Collin Gillespie Reflects on 'Special' Moment Contract After New Suns Contract

PHOENIX -- Collin Gillepie has been a defining success story for the Phoenix Suns on his way to earning a four-year, $48 million contract this summer.

After originally joining Phoenix on a two-way contract in the 2024-25 season, Gillespie really impressed when his minutes increased late in the year, which led to the team offering him a standard minimum contract last offseason even while undergoing a lot of roster overhaul.

Gillespie made the most of his standard deal, embodying a new culture set under coach Jordan Ott with his hard-nosed style of play that led to him averaging a career-high 12.7 points, 4.6 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 1.2 steals while also setting Phoenix's franchise record with 232 3-pointers made in a single season.

Gillespie made it well known that Phoenix was his home, and the Suns were able to iron out the contract over a week before he would have hit the open market.

"I wanted to be here, had good conversations with the front office and those guys, and I really wasn't too worried, I thought that something would get done pretty easily, and we were able to get it done, and kind of very smooth, so it was good," Gillespie said earlier this week.

A reminder that No. 12 is in fact pretty good at basketball 👀 pic.twitter.com/ilGxYaWsGH
— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) July 7, 2026

After going undrafted out of Villanova, where he was part of the 2018 national championship team, in 2022, Gillespie signed with the Denver Nuggets for two seasons on a two-way deal and also missed the entirety of his rookie season with a broken leg, but persevered through it all to get to this point.

"When I reflect back on (the journey), it's really cool for me. Special moment, obviously. I believed in myself at a high level," Gillespie said. "There's a lot of other people that did too, behind the scenes, former coaches, obviously family, friends, but from the outside perspective, probably not a lot of people, coming into the league and whatnot, but I always believed it at a high level.

"I think that's the most important thing - if you yourself believe it, then you can kind of do whatever you, you want to. So it was a special moment, obviously reflecting back my journey going through the G League, two major injuries, one at the end of my college career, one as soon as I got into the NBA, so kind of just didn't quit, and now here we are. So I'm grateful for the journey and where I've come from and gotten to this point."

The Suns have really prided themselves on player development over the past couple seasons, and Gillespie is now the prime example for them of trusting in the development and process of the organization.

When Gillespie's chance came for more minutes, he more than seized the opportunity and proved he was up for whatever was asked of him.

"He had his best season of his career, saved us many times when we were banged up early, and then throughout the year," Suns general manager Brian Gregory said of Gillespie. "Because he played banged up, he fought through a lot of stuff and just kept going. His toughness, his grit (is) everything that we're all about.

"It's amazing when you put in the work and you grind and you do the stuff that that he does, when you get the opportunity, you got to be ready for it too, and he was ready for it."

Add us as a preferred source on Google