Three games into the new NBA season, the Phoenix Suns are already dealing with plenty. Their defense has been the league’s worst, and the locker room leaks to NBA Insider Chris Haynes point to a team under pressure. What the Suns clearly need is stability at point guard, but former Sun Ty Jerome is not the fix.
Jerome is easy enough for Suns fans to look at and wonder about. He spent 31 games in Phoenix as a rookie, and now he’s opening the season as one of the league’s hottest players, averaging 25.8 points and 5.6 assists for the Memphis Grizzlies. Those are exactly the kinds of numbers and steady hands the Suns could use right now.
But the idea that Phoenix simply let him slip away misses the bigger picture. Jerome was part of the package that brought Chris Paul to the Suns, a move that helped lead to an NBA Finals appearance. At the time, Oklahoma City wanted as many assets and picks as possible, and Jerome was the sort of piece that fit that kind of trade.
That’s the heart of it: Jerome was never in line to be a long-term Suns piece while they were trying to win. Even if he had stayed around longer, he still likely would have been moved again to improve the roster or stuck at the end of the bench. When the Suns later flipped Paul for Bradley Beal - or, as the piece puts it, the Jordan Goodwin trade - Jerome could easily have been included there too.
Now 29, Jerome needed time with the Thunder, Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Grizzlies to become who he is today. If Phoenix had kept him and let him learn on the job, that would have meant the Suns weren’t really contending at the time. That’s a much worse outcome than what actually happened.
It also explains why the Suns can be patient with 20-year-old center Khaman Maluach now. They have no better option, so the development path looks different.
If Phoenix were back in contention and Maluach could be the last piece to push them through, they’d make that move. They did the same kind of thing with Jerome years ago, which is why revisiting what might have been is mostly a wasted exercise.
In Other News...
Suns Enter Nuggets Matchup With A Problem Fans Can Feel
The Suns head into their matchup with Denver carrying a roster issue that has been hard to ignore, and it is the kind of problem fans can spot even before tipoff. NBA insider Chris Haynes reported internal frustration over the lack of a true point guard, a concern that has hovered around the team as it tries to find a steadier rhythm on offense.
Phoenix will also have to manage that issue while dealing with another absence, with starting center Mark Williams sidelined. Denver brings its own injury questions into the game, listing two players as questionable and two out, and the Nuggets have a little extra incentive with a chance to move their record above .500. [Read more 🡒]
Suns Already Have A Defensive Problem They Can't Ignore
The early returns on defense have been rough enough to demand attention, and the Suns have spent recent practices trying to clean up the issues before they harden into a bigger problem. Through the first three games of the season, Phoenix has sat last in defensive rating and has allowed opponents to shoot the highest three-point percentage in the league, a troubling start for a team that knows it cannot afford to give away easy looks.
Jordan Ott and the players have made the focus clear: better effort, sharper communication and more physical play on that end of the floor. Dillon Brooks, Miles Bridges and Khaman Maluach have all acknowledged the need for improvement, and the timing matters with the Denver Nuggets up next, a matchup that will quickly show whether the Suns' defensive emphasis is starting to stick. [Read more 🡒]
Suns Have Reached A Devin Booker Debate Fans Dread
The Suns have reached the kind of uneasy place where even a star like Devin Booker can become part of the conversation around what comes next. With the team struggling and the locker room already described as unsettled, the noise around Phoenix has grown loud enough that outside voices are now floating ideas that would have sounded unthinkable not long ago. One of those came from Bill Simmons, who suggested on his podcast that a Booker-for-Bam Adebayo swap could help both Phoenix and Miami.
It is the sort of debate Suns fans dread because it forces a hard look at where the franchise stands right now and what kind of reset might actually make sense. Booker remains the face of the team, but the broader question is whether Phoenix can keep building around him as constructed, or whether the pressure around the roster has reached a point where even a player of his stature gets dragged into trade speculation. For now, there is no official move or confirmation, just a conversation that says plenty about how far the Suns have fallen into uncertainty. [Read more 🡒]