Plenty hangs in the balance for the Phoenix Suns this season. Can they finally click on offense? What wrinkles will new head coach Jordan Ott add to the playbook? Will Grayson Allen and Royce O\u2019Neale become trade chips by February? Can this team, when it\u2019s all said and done, actually stack wins?<\/p>\n
One thing, though, doesn\u2019t seem up for debate? Who should man the small forward spot? The Suns have options. Sharpshooters. Defensive bruisers. Role players who can do a bit of both. But if you ask the fan base, the answer is clear. By a wide margin, they want Dillon Brooks in that starting five. And honestly? They\u2019re right.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been quite the journey, hasn\u2019t it? Dillon Brooks has always been that guy. The one you love to hate when he\u2019s wearing the other team\u2019s colors. He\u2019s aggressive. Overly aggressive, some would argue. Dangerous? Sure, that case could be made, too. I know I\u2019ve unleashed more than one rant about him on the Suns JAM Session Podcast after facing him.<\/p>\n
But now? Now he\u2019s one of ours. And suddenly, we can\u2019t wait to cheer on every snarl, every shove, every bit of chaos he brings. Because as much as he ruffled feathers around the league, he plays with a fire this team was missing last year.<\/p>\n
When you break down the small forward spot, Brooks makes the most sense as the starter. He\u2019s not going to tower over anyone, but he\u2019s built from the stuff that shifts games: attitude and effort. His impact won\u2019t always show up in a box score. Sure, he\u2019s got the chops to be a legit three-and-D weapon for Phoenix, but what really matters is the energy he injects into every possession. The way he drags teammates into the fight, especially on defense.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s the point. The Suns are busy rewriting their identity, trying to reestablish who they are in this league. And defense looks like the cornerstone. Bringing in Brooks wasn\u2019t an accident. It was a statement. He should be the starter, not because he\u2019s the flashiest or most skilled option, but because he\u2019s the one who leaves a mark.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plenty hangs in the balance for the Phoenix Suns this season. Can they finally click on offense? What…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":187609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1260,62,9436,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-187608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-suns-analysis","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115118726453785952","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}