The Phoenix Suns have the best possible lineup problem

If there is one area where the Phoenix Suns have excelled throughout their slate of preseason games so far, it is how they have managed to incorporate a pair of rookies into a veteran-laiden group. Both Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro demonstrating that they were the right selections by the organization this summer.

Ighodaro led the team in minutes played in the opening preseason game versus the Los Angeles Lakers, and looks like he is going to be great value as a second round pick. Alongside Dunn, both have displayed a level of maturity in speaking to the media and on the court to this point which has been such a boost to a Suns team that didn't look like it was having fun last season.

Dunn is now creating an early lineup headache for the coaching staff.

That's because he has surpassed all realistic expectations that the Suns would have had for him so far, and it reached new heights in Sunday night's win over the Denver Nuggets. Again it was preseason, but this is now the fourth straight game were you could say something good about Dunn's performance, and this was without doubt the best of the lot.

The Suns were without Devin Booker due to ankle soreness - a worrying development so close to the beginning of the season - while Grayson Allen, Jusuf Nurkic and Josh Okogie also missed out. On top of that, head coach Mike Budenholzer elected to rest Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal and Tyus Jones. Enter Dunn, who powered the Suns to a 118-114 win.

He played the most minutes of any Suns player at 30, and tied Monte Morris for the most points on his team with 20, to go with four rebounds and assists on the night. Even more impressively, the Nuggets were essentially at full strength, with coach Budenholzer revealing Dunn asked if he could guard Michael Porter Jr. and Julian Strawther for stretches of the game.

Best of all, Dunn went an insane 6-of-11 from 3-point range, which will be exactly what his head coach wants to see as he tries to usher in a revolution from deep for this group. One of the main knocks on Dunn coming out of college was that although he had tremendous upside as a defender, the shooting touch didn't look like it was there.

In two seasons with Virginia he connected on only 23.5 percent of his looks from deep, while attempting less than one per game. Yet the player who confidently stepped into - and made - those shots against the Nuggets was a far cry from what the Suns thought they were getting offensively. Which now begs the difficult question, what do the Suns do with Dunn?

It was always hoped one of himself or Ighodaro could perhaps stick with the second unit, but already the two-way play of Dunn is hard to ignore. The Suns got smaller and in theory worse defensively with the introduction of point guard Jones to the starting group this offseason, and we're still some way off having a serious discussion about Dunn getting near the starting five.

But suppose he starts the regular season locking down opponent's best scorers while making something like 36 percent of his shots from deep. Not too hard to envision given he'll be sharing the court with one of Booker, Durant or Beal at all times. If that happens through the opening weeks of the season, coach Budenholzer is going to have a brilliant problem on his hands.

There is no way you can bring Beal off the bench in place of Dunn for example. He's making $50 million this season alone, and has looked close to recapturing his previous form in the glimpses we have seen of him during preseason. It is hard to see Beal signing off on this either, and if he became unsettled that would only be an unnecessary distraction for this team.

But there is a world in which Dunn could close certain games - assuming he continues on this trajectory - while the prospect of stealing minutes from Jones and Royce O'Neale is not crazy either. To be having this conversation before the regular season has even begun is a serious boost for the Suns' front office, who look to have nailed their draft selections this year.