SunsRank: Ranking the best Phoenix Suns players for 2016-17

It’s a football Sunday, so I know you are not in the mood to spend the whole day thinking and talking about the Phoenix Suns.

Today, we are just going to drop a bunch of collective group-think on you and let you react.

I asked the BSotS writing team to rank each Suns player to open the 2016-17 season, and here’s how we did. The only rule we all followed was to provide a SunsRank for EARLY in the season.

Clear #1

Clearly, the BSotS staff all agrees that Eric Bledsoe is the Suns best player entering the 2016-17 season. Assuming good health, the bowling ball point guard has the most impact of any Suns player because he not only runs the offense but plays hard-nosed defense as well.

Bledsoe grew into a 20-points per game player last year while dishing 6 assists per game and pulling down 4 rebounds per game. He also held opposing point guards well below their regular shooting percentage.

Not-so-clear #2

While still-19 Devin Booker came out ahead in the collective rankings, his average rank is still 3.11 while Brandon Knight is just behind him at 3.44.

After adding Sam Cooper’s scores, Devin Booker and Brandon Knight ended up tied 3.3 for second place overall in SunsRank.

These two players will duke it out in the preseason for the starting shooting guard spot next to Bledsoe, while the other one will be the first guard off the bench.

Top 8

The BSotS staff as a collective thinks that there is a clear delineation between the Top 8 players on the roster versus the rest.

Interestingly, among the Top 8 only Jared Dudley is a new name since the other seven guys led the team to a 12-19 start before injuries hit.

Well, that might be an exaggeration. The loss of Tyson Chandler in December to a bad hammy impacted some of the losses, especially that disastrous 4-game trip in mid-December marred by close loss after close loss. And Devin Booker, while not a new name, was not a main player in last year’s November rotation.

Still, you can see that the BSotS staff believes this year’s November rotation may not look a lot different than last year’s November rotation once P.J. Tucker returns from his back rehab, which means this Suns team does not have a high ceiling.

9-10

Most of the team’s new players show up in the 9-14 range of SunsRank, which is where the rankings start going a lot more haywire.

Leandro Barbosa is solidly #9 on the SunsRank, while rookie Tyler Ulis ranges anywhere from 5-13 among the staff. These two are apparently the most likely candidates to round out a nightly rotation if coach Watson goes 10 deep.

11-15

But no one else got a Top-10 vote for SunsRank, which means the staff thinks they will spend a lot of time on the pine early in the season.

How about you?

Use the comments section to give us YOUR SunsRank as we enter training camp for the 2016-17 season.