Collin Gillespie embraces new role going into upcoming Suns season

Collin Gillespie is coming off a career year for the Phoenix Suns and was rightfully rewarded for it with a four-year, $48 million extension he signed in June.

Gillespie played in 80 of 82 regular season games, starting 58 of them due to an injury-riddled season for guard Jalen Green. He broke the Suns’ franchise record for 3-pointers in a season with 232 triples.

But with Green healthy going into this upcoming season, Gillespie is buying in to a new role as a leader coming off the bench.

“I try to be a knockdown shooter. That’s my role, obviously,” Gillespie told Arizona Sports’ Wolf & Luke. “And then with the second unit, kind of just run the second unit, be a leader of the second unit and find ways when the starters come out, we just take it to another level.”

With Green and franchise cornerstone Devin Booker both more naturally shooting guards, Gillespie’s leadership and steadiness will be relied on as Phoenix’s top option for a true point guard. In addition to his 3-point prowess, Gillespie averaged a career-high 4.6 assists last season — good for second on the team (behind Booker’s 6.0).

Gillespie was also an underrated defender and rebounder for his size, just 6 feet, 1 inch, bringing an all-around competitiveness that he believes can fill in gaps wherever it is needed for the Suns.

“I think it just depends on the night, and it depends on what the team needs,” Gillespie said. “I feel like I’m the kind of guy where I try to figure out what we need, and then try to bring that in any way that I can. If I feel like we’re a little quiet one night, I try to be a vocal leader. I feel like leadership is something that comes natural to me, so I’m able to speak up when I see things.”

Gillespie noted how opposing teams started to game-plan for him differently in the middle of last season, honing in on him as a higher priority on the scouting report. A December game against the Los Angeles Lakers in which he scored a then-career-high 28 points on eight made 3-pointers confirmed as much, and it gave him more confidence — and a new challenge.

“I think earlier on in the season, I was just kind of figuring it out: finding my niche, my role,” Gillespie said. “But then once you have games like that … if you put them together consistently, then they’ll start to kind of be like, ‘OK, we can’t leave him, he’s a shooter,’ or put a bigger guy on you to try and disrupt other ways that you score. So finding answers to all of that is going to be important, obviously this year.”

Like the rest of the team, Gillespie’s focus during the offseason was getting better in tangible ways. Setting goals and working hard to overcome odds is something Gillespie is no stranger to: he was lightly recruited coming out of high school before becoming a national champion at Villanova, then went undrafted into the NBA in 2022, then was let go by the Denver Nuggets after riding the bench during their 2023 NBA Finals run.

Now, Gillespie welcomes another opportunity to prove he belongs, with no intention of settling after earning his new contract.

“I want to get better and I want to improve. I don’t want to be a guy that’s just like, ‘Oh, he did this one year and then that was it.’ …There’s more room to grow. I’m never satisfied with where I am. I always want to get better and continue to prove people right about me,” Gillespie said.

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