What safer picks could be available to Suns at newly acquired No. 10 in 2025 NBA Draft?

The Phoenix Suns could play it smart by targeting one of the draft’s safer prospects.

Nothing changes draft conversation like having a new top-10 pick to dive into, which is exactly where the Phoenix Suns find themselves after trading Kevin Durant to the Houston Rockets on Sunday.

After highlighting some of the upside bets yesterday, let’s dive into some of the safer ones that could be available at 10, and what they could offer Phoenix.

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French wing Noa Essengue (No. 9 via ESPN) is a ready-made 6-foot-10 wing with all the ancillary skills you need in a complementary player.

He had 20 points, eight rebounds, three assists, and two steals in a preseason game against the Portland Trail Blazers while playing for the German team Ulm, and it showed how he plays off-ball, attacks the rim, and disrupts things defensively. He was 3-for-6 from 3 in that game, but shot just 29.4% in 18 EuroCup games this season, so that’s where he needs the most immediate improvement.

If you’re looking for more of a table-setting variety point guard than what Kasparas Jakucionis presented in the upside bets, BYU’s Egor Demin (No. 12) might be the one.

Demin had an absurd 13 games with at least seven assists, as ESPN’s Jonathan Givony calls the best passer in the draft. His 3-point shooting leaves some to be desired, but former Suns assistant and now-BYU head coach Kevin Young said Demin has the most upside in the class outside Cooper Flagg and Dylan Harper.

I think he’s more of a safe prospect because of what playmaking can do for a 6-foot-9 player, but he’s a streaky 3-point shooter with a 47% stretch over his first six games before a 19% stretch the following 19. He ticked slightly up to close with 28% over the final eight, but the willingness to take as many as he did (152 over 33 games) and within the context of an NBA-style offense should be the brightest indicator of it moving forward.

Two names that fit the billing for a report from Arizona Sports’ John Gambadoro about the Suns prioritizing a power forward or center in the draft and free agency could be Arizona’s Carter Bryant (No. 12) and South Carolina’s Collin Murray-Boyles (No. 13).

Bryant may be the best of both worlds as a guy who has already produced like a solid role player for an NBA-style system on both ends, who also showed special shot creation and making at his well-built 6-foot-8, 215 pounds while playing for Corona Centennial High. There’s a chance there’s a star outcome in there beyond what can already be a good role player.

Meanwhile, Murray-Boyles might be my favorite prospect to watch in the entire class (discounting Flagg) simply because he’s a unicorn, but not in the way you think. Unicorns in draft talk are most often just super tall people who can move or shoot well, but Murray-Boyles is almost the opposite. He’s more of your Draymond Green-variety big man who’s all over the floor on both ends and the reason for much of his team’s success.

His college coach believes he’s the perfect fit for this type of exercise as well, as he’s telling NBA coaches to draft Murray-Boyles based on his floor and not his ceiling.

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Which of the safer prospects do you believe makes the most sense for the Suns at No. 10? And when it comes to building for the future, would you rather they take the steady path or swing for upside?

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