As the SunsRank exercise has rolled along, one thing stands out: Phoenix has depth, at least on paper. The catch is that a lot of that depth is built on young players who still have to prove they can turn upside into production.
If they do, the roster looks a lot sturdier. If they don’t, it doesn’t take much for the whole thing to slide.
Ryan Dunn is a good example of how quickly that can happen. After the Suns were swept out of the playoffs by the Oklahoma City Thunder, the community and writers had him 10th in SunsRank. One summer later, with no real basketball played outside of Las Vegas, he has dropped to 13th in both rankings.
That movement makes more sense once you look at the board. Phoenix brought in new pieces this offseason, and some of them are already being slotted ahead of players who were here before.
But if the question is who is actually better right now, Dunn is being nudged down by Khaman Maluach, Rasheer Fleming, and Koa Peat - all drafted after him in 2024. The Suns have seen two seasons of Dunn now, which means the next step has to come from him.
He has to climb, not coast.
The next group is where the roster starts to feel more settled. These are the pillars - the players expected to give Phoenix a steady floor, keep the second unit organized, and do the jobs that make a team function.
They may not be the stars, but the Suns need them to be dependable. Three of them came back on free agent deals that look like bargains, one arrived in a trade, and another brings value even if the path there isn’t always pretty.
Collin Gillespie is the cleanest example of the Suns’ internal development paying off. He went from a two-way deal in July 2024 to a full NBA contract in July 2025, and now he’s on a four-year, $48 million deal that pays him $10.7 million in 2026-27. It’s an easy story to like, and it has a chance to keep rolling because Gillespie is positioned to help lead the second unit this season.
Jordan Goodwin is right there with him. He signed a three-year, $19 million deal this offseason, with the final year coming in at $6.8 million on a player option.
At 6’3”, he plays much bigger than that. He was second on the team in offensive rebounds per game last season and continues to bring the kind of hard-edged defense that fits the Suns’ second unit.
He gets another chance to build on that this year.
Then there’s Mark Williams, who also re-upped with Phoenix on a new deal this offseason, landing a three-year, $38 million contract after the healthiest season of his career. He played 60 games last season, which was 15 more than he had played in any of his three years with the Charlotte Hornets.
That makes him one of the more interesting players to watch because of the balance he has to strike: Khaman Maluach is waiting behind him, and Williams is likely the fifth option on offense. The question is how he keeps giving Phoenix real value on defense while settling into that smaller scoring role.
Last season suggested he can handle it. The Suns are hoping that holds.
Miles Bridges brings a very different kind of attention. He enters Phoenix as one of the most scrutinized players on the roster, on and off the floor.
The public scrutiny tied to his past legal troubles is not going anywhere, and the cost of acquiring him - especially the 2033 first-round pick - guarantees his play will be under a microscope too. If the basketball doesn’t hold up, the noise only gets louder.
And then there’s Oso Ighodaro, the analytics favorite who seems to help the offense hum whenever he’s on the court. His game still has clear areas for growth, especially on the glass, at the rim, and as a more consistent defensive presence.
Shooting, at this point, probably isn’t part of the package. But he offers enough in other areas to matter.
Like Mitchell Robinson, he doesn’t need to shoot to make an impact.
In Other News...
Dillon Brooks Added An Unexpected Twist To His Suns Offseason Work
Dillon Brooks offseason routine took an unexpected turn before he even got back into NBA work, with the Suns sharing that he spent part of the summer training in Kung Fu. The setting alone stood out, and so did the fit: the Wudang Mountains in China are tied to a style built around discipline and body control, two traits that can only add another layer to a player whose game has long been defined by edge, strength and relentless physicality.
Brooks is coming off a career-best NBA season, which already gave Phoenix reason to believe it had added a veteran wing with plenty left in the tank. Now hes folding martial arts into the mix as part of his offseason routine, an unusual wrinkle that makes sense for a player looking to sharpen his body control while keeping the competitive fire that makes him who he is. [Read more 🡒]
Suns Face A High-Stakes Booker Decision In Potential Guard Upgrade
Phoenix has spent plenty of time looking for a cleaner answer at point guard, and any move that upgrades the backcourt next to Devin Booker would naturally get attention. In that kind of search, the Suns would be weighing not just fit but future flexibility, especially if the trade market is built around a team with limited draft capital and a need to think carefully about roster balance.
One speculative scenario floating around would send the Suns a proven guard option while asking them to part with a pair of young players from the edge of the rotation. For Phoenix, the appeal is obvious: a steadier table-setter to ease the burden on Booker. The question is whether the cost is too steep for a team still trying to thread the needle between win-now pressure and long-term depth. [Read more 🡒]
Suns Suddenly Have A New Center Question Fans Will Love
The Suns center room looks a lot more stable after bringing Mark Williams back into the fold, and that alone changes the conversation around the roster. Williams gives Phoenix a true interior presence with rim protection, rebounding and easy finishing around the basket, the kind of profile that can quietly reshape how a team defends and how it plays around its guards.
But the intrigue does not stop with one familiar name. Phoenix also has Khaman Maluach and Oso Ighodaro in the mix, which gives the frontcourt a different kind of depth than most teams carry, and Maluach in particular has already flashed the sort of athletic upside that makes the Suns long-term picture harder to pin down. The real question now is less about whether Phoenix has enough size and more about how the rotation sorts itself out once the competition at center starts for real. [Read more 🡒]