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Welcome to Inside the Suns, your weekly deep-down analysis of the current Phoenix Suns team. Each week the Fantable — a round table of Bright Siders — give their takes on the Suns’ latest issues and news.
Fantable Questions of the Week
Q1: After returning from injury, Jalen Green’s offensive production for February has been underwhelming. 15 ppg, 35.3 FG%, 23.7 3PT%, 60 FT% on 12 FGAs per game. What are your thoughts on this?
GuarGuar: I don’t think he’s best as a #1 option, which is what he’s had to be these past few games with all the injuries. He’s also been injured literally all season and it was a hamstring reinjury, so I’ll give him some grace to come back to form. He’s gotta get used to NBA action again and regain that confidence in his body.
Ashton: Can you imagine being Jalen Green right now? He finally returns to the court, looks around, and there is an M.A.S.H. unit sitting on the bench. If we see “Hawkeye” (Alan Alda – not Marvel) on the bench, then I know the Suns are in trouble.
Between having work off some of the rust, he just does not have the starting player support needed to get those percentages up. The bench players and rookies are not going to help. But GA spotting up for a three or Book pulling double teams while making timely passing decisions would. Brooks doing his usual bullying thing would seriously help.
Sure, there is a bit of concern about the FT percentage, but that can be fixed. A broken and hobbled starter squad cannot. I would not read too much into it.
OldAz: He has not been on the court with these teammates all season, and now he has to be the focal point of the offense with the normal #1 and #3 options missing. On top of that, he has to do it without the needed practice time to even figure out what that offense looks like. And finally, he is supposed to do it while working himself back into game shape. One for finally, the pressure of fan expectations (based on his salary and a couple tantalizing games when Book and Brooks were playing) has to make every miss feel like the hole is a foot deeper. I believe he will work his way through this, but it is not going to be quick or easy.
Rod: It’s frustrating for fans, and I’m sure it is for him too. The team has recently been devastated by injuries that have left him in the position of trying to carry much of the scoring load instead of being eased back into the rotation after returning from his own injury, which already caused him to miss the bulk of this season. We already knew he wasn’t an especially efficient scorer, which has been very apparent lately as he’s been relied on way to much at this point.
He’s certainly not a perfect player, far from it, but he’s better than what we’ve seen lately. At full or even half-strength, I believe this team is good enough to cover for each other’s flaws, but, as it is now, those flaws are going to stand out even more and we’ve been seeing a lot more of those lately from more players than just Jalen.
Q2: Dillon Brooks’ broken hand will likely cause him to be out for 4-6 weeks, meaning that it is possible for him to miss all of the Suns’ remaining games. If that happens, do you believe that the Suns will finish the regular season with a record good enough to qualify for the play-in games?
GuarGuar: Barring absolute catastrophe, I think we are locked into the Play-In game. Unfortunately, with this injury, I think it’s really tough for us to finish higher than 7th and not have to play in the Play-In. We’d need to really get hot starting in March when Booker gets back. Hopefully, Brooks comes back sooner than expected. His toughness is much needed on this squad.
Ashton: I was a real proponent of the Suns taking the sixth seed. Now? It is time for a major revision. The two-way players are not going to be able to play much longer, and the rookies really just have not developed in the NBA, though they are doing fine in the G League.
To be honest, what a rotten turn of events for the Suns and their fans. Even if some of the starters outside of Brooks return, what remains is the question of how long they can stay healthy. I will take the under, but the over that Book can sell more shoes.
With all that said, I am not all doom-and-gloom. The Suns will need to lose a lot of games to fall out of the tenth seed. They have a six-game lead over the Clippers as of Tuesday afternoon.
I think the Suns will go dancing. Is it March Madness yet?
OldAz: I write this on Monday night, and the Suns have an 11-game cushion on the 11th-place Grizz with 24 to play. Those same Grizzlies are 14 games under .500 and on pace to win 31 games (the Suns have 33 currently). I am not sure I am prepared to contemplate this question further, as that would be an all-time collapse by the hometown team.
Rod: While I don’t think this is likely, I do believe there’s a small possibility of it happening, depending upon the health of the rest of the team…and how determined the teams currently below 10th in the West are to tank the rest of the season. With Brooks out for all of the rest of the regular season, I see it as pretty difficult for the Suns to stay put as the 7th seed, and could drop well down the play-in ladder though. At this point, I’m just hoping that they can avoid falling to 9th or 10th, where they would have to win two play-in games just to get into the playoffs.
Q3: With the recent rash of injuries, rookies Khaman Maluach and Rasheer Fleming have gotten some meaningful rotation minutes. Do you believe they proved that they’re ready for more, even when the team gets healthy again?
GuarGuar: I don’t know if they can crack the rotation yet when everyone is fully healthy (if that ever happens again this season haha), but I have liked what I’ve seen from them recently. Man Man had some bright stretches during that Portland game and Rasheer is beginning to look a tad more comfortable offensively. I still doubt they would be in the rotation come play-in/playoff time, though.
