PHOENIX -- The Phoenix Suns changed course this week in a way they had not really advertised, bringing in Miles Bridges and Luke Kennard and suddenly forcing a new look at how the roster fits together.
Phoenix had made it clear this summer that major roster movement was not the plan. That changed once Bridges arrived and Kennard joined a bench that now looks different after the departures of Grayson Allen and Royce O'Neale.
The result is a roster that already feels more defined at the top and more open in the middle. Bridges gives the Suns a set starting five, while Kennard adds another layer to a second unit that will need to do plenty of work.
One path forward is to lean into depth. The Suns still appear best suited to a regular-season rotation that stretches to 11 or 12 players, with minutes carved out for both Maluach and Ighodaro and different wings rotated in depending on the matchup. That could mean looks for Fleming, Highsmith, Dunn or Peat.
That approach would also give Phoenix a better chance to manage health across the roster.
The moves involving Allen and O'Neale create a clear opening for at least one of the team’s young wings to earn minutes, and that matters for the long-term picture. Fleming looks like the biggest winner there. He stands as the top wing option off the bench and brings a length element on the perimeter that the Suns do not otherwise have.
Even with the new additions, Phoenix still looks like a team that will need to squeeze value out of its bench and keep mixing and matching around the edges. The starting group now has scorers, but it also needs help in areas where the roster is still thin: 3-point shooting, defense and playmaking.
That puts the spotlight on Jordan Ott, who has to find a way to make the pieces work together while keeping the group playing with force on defense.
Last season, injuries made the exact rotation less important than it might have been otherwise. But the Suns still have enough depth to cover for absences when needed. Gillespie, Goodwin, Kennard, Fleming and Ighodaro all profile as players who could start if Phoenix is short-handed in the first unit.
The bottom line is simple: the Suns still have a deep roster, and now they have to use it.
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Brian Gregory has already sounded convinced Peat is wired to make the jump in Phoenix, pointing to the work ethic and coachability that tend to matter once the draft-night buzz fades. For a Suns organization that wants immediate help but also long-term growth, that combination is easy to imagine fitting in quickly, especially if Peat keeps showing the sort of traits that let a young player handle tougher teaching and still keep moving forward. [Read more 🡒]