The G League team split its first two games before coming back to the Valley for its home opener on Monday at Mullett Arena.
Valley Suns head coach John Little said Monday before the team’s home opener at Mullett Arena that Valley native TyTy Washington Jr. has shown he’s one of the G League’s best players for a while now.
Washington has led Valley scorers so far with his 26 points per game edging out Jalen Bridges’ 25.5, most recently posting 31 points, eight rebounds and 10 assists on 11 of 18 shooting (5 of 7 from 3) in the Suns’ second game against the Santa Cruz Warriors.
“I think he did a great job showing he can score it and pass it and do all the little things. He rebounded well,” Little said. “Really great last game and kind of our rotations off the ball. Lot of great areas of growth for him.”
Little said Washington is a quiet kid who always has a smile on, but he’s also very smart and instinctive, which gives him great self-awareness about his own mistakes.
“He’s a really good player. We just want to keep helping him grow and keep getting him to a level where we can get him on a roster or in the rotation with the (Phoenix) Suns,” Little said. “Just be consistent, doing the little things. Scoring comes a little bit easier to him, but all the other stuff, just continuing to grow in those areas.”
How did the Valley Suns look in their first 2 games vs. Santa Cruz?
The Suns split a back-to-back in Santa Cruz for their first two games, avenging a 15-point loss in the opener with a 29-point win the second go-around behind Washington’s star-level effort.
“I think we’re just trying to establish our style of play,” Little said. “We want to play fast, we want to emulate the (Phoenix) Suns as much as we can. We have a really good shooting roster, and I think that’s the one thing we’ve really been able to do in both of the first games.”
Collin Gillespie, meanwhile, suffered an ankle injury two minutes into the first game. Little said the two-way guard got MRIs done on Monday and will be back in short order.
“He’s a hard-nosed, Villanova dude. He’s gonna find his way back onto the court as soon as possible,” Little said.
The coach was also impressed with Bridges’ first games for coming in and doing what was asked of him without any wasted motion or inefficiencies.