Summer Suns Takeaways from Game One vs. Warriors

The Suns completed their first game of the Summer League game of the season on Saturday night.

The Suns played their first Summer League game Saturday night against the Golden State Warriors. They lost 90-73 and could not recover from a slow start, as the Warriors put them away early and did not look back.

Michael DeVoe led all Suns scorers with 19 points on 4-7 FG and 11-13 FT shooting. The lefty guard made some crafty moves offensively and was Phoenix’s only consistent offensive threat.

Photo by Adam Hagy/NBAE via Getty Images

David Roddy was the only other Sun in double figures with 12 points on 4-14 shooting. The team had an ugly shooting split of 33/18/77 and 19 turnovers to 13 assists. Gross stuff.

Let’s focus on the key takeaways from the game from the Suns’ perspective.

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The Rooks

Oso Ighodaro- 6 points, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks, 1 steal, 3-8 FG, 27 minutes

Oso Ighodaro has some flashes of excellence on the boards and made a highlight reel dunk early in the game. The playmaking and ballhandling on the top of the key were nice to see.

The guard play in Summer League is very, very bad. Lob passes? Forget about it. Even the pick-and-roll game was unpleasant. That’s expected though. We are just looking for flashes. He provided a few.

I think he’s due for a big game on Tuesday, the first game is all about getting your footing. Some of his shots looked rushed and that is normal as the rookie was battling some first-game nerves and trying to find his footing. Same for Ryan Dunn, who we will touch on below.

Ryan Dunn- 6 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 blocks, 3-7 (0-3 3PFG), 26 minutes

Dunn’s performance went about as expected. Tenacious defense, and several highlight-worthy clips on that end. He had very little offensive impact in this one, but let the game come to him… when it did, which was not often.

He was everywhere defensively. I’m not paying too much attention to how he and Oso looked offensively in a summer league setting with spotty playmaking guard play. He did his job — something the Suns lacked last season tremendously.

David Roddy did not have the best night. He scored 14 points on 4-14 shooting (2-8 3PFG) to go with 4 turnovers and just one assist. The defense wasn’t great either, he looked a step behind where he should be playing at a level he’s supposed to stand out in.

Photo by Adam Hagy/NBAE via Getty Images

Jalen Bridges finished with 5 points and 3 rebounds in 18 minutes off the bench. He wasn’t involved in the offense for long stretches but hit a deep and contested three in the second half. I’d like to see more of (and from) him in these next few games.

We have plenty of more to come with Summer Suns coverage, but our first glimpse was not as pleasant of a viewing experience as one would have hoped for. There were some positives to take away.

I’d like to see the guards look to make plays for others rather than play iso-ball, but that’s just the reality we’ll have to accept about Summer League basketball.

Vince Legarza had this to say following the loss:

The Suns’ next game? Tuesday, July 16th at 1 pm against the Indiana Pacers. Tap in!