The Suns have a self-inflicted identity crisis. They overachieved in 2013-2014 by finishing 9th and tried hard to make the playoffs the following season, only to fail by finishing 10th. We’re going to ignore the debacle that was last season and go into this one hoping they’re going to finally give the keys of the team to their young core of Booker and Len.

Player Movement

Notable Ins	Notable Outs
Dragan Bender NBA Draft Jared Dudley Washington Wizards Leandro Barbosa Golden State Warriors Marquese Chriss NBA Draft	Jon Leuer Detroit Pistons Ronnie Price Oklahoma City Thunder Mirza Teletovic Milwaukee Bucks

Phoenix Suns Depth Chart

Point Guard	Shooting Guard	Small Forward	Power Forward	Center
Eric Bledsoe Leandro Barbosa	Devin Booker Brandon Knight Archie Goodwin John Jenkins	T.J. Warren P.J. Tucker	Jared Dudley Marquese Chriss Dragan Bender	Alex Len Tyson Chandler Alan Williams

Rotation Player Projections

POS	PLAYER	USG	MPG	PTS	REB	AST	STL	BLK	3PM	FG%	FT%	TO
PG	Eric Bledsoe	27.2	32	19.1	3.7	5.7	1.9	0.6	1.4	45.3	80.2	3.3
PG	Brandon Knight	26	31	16.7	3.4	4.3	1	0.3	2	41.5	85.2	2.9
SG	Devin Booker	25	30	16.2	2.7	2.9	0.6	0.3	1.5	42.7	84	2.3
C	Alex Len	20.5	26	10.1	8.5	1.3	0.6	0.9	0	42.3	72.8	2.1
SF	P.J. Tucker	12.7	24	6.2	4.8	1.7	1	0.2	0.6	41.1	74.6	1.1
C	Tyson Chandler	12.6	24	7.1	8.5	1	0.5	0.7	0	58.3	62	1.4
PF	Jared Dudley	14	24	8.1	3.4	2.1	0.9	0.2	1.2	47.8	73.5	1
SF	T.J. Warren	20	20	9.6	2.7	0.8	0.7	0.3	0.5	50.1	70.3	0.6
PF	Marquese Chriss	18	15	7.7	3.1	0.2	0.4	0.8	0.3	46	67	0.8
PF	Dragan Bender	16	14	7.1	4.1	1.9	0.2	0.5	0.3	44	72	0.7

Position Battles

Starting Shooting Guard

Do Phoenix still go with their two point guard line-up now that Jeff Hornacek is gone? Or do they go with their 19-year-old, future face of the franchise who averaged 19.2 PTS, 1.5 3PM and 4.1 AST in the 28 games that followed the All-Star break? Both Knight and Booker stand to play a lot of minutes, regardless of who starts, but if I were to take a guess, it wouldn’t be long until Booker is starting at shooting Guard.

Starting Small Forward

Neither P.J. Tucker or T.J. Warren stand to be drafted in most standard leagues (unless mediocrity is a counting stat in your league), but they remain the two likely candidates to for the starting small forward position. I’d personally like to see Booker get some minutes at small forward to get him some extra minutes while they work out their starting shooting guard situation.

Starting Center

At this point, I’m pretty sure even Tyson Chandler is surprised he’s still starting over Alex Len. Unless the Suns start the season on a winning streak, you’d think it’s only a matter of time until they make the shift towards youth and start their young guys, making Len a nice deep league stash candidate.

Rise in Value

Devin Booker

Booker’s post All-Star numbers weren’t a fluke, and his numbers over the 51 games he started last season proved that (17.4 PTS, 1.5 3PM, 3.5 AST with 85% from the FT line). Impressive for a starter, let alone a rookie. Both Knight and Bledsoe frequently get injured (we’ll touch on this later), opening up the possibility of minutes and a usage rate similar to 2015/2016.

Alex Len

Len put up impressive per 36-minute numbers last season, and has decreased his foul rate every year since his rookie season in 2013-2014. With another year under his belt and another year in Tyson Chandler’s legs, it makes sense that Len’s value increases. He’s a player to keep your eye on for the second half of the season.

Injury Risks

Eric Bledsoe

There’s a pattern in Bledsoe’s game log, that’s either a coincidence, or a sign (you can choose how to interpret it). Since the 2010-2011 season, he has finished the season playing in 81, 40, 75, 43, 81 and 31 games. If the pattern continues, he’s set to play in 70+ games. Patterns aside, he’s an injury risk that you can’t ignore on draft day.

Brandon Knight

Knight has also been shown to be injury prone, but to a lesser extent to Bledsoe, having played in 52 and 63 games over his past two seasons. There’s also the risk of Knight losing playing time, and possibly his starting SG job to Booker, and is likely to be mentioned in trade rumors throughout the season.

Other Player Summaries

Jared Dudley Deep League

Jared is penciled in to be the starting power forward on opening night, but that’s only enough to make him deep league relevant, and not for long with two freshly drafted rookies (Bender at pick 4 and Chriss at pick 8) being drafted in his position. It’s hard to see Dudley finishing the season as a starter, so it’s a matter of who he’s going to be handing the job to and how long he's going to be keeping it for.