What a fantastic season Collin Gillespie is having for the Phoenix Suns so far. The highlight is undoubtedly being named MVP of the first quarter by ourselves.
Okay, so maybe securing a starting spot in The Valley was a bigger deal, but you get the idea. Gillespie was great for the Suns and will definitely be back next season.
Suns will be without a starting spot for Gillespie if Jalen Green returns.
But what will the franchise do when Jalen Green returns from injury? We only saw him for one game and some change before he was sidelined again with a hamstring problem, but he looked electric.
The general consensus is that he won’t be seen again until after Christmas Day, but that time is fast approaching. Once he is fit, there is no way he is coming off the bench behind someone from Gillespie who is on a minimum contract this season.
Collin Gillespie is simply incredible at basketball. Watch him operate here pic.twitter.com/r6aPp72vym
— Shane Young (@YoungNBA) November 25, 2025
After all, Green was the best player they supposedly got back in the trade for Kevin Durant, a fact the former Suns superstar didn’t forget when they played against each other again recently. Dillon Brooks may feel differently, but the reality is that Green will be played like the star the Suns hope he can be.
That’s a problem for Gillespie, and also for head coach Jordan Ott. Of all the players that sum up what Coach Ott is trying to do defensively, Brooks and Gillespie are his two guys.
You can add center Mark Williams to that list, but he’ll never be in competition with Gillespie for minutes. One possible solution would be to drop Grayson Allen for Gillespie, but that won’t work for several reasons.
Allen is able to hang with bigger scorers than Gillespie cannot, while his three-point shooting (to his credit, Gillespie has also been very popular this season) is a powerful weapon.
Although in the past we have seen Allen get benched in favor of a point guard in Tyus Jones, and it ended in disaster. You just can’t play Booker, Green and Gillespie’s big minutes together.
That’s a problem that coach Ott has to solve. We know Gillespie will have no problem returning to an off-bench role, after all, it is where he started the season. But the Suns really like him as a starter, and they’ve reaped the benefits.
This is a good problem to have because it shows that the Suns have more depth than anyone could have imagined, and have also been competitive. However, they need to find a long-term role for Gillespie, and one that doesn’t clash with Green when he returns.
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