PHOENIX — Every player in the NBA has a calling card that got them here. And every player in the NBA has a few more under-the-radar things they excel at, too.
The Phoenix Suns have five guys in particular who have abilities that make themselves and the team better. Each of them spoke with Arizona Sports about these things, however small or large, and how they do them so well.
Some of them are obvious and are the primary way a guy contributes. A true signature skill, if you will. Others are further down the list and quite niche. They might only swing a possession or two each night. But like the more noticeable ones, you’d know who made that play even if you saw it through a blank silhouette.
We’ll start with a tiny one that the real Valley hoop heads out there have noticed from their superstar for many years, and work our way up from there.
Devin Booker’s back-screen gets overlooked
The pass gets a lot of credit. And it deserves a lot of credit. But Jae Crowder’s Valley-Oop to Deandre Ayton in the 2021 Western Conference Finals would not have been possible without a Devin Booker classic that goes back quite a way in his playing days.
When Booker was playing in high school, he saw a lot of junk defenses, as top players in the country at that level often do. Gimmicks like a triangle-and-two zone that were easier to deploy on smaller courts were persistent, and Booker’s dad, Melvin, a great player in his own right, had the shout for Booker to utilize all this attention in a way to open up a chance for his teammates.
Several years later, Booker did that in one of the biggest moments of his career.
With 0.9 seconds left, Booker was still a threat to get the ball, and the last thing Clippers center Ivica Zubac was expecting was for Booker to come off his line and get in his path. It was a phenomenal screen by Booker, one his coaches have come to know is in his skillset that they will incorporate into designed sets. Then-head coach Monty Williams did it to win a conference finals game.
Booker has done this as a Sun for many seasons. Outside of the designs, he will do them on the fly, too, when he sees an angle. If you watch Booker point his thumb behind him off the ball, that is his signal for his teammate to move into the open floor as the screen is coming.
The beauty of it is, Booker’s guy is normally draped all over him, as Nic Batum was there on the Valley-Oop. Switching in that instance is not programmed into their basketball brains at all. They are guarding Devin Booker, and that comes with a singular mindset: Do not let him get open.
“Realized that if you set a good enough screen, usually the teammate will get a shot,” Booker told Arizona Sports of fine-tuning it in high school. “Also, I know a lot of people aren’t going to leave my body, so it opens up a free one.”
As Booker pointed out, he has done it on other big stages, too.
Remember Steph Curry’s heater against Serbia in the semifinals of the 2024 Olympics for Team USA? Booker got the best shooter in the history of the game a clean corner 3 by using the screens.
This was art.
— Curry calls for the ball while Booker and half the bench points at him.
— Booker sets the screen as Curry is getting open.
— Steph makes eye contact with Jrue and cuts to the corner. Ant is already smiling, yelling and jumping as the pass goes.
— The turn. pic.twitter.com/NbkVz8wKQC
— Kellan Olson (@KellanOlson) August 9, 2024
The Suns use it this season, too. Head coach Jordan Ott has touted Booker’s unselfishness all year and loves this wrinkle.
“We’ll try to get it as much as we can when he’s off the basketball,” Ott said. “A lot of times, that guy on Book does not want to switch. … If they do switch, now that’s our advantage to put the other defender that’s not the primary defender on him.”
The highlights below start with the very first play of the season.
cdn.arizonasports.com/arizonasports/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/booker-nuisance-done.mp4
“We have a lot of plays, five-out, that open up the paint and get those guys an easy one,” Booker said. “I take pride in my screening angles and making sure I get a hit on ’em.”
Next time the Suns are grabbing a rebound off a miss and Booker is already down the floor a bit, keep an eye on him looking for these. That free bucket can go a long way sometimes. It can even be the difference between a Finals appearance or a gold medal.
Royce O’Neale’s ball fake
“Three-and-D” wings are often much more than that to a basketball team, but when you spend almost all of your time on offense off the ball spacing the floor, you better be damn reliable when it comes your way.
And that does not just boil down to if your 3s go in or not.
The split-second decision-making that goes into a handful of those catches each game separates who is good in that role and who is great. Coaches would rather have a 35% 3-point shooter who reads the spot correctly almost every time as opposed to a 40% 3-point shooter who is prone to making mistakes.
O’Neale is a 40.2% 3-point shooter with wonderful instincts, instincts that are displayed prominently by his signature ball fake.
As many great things in life tend to be a result of, it sprouted up from a bit. The story O’Neale tells Arizona Sports is that he started doing it in high school as a joke. He was messing with one of his teammates who hadn’t scored all game.
And now, it’s his go-to move almost 10 years into his NBA career.
