Suns announce Las Vegas Summer League roster

Shortly after Yahoo! Sports Shams Charania reported that Devin Booker was upset with the Suns’ front office for lack of communication on Tyler Ulis’s release, the Phoenix Suns announced their Las Vegas Summer League roster.

Alongside Phoenix’s four rookies selected — Deandre Ayton, Mikal Bridges, Elie Okobo and George King — two mainstay contributors from the 2017-18 roster in Josh Jackson and Dragan Bender will also be participating for the Summer Suns.

Also, Shaquille Harrison made his way onto the roster after impressing Phoenix with his tenacious defense after he was called up from Northern Arizona late last season. There’s no surprise that Alec Peters and Davon Reed also will be playing, too, especially Reed since his guarantee date for his contract was pushed back past Summer League.

This roster has a chance to make a deep run in tournament play just based off how stacked up top they are. Expect their starting lineup to look like this: Harrison (maybe Okobo?), Bridges, Jackson, Bender, Ayton. Three of those players will be big-time contributors for Phoenix next season, but the Suns also had high hopes last summer and disappointed.

What’s interesting is no Marquese Chriss. However, I wouldn’t really read much into it because compared to Bender, he has over 3,000 NBA rotation minutes under his belt. After signing Trevor Ariza in the first hour of free agency, though, some roster shuffling needs to occur very soon. Whether it’s Chriss or T.J. Warren, one of them doesn’t seem long for the roster with the logjam presented at the forward spot.

Either way, this will be our first up-close look at the new crop of rookies brought in but also to check on the developments of Jackson and Bender. How much has Jackson’s shot form changed, and is it more efficient? Will Bender be aggressive this time around?

With Igor Kokoskov having his first go-around coaching this roster in live game action, it’s also a sneak peek into how his system will look. That’s one area I’m really looking forward to watching with how unique Kokoskov’s sets were for the Slovenian National Team during EuroBasket where Goran Dragic and Luka Doncic dominated.

Here’s the full roster below, with some interesting undrafted and G-League options thrown into the mix.

What’s your expectations for the Summer Suns? It’s finally time to watch some competitive basketball once more after a near two month hiatus from it.