Inside the Suns: Depth charts, fan favorites and the best former Sun to add to today’s team

Welcome to ‘Inside the Suns’, your weekly deep down analysis of the current Phoenix Suns team.

Each week the Fantable — a round table of Bright Siders - give their takes on the Suns’ latest issues and news. Feel free to join in the discussion and add your own opinions regarding this week’s questions in the comments section. The first few that are submitted will be pinned at the top!

Fantable Questions of the Week

Q1 - What’s your preferred depth chart for the Suns?

OldAz: I am being loose with the “PG” designation here as it really only applies when Goodwin is in.

• PG - Beal / Goodwin
• SG - Booker / Gordon
• SF - KD / Okogie
• PF - KBD / Yuta
• C - DA / Eubanks

Brrrberry:

• PG : Booker/McConnell/Goodwin
• SG : Beal/Gordon/Lee
• SF : KD/Okogie
• PF : Yuta/KBD/Camara
• C : Ayton/Eubanks/Bol/Metu

I’m thinking Ish and 3 2nd round picks + max cash goes to Indy for TJ McConnell. Ishbia says screw it I want a legit PG with some experience to bolster the roster and ponies up over 30M in salary, cash + luxury tax to bolster the PG position prior to the season starting. Maybe we do secondary swap rights to another 1st rounder in that trade too.

Rod: Starters:

• PG - Bradley Beal
• SG - Devin Booker
• SF - Kevin Durant
• PF - Keita Bates-Diop
• C - Deandre Ayton

The only thing that really required much thought was who should play PF. Durant’s going to be in the starting 5 no matter what but do you want him playing at the 3 or the 4 spot? At the 3 spot, KBD makes the most sense (to me) as the 5th starter at the PF position. But if you decide that KD should be playing at the 4 spot, I’m not certain I’d want KBD playing SF. In that scenario, I might go with either Okogie (for defense) or Watanabe (for offense) at SF.

Second Unit:

• PG - Jordan Goodwin
• SG - Eric Gordon
• SF - Josh Okogie
• PF - Yuta Watanabe
• C - Drew Eubanks

The 2nd unit was a bit difficult to decide on at the moment since we have no idea how everyone will fit together. Bol Bol and/or Camara might be better fits but I believe this is the way things will start out at training camp but it could change before opening night.

Deep Bench: Damion Lee, Bol Bol, Toumani Camara, Ish Wainright, Chimezie Metu, Saben Lee.

Q2 - There always seems to be a fan favorite bench player for the Suns. Which players do you think are most likely to become that guy this year?

OldAz: I assume you are talking about the “Pat Burke” type fan favorite here, but I have never understood this phenomenon. This will ruffle a few feathers, but I figure this is going to be Bol Bol this year. He has freaky size and his highlights are tantalizing, which will make many fans go crazy over him. However, his game is not exactly conducive to team basketball or winning, which means he will get limited minutes. He will have a vocal following on this board, constantly wondering why he does not play more.

Now if this question is aiming more for the Horny/Marjerle 6MOTY type favorite bench player, then I am going with Yuta because he is money from deep and is going to light up a lot of scoreboards with the open shots he gets this year.

Brrrberry: I’d imagine Yuta runs away with this. The novelty of a 6’ 9” Japanese lefty that can knock down 5+ 3s on elite efficiency and turn the tide of a game starting or off the bench just screams fan favorite. He’s also known for having a ton of energy on defense and he’ll be counted on to bring that every night which is just another aspect that’ll endear him to fans. He’s going to be huge for us. He struggled with some injuries last season so obviously praying for a fully healthy season because he’s a guy we’re going to want out there every night possible.

Rod: There are several guys I think could wind up being that guy this year but at the moment I’m putting my money on Yuta Watanabe. If he comes in, plays hard and starts knocking down threes, everyone’s going to love him right away. But the keys for anyone are going to be performance, hustle and personality to a certain extent.

Q3 - If you could bring back one former Suns player - in his prime - to add to this team, who would that be?

OldAz: This has got to come down to Barkley or Nash, right? They are the only 2 former MVPs as Suns and they just happen to play the positions with the 2 biggest question marks on the team currently. Barkley on this team would be amazing with his physicality and rebounding. The front line would be awesome, especially on defense, but I am also not sure how well he would fit in the locker room with Book and KD.

On the other hand, it is hard to fathom how perfect Nash would fit on this team. They would be small, but with his ability to push tempo, set guys up, and also hit the outside shot the Suns would be virtually unstoppable with Nash, Book, Beal, KD and DA. Even when subbing in some bench players there would just be too much fire power always on the floor. Not sure how good the defense would be (OK, it would be bad) but I am almost certain it wouldn’t matter. The team would routinely set new scoring records without a single play ever being drawn up and the opponent would be absolutely gassed by the start of the 4th quarter.

I talked myself into it, sign me up for Nash in his prime for this fantasy.

Brrrberry: Amare Stoudemire without a doubt and I realize someone like KJ or Nash probably makes us more complete but it’s Amare for me. The crazy thing is “prime” Amare Stoudemire was something we never truly got to see imo. He added a super consistent 14-18 footer after I think it was his first microfracture. He regained a majority of his explosiveness at that point. I honestly don’t even know when it was that he hit his prime. I think it could’ve been leading up to that eye injury that he had. If I recall correctly he dropped 42 against the Clips the game he was poked in the eye and I remember thinking at that point that I’d never seen him play a more complete offensive game. It might’ve been pre injury age 22 Amare where he averaged 30 ppg as 2nd year player in 15 playoff games. No one in NBA history attacked the basket like that iteration of Amare did. For me the biggest what if in sports. A 2nd year pf going for 30 in 15 playoff games is just unheard of. I’d be in heaven watching him with our big 3.

Rod: While I was first tempted to think about adding one of the Suns great point guards of the past, I decided to go in a different direction and chose Shawn Marion. I believe Marion would fit almost perfectly into the concept that the Suns currently seem to be going with. He was a superb defender that could guard multiple positions (something the Suns definitely need), very athletic, great rebounder, smart offensive player that didn’t need plays run for him and defenses had to at least respect him shooting threes (33.1% career average). I salivate at the thought of Book, Beal, KD, DA and the Matrix in his prime all on the court together.

As always, many thanks to our Fantable members for all their extra effort this week!

Last Week’s poll results

Last week’s question was, “This year the Suns’ per game scoring average will be...”

05.4% - Less than 110 ppg.

48.2% - Between 110 and 115 ppg.

46.4% - Over 115 ppg.

A total of 498 votes were cast.

This week’s poll is...