Ashton: No. This is probably the short answer, but they just have not been given the time to develop the minutes against NBA caliber players.
If this were a buy/sell question, I would sell. Maybe we will change the title of Inside the Suns to ‘Around the Suns Horn’ article.
Suns are going to lose some games in the immediate future (please beat the Lakers, and I will call it a win during the injury stretch), and the best-case scenario is that Fleming and KM get some decent development minutes for the future.
But for now, I will keep my expectations low.
OldAz: I thought this about Fleming the last time he got meaningful minutes and held his own, but alas, those minutes dried up pretty quick. Player development takes commitment, and I am hoping these injuries force the Suns to make a little (or a lot) more of this necessary commitment. I wouldn’t mind seeing KM get some more minutes too, but it seems to me that with Brooks out, Dunn and Fleming combining for 40+ minutes a night would not be a bad thing, even if the growing pains cost them a few wins in a stretch where they were likely to struggle anyway.
Rod: Not just yet. What I have seen from them lately in encouraging though and, hopefully, they’ll show that even more as they’re given more court time until the team heals up. And I do believe they’re now at the point where, even with the team fully healthy, it’s really worth taking a chance on putting them in under certain circumstances, particularly when the Suns are facing bigger teams whose size is creating problems for them.
As always, many thanks to our Fantable members for all their extra effort this week!
Quotes of the Week
“We do have to find ways to turn teams over, and a lot of that’s Goodie (Jordan Goodwin), so we’re going to have to find ways to manufacture it. That’s a big piece of what we do.” – Jordan Ott
“Especially with those guys being out (Book, Brooks, Goodwin), everybody has got to be aggressive to get open looks, take the open drive and knock down open shots.” – Royce O’Neale
“We’re 30th in free throws differential since February 1. We can’t get to the free throw line, cant get their rim.” – Jordan Ott
“When he (Dillon Brooks) first found out (that his hand was broken), he was probably disappointed. The next morning I think he was in here shooting with one hand. He’s crazy, but that’s who he is. That’s how hard he works and a testament to him as a player and a person. He’s special in that way.” – Collin Gillespie
“Everybody has got to have a little grace. He (Jalen Green) has been out for three quarters of the season. It’s not an easy thing to do to just insert yourself back into the lineup and be able to just play at that level or play at the speed of the game. I have a ton of grace for him because I’ve been through that where I missed a whole year. He’s missed like three quarters of the season. It’s not easy and he’s done an incredible job of just fitting in seamlessly. It’s been pretty cool to see.” – Collin Gillespie
Suns Trivia/History
On February 27, 1972, the Suns’ 6’1″ rookie reserve guard Mo Layton led all scorers with a career high 37 points to fuel a Suns 127-125 come-from-behind victory over the Cavaliers in Cleveland. It was the single 30+ point game of Layton’s 5-year NBA career. He only played for the Suns for two seasons, averaging a modest 8.2 ppg before being waived by the Suns before the beginning of the 1973-74 season. He also spent a short time that year playing for the ABA’s Memphis Tams under his former Suns head coach, Butch van Breda Kolff. Coach van Breda Kolff owns the dubious distinction of having the shortest tenure ever as a Suns head coach after he was fired just 7 games into the 1972-73 season.
On March 3, 1993, the 41-13 Phoenix Suns – as expected – defeated the 19-35 Philadelphia 76ers 125-115 in Phoenix. The one unexpected thing during that game was 76ers backup center, 7’7″ Manute Bol, who was mostly known only for his shot blocking, making 6 three pointers, 2 more than the entire Suns team. Suns forward Charles Barkley was both amazed and amused by it all.
On March 6, 2019, Devin Booker became the youngest player ever to make 500 3-Point Field Goals at 22 years, 127 days.
On March 6, 2020, Suns’ backup center Aron Baynes scored 37 points, gathered 16 rebounds, and recorded 2 blocks while making 9 of 14 shots (64.3%) from three while taking over for injured starting center Deandre Ayton in a 127-117 home win over the Portland Trail Blazers. In NBA history, no one else had ever done all of those things in one game.
This Week’s Game Schedule
Thursday, Feb 26 – Suns vs Los Angeles Lakers (7:00 pm)
Tuesday, March 3 – Suns @ Sacramento Kings (9:00 pm) Peacock
This Week’s Valley Suns Game Schedule
Thursday, Feb 26. Valley Suns vs South Bay Lakers (7:00 pm) ESPN+
Saturday, Feb 28 – Valley Suns @ Texas Legends (6:30 pm)
Monday, March 2 – Valley Suns vs Salt Lake City Stars (6:30 pm) Prime Video
Important Future Dates
March 1 – Playoff eligibility waiver deadline
March 4 – Final day to sign players to two-way contracts
March 28 – NBA G League Regular Season ends
March 31 – 2026 NBA G League Playoffs begin
April 12 – Regular season ends (All 30 teams play)
April 13 – Rosters set for NBA Playoffs 2026 (3 p.m. ET)
April 14-17 – SoFi NBA Play-In Tournament
April 18 – NBA Playoffs begin