The Collin Gillespie Article

The point guard that was promised

Sorry for the long break, all you dedicated readers. Thankful to be back.

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At the beginning of last season, during the Phoenix Suns’ blazing 8-2 start (all in close games, which was a red flag I ended up being disappointedly right about), I was especially encouraged (and wrote about it) by how it seemed like the addition of Tyus Jones was going to help the again-revamped Suns in Mike Budenholzer’s new system. I was also interested to see how Tyus’s cousin-in-ball Monte Morris could help.

Well, the Suns went 28-44 over the rest of the season after that deceiving start, and neither point guard is with the Suns this season.

But another point guard was added to the roster that offseason via a two-way deal: Collin Gillespie. A freshman on the 2017-18 championship team at Villanova, he ended up spending five years there before spending his quiet rookie year in Denver after going undrafted. That was the year before last.

Last year

Last year, there were signs that he may have something to offer to the Ishbia Suns. In his limited minutes (mostly in the lost portion at the end of the season), he was consistently making the easy passes in PnR or on hockey assists, adding some WD-40 to the icky Suns offense last season.

Over the last 12 games of the season, he averaged 10/4/4 with more than a steal per game and only one turnover per game, while shooting 44/47/78 from the field. Obviously, end of season stats aren’t very predictive, but it’s clear looking back that it wasn’t just the unimportance of the games that helped him here. He was ready for more.

This Season

For the first 13 games of the Suns season, Collin was just a solid backup point guard. 10/4/5 on 39/39/69 shooting splits were helpful, but not spectacular. Then, with an increase in minutes played per game over the past nine games, Collin has been averaging 19/4/5 with 2 steals on 50/50/100 shooting. The averages on the season come out to 13/4/5 on 61% true shooting, and some nice advanced stats:

• Gillespie is #23 in the entire NBA in bbref’s BPM, surrounded by guys like Deni Avdija, Norm Powell, Isaiah Hartenstein, Josh Giddey, and Jalen Suggs.

• His EPM of 1.2 isn’t nearly as exceptional, but it’s still the 84th percentile and ahead of productive contributors like Mikal Bridges, Jabari Smith Jr., and Toumani Camara (the sun who got away).

At the risk of calling him the new TJ McConnell, check out this game winner he took because both Devin Booker and Dillon Brooks had fouled out in a pivotal Emirates NBA Cup game against Minnesota:

Dillon Brooks has taken to calling him Villain Jr. (since Dillon calls himself Villain), and you can see more defense and toughness to him than you might think from someone of his size (something becoming more common with guys like Jose Alvarado and the aforementioned McConnell). He got this pivotal steal against Minnesota to even give him the chance at that game winner above:

Last night

Last night deserves some extra recognition, since they did the best thing a non-contending Suns team can do: beat down the Lakers from beginning to end. Also, he had his best game of his career. Devin Booker got hurt nine minutes into the game, and Dillon Brooks carried the team for the first half. Then, in the second half, Gillespie went 7-12 and 5-7 from three, going for 19 points on that end of the court. Here are a couple plays to display the skill and fervor he plays the game with (especially against the Snowtime Lakers). First, he misses a three but prevents a run-out by LeBron in a way most don’t see (probably more of an imperfect pass than anything). Then you can see his shot making on display.

“LeBron, like a tight end COULDN’T GET TO IT!”

What does this mean for the Suns?

The Suns, so far, are way better than any of the experts gave them credit for. I credit this to a few things (besides Devin Booker being really good):

1. Getting a good coach in Jordan Ott.

2. Amicably parting ways with Kevin Durant.

3. Paying Bradley Beal to not be here.

4. Dillon Brooks, Gillespie, Mark Williams, and the other good basketball players being good basketball players.

For now, I’m just going to pretend that Collin’s getting paid his minimum contract of $2.3m along with Beal’s waive-and-stretch dead money on the books of $19.4m. I’m sure he’d like to actually get the Beal money, but it makes it hurt less for a Suns fan to imagine that the money is contributing to the success of the team. If he keeps this up, I think he’s worth that theoretical $21.7m this season!

The Suns are good enough to be in the mix for a 6-8 spot in the West this season, especially if Jalen Green comes back and plays the way he did in the few minutes we’ve seen him for. The pipe dreams of a championship are gone, but it’s good to see good basketball again.