With the Phoenix Suns having released their preseason slate of games, attention now turns to the players who will be hoping to hit the ground running.
The franchise has a trio of young players (Khaman Maluach, Rasheer Fleming & Koa Peat) who impressed in Summer League and will be looking to build on that. But there is one individual who has more riding on these seemingly meaningless games than anybody else.
Ryan Dunn will be out of Phoenix soon if he doesn’t feature
We’ve reached a critical juncture with the third year forward. The former first round pick failing to find his role on this roster, a fact made worse with Oso Ighodaro (selected in the same draft as Dunn in the second round) finally figuring out how best to help this team to close out last season. His second chance coming as an impact forward off the bench while also proving he can be an undersized but energetic five when the matchup calls for it.
The Suns’ starting five has all but been confirmed, with Collin Gillespie, Luke Kennard and Jordan Goodwin vying for sixth man honors. Ighodaro will form part of that second unit alongside the three aforementioned youngsters, while Jamaree Bouyea remains on the roster.
Already being the 11th/12th man in Phoenix looks like a best case scenario for Dunn, although preseason play will quickly prove if even that will be the case.
Head coach Jordan Ott will experiment with different lineups, and how many opportunities Dunn gets to impress will be telling. He doesn’t make enough 3-pointers to be a small ball four, while offensively his game has never taken any kind of step forward. Defensively he remains the kind of player coach Ott could surely find use for, although even his best skill hasn’t had the desired impact the franchise envisioned when they drafted him.Â
At this point Dunn’s only path to playing more is injury to a number of his teammates. Jalen Green and Mark Williams certainly struggle to stay healthy, it is just unfortunate from the perspective of Dunn that neither play the position or have the same role that he does on the court.
Miles Bridges may not have been a popular addition, but when you consider how much better and well rounded a player he is than Dunn for a Suns team that is trying to win, you realize the uphill battle he faces. Dunn’s future is surely away from The Valley, and five preseason games are going to finally hammer that point home.
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