Making trades on Draft Night to move up and down the pecking order, the Phoenix Suns selected Ryan Dunn with the No. 28 pick and Oso Ighodaro at No. 40 in late June. Getting to see them represent the Valley for the first time in their preseason debuts, both showcased what they can bring to the table.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Playing the most out of any Sun who featured in the 118-114 comeback win over the Los Angeles Lakers, Ighodaro scored 12 points and picked up five assists, four rebounds, a steal and a block in 27 minutes of action. The Chandler native backed up free agent signing Mason Plumlee and is presumed to do so as long as Jusuf Nurkić remains out with a finger injury.
Though he is a big man, his playmaking skill and awareness in the post didn’t go unnoticed, not shying away from finding an open teammate with relative ease. Ighodaro blossomed and made a statement, demonstrating why Phoenix sees so much potential in him.
Dunn, 21, added nine points from 3-of-8 (37.5%) shooting from the field and going 2-for-6 (33.3%) from three. While it wasn’t one of the flashiest performances offensively, his highly-rated defensive side of his game was on full display with him contributing one steal and three rebounds off of disrupting the Lakers’ passing lanes and giving multiple players headaches with his heavy pressure when guarding.
Ighodaro was drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers but was instantly traded to the Suns while Dunn was selected by the Denver Nuggets and flipped to Phoenix as well.
For their first time going up against seasoned pros, both handled their first game maturely and seemed as if they too had been in the NBA before. If they made a mistake, they bounced back and made a play. If a teammate needed help in a certain situation, they tried to do their best to adjust and contribute.
It is just the first game of the preseason and a sample size of what they can do on both ends of the court, so it is too early to set unrealistic expectations of what they can do this year.
They will, however, have plenty more chances to build their stock and force head coach Mike Budenholzer to make even harder decisions about who gets more minutes than others now that he has an array of talented options at his disposal.
Dunn and Ighodaro are not going to immediately start for the Suns this year, but if they can put together a string of consistent performances for the rest of this preseason, they will have every opportunity to succeed in the NBA in the future.
Suns’ bench impresses, begin preseason with 118-114 come-from-behind win over Lakers
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Reporter Alec Cipollini covers the Phoenix Mercury, Suns and ASU Athletics for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on his X account, @AlecCipollini
