Jessica Taylor

PHOENIX – Led by Head Coach Monty Williams, the Phoenix Suns coaching staff will coach Team LeBron in the 2022 NBA All-Star Game on Sunday, Feb. 20 in Cleveland. With tonight’s victory over San Antonio, the Suns clinched the best record in the Western Conference through games played on Sunday, Feb. 6, earning the spot to coach Team LeBron.

This will mark the fifth time in franchise history the Suns coaching staff will work the NBA All-Star Game, joining 1981 (John MacLeod), 1993 (Paul Westphal), 1995 (Westphal) and 2007 (Mike D’Antoni). The game will be the first All-Star coaching experience for all but two of the coaches on the Suns staff, as Randy Ayers (Philadelphia in 2001) and Mark Bryant (Oklahoma City in 2012 and 2014) have served on the staffs in previous All-Star Games.

After guiding the team to a Western Conference Championship and berth in the 2021 NBA Finals, Williams and his staff currently have the Suns at a league-best 40-9 record this season, the best start in franchise history through the first 49 games of a season. The Suns set a franchise record with an 18-game winning streak earlier this season and have currently won 10 straight, just the second time in Suns history the team has had multiple winning streaks of at least 10 games in a single season (2006-07). The Suns currently rank in the top three in the NBA in both offensive and defensive rating.

The coaching staffs in the 2022 NBA All-Star Game will lead the team that includes the captain from the same conference; Williams and his staff will coach the All-Star team captained by the Western Conference’s leader in fan voting, the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James. The eligible coaching staff with the best record through Feb. 6 in the Eastern Conference will coach Team Durant.

Reserves for the 2022 NBA All-Star Game will be announced on TNT on Thursday, Feb. 3 at 5:00 p.m. MT and the captains will draft the team rosters from the pool of players voted as starters and reserves during the NBA All-Star Draft on TNT on Thursday, Feb. 10 at 4:30 p.m. MT.

The 71st NBA All-Star Game is part of NBA All-Star 2022 from Feb. 18-20 in Cleveland. The All-Star Game will take place on Sunday, Feb. 20 at 6:00 p.m. MT and will air live on TNT and ESPN Radio.

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SUNS COACHING STAFF TO COACH TEAM LEBRON IN 2022 NBA ALL-STAR GAME

With the score tied at 21 in San Francisco and a couple minutes left in the second half, the crowd was looking the wrong direction. A big Juan Toscano-Anderson dunk got Warriors' fans attention, but the Suns' focus was at midcourt, where Mikal Bridges was lying after diving for a loose ball. When he popped up, the look on his face was as if he was about to be sick, and for good reason.

Bridges suffered a dislocated pinkie on the play and headed straight to the locker room. The Suns had to press on without him, a truly unfamiliar concept. While Bridges returned just before halftime, the scare he gave his teammates and coaches reverberated through the night.

“For him to come back and basically play with one hand, it says a lot about who we are as a ballclub,” said head coach Monty Williams. “I'm just grateful it wasn't worse.”

This Suns team truly doesn't know what it's like to be without Bridges, who has never missed an NBA game. But his impact goes much deeper than availability: On a team full of hard workers and ballers who sacrifice in the name of winning, Bridges stands out. And after a breakout 2020-21 campaign, Bridges' value has been affirmed with a fresh new extension, but the way he gets it done can sometimes go overlooked.

The question racing through heads on the Suns' sideline that night in San Francisco as Bridges' pinkie went askew were bigger than who would guard Stephen Curry. The injury, had it sidelined Bridges, would have bent the Suns' culture sideways just like it did Bridges' smallest digit.

“My heart just sunk, not just because he was hurt but because of what he means to our team, what he means to me, and how hard he works,” said Williams.

This year, Bridges is again leading the Suns in minutes and net rating. He is also taking the natural charisma and confidence that teammates are drawn to and channeling it into leadership. The gradual acclimation to Phoenix, to this franchise, it's a familiar cycle to those who have followed Bridges' career.

'The group of guys we have, from the front office to the coaching staff, I knew I wanted to be here.'

During the summer of 2019 after Williams was hired, Bridges was busy. He had stayed in the Valley to keep honing his craft, and his commitments were piling up. After meeting his new coach, Bridges jetted off to Las Vegas, where he had been invited to train with the Team USA Select Team. There, Bridges' intensity caught the eye of an old enemy from his Villanova days, Gonzaga head coach Mark Few.

Few then dialed up a former Gonzaga staffer named Riccardo Fois who had just taken a job on Williams' Suns staff. Fois remembers Few telling him how well he would mesh with Bridges, calling the young Sun “special.”

