Jordan Ott’s first few games in Phoenix have made one thing painfully clear: the Suns’ small-ball lineups are not living up to the hype, but they’re also not a pure coaching choice.
That distinction matters. Phoenix has leaned into smaller groupings because Mark Williams and Oso Ighodaro are injured, leaving the Suns without a seven-footer and a 6’10” big man who would otherwise be part of the rotation.
So when Miles Bridges shows up at center, it isn’t because Ott is chasing some ideal five-out blueprint. It’s because he has to patch together a frontcourt with what’s available.
And the early returns have been ugly in plenty of spots. The starting five of Booker, Brooks, Bridges, Green, and Khaman Maluach has spent 37 minutes together and posted a net rating of -35.5, along with an offensive rating of 94.7. That’s not a lineup finding its rhythm; that’s a group struggling to function together at all.
The most extreme example is the Collins Gillespie-Jalen Green-Devin Booker-Dillon Brooks-Miles Bridges five. In just 6 minutes over 2 games, that unit has been outscored badly enough to produce a net rating of -105.2. That number is hard to wrap your head around, but it’s right there.
Still, the story is a little more complicated than “small ball doesn’t work.” Phoenix’s second-most-used five-man lineup actually looks much better.
Collin Gillespie, Jordan Goodwin, Luke Kennard, Miles Bridges, and Ryan Dunn have logged meaningful minutes, and the results have been strong: an offensive rating of 131.8, a defensive rating of 100.0, and a net rating of +31.8. That’s a small lineup, too.
So the criticism can’t just stop at the size of the lineup. The Suns have already shown that one smaller group can produce, even if the bigger picture remains messy.
Rasheer Fleming is the obvious name some people will throw out as a fix, but that case gets flimsy fast. He’s 6’9”, which still leaves him undersized against opposing centers.
He also spent parts of the preseason working through spacing and positioning issues, and asking him to absorb even more responsibility at the five would be a leap. The numbers back that up, too: when Fleming has played as the small-ball five with Gillespie, Goodwin, Bridges, and Dunn, that group has posted an offensive rating of 33.3 and a net rating of -36.7 in five minutes.
There’s no sugarcoating the state of the team. The Suns have real problems, and small ball has not been a clean answer through the first three games.
But the context is too important to ignore. Phoenix is short on centers, the starters have not played well together, and at least one small lineup has actually worked.
Jordan Ott can be criticized, sure. He just can’t be blamed for pretending the roster is something it isn’t. The real test will come when the Suns have more personnel choices available and can make these decisions because they want to, not because they have no other option.
In Other News...
Suns Suddenly Have Real Trade Leverage With West Contender
Oklahoma Citys 4-0 start has done little to ease the strain of losing Jalen Williams and Cason Wallace for the long haul, and that reality has quietly created an opening for Phoenix. The Thunder have the kind of depth and ambition that usually keeps them in the market for help, and from the Suns point of view, that makes a couple of their rotation pieces suddenly look more valuable than they did a week ago.
Ryan Dunn and Jordan Goodwin fit the sort of profile a contender can talk itself into when injuries start to squeeze the margins, especially if Oklahoma City wants to patch specific holes without reshaping its core. For Phoenix, the bigger point is not that a deal is close, but that a team with clear needs and an obvious timeline has given the Suns real leverage if those conversations keep moving. [Read more 🡒]
Suns Are Already Wasting Devin Bookers Best Work
Through three games, the Suns have already leaned hard on Devin Bookers scoring to keep themselves afloat, and that has become its own early-season storyline in Phoenix. At 1-2, the bigger issue is not Bookers output, but how often the team seems to be asking him to cover for a roster and rotation that do not always make his job easier.
The criticism around the Suns has quickly turned toward roster construction and coaching choices, with outside voices pointing to recent trades and lineup tweaks that appear to have pulled them away from the formula that worked better last season. For a team built around Bookers prime years, the concern is obvious: if this is the way the opening stretch looks, it raises the question of whether Phoenix is making the most of its best player at the very moment it can least afford to waste him. [Read more 🡒]
Suns Are Feeling Oso Ighodaros Absence More Than Expected
Oso Ighodaros oblique injury has become more than a temporary lineup note for the Suns. The second-round pick has been out with no clear return date, and the effects have shown up in ways that go beyond the box score, with Phoenix losing some of the extra ball movement and defensive activity he helped provide. His value has been tied as much to organization and versatility as to any scoring output, which is part of why his absence has been noticeable.
What has stood out is how much the Suns leaned on Ighodaro as a connective piece on both ends. His absence has come with drops in assist and steal percentages, a sign that Phoenix has missed his ability to facilitate offense and switch defensively across different matchups. For a team that wants flexible, reliable minutes from every spot on the floor, replacing that kind of presence is not as simple as plugging in another body. [Read more 🡒]