Around the Suns - A Go On My Suns! blog - Week 19

Join us as we review the highs and lows of the last week for the Phoenix Suns, as well as previewing the week ahead.

Week 19: 23 February - 1 March

Week Record: 1-1

Overall Record: 34-26. 7th in the Western Conference.

Games Played and Results:

L - 81 - 97 Vs Boston Celtics

W - 113 - 110 Vs LA Lakers

Centre of The Sun

Injuries are still the main topic for the Suns.

Dillon had surgery on his broken hand last week and will be out 4-6 weeks. They likely brings him back just before or during the Play-in tournament, which is where it looks like we're heading.

Jordan Goodwin is also still out with the calf strain he picked up against Orlando on 21st February. His original re-evaluation timeframe was 1-2 weeks, which would be some point this week.

Book's re-evaluation of his hip injury was yesterday and great news, he is back in the line-up for our game against the Kings. He'll bring some much needed punch on our struggling offense.

We also found out that new signing Haywood Highsmith will be available for the Kings match-up. He'd been out while still resting his injured knee, which has held him out all season.

Our matchup with Boston was, well a game. It was bloody awful wasn't it?! We looked terrible for the 2nd game in a row and shows how important Booker is to this team. You need to also include Dillon and Jordan as well, as they are the tone setters on our team. Our usual effort just wasn't there at all and it's best to put this one behind us.

And put it behind them they did, as we took on the Lakers. I'm sure you've all seen the sweet, sweet game winner by Royce, but we played well all game. The Suns know that they can outwork the Lakers and we did that again here.

Now knowing that Booker is back, this was a fantastic performance for the role players to get their confidence back after the previous game's struggles.

Allen was excellent in this one, being our driving force, finishing with 28 points and of course his drive set up that game winner,

Other Suns Stuff

Roster Updates

3 weeks after the trade that brought in Amir Coffey and Cole Anthony, Anthony was finally waived. Gambo had been reported since the trade that this would be the outcome for Cole, but it's taken a while. I think this has been to-do with money because Cole release freed up a roster spot.

The Suns used that free spot by rightfully rewarding Jamaree Bouyea and converting his two-way contract to a standard NBA contract. According to reports, it's a multi-year deal seeing him signed till the end of next season, which is the same sort of deal Highsmith also reportedly signed.

With Jamaree now being on a standard contract, it meant the Suns also had room to sign another player to a two-way contract. Unsurprisingly, they signed CJ Huntley, who they'd signed on the same deal in the off season. He was released to make room, funnily enough, for Jamaree earlier in the season, but has been playing for the Valley Suns this year.

Superstar Watch (Season stats):

Devin Booker - 24.7 Points, 3.9 Rebounds, 6.1 Assists, 0.9 Steals, 45.4 FG%, 30.8 3PT FG% & 3.3 Turnovers

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Scorching Suns:

Collin Gillespie

Collin led the team in scoring for both our games this week, topped by 21 points against the Lakers.

His stats for the week:

18.0 Points, 3.0 Rebounds, 3.0 Assists, 0.5 Steals, 0.5 Blocks, 54.2 FG% & 52.9 3PT FG%

Ryan Dunn

A starter this week because of the injuries, Ryan looked to be back to his pre-Christmas form, but his shooting the 3 with the most confidence we've seen from him.

His stats for the week:

10.0 Points, 5.0 Rebounds, 1.5 Assists, 0.5 Steals, 61.5 FG% & 80.0 3PT FG%

Struggling Suns:

Jalen Green

It's been a rocky start to Jalen's full integration after injury. Understandably he has some rust and I guarantee he would look better in the role he'd have if Book was in the line-up.

He was better in the Boston and Laker games, but I haven't been impressed with his shot selection. Missing shots I don't mind, but taking bad shots is all on him.

His stats for the week:

11.0 Points, 3.5 Rebounds, 1.0 Assists, 0.5 Steals, 27.3 FG%, 13.3 3PT FG% & Plus/Minus -17.5

Stat Line(s) of the Week:

Grayson Allen Vs LA Lakers

At a glance the shooting numbers don't wow you, but if you watched the game you will have seen how invaluable Grayson was. His 3rd quarter was amazing, as he scored 16 on 5 of 6 shooting overall and 4 of 5 from 3.

If you've watched him since Book went out, he's clearly been asked to keep shooting, no matter what his percentages look like and it's great the Ott has that much faith in him. There also hasn't really been many other options.

Game stat line:

28 Points, 1 Rebound, 6 Assists, 1 Steal, 1 Block, 9/24 FGs (37.5%) & 6/16 3PT FGs (37.5%)

Collin Gillespie Vs LA Lakers

Game stat line:

21 Points, 3 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 1 Block, 7/13 FGs (53.8%) & 6/11 3PT FGs (54.5%)

Rookie Watch (Season stats):

Thanks to the injuries, the Rookies saw more minutes this week, All 3 got time against Boston, with Rasheer getting 20 minutes in each game and showing some huge potential in the way he defended LeBron and grabbed 3 offensive boards.

Khaman Maluach - 26 games, 0 starts

1.8 Points, 1.6 Rebounds, 0.1 Assists, 0.1 Steals, 0.4 Blocks, 47.4 FG%, 20.0 3PT FG% & 0.5 Turnovers

Rasheer Fleming - 34 games, 0 starts

2.8 Points, 1.5 Rebounds, 0.2 Assists, 0.3 Steals, 0.2 Blocks, 35.7 FG%, 27.6 3PT FG% & 0.4 Turnovers

Koby Brea - 5 games

3.2 Points, 0.4 Rebounds, 0.6 Assists, 0.0 Steals, 0.0 Blocks, 55.6 FG%, 57.1 3PT FG% & 0.0 Turnovers

Upcoming Games:

The NBA schedule Gods have rewarded us this week with a bunch of struggling teams, well, accept Charlotte, who have been on a huge rise in 2026.

The Kings recently lost 16 games in a row and have therefore lost 18 of their last 20. They've been decimated by injuries and they're just the Kings, doing Kings things.

The Bulls are in re-built mode after trading away all their key players. They've just ended an 11-game losing streak and will have just faced OKC before facing us. We'll get to see Nick Richards in his 1st visit back to Phoenix since the trade deadline.

The Pelicans have won 4 of their 6 games since the All-Star break. Zion is currently questionable going into this week with an ankle injury, but he could be available by the time they face us.

Charlotte have won 4 in a row. They're in the midst of a mid-season turnaround and have seemingly started to slot their talent together to start winning games. The trio of Ball, Miller and Knueppel are all explosive players and are combining for nearly 60 points per game.

Prediction:

Book's return and the favourable schedule will have us win all 4 games.

Predictions League:

Here are the league standings after week 19.

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