The Phoenix Suns earned perhaps their most impressive win of the season on Monday, when they went to Los Angeles and outlasted a fully healthy Lakers squad en route to a 125-108 victory. To do this without late-illness Grayson Allen was even more impressive.
Specter of Tyus Jones finally released by Collin Gillespie.
Point guard Collin Gillespie once again got the nod to start for the Suns, and he was great throughout. Head coach Jordan Ott also split the time he and Devin Booker spent on the court before the latter left the game with an apparent groin injury, making sure one of them was always working for their teammates.
The sight of Gillespie performing full-court to irritate Luka Doncic is a complete departure from what they had last season, when Tyus Jones had a hugely disappointing campaign. Jones is long gone and now plays for the Orlando Magic, but this was the game that made the Suns realize they should have turned the page on that experiment much sooner.
How frustrating it must have been for Gillespie to toil in the G League and watch Jones fail to capitalize on the opportunity presented to him. When he was promoted to the main roster last season, he was a spark, even on a roster with Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal.
A career evening for Collin Gillespie 👌 pic.twitter.com/cCD6D3Eoex
— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) December 2, 2025
Gillespie is simply the much better defender and his shooting has been off the charts so far in 2025-2026. His ability to consistently get defenders to their feet before sliding to the side for a three-point effort has been one of the Suns’ most underrated weapons offensively.
In the win he was a brilliant 10 of 19 from the field, including a blistering 8 of 14 from deep, and continued to pop up with timely baskets as the Suns pulled away. On the season, he’s averaging just under 43 percent on three-pointers, which is much closer to teammate Allen in that regard than anyone could reasonably have expected.
That’s not to say Jones isn’t a smart player, he remains a player who can create for others and create his own chances from the space he creates, but we didn’t see that in Phoenix. In fact, we hardly see it this season with the Magic as he has fallen down their pecking order.
The numbers for Jones don’t look bad when you look back, 10.2 points the third-highest mark of his career while shooting 41.4 percent from deep on five attempts per game. His 5.3 assists were also the second-highest mark of his career.
But there’s a reason we recently named Gillespie the Suns first-quarter MVP of the season, and he just does so much more on both ends of the court that doesn’t always show up in the box score.
They lead the league in steals per game and remain above average defensively (just about), but this win has steadied the ship. If the Suns had turned to Gillespie full-time last season, who knows how much he could have led that group to some additional wins.
The playoffs were probably still out of reach, but there’s no doubt they would have played harder every night with Gillespie at the point of attack. He remains one of the finds of the season across the league, and against the Lakers, the memories of Tyus Jones in The Valley came to an emphatic end.
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