“It's a cliche, but he is one of those guys that makes every coach look good,” Fois says.

Soon, Fois was assigned, along with then-Suns assistant Darko Rajakovic, to work closely with Bridges on a day by day basis. The two bonded quickly, not only from the nostalgia of their old cross-country Villanova-Gonzaga rivalry but also their shared “crazy” dedication on the court.

They shared meals, often alongside forward Cameron Johnson, a fast friend of Bridges'. They obsessed over little details, avoiding any talk of excuses and constantly looking for ways to get better. When Fois and Bridges did butt heads, it was almost always about how to pull back.

“The most (common) argument me and Mikal had was about days off,” Fois says, “because sometimes I had to almost make him take a day off because he was playing 30 minutes a night guarding the best player and we still had like 25 games ahead.”

At the same time, Bridges was getting more comfortable in Phoenix. The draft-night deal from the 76ers pulled him away from his family, his girlfriend, and his home. But over time, he came to appreciate the Valley and its fans.

“It was tough when I first got traded to this city but once I came here and lived here and been around the people, I loved it,” says Bridges. “The group of guys we have, from the front office to the coaching staff, I knew I wanted to be here.”

While Bridges grew more comfortable and improved his game, the hard work began to pay off. Williams put him into the starting lineup just before the All-Star break in 2020, and after the NBA hiatus that year, he began to put it all together in the Bubble, making 40 percent of his threes and playing such lockdown defense that Suns fans online - and broadcaster Kevin Ray - created the idea of “Mikal Jail” for opposing ball-handlers, and gave him the nickname “The Warden” to match.

By the time the Suns traded for future Hall of Famer Chris Paul that fall, Bridges was ready to go. Bridges was one of the first players to turn Paul's head once he got to Phoenix. Last winter, Paul called him “one of the best guys I think I've ever been around.”

'He just signed a nice contract, so when you make that kind of money, you've got to take those shots, and that's just part of it. It's not because he got the money. He's earned it. But we have confidence in him.'

- Monty Williams, Phoenix Suns | Head Coach

The Suns came into camp preaching that “short breaks are earned,” a way of spinning a negative (hardly any break after a Finals run) into a positive. For Bridges, a short memory was important.

After a magical Game Two with 27 points, Bridges cooled off and his impact was stilted. In a deciding Game Six, Bridges scored just seven points and had an uncharacteristic four fouls in 39 minutes.

“Obviously you don't want to dwell on it, obviously it hurts, but when you mess up or not have what you want with your expectations, you just learn from it,” he says. “And that's the biggest thing I took from it.”

The series reinforced something Bridges already knew: That to bring the Larry O'Brien trophy back to Phoenix, his already dogged attention to detail would have to go up another level. But when camp began, it was hard to take the long view. Cameras were effectively already rolling, awaiting an answer from Bridges about his contract status and his future. He tried not to let it phase him.

“I think they weren't heavy on me as much as they were a lot of other people, so I think I had it pretty easy,” Bridges said.

Soon, the player whose draft-night move spawned endless stories about the hometown kid being dealt from Philadelphia out to the desert signed a new deal that locks him in through the 2025-26 season. A contract like that, no matter how you cut it up or talk about it, brings with it bigger expectations. It moves a player from growing to grown, fair or not.

Reminders have come fairly often already this year as Bridges takes on a leading role for the Western Conference-leading Suns. In a low-scoring game on Nov. 17 at home against Dallas, Bridges was pressed into action defending 7-footer Kristaps Porzingis on switch after switch late in the game. Ordinarily, Porzingis would own the mismatch. But Bridges' long arms forced multiple turnovers in crunch time to help the Suns pull in front.

The Suns needed more. The offense had been too quiet. Despite a quiet scoring performance, Bridges took in a pass from Paul with under four minutes to go and the Suns down 1. In one motion, Bridges let it fly from three, and the ball found the bottom of the net. The lead stuck in what became a tenth straight Phoenix win.

“The guys on our team expect him to take those shots, and he's getting used to being in that position,” Williams said. “He just signed a nice contract, so when you make that kind of money, you've got to take those shots, and that's just part of it. It's not because he got the money. He's earned it. But we have confidence in him.”

The essence of Bridges, the stuff that makes him special, is best recognized day to day. That might be why he comes off as a secret only those in the Valley know about. Everything is about moving closer to a championship. Everything. Bridges speaks with a forward inertia that very nearly bypasses the excitement of what just happened.

