Ryan Dunn On the Rise | The Offseason Journey of a Phoenix Sun

Ryan Dunn On the Rise | The Offseason Journey of a Phoenix Sun

[Music] Thank you, God. Thank you, God. Thank you, God. Oh, man. When do you apply to next? I have no clue. I’m But whenever whenever. Motion just got drafted. How’s it feel, man? It’s It’s surreal. Um, you know, thank you, son, for drafting me and giving me opportunity to play in this amazing organization. Um, I was so excited to get my name called and get demo step. So, I’m excited to get Phoenix to go to work. So when you think about your rookie season, are there any moments in particular in game practice? Anything that stick out to you? Ryan Dunn. [Music] I think there’s a lot. How about Ryan Dunn flying through the air giving the Suns their biggest lead of the night left corner for three and he hits again. Ryan Dunn back to back. Obviously, I had a lot of great moments that rolls off the Ryan Dun who lets out a yell from, you know, playing a lot, starting in the first, my first NBA game, going to San Francisco to play the Rest Stars and the All-Star game. That’s crazy. It’s dope. This was probably one of the best weekends that I probably experienced. This is something that I I always wanted to pier dunking on Giannis to the full. Um those those moments were great, but you know the moments where I didn’t play a couple games and just learning how to become a pro is probably the biggest things I can take from this whole season. Felt control and trust myself. Probably the biggest things I think this whole season I didn’t try to think about too much of the outside of outside factors whether that was trade talk, coaching staff, um minutes. I just try to be the best version of Ryan Dunn as I can be be okay with failure. I think mentally is that’s the biggest I’ve been working on, you know, really h tapping into that mental health aspect of like just trusting the process, just honing in on the process, not worrying about the results of anything, being a good teammate, being a good person on and off the floor. um giving back to the community here, you know, just having a smile on my face every time I walk in the facility and walk in walk into a game and interact with the fans and, you know, give them that give them that experience is is something I always try to do. [Applause] Right after the season, I think I kind of got back to work. I took like a two week break just to get home, get away from the game, and just continue to stay in shape. And this whole season was just getting stronger, getting faster, including all aspects of my game, that’s shooting, ball handling, finishing, um even the IQ of the game, learning more about it, and then just taking taking that next step as a player. Um and going to year two, like what kind of things are you telling them about this step in their journey? Particularly, the same thing I told you guys my first year. Just trust in the process. Control what you can control. Come out and compete and have fun. I think my first summer league game I bobbled the ball like four to five times and I turned over like three times in a row and I kind of got a little bit too ahead of myself but I think the second half I slowed down against the Warriors and that’s kind of where I saw myself comfortable. So come out the gate just trusting myself being aggressive but you know just just trying to slow myself down. This is our second year in summer league. So, giving these guys, these rookies, um, just kind of the tips and tricks to help themselves play and, you know, obviously come out here to compete and win. Here we go. Yeah. Number one. Hey. Hey. Hey. I got to cut to the chase. Everyone give me some space. Don’t fall out. We fall into place. Every step walking with grace. Amen. Keeping my foot off the brakes. Impact. I’m ready to brace. We fall down and land on our face to get up and finally escape. Man, we’ve been getting eth on the defensive side. Really trying to be active and you know when we get in a half court set to try and disrupt the offense as much as we can. And if someone gets beat, we got Oso and May on the backside cleaning it up. Body covered away. I pave zipped up like a ba. How many of us came? I think defensively I just try to be as tough as I can. Um I had a lot of great matchups with the younger guys that I came in the draft class with a lot of good rookies. So being able to compete with them and um you know, show what I can do defensively was great. Offensively, just just try to go out and be more aggressive. Um, cut my shots on the court individually. We have a man man, you know, had great spurts, um, blocking shots and being dominant against the free throw line. Kobe his first two games, but life was lights out. Um, and then Rashier came into their game and, you know, chipped in a lot for us and, you know, show what he can do. And they all had a lot of ups, they all had some downs. Um, and it’s just part of the game. So, I think my