His third-year team option has been exercised by the Suns.
In a move that barely registers as news yet still needs its moment in the ledger, the Phoenix Suns have exercised their team option on second-year wing Ryan Dunn. Drafted 28th overall in 2024, this is the expected outcome. The ink still has to dry, the paperwork still has to be filed, and the “t’s” and lowercase “j’s” still have to get their ceremonial dots.
Dunn’s rookie deal was four years, $13 million, though anyone who’s followed this league knows the fine print is where the story lives. The first two years guaranteed, security in the short term. The last two tied to team option, a test of belief and patience.
Today’s decision locks him in at $2.8 million for the 2026–27 season. One year from now, the choice escalates: exercise the option and Dunn earns $5 million in 2027–28, decline, and he’s standing on the doorstep of restricted free agency with an $8 million qualifying offer and a $15 million cap hold looming over the books.
Dunn enters year two carrying the weight of expectation, the whispered hope of a leap, the growing murmur that he could be the Suns’ starting power forward. It’s a role both natural and unnatural for him. Natural because his length and instincts make him a defensive disruptor. Unnatural because his offensive game is still an unfinished sketch, with lines sharp on one side, smudged and incomplete on the other.
He averaged 6.9 points as a rookie while launching 3.6 threes per game, hitting only 31.1%. His free throws? A jarring 48.7%. The defensive IQ is there, the motor is undeniable, but in today’s league you don’t survive as a wing-forward hybrid if you can’t make defenses pay. And Dunn knows it.
This is the crossroads. The youth movement in Phoenix has given him space to fail and room to grow, but it won’t grant him immunity. His efficiency has to climb, and his offense has to matter. And tomorrow night, under the lights against the Lakers in the Suns’ first preseason game, we’ll begin to see whether Ryan Dunn is a project waiting to blossom or a role player fighting to stick.
Category: General Sports
