The Phoenix Suns might have had a terrible 2024-25 season that led to massive changes this summer, but that doesn't mean it was all bad. One of the few bright spots was two-way point guard Collin Gillespie, who in the chances he was given played with the kind of tenacity and desire that was sorely lacking throughout the main rotation.
That kind of play - and at a spot of weakness for the Suns no less - rightly led to Gillespie getting brought back again this offseason. He's not a starter level floor general by any means, but there is definitely something there worth keeping around. If Gillespie is going to spend more time as the actual backup in Phoenix, then they need another two-way point guard moving forward.
Ireland's C.J. Fulton would be the answer to that problem.
Fulton has become something of a story over the other side of the Atlantic, as he is the first Irish born player to ever see G League action. Old heads might remember a certain Pat Burke - who actually featured for the Suns in the nineties - and although he was indeed born in Dublin in Ireland, he was raised in the United States.
Fulton on the other hand grew up there and went to college with the Charleston Cougars, and in a pair of Summer League games for the Minnesota Timberwolves had his own coach there likening him to T.J. McConnell. Given what we just saw in the NBA Finals from the Indiana Pacers' backup guard, that is not a bad spot to be.
Although Fulton might yet get a training camp invite with the Timberwolves, this is a player for the Suns to keep an eye on. Fulton is a point guard in the purest sense of the word, and he's proven through his unconventional path to this point that he's got the fight in him once he gets on the court. The kind of intangibles that the Suns have lacked in recent seasons.
There's still lots to work on - and defensively a lot to learn - but replacing Gillespie as their two-way point guard would look like a natural fit. This would come with the added bonus of having an entire country clamoring for Suns merchandise all of a sudden, but that is not the reason to give Fulton serious consideration.
His ability to penetrate given his size is why he's been compared to McConnell, while his unselfishness and desire to set up his teammates is another big plus. In other words all of the skills that put Gillespie on the map, and that the Suns needed last season as their campaign went off the rails.
As an added bonus, the Suns are no longer in contention right now. There has never been a better time to take a flyer on Fulton, to see if he can be anything in the way that Gillespie was and will continue to be. This is a feel-good story to get in on as well, but Fulton is much more than that. He's a pure point guard who deserves an opportunity on a two-way deal that Phoenix should consider.