A loss is a chance to learn and adjust. A win is the byproduct of the hard work that comes naturally to him. A personal accolade is simply what happens when the winning comes in bunches. It's the type of mindset that Williams wanted to instill from his first day as Suns head coach, but it took the acceptance of players like Bridges to take it from an idea to a culture.

“If you come in on a day to day basis and you see a guy working, you see a guy getting better and you pair that up with production, that gives somebody from the outside confidence in this person from a professional standpoint,” says Suns assistant Brian Randle. “Now, if you're around him in addition to that and you get to know him and see how fun-loving he is and how genuine he is, because he's not trying to put on, and you pair those things up, that gives you a lot of credibility.”

It's bigger than working hard and being easy going. Bridges has had to sacrifice a great deal as well. There's so little he can't do that stitching together the right bag can be challenging.

“I think the biggest aspect (of his work) is how can he help the Phoenix Suns?” says Fois. “And that's what many players, when they work really hard at the highest level, sometimes they forget. The most important thing is, get better at the things you can do to help the team win.”

On a team with All-Stars in Devin Booker and Chris Paul and a budding two-way force in the middle like Deandre Ayton, Bridges' role is clearly defined. It's all about doing the most within that structure.
        “Mikal was such a master of that, maximizing Chris and Book and D with this movement, with his finding himself open, making big shots, running in transition hard,” adds Fois.

There will be opportunities for Bridges to expand his game in time. Suns assistants past and present see room to grow as a ball-handler, as a finisher, maybe even as a post player. But the special thing about Bridges is he can make an elite impact without doing that stuff, and that he revels in executing in the margins.

“I don't think he cares at all about that and to be honest, I think that's the result of the culture that Monty and James set and (that) all the players bought into,” Fois says. “There is no one guy there who thinks like that. I think that the best I can hope for in Mikal's career is that he wins four or five NBA titles.”

Since Bridges was drafted, the Suns have overhauled the roster and the basketball culture to build around winners. It's no accident Bridges survived that reset, and it's no surprise he has become the vital center of a Suns team, a connecting force that's as sticky as his own hands can be in the passing lanes.

Outside of a big transition connection with Booker here and there or at the buzzer of a decisive win, Bridges isn't one to be overly demonstrative on the court. He lets his play speak for itself. That's the same tact he takes at practice and in the locker room as well, and it works.

“When you're around him, you can't help but take notice, you can't help but give him the stamp of alright, this is one of our leaders,” says Randle. “Maybe he's not going to be vocal 100 percent of the time, but when he does speak up, we're for sure going to listen. And when he's out there playing, we know what he's going to give us. You've always got that stable piece in the organization, on the team, to point to and say our standard is set with this guy.”

Adds Bridges: “That just naturally comes with how close I am with everybody, but also just leading by example on the court.”

There's a lot more Bridges can do. Maybe one day he will do all of it. Right now, though, his imprint on the game is seen in the sum of quiet delights. The impact is exponential. That's why it was so hard to imagine even one game without him on that night in the Bay.

“You see so many things that it's the cumulative of them all that to me is like, 'what am I supposed to do?'” says Randle. “As soon as I see one clip, he goes and makes another clip. And then there's another clip. And I'm going to go one step further: That makes it contagious. Because we can talk about him, but then he has an effect on other guys as well.

“It's really his night in, night out consistency. If you're going to point to something, that's what you point to. You point to not a block, not a shot made, not a steal, not a deflection, not anything else. You take the whole of his career thus far and how he's gotten better and how he's produced, and you go and look at his career, not one game missed, and that's Mikal Bridges.”

elevated

ELEVATED

The Phoenix Suns today signed guard Landry Shamet to a multiyear contract extension.

Shamet was acquired by Phoenix in a trade with Brooklyn on Aug. 6 and he averaged 11.0 points on 48.4% from the field and 44.4% from three-point range in four games this preseason. He has completed three NBA seasons, appearing in the playoffs three times, and averaged a career-best 9.3 points for the Nets in 2020-21, including a career-high 30 points on April 18 at Miami. The 24-year-old has averaged 9.2 points per game on 41.6% shooting from the field, 39.7% from three-point range and 83.4% from the free throw line in 193 career regular season games (69 starts) with Philadelphia, the LA Clippers and Brooklyn. Shamet has totaled 407 career three-point makes as his 39.7% career mark from beyond the arc ranks 17th among all active players (min. 300 3PM).

A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Shamet played three seasons collegiately at Wichita State before Philadelphia selected him 26th overall in the 2018 NBA Draft. He earned NBA All-Rookie Second Team honors in 2018-19 as he split his rookie season with the 76ers (whose coaching staff included current Suns Head Coach Monty Williams) and the Clippers. Shamet has appeared in all 31 of his teams’ playoff games through his first three seasons, making 10 starts and averaging 5.3 points.