“I think just as my career went on, kind of implementing that into my game,” he said.
O’Neale credits some creative teammates with the ball he had in Utah for some inspiration, like Bojan Bogdanovic and Joe Ingles, two of the craftier guys to have come into the league.
O’Neale creates so many opportunities in different ways because of how he leverages the space he gets off the ball. And then, how he uses that space once the ball comes his way.
The most common use for the ball fake is just to get another 3 off. Whether it’s a side step, one quick dribble in place to catch his rhythm, or nothing more beyond the fake, that’s all O’Neale needs to find the opening.
This is where the true craft comes into play: O’Neale will not only pump fake his shot. He will pump fake passes, too. He does it all.
cdn.arizonasports.com/arizonasports/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/royce-pump-fakes-done.mp4“When you shoot 40 from 3, they’re probably telling ’em, ‘Run him off the line,'” Booker said. “Not only is he shooting it from 3, he’s shooting it from 4. He’s lane-line extended, he’s far out. When your range is that far, teams are trying to run him off the line to get him in the paint but he just pump fakes, one dribble and still lets it fly.”
It’s not just for his own shot.
O’Neale is a tremendous passer, the guy the Suns trust on key inbounds passes for good reason. On these catches, he will use the fakes to find other guys open, embarrassing recovering defenders.
Watch the defender closest to the basket on these first two clips. He looks them off like a quarterback baiting a safety. He can get downhill with all that room, where he can toss a lob, too.
cdn.arizonasports.com/arizonasports/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/royce-ball-fake-assists-done.mp4To continue that theme, O’Neale is not a guy with much shake and bake or burst in his ball-handling. If he’s getting to the basket, it’s because he’s being smart about it.
Cue the ball and head fakes.
cdn.arizonasports.com/arizonasports/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/royce-ball-fake-scoring-done.mp4The scouting report has to be out by now. He’s used this trick long enough, dating back to previous teams before the Suns, that the NBA should know not to fall for it.
So is he still surprised it works so often?
“I ain’t surprised,” O’Neale said. “The way I shoot the ball and want to make the extra pass, just try to keep guys on their toes.”
Dillon Brooks’ turnaround jumper
Watching Brooks as a scorer this year has been particularly unique because most great isolation guys (like Booker) are freestyle artists.
While Brooks has that in his bag, he doesn’t stray too far from all the hard work he puts in all year.
If you come to Mortgage Matchup Center before tip-off, go watch Brooks during layup lines or even before that. He’s working on his handful of go-to moves that get him to a middie. And then he goes to them in the game time after time after time.
Most guys are not like that.
“Great point,” Ott said of that observation. “Been around a couple of those incredible iso scorers that are just so creative in their mind and able to get to a certain spot a different way. He does the same exact moves that we saw in July when he first came to now.”
Brooks is doing them every single day. It must be killing him right now to not be able to with a broken left hand.
“For me, I like to work on all my shots I’m going to get,” he told Arizona Sports.
For Brooks, a fallaway jumper is the main one, turning around off his sublime footwork thanks to countless repetitions.
“All the greats have that fallaway jumper,” he said. “Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant. It’s a move that I work on tirelessly every day.”
Brooks will go to either shoulder. The one over his left shoulder while fading to his right is the one you remember seeing the likes of Jordan and Bryant brutalize defenders with on the baseline over and over.
Brooks’ is not too shabby, and he will use shoulder fakes to give himself the room required to fade and fire.
arizonasports.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Brooks-left-shoulder.mp4The balance he constantly maintains is proof of all of that work. Some of these might constitute “bad shots” based on the fact that they are mid-to-deep 2s with a certain degree of a contest, but when he’s in a flow, it’s a great shot. And because of how much he has put into these moves, it’s normally a great shot.
Brooks in the midrange is shooting 47%, a tremendous mark that is within range of the elite efficiency Booker puts up yearly.
Where you see him really get in sync on both of the turnarounds is how he doesn’t need to square all the way up, which Brooks said is how he likes it. That is not how you’re taught to shoot the basketball, but when you drill it to death as much as Brooks does, the fundamentals can go out the door.
A personal favorite of mine to watch is the other shoulder, over his right and going to his left. That’s when Brooks really rises up while shooting over the top, and the versatility that he uses to get to it is where it gets fun. Mid-post without the spin, two-dribble pull-ups off a closeout, mid-post with the spin, drives into the paint and more come into play.
arizonasports.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/brooks-right-shoulder-fixed.mp4It’s a treat to watch, especially knowing the source of it.
Grayson Allen is like Booker, where he relies on some ingenuity more than repetition for his scoring. He admires what Brooks can do thanks to reliability.
