This or that? How position battles should shake out for the Suns

The Phoenix Suns call it positionless basketball.

But there are still five players on the court at a time for 240 combined minutes per game. How will head coach Earl Watson dole out minutes?

Matchups will have a lot to do with it, but how Phoenix manages minutes and lineup combinations will be telling toward the future of individual players, how the team’s style of play develops and what decisions the Suns must make as part of #TheTimeline.

Our Empire of the Suns writers Kellan Olson and Kevin Zimmerman break down battles for positions — or more accurately, how the minutes can and will be distributed — as the Suns prepare to open the season Wednesday against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Wing options

Kellan Olson: Lost in the urgency for wanting young players to get playing time is the need for some semblance of structure on the court when it comes to NBA experience on the floor. T.J. Warren should start based on that, but he also played the best basketball of his career at the start of last season when he was alongside Devin Booker and Eric Bledsoe. That should continue, despite Josh Jackson being the more promising two-way player and Warren’s offense being more ideal off the bench. That’s something that should be re-visited next summer after Jackson’s rookie year.

Kevin Zimmerman: I’m beginning to think this might not matter a whole lot. T.J. Warren earning an extension before the year clears up what the front office thinks of him. Obviously, general manager Ryan McDonough also thinks quite highly of Jackson. But Warren is already a legitimate 20-point-per-game scorer, and his ability to slide more to power forward — not to mention the NBA’s shift toward small ball — could give both players an opportunity to log heavy minutes. All that said, Warren is the more prepared of the two, and the better overall player at this point. Jackson will find his time in small ball units or even at shooting guard.

Backup point guard

Olson: As Kevin said on one of our preview podcasts, Mike James deserving minutes is certainly a thing. With that in mind, Ulis is the easy choice because of his energy and, you know, being the best playmaker on the team by a considerable margin. James is an NBA player, though, and that makes his 45-day limit on his two-way contract something worth monitoring.

Zimmerman: This is interesting, if only because James reportedly was promised a spot on the regular season roster through the entirety of his two-way contract. That puts him on the Suns for only just over a month. Does he bolt after a strong NBA introduction? Do the Suns trade another guard? And how much point will Devin Booker be running? All I know is that Tyler Ulis, in basketball terms, is the smartest player on the team.

The minutes at power forward

Olson: As I’ve said countless times, Dragan Bender needs to get at least 15 minutes a game and then we can go from there. Where the team might be presented a challenge is if Alex Len continues his great play from the preseason, it will restrict their flexibility of finding more than 48 minutes combined for Bender and Marquese Chriss. Even still, at least 25 minutes a game for Chriss and 20 for Bender shouldn’t be too much to ask for, but Jared Dudley shouldn’t spend all season not playing. A bind, this is.

Zimmerman: It would shock me if Marquese Chriss doesn’t start and doesn’t get heavy minutes. But when we’re concerning last year’s two draft picks, it’s Bender who has most at stake. Yes, it’s his second season and he’s young as-is, but just like Chriss, Bender is a very malleable figure the Suns need to commit if they want to develop a core that’s beyond Booker. This wouldn’t be as big of an issue if the center position wasn’t surprisingly steady even after Alan Williams’ injury.

New-age vs. old-age centers

Olson: To make my same point on Warren, I will extend that to Tyson Chandler. Watson has mentioned a few times leading into the season how much he values what Chandler brings on the court as a veteran and that cannot be overlooked. Unless Chandler looks like he doesn’t have it anymore, he should still play an important role on the team, no matter how good Len plays. A wrinkle I want to leave here is if Bender and/or Chriss look great in year two compared to year one and the team wants to find them more minutes than they had planned, I think they should play either of them over Len. They are both far more important to #TheTimeline than Len, even if the team re-signs him next summer. The true future of this team if all goes according to plan is with one of them playing center. It was never for one of them to come off the bench when they were both selected in the top-10.

Zimmerman: Len’s strong preseason has created an interesting position for Phoenix to be in. A lot of who plays center will be dictated by matchups with opponents, but if positionless is where the league is and where the Suns are going, I’m confident they will find adequate opportunities to roll Chriss and Bender into the center slot. This will be the most telling thing about how Watson envisions building the team.