Player Preview: Haywood Highsmith’s role looks to stay the same

Every day, we’ll take a closer look at another member of the 2026-27 Phoenix Suns, examining what they bring to the roster and what their role could mean for the season ahead as we count down to training camp and the preseason.

Forward, 6’5″, 220 lbs, 29, 7th season

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The last edition to the 2025-2026 Phoenix Suns roster, Haywood Highsmith wasn’t able to find his groove as a member of the Phoenix Suns, dealing with injuries before and during his first season with the team. Signing with Phoenix during the NBA All-Star break, his acquisition was viewed by local experts as an insurance policy in case the team lost any forwards during the offseason.

While the team traded away two of their main forwards from the past few seasons in Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale, acquiring Miles Bridges and drafting Koa Peat puts Highsmith as a reserve who will get minutes in the waning moments of blowouts, or if a forward ahead of him on the depth chart suffers an injury.

On a non-guaranteed deal until January 10th, he’ll have to earn his spot on the roster with a strong training camp and preseason.

Last Season

Highsmith played in just seven games for the Suns in the regular season and appeared in two postseason games, coming off the bench in all of them. The team signed him while he was recovering from meniscus surgery and it limited him and forced the team to sit him out games after he returned. Playing more than 15 minutes just three times in his ten total games including the playoffs last year, his best game came against the Boston Celtics back in March when he scored 16 points and hit four threes. Amid on low-efficiency, he hit 57.1% of his triples on a small sample size.

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With Rasheer Fleming emerging as primary backup forward once Ryan Dunn’s minutes started to decrease, Highsmith’s value to the team diminished before he even played a game with Phoenix. He played more than 13 minutes just three times in his appearances.

A member and a key contributor to the 2022-2023 Miami Heat team that made a miraculous Finals run as an eighth seed, Highsmith didn’t score a single point and took two shots in his eleven…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/player-preview-haywood-highsmith-role-120000550.html

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Publish date : 2026-09-14 12:00:00

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