Player development will be the sink-or-swim element of the Phoenix Suns’ reset over the next three years. And if they sink, it’ll be cement blocks tied to their feet for how the following decade will go.
Last summer was the first of what will be a handful of swings at the plate over the next few offseasons for them to try to crack a couple of extra-base hits in their roster building retool around Devin Booker.
Productive at-bats just aren’t going to cut it. Geraldo Perdomo is a hell of a baseball player but Phoenix doesn’t need bunts, groundouts or fly outs to advance the runner. It doesn’t need a nine-pitch at-bat to grind out a walk or a single. The Suns require a few major connections and success stories to steer this ship back into place, kind of like the progression Perdomo has made himself this season.
So, how’d that first swing go for Phoenix?
It certainly continues to inspire confidence.
Second-year forward Ryan Dunn is looking to maintain his tremendous offensive growth from his collegiate career to Year 1 in the NBA, a jump that is easy to lose sight of if you focus simply on the raw numbers of Dunn averaging 6.9 points per game or his 3-point shooting percentage still checking in at a must-get-better 31.1%. With the All-Defense type of potential he has as a defender, a passable set of contributions offensively would certify himself as a starting-caliber NBA wing. He looks on his way to getting there.
Dunn will enter this year with a more defined role, and with that comes the chance for him to expand his game even more. In watching his summer league debut on Friday, it is clear he is taking the work seriously enough to take advantage of that upcoming opportunity.
Three months is not much time to make tangible strides as a player but Dunn did his damndest to make that possible in the offseason he got.
In saying that it’s just summer league, Dunn’s ball-handling was much better, something that has just as much to do with the handle being tighter as it does that he’s confident enough to use it. All he was trying to do was get to the rim.
On top of that, Dunn changed his jumper, with an intent “to shoot it with a bit more power,” a new release you’ll notice if you watched him last season. Little tweaks will have to continue with it and it’s good to see he’s open to doing so.
Which part was more important for him to improve on?
“I wouldn’t say there’s something more important,” Dunn told Arizona Sports on Saturday. “I think that the jumper is something that helps me open up the game more if I knock down a lot of open shots. … (For the handle), not even just creating shots but getting downhill and creating from there.”
All of this was on display in Friday’s win, one in which he was the best player on the court, a notable achievement considering the Washington Wizards started three first-round picks and rotation players from last season.
SUMMER LEAGUE HIGHLIGHTS THREAD 🧵
Ryan Dunn-
17 PTS
5 REB
4 AST
2 STL
7/12 FG
2/5 3PT
66.0 TS%
+13 pic.twitter.com/tRoIl5WhDa
— Aligned RB (@RyB_311) July 12, 2025
The slashing really, really stands out. Dunn took 23% of his shots last year at the rim, a poor number for a wing, especially one with not much of a midrange game. He only got up 39 free throws, the type of figure that illustrates how little he was finishing at the basket when someone was there to properly contest.
As the year progressed, Dunn got more comfortable attacking closeouts and even finding driving lanes in other situations. If he can maximize that part of his game, especially as a guy on the weak side of the defense that will have the room to go downhill, it would go a long way as his jumper improves.
That comes with the handle getting better. He used it to take midrange jumpers in that opener, along with the rim attacks. Dunn said the work on his handle isn’t about making it “super tight” but being in control and getting to either of those looks.
“A little bit of both,” he said. “Just trying to make sure I’m staying aggressive.”
And this means a whole lot more after where Dunn started as a pro.
The required context here, and even a required refresh if you know the context, is that Dunn was as close to a zero offensively in college as a first-round pick could ever be. Over two full seasons at Virginia, Dunn scored 15-plus points only four times and reached double digits in 13 total games.
Dunn’s lack of confidence completely stagnated his ability to develop on that end. As we saw last season, he can do a few things as an offensive player. But at Virginia, it went as far as looking like he didn’t even want the ball, routinely passing up opportunities with plenty of space to either shoot or drive the ball. The coaching staff limited Dunn’s role to play-finisher, finding him around the basket and getting him there by using him a screener.
When Dunn was aggressive, he did not look comfortable. It’s obvious when a playmaking attempt looks forced and that’s a lot of what his drives felt like. In 65 contests across two years, Dunn amounted to 35 assists and 42 turnovers. (For reference, he had 57 assists and 40 turnovers as a rookie, another point of growth.)
Any positives there would have been a godsend because Dunn boasted one of the worst shooting resumes for a first-rounder. He took 51 3s and shot 23.5%, with a 52.5% mark at the free-throw line on 99 attempts increasing the size of the red flag.
This all set the bar very low for Dunn’s rookie season, so low that it was asking too much for him to be a plug-and-play guy.
But Dunn exploded in the preseason with fearlessness shooting the ball, to the point that he impressed enough to deservedly earn a rotation spot. He followed up 13 points in the third game of the season with 16 two fixtures later. Even though his three-point percentage across November and December sat at 26% in 18.8 minutes per game, he kept chucking.
Dunn started January scoring in double figures for seven of his first nine games, including five in a row. Such a streak at Virginia only lasted three games.
“Just building confidence, trusting myself. … I think during that time I built a lot of confidence in myself,” Dunn said of his breakout month. “Attacking closeouts, coming off pick-and-rolls and making reads now. A lot of work last year and the second half of the season more of just, not working on the bag but working on my game, expanding my game more. … This whole offseason has been that as well.’
The end of the month is when Dunn’s playing time dipped drastically. Some of this was due to a lingering ankle issue that was clearly still bothering Dunn into the All-Star break but he came back from the break not holding his same rotation spot until mid-March.
Those six weeks were costly. The injury was bad luck but in a do-or-die portion of the season as Phoenix put forth an abhorrent level of play in February, former head coach Mike Budenholzer trusted veterans over Dunn. The move could hold some weight in an argument if Dunn was going through a learning curve that included major bumps but he was playing his best basketball and was just as impactful as any of the other supplementary wings.
Instead, Budenholzer got desperate and it cost Dunn valuable developmental time that also just made the team worse in general. It’s a relevant example for the type of approach Phoenix cannot have over these next three years.
Dunn, to his credit, picked up where he left off. It was six consecutive games this time in double figures, and it started the same week he got his playing time back.
All together, Dunn scored 511 points and attempted 264 shots, which from a production and involvement standpoint is a dramatic uptick from his 358 points and 270 shots across two years for Virginia.
Again, there is a later time to worry about things like Dunn’s shooting percentages or what his overall offensive game looks like. The fact that it’s 13 months later from when he was drafted and there is a real offensive game we see forming is a big deal with the defensive player and athlete that he is.
Dunn continues to not only speak on confidence and aggression but actually utilizes it on the floor. If that keeps up, the Suns will have a true two-way wing in no time.