Suns GM Picks Surprising Breakout Candidate for 2025-26 Season

Brian Gregory is anticipating big things from this Suns guard.

Dec 15, 2024; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker (1) celebrates with forward Ryan Dunn (0) and guard Grayson Allen (8) in the second half during a game against the Portland Trail Blazers at Footprint Center. Mandatory Credit: Allan Henry-Imagn Images | Allan Henry-Imagn Images

PHOENIX -- New Phoenix Suns general manager Brian Gregory is excited about a lot of players heading into the 2025-26 season especially after constructing a roster that consists of 11 new players.

Gregory, however, had a surprising choice for someone he believes is going to have a breakout season that came from the returners at the team's media day Wednesday.

"Grayson Allen ... he's going to have a breakout year because he's had as good as summer as anybody. I feel real confident about that," Gregory said. "And I remember talking to him at the end of last year, and he talked about ... the condition that Devin Booker was in and the fact he never gets tired on the court. One of the greatest strengths is his ability to run and run and run and run.

"And Grayson made a commitment, and we were in the hotel in Sacramento, he said, 'BG, I'm going to be in that kind of shape.' And guess what he is."

Allen's best season of his career so far came in his first year with the Suns in 2023-24 when he averaged career highs across the board and led the league in 3-point percentage, shooting 46.1% from 3.

Going into his second season with the Suns last year, Allen noticeably bulked up over the summer, but was not able to continue to improve his impact on the court.

It was known heading into the 2024-25 season that Allen, who signed a four-year, $70 million extension with Phoenix in April 2024, was going to take on a lesser role with Tyus Jones coming in to take his starting spot, but Allen could not quite find his rhythm off the bench in what was a down year all around for the Suns.

After being involved in some trade rumors throughout this summer, Allen now heads into his third training camp with the Suns as Phoenix's top scoring option off the bench.

Allen was asked about Gregory's comment and said that he has noticed teams with the most success are able to run up and down the court and attack relentlessly on the defensive side of the ball, so he wanted to focus a lot on his conditioning this summer.

"I just think the way things have been going and translating, that's got to be my number one goal is conditioning and trying to focus on that more than anything else," Allen added. "In previous summers, there's not a lot of like, just dedicated straight to conditioning, because it's a lot of basketball work and it's all very sports specific.

"But this summer, I tried to focus just specifically more on the conditioning aspect ... I feel like I've been in game shape for a month now and trying to keep improving on that."

READ: Biggest Takeaways From Phoenix Suns Media Day

Allen is one of only three returning Suns along with Devin Booker and Royce O'Neale who experienced the rollercoaster of the last two seasons where Phoenix fell well short of expectations with Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal on the roster.

Now, with Durant being traded and Beal getting waived this offseason, several major outlets are predicting Phoenix to miss the play-in, but Allen is optimistic about the new-look team.

"I think we're a better group than what people think we are. I'm pretty confident in this team," Allen said. "I like the team that we have. I think the pieces we have mesh well together. I think it'll be a very different identity than we've had the last two years I was here. Just the makeup of the team is extremely different. What we're going to have to do to be successful is going to be very different than what we did the last two years.

"But I think we're in a really good position to do those things, and I think coach (Jordan Ott) has a very clear plan and vision for the team, and from what I've seen from the past month, I think everyone's going to buy into that."

Allen continued:

"I think we're going to surprise some people this year. I think it's almost a little nicer, a little refreshing to not have everyone put championship expectations on you from day one of the offseason, like we can just go out there, play free, play fun, and prove people wrong.

"Part of why I'm so glad to be back in Phoenix is I understand that the last couple years, like we did have these high expectations, and they weren't met, and last year, it was really underperformed. And so I'm kind of happy to be back in this jersey and have an opportunity to be a part of a team that writes that a little bit for the fans and for ourselves. "