an impact on both ends of the court, and in some ways Dunn is already ahead of schedule. The arrival of Brooks means we can't say he's the best on-ball defender on the roster, but he also looks primed to take over the defensive quarterback role from Brooks whenever he moves on in future.
Having Brooks as a teammate isn't going to derail Dunn moving forward either, because we've already seen enough to know that head coach Jordan Ott will use him as a two-way player at the forward position. Last season the Suns gave up over two points less per game (115.1 compared to 117.7) when Dunn was on the court, while he ranked in the 86th percentile in blocks per Cleaning The Glass.
Meanwhile offensively he began the campaign shooting 44 percent from deep in November, and in January and March he crept above 35 percent on 3-pointers as well. It is worth pointing out that he finished his rookie season a disappointing 31.1 percent on a shade under three attempts each night, but there was enough to work with.
Which is why Dunn will go straight in as one of the best two-way players in Phoenix moving forward. An important role given it will taken the likes of rookie Khaman Maluach time to be anything other than a negative offensively, while Jalen Green is hardly a lockdown defender. Dunn brings the best of both worlds in the kind of frame that excels in that spot, and the Suns will be the better team for it.