Two-way battle for Suns' backup point guard spot has obvious winner

The Phoenix Suns have remade their roster this offseason, but the point guard position - as has so often been the case in recent seasons - still remains a long-term problem. The rumors right now have Jalen Green beginning the campaign running the point, despite never playing that position before and being a borderline elite scoring talent.

The Suns do also have Devin Booker - who they for some reason continue to try and shoehorn into the playmaking position - despite the fact he clearly does his best work off the ball in the same way Green does. The franchise did finally make a pair of roster moves last week to solve this issue in the short-term, with Jordan Goodwin returning and Jared Butler in the door not long after him.

Goodwin is going to win battle for backup point guard role.

The belief now is that - assuming the Green news is legit - he will start the season as the point guard, with Collin Gillespie as his backup. This is a role Gillespie deserves after an excellent season last year, one of the few bright spots who played his heart out on a two-way contract every time he was with the team.

Having Goodwin and Butler battle it out for the third spot is excellent because it means there will be an edge to training camp from the jump. The Suns are trying to build a younger and more defensive-minded roster, and having these two going at it will ramp the competition up from day one. Unfortunately for Butler however, Goodwin is going to win that battle.

He's still only 26-years-old and has already had a stint with the Suns in which he didn't fit on that version of the roster, but still had some nice performances when given the chance. He then went to the Los Angeles Lakers and had an even greater impact there, being the hard-nosed defender at the one who provided a spark off the bench not with his scoring, but that desire to compete.

Also working in Goodwin's favor is the fact he shot over 38 percent from deep in Los Angeles, by far a career high. There's just no downside to having him push Gillespie for a bigger role, and you could make the case he has been unfortunate in the teams he has landed with since being included in the Bradley Beal trade.

Neither the Suns or the Lakers needed a more traditional point guard when he was on each roster. In Phoenix it was because they had Beal, Booker and Kevin Durant, which is why even Tyus Jones struggled. With the Lakers they had LeBron James and later Luka Doncic, so there's nothing else to be said there.

Butler is two years younger than Goodwin and has been a more consistent 3-point shooter for his career, although he's never reached 38 percent in a single campaign. He's already played for four teams and the longest tenure he's had was a 60 game spell across two seasons with the Wizards. It seems unfair to ding Butler for this, but he's failed to stick in several rebuilding situations.

It may be that Butler comes in and is too good to ignore, but the smart money is on Goodwin here. The Suns are a lot younger and will need some veterans to lead the way, which is another tick in the box of Goodwin. It will be a fascinating battle that will unfortunately play out behind closed doors, but there is only going to be one winner.