Suns Reacts: The Suns are moving pieces around, and fans seem on board

Despite being the Suns’ first and third leaders in starts this season, fans do mind seeing Royce O’Neale (67 starts) and Collin Gillespie (58 starts) coming off the bench as postseason play gets closer. Both were put in the second unit for last Sunday’s game against the Bulls, and Gillespie only started yesterday’s game against the Lakers because the team had multiple guards out, including Devin Booker, Jalen Green, and Jordan Goodwin.

In a recent poll, 62% of the community believed moving Gillespie to the bench unit was the right move.

O’Neale coming off the bench had much more traction, as on 33% believe he should be part of the Suns’ starting five.

I’m not surprised that fans want both to come off the bench despite them both starting the majority of the season. Phoenix has struggled in its last 16 games, going 5-11, with Gillespie especially playing some of his least inefficient basketball of the season. He’s shooting 25% in his past five games, shooting 32% from the field, and as a result, is playing less.

Advertisement

In the past few weeks, both Mark Williams and Dillon Brooks have returned from injury. When the two were healthy earlier in the season, Green wasn’t. Brooks, Green, and Booker have only played ten games this season together, so it was inevitable that either Gillespie, O’Neale, or both were going to be sent to the second unit once all of them were healthy. Brooks and O’Neale both play the power forward spot, and Brooks is the better scorer and more versatile player, so if a spot in the starting lineup came down to the two of them, Brooks would and should get it. At least with Gillespie, he’s the team’s best true point guard, a role that neither Booker nor Jalen Green purely plays.

For a team that has struggled with staying healthy this season, O’Neale and Gillespie have been some of the team’s healthiest players. Only Oso Ighodaro has played more games this season; he’s played in every single one of the team’s games so far. As a result, they were going to be leading the team in starts.

Something needs to change for the Suns, not just for the playoffs, but for the…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/suns-reacts-suns-moving-pieces-230000803.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-04-11 23:00:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.