• Slug: Sports–Valley Suns Update. 609 words.
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By Jimmy Van Wickler
Cronkite News

TEMPE – After 21 regular season games, the Valley Suns have made it to the NBA G League All-Star break.

In their first season, the Valley Suns – who serve as the developmental club for the NBA Phoenix Suns – are 12-9 and fifth in the Western Conference, at times resembling their NBA counterpart, with a high-volume 3-point offense and a lineup that struggles on the offensive rebounds.

Still, the team managed the month of January with a 10-5 record while playing 11 of 15 games on the road and will get to spend more on their homecourt at Arizona State’s Mullett Arena after the All-Star break.

“January was a tough month, but I feel like we got through that,” said Valley Suns coach John Little. “We got the highs and lows of the year but feel really good overall. (I) like the camaraderie of the team and like the direction of the team.”

Some of the Valley Suns’ most impactful players are NBA two-way contract players when they are with the G League team.

Collin Gillespie and TyTy Washington Jr. have taken on the bulk of scoring for the team as they both average 21.2 points per game. In 14 games, Washington Jr. is also averaging 6.1 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game, earning a spot in the NBA G League Up Next Game at the NBA All-Star Game, which was played Feb. 16 in San Francisco.

In Gillespie’s 10 games with the Valley Suns, he is averaging 11 assists a game, which leads the G League, and 7.5 rebounds, tied sixth-most for G League guards with Long Island Nets guard Oshae Brissett.

The Valley Suns average 46.8 3-point attempts per game, more than any other club in the G League and more than all NBA teams other than the Boston Celtics, who average 48.3 3-pointers a game. The Valley Suns are shooting 37% from deep, which ranks seventh in the G League.

Valley Suns guard Jaden Shackelford has attempted the most 3-pointers with 201, which is 40 more than the next closest player, Elijah Hughes of the Cleveland Charge.

“(We are) just staying a threat at all times no matter who is on the floor,” Shackelford said. “No matter who checks in the game, you know they are a threat to make a 3-point shot and you know coach trusts us to work on getting them up.”

With the highs of the team’s high-powered offense come the lows: The team struggles with offensive rebounds, leading to few second-chance scoring opportunities.

The Valley Suns rank 30th in offensive rebounds among the G League’s 31 teams. Their NBA counterpart isn’t much better in that category, ranking 27th in the 30-team NBA on the offensive glass.

It’s a weakness the Valley Suns can work on with 13 games remaining on their schedule, eight of them at Mullett Arena in Tempe.

They’ll be looking for a strong finish and a spot in the G League playoffs in the club’s first season. The top six teams in each conference qualify for the postseason and the top two teams in each conference receive a first-round bye.

Only three games separate the top seven teams in the tightly bunched West entering the All-Star break. The Eastern Conference is even more competitive with three games separating first and ninth.

“We spent basically the whole month of January on the road, like we literally did not come into this building hardly ever,” Little said. “So having a bunch of home games to finish off, I think is a great advantage for us – kind of like setting ourselves up to be in a good position with whatever might happen in the playoffs.”

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