With all the understandable excitement surrounding rookie Ryan Dunn, it feels like people may be overlooking what Royce O’Neale can offer the Phoenix Suns after he comes off the bench.

But we’re absolutely thorough, and because we’ve gone through the arduous work of breaking down every Suns player down to the smallest detail, that’s exactly what we’re doing for a guy who feels like he’s been part of the core for a while, But I only joined in February.

“When I talk about Royce, all I say is ‘win games,'” general manager James Jones said. “I can’t tell you if they’re going to be on the offensive side of the ball or the defensive side of the ball every night. I just know that if you put it all together, he’s going to have a lot of winning plays.”

Over the next six days, we’ll be working through our Suns season preview series for all 17 players on the roster, one at a time. This includes both a written post for the avid readers (hello!) and a video breakdown for the visual learners.

On Day 11, we take a new look at Royce O’Neale, what he brings to the table on both ends of the floor and why people are losing sleep over the value of this 3-and-D wing coming off the bench.

Royce O’Neale 2024-25 Suns Season Preview

One thing is for sure: Royce O’Neale is NOT afraid to make 3s. In his 29 appearances for the Suns, he made nearly 37.6 percent of his 5.2 long-distance attempts per game, including 43.4 percent on corner 3s, 37.8 percent on catch-and-shoot 3s and 40.3 percent at Wide open 3s.

NBA.com might talk about wide open 3s when the nearest defender is 6+ feet away, but if you asked O’Neale, he only needed an inch of space to be wide open.

Unfortunately, O’Neale could be a pretty spotty shooter, and last season was a good example of that. In the playoffs, his numbers dropped to 5.0 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game on .318/.333/.000 shooting splits. He stepped up in Game 1 against the Minnesota Timberwolves, scoring all 14 bench points for Phoenix on 5 of 10 shooting, but he scored one in the next three games combined 6 points on 2 of 12 shots.

That new four-year, $42 million contract certainly helped him make his decision, but the first-round pain and the intrigue of what Phoenix was building ultimately led him to give the Suns another try.

“I definitely wanted to be here at the end of the season,” O’Neale said. “I embraced this process, thought it through, talked to the team, the agency and everything, and it just suited me best. I feel like we had a bad exit after last year and we just scaled it back and added more this year and are part of something special that we have going on.”

The Suns are hoping the 31-year-old can be a little more consistent month to month than he was last year:

That being said, seeing Royce making threes can make all the difference, especially with the unique way he can break free when greeted by a recovering defender trying to block his shot.

Royce O’Neale’s most trustworthy weapon is his slow, deliberate and undeniably effective pump fake. Because he’s a known spot-up shooter but not a primary threat, defenders often back up to O’Neale after paying too much attention to the Big 3 by shadowing or even trapping them.

Then he goes into his devilishly funny pump fake, lifting the ball like he’s pulling it out of concrete, watching his defender sail past, then side-stepping into an open look. He didn’t shoot well in these situations in Brooklyn, but his “simple but effective” move was much more effective in Phoenix:

“That’s my special little talent,” O’Neale said. “It gives me a lot of open 3s and drives for my teammates.”

This pump fake also helps mislead his teammates. When the Side-Step 3 isn’t there, O’Neale knows how to put the ball on the floor and either scan the defense for cutters, pull the low man in before hitting a big into the dunker’s spot, or even him sucks in Help the defense before finding an open 3-point shooter.

“His shooting ability was great, but he’s also a guy that gets to the next action, keeps the ball moving, has energy and an IQ that can be really good for a team,” coach Mike Budenholzer said.

The ball finds energy, and O’Neale does a great job of maintaining that kinetic energy as an “extra pass” guy. He has decent looks at times, but he regularly denies good shots by sending the ball where it needs to go:

“To be honest, I would rather get an assist than a basket. We have a lot of guys on this team who can score. So, I mean, I score myself, but I’m just a playmaker whenever I’m needed and get those guys involved.”

That basketball IQ and willingness to pass as a guy who can keep the ball moving to get to the next action makes him a natural screener. His 2.7 assists per game doesn’t sound like much, but he can find open shooters or baseline cutters in the short roll.

