Ranking the Suns’ most important rotation players

As we’ve gone through the SunsRank exercise, I think one thing has become clear. This team has depth, at least on paper. Much of that depth is rooted in young players who still have to live up to their potential. If they do, that depth becomes real. The goal is to keep developing and avoid plateauing, because if you don’t, it doesn’t take much to start slipping down the rankings.

Ryan Dunn is a perfect example. At the end of last season, after the Suns were swept out of the playoffs by the Oklahoma City Thunder, the consensus between the community and the writers had Dunn ranked 10th overall in SunsRank. Now, after one summer without any real basketball being played outside of Las Vegas, he has fallen to 13th in both the community and writers rankings.

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2025-26 SunRank

Community SunsRank

Writers SunsRank

9

Royce O’Neale

Khaman Maluach

Oso Ighodaro

10

Ryan Dunn

Rasheer Fleming

Khaman Maluach

11

Rasheer Fleming

Luke Kennard

Rasheer Fleming

12

Khaman Maluach

Haywood Highsmith

Koa Peat

13

Haywood Highsmith

Koa Peat

Ryan Dunn

14

Jamaree Bouyea

Ryan Dunn

Haywood Highsmith

15

Koby Brea

Pat Spencer

Jamaree Bouyea

16

Amir Coffey

Jamaree Bouyea

Pat Spencer

17

Isaiah Livers

CJ Huntley

CJ Huntley

18

CJ Huntley

Koby Brea

Koby Brea

There are a multitude of reasons why this can happen. First and foremost, the Suns made changes this offseason, and some of the players they acquired are being ranked ahead of those who were already here. But when we use the subjective term “best” and ask who is actually better than Ryan Dunn on this roster, the movement starts to make a little more sense. Ahead of him are Khaman Maluach, Rasheer Fleming, and Koa Peat, all players drafted after Dunn in 2024. We’ve seen Dunn for two seasons now, and we believe we have a better idea of what his ceiling might be. So it’s on him to climb back up the rankings through performance and progression rather than plateauing like he did last season.

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Now we turn our attention to The Pillars, the reliable rotation players who will provide stability and help hold this roster together. They might not be the stars, but the Suns need them to consistently do their jobs if this team wants to reach…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/ranking-suns-most-important-rotation-120000393.html

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Publish date : 2026-09-07 12:00:00

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