Does the name Jared Butler mean anything to you? That certainly also applies to us, after he personally contacted to let us know we were wrong when we suggested the Phoenix Suns were right to cut him in favor of Jordan Goodwin. There hasn’t been much talk lately about this being a bad move.
Goodwin is the perfect backup point guard for this roster.
That’s because the more defensive-minded Goodwin has shown in recent games that he is exactly the kind of third-string point guard head coach Jordan Ott needs to play the way he wants. It goes way beyond the fact that he is a bigger body and also a better defender.
With the league leaning more toward a full-court press this season, Goodwin is the perfect player for these scenarios. He’s not as fast as Butler – few in the league were – but he has the IQ to know how to blow up opponents’ attempts to move the ball across half the court.
This is an appreciation post from Jordan Goodwin 🚨 pic.twitter.com/gutFwSmiGO
— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) November 24, 2025
He’s no slouch either and the Suns allow a ridiculous 106.7 points when he’s on the court. That also represents the best figure of his career, while his plus-10 net rating is a huge boost for his team coming off the bench.
His 19.9 minutes per night – including a pair of starts – is also a career high if you take out that impressive 17-game run with the Memphis Grizzlies immediately after he was let go by the Suns the first time around.
But the impact of having Goodwin on the roster was really seen in the most recent win over the Sacramento Kings. With Collin Gillespie deservedly promoted to the starting five, Goodwin slid seamlessly into a bigger role. If anything, this showed how overqualified he is as a third point guard.
He played 24 minutes, the most of any bench player, while his game score of plus 15 was the best on the entire team. Better even than Mark Williams, who put in a monster performance of 21 points and 16 rebounds. When Goodwin is out, good things happen, even if they don’t always show up in the box score.
So while the decision to keep him over Butler was met with some boos at the time, you can see the logic now. Butler remains the more electric attacking player, but Goodwin brings so much more than that to The Valley. That includes the ability to apply pressure and play a bigger role, which he has done.
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