The Phoenix Suns have opened the preseason with a small but telling rotation detail: Ryan Dunn is getting the first crack.
Through the team’s first two exhibition games, Dunn has checked in before Rasheer Fleming in the opening wave of substitutions. Against the Pistons on Monday, Dunn entered for Dillon Brooks with 3:41 left in the first quarter. Against the Bulls on Wednesday, he came in with 3:46 remaining in the first.
That doesn’t automatically mean the regular season will look the same, but it does suggest Jordan Ott is at least giving Dunn a clear chance to show he belongs in the early-season mix when Phoenix opens on October 23 against the Portland Trail Blazers.
The logic is pretty straightforward. Dunn is a third-year wing whose fourth-year option was recently picked up, so this is the time to find out whether there’s real growth coming after two seasons that looked almost identical. He didn’t take a major step forward last year so much as hold steady, and the kind of leap the Suns were hoping for never really arrived.
The free throw shooting remains the glaring issue. That part hasn’t changed.
Still, the Suns are treating this as an opportunity, not a verdict. Dunn has been deployed with the second unit, where Collin Gillespie and Luke Kennard give the group real spacing. That matters because Dunn’s value comes from fitting into that kind of lineup: defending hard, disrupting possessions, and letting the shooters around him handle more of the scoring load.
If the shot comes along, the whole picture changes fast. Suddenly Dunn looks like a real two-way piece, and the Suns have a rotation player who can stay on the floor.
So far, the early preseason signs have been encouraging on the defensive end. Dunn has shown the same instincts he displayed at the University of Virginia, and he and Jordan Goodwin have made life difficult for opposing offenses with their energy and activity.
The one thing still missing is the three-ball. Dunn is 0-of-3 from deep through the first two preseason games.
Even so, it would be a surprise if Phoenix stopped giving him chances once the games start counting. He may get fewer minutes as the preseason rolls on and Fleming gets more run, but Dunn appears to have the inside track for now.
And that’s the point. The Suns are giving Dunn a shot to prove he can hold that spot.
Fleming is there behind him if he doesn’t. That kind of depth is useful only if somebody turns it into production.
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