The Suns’ 3-5 start has put their opening five under a harsh spotlight, and the numbers aren’t doing them any favors. Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks and Devin Booker - the team’s “Big 3” by salary - have posted the worst net +/- differentials per 48 on the roster, and the fit has looked shaky from the jump.
Booker has a history of adjusting his game to whoever is around him, and last season showed he can function next to Brooks. That leaves Green as the clearest issue in the starting group, especially since the Suns’ best performance of the season came in a three-point home win over the Rockets, when Green finished with a team-worst -12 point differential.
The problems go beyond one player. The lineup lacks three-point shooting and spacing, doesn’t have enough size or rebounding, and isn’t bringing enough defense.
It also features turnover-prone players, no true point guard among the starters and no true power forward. Dillon Brooks has apparently lost his edge defensively, Miles Bridges is not really anchoring the four, Khaman Maluach isn’t ready to start, and Mark Williams won’t be back until March.
That leaves the Suns with a bad situation and very few clean answers. They can’t simply bottom out and chase a draft pick, either, because they don’t own their own first-rounder until 2033.
And while it may feel early for a major shake-up, the franchise has gone that route before when things went sideways. After an 0-8 start in the 96-97 season, the Suns fired Cotton Fitzsimmons, brought in Danny Ainge and traded for Jason Kidd before making the playoffs and pushing the top-seeded Sonics to the brink.
So the choices are limited, and they range from uncomfortable to messy.
One path is to do nothing. There’s some logic to that, since last season’s team opened 1-4 and eventually found its footing, and this group has at least shown a little progress if you squint hard enough.
The ball is moving better, the assists are coming at a decent clip, and the team is getting chippy with opponents rather than each other, at least for now. But with the other options looking worse, standing pat might still be the best of a bad set.
Another option is to alter the starting lineup without making a larger move. That could mean replacing Green, Bridges and Maluach with Gillespie, Dunn and Ighodaro in some combination.
Swapping out Maluach for Ighodaro is straightforward enough. The bigger issue is what happens if Green or Bridges gets sent to the bench.
That would leave either $36 million or $22 million in salary sitting there without starting production, and it would likely create frustration and hurt feelings. The Suns already gave up Durant, Allen, O’Neale and a first for two players who could end up on the bench, one of whom is on an expiring deal.
That would be a rough outcome.
The more aggressive route is to trade Green and/or Bridges, but that comes with its own headaches. The roster still doesn’t have a real starting-caliber power forward, since Fleming is not ready, Dunn and Bridges are undersized, and Peat is both. Booker also tends to be at his best alongside defensive, pass-first point guards like Rubio and Chris Paul, which is part of why the Suns keep circling the idea of better play at the point.
The market, though, is thin. Green’s $36 million contract is viewed as a poor one for a starting-caliber shooting guard with a sub-par three-point stroke.
Bridges is an expiring contract the Suns gave up a first-round pick for, and while he is producing near his salary level with 17.3 PPG, 7.0 RPG and 2.8 APG, most teams around the league aren’t eager to deal for a player known for his horrific domestic abuse history. That means the Suns would likely get less talent back than they send out, and salary matching only makes the process harder.
Some players can’t even be traded until later in the year, which narrows the options further.
That timing matters because if the losses keep piling up, by the time January arrives, even a trade may be too late to salvage the season. Gillespie, Goodwin, Williams, Brooks and Ighodaro all can’t be moved for several more months.
Booker is also a concern, since his trade value is likely falling as he gets past 30 and his shooting percentages dip. And with Matt Ishbia ruling out a full teardown, the Suns don’t have the luxury of starting over.
Realistically, the only pieces available for a blockbuster right now are Green, Booker and Bridges.
That is why the cleanest answer may be the ugliest one: try to move Green for help at point guard or power forward. If the Suns land a power forward, Gillespie can start and either Bridges or Brooks can head to the bench, with Brooks as the suggested choice.
If they bring in a point guard, that player likely starts immediately. Green’s play is the biggest red flag of all.
On offense, the ball seems to bring trouble the second it reaches his hands - turnover or hero ball, most of the time. He’s slow to read the floor and doesn’t really run the point.
The data backs that up, too, with DataBallr showing that Booker’s numbers drop across the board when he plays next to Green, making Green the most likely source of the Suns’ early-season problems.
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But any chase for Sabonis comes with a familiar warning for this team: the defense could get even shakier. The Suns already have real problems on that end, and adding a center whose limitations there are well known would put more pressure on the rest of the roster to cover for him. If Dillon Brooks has to be part of the deal, Phoenix would also be giving up one of its more useful defensive pieces, which only makes the fit harder to sort out. [Read more 🡒]
Suns Starting Oso Ighodaro Says A Lot About Their Bigger Dilemma
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Khaman Maluach is part of the same conversation, only from a very different stage of development. His long-term upside is the reason he matters, but the Suns are still asking him to bridge a gap that Ighodaro can cover more comfortably today. For a team trying to balance immediate stability with future projection, the choice to lean on Ighodaro underscores how much work remains before Maluach can be counted on for the same kind of nightly role. [Read more 🡒]
Dillon Brooks Just Gave Rockets Fans Another Reason To Hate This Matchup
Dillon Brooks is already giving the upcoming meeting with Houston a little more edge than your average regular-season game. The Suns forward, who spent time with the Rockets before landing in Phoenix, has been open about the fact that this one means something extra to him, and the backdrop only adds to it with the recent social media back-and-forth involving Kevin Durant and Suns owner Mat Ishbia.
Brooks also addressed Durants subliminal posts tied to Brooks past DUI arrest, a reminder that this matchup has picked up plenty of off-court baggage before the ball is even tipped. For Suns fans, it is another layer to a game that already carried some personal history, and for Houston, it is the kind of return visit that tends to bring a little more heat than usual. [Read more 🡒]