We are 4-for-4 in Phoenix Suns preseason games where rookie Ryan Dunn is the story, with Sunday’s 118-114 win against the Denver Nuggets serving as the latest rendition.

Dunn was 6-for-11 from 3-point range, nearly matching his total of makes from a 7-for-35 mark last year at Virginia. He’s now 12-for-27 (44.4%) in the preseason after a 12-of-51 (23.5%) collegiate career across 65 games.

Ryan Dunn made 6 threes tonight in the Suns preseason game against the Nuggets.

Dunn only made 7 threes TOTAL in 34 games for Virginia last season. pic.twitter.com/EEgBbi8uon

— Dan Olinger (@dan_olinger) October 14, 2024

The aggression and willingness to shoot stands out just as much if not more than the ball going through the net, as that was the biggest problem with his role in college and forecasting him as a modern wing in the NBA. Thus, the reason he slipped to 28th in the 2024 NBA Draft and why lots of teams didn’t have a first-round grade on him. Those heebie-jeebies reared their head at summer league, but for whatever reason, the work he put in over the last dozen weeks has (for the moment) buried them just as much as he is burying these 3s.

Dunn’s defense has been as advertised. He was everywhere on Sunday, adding two steals and three blocks to his 20 points (which would have been his career high in college), four rebounds and four assists to his box score on the night. Dunn is big, long and strong enough to match up on every wing and his quickness laterally is incredible enough to keep up with some guards. He’s got fantastic instincts off the ball too.

Dunn is a top-three defender on the roster right now and a plus on that end immediately, the core reason behind this big push from the coaching staff to get him extended looks over these fixtures. And, you know, the fact that they’ve been seeing this behind the scenes.

Like Dunn’s fellow rookie Oso Ighodaro, the extra space the NBA game provides is helping out his decision-making off the bounce, another offensive weakness of Dunn’s that has looked much improved this preseason. He’s got six assists and three turnovers in four games after 35 assists and 42 turnovers over two years in college.

With a definitive disclaimer that this isn’t the real thing yet and time will tell in the regular season, Dunn doesn’t even look like just a lottery pick. He looks like a top-five pick.

If this proves to be somewhat legitimate and Dunn is a plug-and-play wing from the jump, the Suns really haven’t had anything like this in decades. You have to go back to Richard Dumas’ emergence as a second-rounder in 1991 serving as a key cog in the 1993 Finals run to find a young player coming out of nowhere to impress to this degree.

Expectations need to be tempered. If anything, Dunn has found some minutes on opening night behind Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale off the bench on the wing pecking order. But if he keeps this up, he will start eating away at the minutes going to that duo. And if he really keeps this up, he will begin earning serious consideration to start.

Rest on rest in Suns’ win over Nuggets

Bradley Beal, Kevin Durant and Tyus Jones were all sitting for rest, while Devin Booker (right ankle soreness), Jusuf Nurkic (left middle finger), Grayson Allen (Achilles soreness) and Josh Okogie (hamstring) also did not play because of injuries. Allen, Booker and Nurkic all seem to be on injuries that shouldn’t interfere with their chances to play in the season opener on Oct. 23, and presumably have a shot to play in the preseason finale on Thursday. The status of Okogie’s injury is less certain.

Even with the Nuggets playing all their guys, this game quickly dissolved into lackadaisical energy and flow on the court. It reached summer league levels at times.

The starting lineup of Dunn, Monte Morris, O’Neale, Bol Bol and Mason Plumlee played good minutes throughout.

Morris produced 20 points (7-for-12), two rebounds, seven assists and two steals in 20 minutes while O’Neale added 17 points (6-for-8), four rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block. Bol ended up at 14 points on 5-for-10 shooting (4-of-5 on 3s) with eight rebounds after he had generally struggled the last week, shooting 2-for-9 (1-of-5 from 3) coming into the night. That trio plus Dunn combined for 17 3s and the Suns through the malaise of this game’s action jacked up a total of 51 3-point attempts.

Nikola Jokic curiously played 30 of the first 36 minutes in this game, an indication that Denver perhaps looked at this as a conditioning opportunity. Either that or head coach Mike Malone didn’t like the way his starters performed and wanted them to play through it.

Follow @KellanOlson