Why Phoenix Suns' new G League team should be important to fans

The Phoenix Suns' G League team is back after a four-year absence.

Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein and the G League president Shareef Abdur-Rahim announced the new team name Valley Suns during a news conference at Arizona State's Mullett Arena in Tempe on Wednesday. That's the venue where the Valley Suns will begin playing in November.

Here is what to know about the NBA G League and why the Valley Suns are vital to the Phoenix Suns roster and their fans.

What is the G league, why is it important?

The G League is the NBA's minor league. It develops players who are rookies, two-way contract signees on NBA rosters, undrafted free agents, coaches and other team personnel in front office roles, and medical staff. In addition to the Valley Suns, the G League has 30 one-to-one affiliates with each of the NBA franchises. There are up to three two-way spots for the standard 15-man NBA team roster. The two-ways could be sent to their G League team on assignment to prepare players for NBA-level competition.

Phoenix's two-way players this past season were point guard Saben Lee, forward Ish Wainright, and center Udoka Azubuike.

"You saw last year what Saben did, and Dok, and Ish. They spent the whole year with the Suns," Bartelstein said. "When the season starts and you're playing every other day, it's hard to stay in shape, hard to maintain a rhythm. There's guys who are hurt, that even if you're not playing can practice with the G League team and have them come to our facility."

What's the significance of the Suns relaunching a G League team in the Phoenix area at Mullett Arena?

The Suns' former G League team, the Northern Arizona Suns, was based at the 5,100-seat Findlay Toyota Center in Prescott Valley. That's about a 91-mile distance from the Suns' games at Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix and the Player 15 Group office where the G League team, Mercury, and Suns arena operations are based.

Bartelstein mentioned that he and the Suns' president of basketball operations and general manager James Jones wanted to return the Suns' G League team to the Phoenix area to continue its working relationship with the Oak View Group, the pro sports and commercial real estate company that owns the 5,000-capacity Mullett Arena. The other main reason was proximity and not making the team's players, coaches, scouts and other team personnel travel far from their Verizon 5G Performance Center practice facility.

Also, ticket prices for G League games are more affordable than NBA games. It's a similar concept to the team owner Mat Ishbia's Gray Television deal last year and giving out free antennas to make the team more accessible to its fans without requiring a TV cable subscription.

Which former G League players, coaches are now in the NBA?

The most recent notable G League products are Houston's 2021 second overall pick Jalen Green, Portland's No. 3 overall pick Scoot Henderson, Suns' Damion Lee and Isaiah Thomas, and Dallas forward Derrick Jones Jr. who played for the Northern Arizona Suns. Head coaches who came from the G League include the Philadelphia 76ers' Nick Nurse and the Atlanta Hawks' Quin Synder.

"When the community here in the Valley come out to see the Valley Suns, they're seeing the NBA stars of the future," Rahim said. "They're seeing young players that are on the rise. They're seeing NBA future head coaches, we have eight NBA head coaches who have G League experience this year, countless assistants, young general managers, young trainers. And then our fans, they get a proximity here at Mullett Arena that you can't get anywhere else."

Reaction: Suns' Valley Suns G League team name 'unoriginal' and 'confusing', fans say

Why were the Suns the only NBA team without a G League affiliate over the past four years?

Bartelstein was the Detroit Pistons' VP of Business and Basketball Operations who bought the Northern Arizona Suns from Phoenix's former owner Robert Sarver in July 2020, leaving Phoenix as the only franchise without a G League affiliate. The Pistons rebranded its G League team as the Motor City Cruise, which began playing in the 2021-22 season. Bartelstein then left the Pistons when he was hired by Ishbia, after Sarver sold the Phoenix franchise to Ishbia in February 2023.

"Ironically, I was the one on the other side buying the team from the Suns and getting it to Detroit. Now, three years later, I'm here," Bartelstein said.

What does this mean for the future of Suns' player development?

There's much speculation about what the Suns might do with the first-round No. 22 overall pick in June's draft. But with the Suns' new G League in place, the idea of adding and developing youth could bring more to the Suns' veteran roster.

"You gotta develop talent. Developing talent is having them play, guard pick-and-rolls, be put in pick-and-rolls," Bartelstein said. "If you're not playing, it's hard to get better. So for us on the basketball side, whether it's draft picks, two-way players, undrafted players, having something close here that we can look and see and develop would be really important."

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Here's why Suns' new G League team should be important to their fans