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SUNS SIGN LANDRY SHAMET TO CONTRACT EXTENSION

PHOENIX – The Phoenix Suns today signed free agent guard Chasson Randle. The team’s roster now stands at 16 players.

Randle (6-2, 185 pounds) has appeared in 119 career games (7 starts) with Philadelphia, New York, Washington, Golden State and Orlando through four NBA seasons, averaging a career-high 6.5 points in 41 appearances with the Magic last season. The 28-year-old holds career regular season averages of 5.7 points on 36.1% three-point shooting and 1.8 assists in 16.1 minutes. Unselected in the 2015 NBA Draft, Randle has played internationally for clubs in Czech Republic, Spain and China in addition to his NBA and NBA G League experience. A graduate of Stanford University, Randle left the Cardinal as the program’s all-time leading scorer. 

suns-sign-chasson-randle

SUNS SIGN CHASSON RANDLE

The Phoenix Suns today signed free agent forward Chandler Hutchison. 

Hutchison (6-6, 210 pounds) has appeared in 97 career games (25 starts) with Chicago and Washington through his first three NBA seasons, also appearing in two playoff games with the Wizards this past season. The 25-year-old holds career regular season averages of 5.7 points on 44.1% shooting and 3.8 rebounds in 18.2 minutes. 

Originally the 22nd overall pick by the Bulls in the 2018 NBA Draft, Hutchison entered the league following a standout four-year career at Boise State University. As a senior in 2017-18, media tabbed him the Mountain West Player of the Year as he averaged 20.0 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.5 steals for the Broncos.

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SUNS SIGN CHANDLER HUTCHISON

The NBA announced today that Phoenix Suns forward/center Jalen Smith was selected to the All-Summer League First Team, as selected by a panel of media.  

Smith led the Las Vegas Summer League by averaging 12.5 rebounds per game as he also averaged 16.3 points, recording a double-double in all four of his appearances. His highest scoring performance at Summer League came in a win over Denver on Aug. 12 when he tallied 16 of his 21 points in the second half while also grabbing 11 rebounds.

jalen-smith-named-to-all-summer-league-first-team

JALEN SMITH NAMED TO ALL-SUMMER LEAGUE FIRST TEAM

PHOENIX – The Phoenix Suns today re-signed forward/center Frank Kaminsky III. 

Kaminsky has played 86 regular seasons games, including 26 starts, with the Suns over the past two seasons, averaging 8.0 points and 4.2 rebounds in 17.3 minutes. He shot a career-best 47.1% from the field in 2020-21, and against Golden State on Jan. 28, tied his career high with 13 rebounds and set his career high with eight assists, also scoring 12 points in a Suns win. Kaminsky appeared in 10 postseason games during the Suns’ 2021 postseason run, including four games in the NBA Finals. 

Entering his seventh NBA season, Kaminsky has appeared in 368 career regular season games with Charlotte and the Suns, holding career averages of 9.4 points and 4.0 rebounds. He has also appeared in 17 career playoff games. The native of Lisle, Illinois was originally the ninth overall pick by the Hornets in the 2015 NBA Draft. Prior to his NBA career, Kaminsky had a decorated collegiate career at the University of Wisconsin where he was the unanimous men’s national player of the year in 2015 and twice led the Badgers to the Final Four.

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SUNS RE-SIGN FRANK KAMINSKY III

On June 20, 2019, Cam Johnson celebrated inside his family’s Pittsburgh-area home as his name was called as the 11th overall pick in the NBA Draft.  

The most optimistic outsider was stunned, as evidenced by the “Wow, bro!” viral video from Coby White, Johnson’s former North Carolina teammate and close friend. The most pessimistic outsider panned that move along with newly promoted Phoenix Suns general manager James Jones’ entire draft night, which also included trading T.J. Warren to Indiana for cash considerations, acquiring Dario Šarić as part of the deal that gave the Suns Johnson’s draft rights and trading for Aron Baynes and the draft pick that became Ty Jerome in exchange for a first-round pick.  

Two years later to the day, Suns Managing Partner Robert Sarver and Jones’ three children surprised him at midcourt with an ideal Father’s Day present: the news that he had been voted NBA Executive of the Year by his peers. Phoenix players stopped their pregame warmups to applaud the architect who built this Suns team now three wins away from the NBA Finals. Johnson then went on to record 12 points, four rebounds and two steals in Phoenix’s Game 1 victory over the Clippers.  