“When he gets that bump in the midrange and creates enough space, all he needs to do is create a little bit more of an angle. Whether he keeps going the same way or spins off of it to get the jumpshot off, it doesn’t feel like it matters whether the guy is six inches away from blocking it or three feet away from blocking it,” Allen told Arizona Sports. “As long as he can get it off, his shot in rhythm — it’s a good look for him. You don’t really need a thousand moves when you just gotta get it off.”
Brooks said he really put in work on that part of his game after the way last season ended for him, a first-round playoff exit when his Houston Rockets struggled mightily to score. He has been a huge part of Phoenix’s success offensively this year, grading highly as an isolation scorer this year, something the Suns will miss severely while he’s sidelined.
Oso Ighodaro’s screening
Screening is the most underrated skill in basketball. It is important to almost every single half-court possession, often making the difference between a good and a bad shot.
Ighodaro has really stepped it up this year with his abilities there. Ask any Suns player about it, and you’ll see their eyes light up. You know how quarterbacks will buy their offensive line Christmas gifts as a token of appreciation for keeping them safe? How they protect the signal-caller is akin to how a screener opens up space for his ball-handlers.
Ighodaro told Arizona Sports that a big key for him is learning how to screen for each guy. With Booker, it’s all about as much contact as possible. But for guards like Collin Gillespie, maybe it’s a quick slip or some other nifty tricks to open up other possibilities.
The secret? Most aren’t legal!
“I think damn-near 90% of the screens set in games are moving,” Ighodaro said. “I think I do a good job of sprinting up and then trying to slow down at the very end, and then reading the defender.”
Here it is in action:
cdn.arizonasports.com/arizonasports/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/oso-screens.mp4Allen expanded on how that speed matters, where Ighodaro being one of the fastest bigs in the league can swing things.
“I think one of the phrases the coaches have been using is ‘arrive alone,'” Allen said. “And so for him, a guy whose usually got a speed advantage, the way he sprints up into screens from the baseline or just randomly in transition against teams with [more aggressive coverages], when he gets there quicker than the defending big, it messes them up and creates advantage for us. … When he does that, it’s a big thing.”
Those aforementioned nifty tricks usually have to do with Ighodaro’s passing. He’s slick, and it adds to the improvisational aspects of his role that have to be on point.
Check out the contact he creates on these simple actions as a dribble-handoff partner that leads to open jump shots.
arizonasports.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/oso-handoffs.mp4“Having a big like O is very important,” Jordan Goodwin told Arizona Sports when it comes to the skillset of Ighodaro’s screening and playmaking together.
So if it’s the short roll, that’s cake for Ighodaro.
arizonasports.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/oso-short-roll.mp4And the fun part is, he’s still learning. This is Year 2. Imagine when Ighodaro starts getting a few steps ahead of the defense with how high his basketball IQ is. Now that’s when it’ll get fun.
Jordan Goodwin’s offensive rebounding
The least surprising thing you’ll learn in this piece is that Goodwin played football. I’m sure you’re picking up your jaw from the floor right now.
Another non-shocker? He’s always been making up for size, even as a kid.
“Growing up, played as a big man on my dad’s AAU team as the smallest guy on the court,” Goodwin told Arizona Sports, noting it was the only way he could score at the time.
The football experience gave him the hand-fighting techniques so many pros rely on in battles at the line of scrimmage. You see that when he crashes.
Goodwin has an offensive rebounding percentage of 9.1%, and that ranks in the top-5 for best seasons ever by someone under 6-foot-4, per Stathead. This would be the second time one of his seasons cracks that group.
So how much of what Goodwin does is craft versus just playing super hard?
“I think it’s playing hard every possession and then going every time to give myself a chance,” Goodwin said.
As he said, consistency is key.
Sometimes, he has to really put in an effort to get the ball:
arizonasports.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/goodwin-work.mp4Other times, it just falls right into his lap. Right place, right time. They say the ball finds energy, and, well:
arizonasports.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/goodwin-to-him.mp4He is what Ott would refer to as a “possession-gainer.” Goodwin’s getting a few for the Suns every night, whether it’s on the glass, with a steal or forcing a turnover that he doesn’t even get credit for in the box score. Those margins are the focus of every team right now, but when guys are told they have permission to crash the offensive boards whenever, it’s damn hard work to do it often.
That does not faze Goodwin, who still doesn’t get consistently boxed out even with how he’s on every scouting report now. He said he’s not surprised by that.
Phoenix desperately misses him through his current injury, a guy whose signature sauce has turned into the Suns’ as a whole, and no one wins possessions better on the team than Goodwin.
Follow @KellanOlson
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