Around the Suns - A Go On My Suns! blog - Week 5

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

Week 5: 17-23 November

Week Record: 3-0

Overall Record: 11-6. 6th in the Western Conference.

Games Played and Results:

W - 127 - 110 Vs Portland Trail Blazers

W - 114 - 113 Vs Minnesota Timberwolves

W - 111 - 102 Vs San Antonio Spurs

Centre of The Sun

Hustle, grit and basketball super skills.

In a week where the schedule began to get harder and we were missing Grayson Allen, the Suns passed the first couple of tests with flying colours, but it took all of those 3 things I said to start.

Those 3 things have been on display all season, however they have been highlighted this week by awesome performances by Collin Gillespie, Jordan Goodwin living his best basketball life and how the team have fought back from lost leads and shaky shooting to win games.

They even set an NBA season high in steals with 19 against the Blazers and are 2nd in the league as whole with 10.7 per game.

This stretch of difficult games has got off to the best start we could have hoped for. As I posted in the week, I think we can surprise some teams and that is already evident.

Other Suns Stuff

Dillon Brooks

I'm sure we can all agree that bringing Dillon Brooks to the Suns as part of the Kevin Durant trade has been a success. We all knew about his defensive toughness and grit, but what I didn't realise is how competent he is on offense, being our 2nd leading scorer behind Book.

In that vein, this week Dillon became the fastest Sun in franchise history to reach 200+ points and 25+ 3-pointers made.

I think Mat Ishbia summed it up best in a post on X on Sunday.

Book Chapter 2 Revealed

This week Book officially revealed his 2nd signature shoe - The Chapter 2. The reveal came while the Suns were in Portland, where the Nike headquarters are.

What do you think?

Rodney Rogers

Now some sad news. Rodney Rogers, who won Sixth Man of the Year with the Suns in the 1999-2000, passed away this week.

Rodney spent 2 and half seasons with the Suns appearing in 214 games and averaging just under 13 points.

Our thoughts are with his loved ones at this time.

Mercury

This isn't Suns, but shoutout to the Phoenix Mercury, who just a couple of hours ago, as of writing, revealed their new branding. Check out their socials to see.

Superstar Watch (Season stats):

Devin Booker - 26.9 Points, 4.2 Rebounds, 7.1 Assists, 0.9 Steals, 47.2 FG%, 33.3 3PT FG% & 4.0 Turnovers

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Scorching Suns:

Collin Gillespie

He had to be given a spot here, he's just been fantastic. I was worried going into the season that not having a back-up point guard would mean trouble, but Collin has answered all the question and some on top of them.

His week was highlighted by that incredible game winner, which you can read more about further down the page.

His stats for the week:

18.0 Points, 4.3 Rebounds, 5.3 Assists, 1.3 Steals, 52.8 FG% & 47.8 3PT FG%

Mark Williams

Mark has quietly put together a really strong week. He has no plays run for him, but works so hard for the team.

Is he the best center in the league at running the floor? He does it so much every game, so it's been good to see him getting rewarded for his hard work.

His stats for the week:

16.0 Points, 8.3 Rebounds, 1.0 Assists, 1.3 Steals, 1.0 Block & 73.1 FG%

Struggling Suns:

Devin Booker

I hate putting Book here, but we have to admit he has had a down week shooting the ball. We've played against teams that have the exact defenders that seem to be able to harass him. With Grayson being out, teams know that Book will have the ball more to create, so have been able to focus on him more. Credit to Book though he has not let this impact the other areas of his game, where he's still contributed over 7 assists and nearly 2 steals per night. I hope that his 2nd half against the Spurs can be the reset he's needed.

The team as a whole is playing so well right now, that even with Book struggling, we've been able to get these wins.

His stats for the week:

19.7 Points, 4.7 Rebounds, 7.3 Assists, 1.7 Steals, 0.7 Blocks, 34.7 FG% & 28.6 3PT FG%

Stat Line(s) of the Week:

Collin Gillespie Vs Minnesota Timberwolves

THE Collin Gillespie game!

Even before the game winning shot, Collin was having himself an excellent game, coming off the bench in the 1st and instantly grabbing rebounds, assisting and knocking some 3's. This continued every time he was on the floor.

The news snatching event however was that game winner and the last 50 seconds of the game. He stole an inbounds pass and stopped it from going out by flying into the crowd, which led to a Goodwin 3 to get us within 3. Then onto the game winner.

With Book and Brooks both out with 6 fouls, and a broken down play which was originally for Royce O'Neale (Ott confirmed this after the game), the Timberwolves gave Collin just enough space (as it was a tough one) to get off a running mid-range shot to take the lead, get his season high and the win.

Game stat line:

20 Points, 7 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 2 Steals, 7/12 FGs (58.3%) & 4/7 3PT FGs (57.1%)

Rookie Watch (Season stats):

Khaman Maluach - 7 games, 0 starts

1.9 Points, 0.9 Rebounds, 0.1 Assists, 0.0 Steals, 0.6 Blocks, 42.9 FG%, 0.0 3PT FG% & 0.7 Turnovers

Rasheer Fleming - 8 games, 0 starts

Rasheer looked good in his 10 minutes against Portland. He grabbed 6 rebounds, 4 of them offensive and got to the foul line twice hitting all 4 attempts. He unfortunately picked up an injury, so didn't suit up for our last 2 games.

2.0 Points, 1.5 Rebounds, 0.3 Assists, 0.1 Steals, 0.1 Blocks, 26.3 FG%, 18.2 3PT FG% & 0.4 Turnovers

Koby Brea - 1 game

4.0 Points, 0.0 Rebounds, 1.0 Assists, 0.0 Steals, 0.0 Blocks, 50.0 FG%, 0.0 3PT FG% & 0.0 Turnovers

Upcoming Games:

The tough match ups continue. As I said above we've done well in our first 2 tests, but as you can see we have the Rockets, Thunder and Nuggets.

The Rockets will be without Kevin Durant while he deals with a family matter, but they are still a very strong team. They're currently on pace to be the best rebounding team in NBA history and it's likely, as he played against the Spurs, that Mark Williams will be rested in this one. The X-Factor here though is Dillon Brooks. He made comments after the Spurs game that he is looking forward to facing his old team and already started the mind games, calling out their zone defence.

The Kings are the least scary team this week, they're really not having a good season, and recently lost Sabonis to injury for what looks like most of the season. DeRozan and LaVine kept it close in the first match-up, but that was before our team had meshed.

Next we have the Thunder. Not a lot I can say that hasn't already been said by others, but they are playing out of their minds. Well, that's the problem it doesn't look like they are. Every game they've just taken in their stride and won, not even an inconvenience (apart from 1 game).

The Nuggets on paper will be tough, but they are missing Braun and Gordon at the moment, so it may not be as lop-sided as we might think.

Prediction:

Controversial to start but I'm going with a win against the Rockets, win against the Kings, loss to OKC and a win against Denver.

Predictions League:

Here are the league standings after week 5.

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