O’Neale also handles the screens quite well, using all the extra space in the paint to bring in help defense before distributing it back to an open 3-point shooter. He can also slide over the screen and jump back to the 3-point line, where his gravity as a shooter opens up the space for another additional pass to the open man.

“Being able to initiate and be a connecting little 4, 3,” described Kevin Durant. “A guy that you can throw the ball to and have him initiate the offense to get guys going, could play in the pocket a little bit and make those passes as well.”

However, we should note that Royce O’Neale’s value on offense typically doesn’t extend beyond the 3-point line. He can make smart short-throw passes, but O’Neale really doesn’t have much bounce or touch at the rim.

He shot just 59 percent at the rim last season, and although that number rose to 66 percent in his stint with the Suns, O’Neale is borderline allergic to attacking the basket. According to Cleaning The Glass, O’Neale ranked high seventh He ranked in the percentile among the wings in the frequency of his shots at the rim, and he only took 77 shots at the rim overall.

For comparison, last year he attempted 422 three-pointers – almost five times as many shots as he did at the rim!

Luckily, despite this obvious allergen on the edge, there are two ends of the field, and O’Neale is just as useful as a link on that end as he is on offense.

Royce O’Neale’s defense

Royce O’Neale is no longer the lockdown defender he once was, but he still lives up to that 3-and-D label by being a communicative, switchable wing defender who doesn’t mind being bigger wings or even to guard big players.

“I think it starts with a defensive mentality, his willingness to defend himself and accept the challenge,” Budenholzer said. “And not just for yourself, but also in the team, in communication and in cover.”

O’Neale isn’t exactly a free safety, but he has a good sense of where the ball is going to go next, and when he’s able to make a play on it, he’s still capable of jumping the passing lanes .

According to the BBall Index, Royce was in the 64th percentile in pass lane defense last year. So don’t expect a lot of interceptions like this, but O’Neale understands rotations and is committed to that end of the field, which is what makes this team going to need more of that this season.

Although he’s only listed at 6-foot-6, O’Neale has no problem guarding one or even two positions. He seemed lighter so far in the preseason and said he changed his diet over the summer (including not eating sweets) to get in better shape.

But Royce still has the strength to hold his own against wings trying to attack him, and in a pinch he can occasionally block big players trying to impose their will on an undersized four. The Suns have more small-ball options than last year, but Royce can occasionally hold his own against big players in the post, using his chest to play physically enough before hitting for the ball.

“I take a lot of pride in taking on the challenge every night and guarding 1-5 no matter who I get,” O’Neale said. “I don’t care, I’ll just do it.”

Add it all up and you have a two-way role player who can help any winning team. O’Neale’s former Utah Jazz coach Quin Snyder said even that description doesn’t do him justice.

“I would hesitate to call him a role player,” Snyder said. “I’m sure he would be okay with that, and he probably is, but sometimes that diminishes everything someone does. He has many different roles and I think that is his greatest strength. His humility as a player and his competitiveness have always set him apart.”

Royce O’Neale is probably no longer a top-notch player on a team with playoff aspirations, but coming off the bench will undoubtedly help Phoenix. There can be nights when he’s called upon to finish games, and his teammates immediately saw the value he added after he was traded to the Suns.

“It’s hard to narrow it down to one thing because he just does a little bit of everything while he’s out there,” Devin Booker said. “Defensively, accepting your match, just being ready. And then he’s just a great character where he runs, slides out, moves the ball and then hits open shots.”

“IQ, can play almost his entire career with guys who can shoot the ball and an underrated passer,” Kevin Durant said. “Can shoot the basketball – just a basketball player, honestly. A basketball player without a position who will help us and adapt.”

It’s no wonder that last season with O’Neale on the court, Phoenix posted a team-best net rating of +9.4 and when he sat, a team-worst net rating of -4.1.

Armed with a straightforward contract extension and given the hype surrounding rookie Ryan Dunn, it’s easy to forget what Royce O’Neale has to offer. But there will be plenty of games this year where O’Neale quietly brings in 3-4 3-pointers, solid rotational defense and some swing-swing passes that remind fans how nice it is to be like this having a utility guy in the second unit.

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