This uncanny timing — which is only possible due to an altered calendar to complete this pandemic season — presents a perfect opportunity to look back at how that draft night shaped the Suns’ direction and impressive resurgence under Jones.  

“That journey where when I was first drafted here, it was like, 'Oh man, this team is terrible. I was a terrible pick. This team was destined for failure,'” Johnson recently recalled, “then to get to this point now, going into the Western Conference Finals, it's fun. “It shows the trust and the faith and the confidence we have in one another.” 

Jones took over as interim co-general manager just before the 2018-19 season began. His in-season moves during those first few months included trading Trevor Ariza to Washington for Kelly Oubre Jr. and dealing Ryan Anderson to Miami for Tyler Johnson.  

After being officially promoted to general manager following the season, Jones’ first major move was hiring Monty Williams as head coach. But draft night was Jones’ first opportunity to make significant roster tweaks.  

The cash considerations that came back in the Warren trade were used to re-sign Oubre and sign starting point guard Ricky Rubio, who were important contributors during their time with Phoenix before becoming the centerpieces of the blockbuster trade for Chris Paul. Another move that helped free up some salary for those signings occurred later that summer, when Jones traded Josh Jackson, De’Anthony Melton and two second-round draft picks to Memphis for Jevon Carter, who has become a fan favorite because of his defensive tenacity, tireless work ethic and passionate support from the bench when he’s not in the rotation.  

Baynes also provided value with his toughness, experience and 3-point shooting last season, particularly during Deandre Ayton’s 25-game suspension.  

Snap judgements and instant analysis are commonplace in a passionate, 24/7 sports landscape. But Jones’ plan has been methodically deliberate since his interim season. His goal has been to find “Suns fits,” or players with the skill sets, work habits and personality that can immediately raise the team’s floor and gel with a positive culture.

Johnson embodied that vision. His long-range shooting would immediately translate at the NBA level. The Suns knew he was a high-character man because of his past relationship with Vice President of Basketball Operations Jeff Bower. The Suns trusted Johnson’s hip injury that required surgery in college had healed.  

And Phoenix believed Johnson would develop into more than a shooter. During his first two NBA seasons, Johnson has flashed the athleticism to elevate for dunks — including a key fourth-quarter slam during Sunday’s victory — as well as the footwork and length to guard multiple positions.  

The Suns won 34 games the season after removing Jones’ interim tag, including an 8-0 run in the Orlando Bubble that raised eyebrows around the league. Jones then parlayed that momentum into a franchise-changing offseason.  

The trade for Paul, an 11-time All-Star and one of the best point guards of all time, was the obvious headliner. Phoenix also signed rugged veteran wing Jae Crowder, who had just come off an NBA Finals run with Miami. The Suns brought back Šarić, Carter and Frank Kaminsky because Williams calls them “culture-drivers.” They gave Cameron Payne a shot right before the Bubble, then picked up his team option for 2020-21. They acquired Torrey Craig for cash considerations in March, and he immediately became a rotation contributor. They filled out the roster with E’Twaun Moore and Langston Galloway, who have been lauded for the professionalism, locker-room leadership and ability to step in whenever needed (see: Moore playing 11 minutes Sunday while Paul was out due to health and safety protocols).  

The result: Phoenix finished with the NBA’s second-best regular-season record and clinched a playoff berth for the first time since 2010. The Suns ranked in the top 7 in the NBA in offensive and defensive rating, using a style predicated on sharing the ball and playing with relentless force. They have now won eight consecutive playoff games to extend a franchise record, knocking out the defending-champion Lakers in the first round, sweeping the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Semifinals and taking Game 1 of their series against the Clippers. “Team-wide, I really, really love our group,” Johnson said. “ … I love this team.  I love who we have on the court. I love playing with these guys.”   

Natural outside skepticism was perhaps expected when Sarver elevated Jones to the Suns’ top personal decision-maker. He was a role player on championship teams, then quickly rose up Phoenix’s front office. He took over a franchise that had endured immense recent turnover and on-court struggles, winning only 19 games in 2018-19.   

But June 20, 2019 helped launch the construction of the Suns’ roster now up 1-0 in the Western Conference Finals.   

And on June 20, 2021, Jones was named NBA Executive of the Year.  

What a difference two years can make.  

“He’s a big reason why we’re having the success, because of the team that he’s put together and the character of the players and the talent that he’s assembled,” Williams said of Jones. “Just happy for him. He’s changed this thing in a short period of time.“ … I know that had to be a thrill for him (to be named Executive of the Year). He won’t admit it, but I’m sure he was close to tears.”  

the-architect

THE ARCHITECT

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