Anonymous Scout Believes Suns Adding Miles Bridges Gives Phoenix ‘Big, Physical’ Team, But Questions Remain

Editor’s Note: For the upcoming Sports Illustrated 2026–27 basketball preview magazine that will hit newsstands in October, SI spoke to anonymous scouts around the NBA about all 30 teams.

The Suns put forth a respectable effort last season as the franchise moved on from the tire fire that was the Kevin Durant-Bradley Beal era in Phoenix. A career year from Dillon Brooks and another strong scoring season from Devin Booker got the Suns to the play-in tournament with a 45–37 despite seeing only 32 games out of Jalen Green. Phoenix claimed the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference playoff bracket but were mowed down in a four-game sweep by Oklahoma City in the first round.

The Suns didn’t have many assets to work with entering this summer but proved active anyway. Despite lacking a first-round pick, Phoenix traded up to land the 30th pick in the 2026 draft and added Koa Peat, an intriguing local talent out of Arizona. Key contributors from last year’s roster such as Collin Gillespie and Jordan Goodwin were rewarded with new, long-term contracts in free agency. Then the front office traded two rotation players to land Miles Bridges from the Hornets. Bridges averaged 17.1 points per game last season while helping Charlotte make a playoff push and is entering the final year of a three-year contract that will pay him $22.9 million during the upcoming season.

It was an interesting series of moves that results in a team with clear strengths and a bit more varied a collection of talent than last season.

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“Bridges is one of those guys that passes the eye test,” an anonymous NBA scout told Sports Illustrated. “Analytics test, he's not as strong. But I think he'll help the Suns just with the size. They're going to be a pretty big, physical team on the perimeter. So I would expect him to be able to switch and guard some bigger guys with him, Brooks, even Booker's not slight. Booker is not an A+ defender either, but he's no slouch and he can fight. So Bridges adds quite a bit of the same to that, so they'll be pretty hard to attack with your small-small stuff.

“They will miss Grayson Allen. He was a nice little piece to have with guys like Green and Booker, because it's one less guy you can help off of. So we'll see if the Suns can replace that shooting. Bridges doesn't have the same gravity as a shooter, but he'll obviously add some different things that Allen didn't do. But I was always an Allen fan because he made you have to second guess what your scheme was when he was out there.”

But a perfect team, this is not. There are still questions to be answered when the games start.

“I think a big question for them is the big spot,” an NBA scout told SI. “I know Khaman Maluach had a pretty good summer, so perhaps he's ready to play and can add some more depth there. Then the other question will be, I think as far as Brooks’s numbers go, is he just scoring at a volume or is he capable of playing some winning basketball with Booker? Defensively he’s good, but I think they're going to be relying on him to score quite a bit, so we'll see how efficiently he does it.”

Khaman Malauc — Is young big man Khaman Maluach ready for a bigger role in Phoenix entering his sophomore campaign? | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Indeed, center stands out as a weak point when breaking down the roster. Mark Williams started 55 games at the position last year and signed a three-year deal worth $38 million to return to the Suns in July—but suffered a torn labrum and had to undergo surgery last week that will sideline him for an “extended” period of time. That puts the pressure on Maluach, as noted above. The second-year big man was picked in the lottery out of Duke in 2025 but played merely 8.9 minutes per game in his rookie season. Oso Ighodaro figures to take on plenty of minutes at center as a small-ball five, too, after the 6’11” forward proved a reliable frontcourt option off the bench last year.

Phoenix is thin up front no matter which way you slice it, though, and will be relying heavliy on its talented perimeter players to win games. Green is the biggest swing factor of the bunch. The 24-year-old is oozing with talent and gets scorching hot as a scorer at times, which means the Suns two such players in tandem with Booker. They’re hoping to see more of that pairing after an injury-riddled season limited Green in his first Phoenix campaign.

“I might be a little higher on Jalen Green than most,” an NBA scout told SI. “But I think it's nice when you have more than one guy that can get a shot when you need to get a shot off. I guess you could argue Brooks is kind of that guy too, but I don't trust his shot selection, the quality of the shots he would get. But if Green's playing well, he can definitely create his own, and creates matchup problems... You don't have a whole lot of those guys usually on the floor, so that could be a way they attack.”

Offseason recap

Miles Bridges and Devin Booker will be teammates this year. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Who’s in: Miles Bridges, Koa Peat, Luke Kennard
Who’s out: Grayson Allen, Royce O’Neale, Nick Richards

The biggest move made by the Suns this offseason was the Bridges trade. To acquire the two-way wing, Phoenix had to give up Allen and O’Neale, two consistent veteran contributors who helped stretch the floor for Booker and Brooks. The front office added Kennard on a reasonable two-year deal worth $13 million in free agency to replace the shooting lost in the trade.

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Landing Peat on draft night was a good bit of business, even if he’s unlikely to impact winning efforts this season. The young prospect was seen as something of a project entering draft night, leaving Arizona after a freshman season that was productive but showcased how far Peat still has yet to go before he’s something resembling a finished product. His potential was enticing enough that most believed he would get drafted in the back half of the first round, but he slid all the way to No. 30. At that point the Suns scrambled into action and moved up to get him, needing to give up only three second-rounders for the privilege.

SI’s prediction for the 2026–27 Suns

Record: 42-40

The Suns were a bit better than expected last season but still graded out as average at large and were way out of their league whenever they went up against one of the NBA’s best teams. Their offseason moves make for a different roster, to be sure, but not necessarily a better one. Bridges’s addition gives Phoenix more versatility scoring-wise and probably a slightly higher ceiling as a result. But the depth lost to acquire him makes it pretty close to a wash when it comes to wins and losses.

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