Jordi Fernández isn’t talking about Michael Porter Jr. like a coach hoping for the best. He’s talking like a man who expects the production to show up on time.
“I believe that this year he’s going to come in with the purpose of the team being way more competitive, winning many, many games,” Fernández said, via Sameer Kumar of NBA on SI.
He didn’t stop there.
“In my mind, he should have been an All-Star. He will be an All-Star.”
That’s a strong public vote of confidence, but Porter’s play last season gave Fernández plenty to point to. In his first 38 games with Brooklyn, Porter averaged 25.6 points while shooting 48.2 percent. He still didn’t land on the All-Star roster, yet even getting into that discussion marked another step for a player who spent most of his career in Denver as more of a secondary scoring option.
Of course, the real hurdle is team success. Players on clubs sitting near the bottom of the standings do not often break through into the All-Star mix, no matter how loud the individual numbers get. Fernández is clearly aiming to make that a non-issue.
In Phoenix, Oso Ighodaro isn’t putting much stock in what outsiders think about the Suns.
“From the outside, I would assume probably not much,” Ighodaro told Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic when asked what people expect from Phoenix. “It wasn’t a surprise to us what we did.”
He also made the team’s bigger goal plain: to “compete for a championship.”
Ighodaro played all 82 games last season and averaged 6.5 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists. Now he’s heading into Year 3 in a crowded center group that includes Mark Williams and Khaman Maluach.
He described himself as a possible “connector” on both ends, and Brendan Mau of NBA on SI relayed that he’s been putting in heavy work on his free throws and 3-point shot.
That matters. Ighodaro hit only 45.3 percent from the line last season, and he still hasn’t become a threat from deep.
In Golden State, the Warriors used Tuesday to lock up their final two standard roster spots with Brandon Williams and Georges Niang.
That move leaves LJ Cryer’s two-way deal untouched, though his path to minutes gets tougher. As Joey Akeley of NBA on SI noted, the contract itself isn’t changing - the opportunity around it is.
The guard room is crowded. Stephen Curry, De’Anthony Melton and Brandin Podziemski sit at the top of the rotation, with Williams, Will Richard and Gary Payton II also in the mix. That’s a lot of traffic ahead of Cryer.
He did make a case when given a chance last season, averaging 8.2 points in 18 games while shooting 39.4 percent from three.
Williams adds a different kind of pressure on defenses, especially with his ability to get downhill and create off the dribble.
So Cryer is still in the organization. He just may end up logging a lot more time in Santa Cruz than San Francisco.
In Other News...
Mat Ishbias Suns Future Looks Clearer After Ownership Questions
Recent chatter around Mat Ishbias long-term place in Phoenix has quieted down for now, even after his company reported a sizable second-quarter loss. The Suns owner has continued to operate like someone invested in making the franchise more competitive and more appealing to fans, from keeping key pieces in place to bringing in new talent as the organization tries to build on its current direction.
For a team that has spent plenty of time under a microscope, the stability matters. There had been questions about whether the financial hit elsewhere could create pressure around the Suns, but the latest reporting points the other way, with Ishbia not facing a real threat to give up control at this stage. For Phoenix, the more immediate takeaway is that the ownership picture looks steady enough to keep the focus where it has been - on basketball, roster building and the push to make the arena and the experience around it feel like a destination again. [Read more 🡒]
Oso Ighodaro Faces A Defining Suns Season For His Role
Oso Ighodaro enters this Suns season in a spot that says as much about opportunity as it does about depth. He is still trying to carve out a larger role, and the path is there if he can show he can handle more than one job, including time at forward. For a team constantly balancing fit and flexibility, that kind of versatility matters, especially when the frontcourt is still taking shape around him.
The evaluation is bigger than one players stat line. Phoenix is looking at Ighodaro as someone who could grow into a more meaningful piece if he keeps developing, and his long-term place with the club may come down to how much progress he makes now. The comparison to Ryan Dunn is part of that bigger picture too, since the Suns are sorting through which young pieces look like keepers and which ones may leave the roster looking different before long. [Read more 🡒]
Why The Suns Could Be Set Up For A Real Jump
Phoenix finished the 2025-26 season at 45-37 under Jordan Ott, and the roster looks built to take another step if the pieces mesh the way the front office expects. The Suns kept most of their core intact and added Miles Bridges, Luke Kennard and Koa Peat, giving the group more depth and a different look around its established scorers.
The bigger question is how smoothly those additions settle into the rotation and whether the new mix can cover what changed elsewhere on the roster. There are reasonable pathways for the Suns to move up in the Western Conference picture next season, but the margin will depend on how well the lineup balance comes together when the games start to count. [Read more 🡒]