job for them is and me also job is to help them learn and grow. Me at UVA, it was kind of the same thing. I came as a freshman u with a bunch of veterans and then I had to flip my sophomore year to being one of the leaders and and you know trying to teach everybody and help everybody. So just just starting the summer league of just you know being more verbal, being more being more leading by example that’s diving on the floor, screaming a little bit, get everybody hyping, everybody going starts with us together. Here we go. Yo, here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Come on, boy. Good. Good. Let’s go. Push. Push it. Pace. Pace. Pace. Wave your shot. Ready KB. Get up. Get up on that ball screen. Get up on him. Yeah. So he can down it. Talk by yourself. Knock it down. Shear. That’s how you slow down, boy. That’s why you slow down. Here we go. And one. Now I am. You got to take from him. No, I am. Come on. Oh yeah. Way to finish off summer league, fellas. Let’s get back to Arizona. Ryan Dunn has just walked in, everybody. So, this is Kobe B from Fuego TV. Uh, let us I just want to know your thoughts on summer league. How has it been in Vegas this week? Um, it’s been great, man. You know, here here with Fuego here, the man from Top Sudan, flying Fleming up top all the guys. Uh, you’ve been playing, competing. Wish could have got some more wins, but So, this is year two for you down here, huh? Yeah. So, what was it like from year one to year two? Oh, man. Year two, man. Year one, man, I was nervous. I’m not going to lie. You know, I was trying to figure stuff out. You know, I’m on the fly playing. Um, year two, you know, I just settle kind of settled in, you know, just enjoy playing the game. Wasn’t trying to think too much. And we’ll see what happens. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Appreciate you. stuff’s going to happen throughout the whole year, not even just the summer league that you’re that you’re going to be hit with. Whether that’s not playing a lot, playing 30 minutes one night, playing five minutes the next night, you know, maybe getting sent to the G League and getting called back up and switching back and forth. It’s just control what you can control and having that good mindset of just you’re in the NBA. You got drafted two weeks ago and now you’re about to play your first NBA game. Just come out and have fun and compete. And you know, after make sure you take some time off because right after summer league, we’re getting right ready for training camp. So, you’re going to have a month and month and time to really just hone in on who you want to be and, you know, finding your living situation out here and giving back, but you’re going to have a lot when we get to training camp and open gym. So, take August off. You know, take some time, continue to work, but then once we get going, it’s going to be time to tell everyone, I love you guys, but it’s time to go do my job. Right hand transition. Bounce pass to Dunn. done with a beautiful reverse. So, looking ahead, what goals do you kind of have for yourself and for the team going into year two? For the team, make the playoffs and just really come out and compete every day, every game. You know, I think last year we had some we had some we had a lot of ups and downs with that. You know, I think times where we were up a lot and we gave a lead away or when we got down a lot, we didn’t fight back. Really just being competitive every single game. And, you know, if we do that, then we lose all basketball games. like we lose because of the X’s and O’s, we can take that. But if we’re losing because we’re not competing hard, it’s not going to help anybody. Um, these fans deserve that. And then for me, just just hanging as I had year one, you know, just figuring out ways to impact the game and and impact impact winning, making a ride to start his game again, hopefully making an all-star game again. But, you know, I think the overall thing is just how to impact the game and impact winning for the team. There are so much trials and tribulations I went through in life that I learned from from this game. And like this basketball’s took me places that I never would imagine. I don’t know where I would be as a person. I don’t know where I’ll be. Um I wouldn’t be standing here in front of you guys. So, um I love this basketball. It’s something that I love the game. And you know, it’s not as a person, but it’s something that I love to do. Being at this level that I always dreamed about and now having the time, the opportunity to impact kids that want to be where I am is something that I want to do now as a player. [Music]

Ryan Dunn’s rookie season was fill with excitement and growth as he showed himself to be a promising young player for the Phoenix Suns and became beloved by Suns fans everywhere. Join Ryan as he enters his first offseason as a pro and takes his next steps through offseason workouts and Summer League in Las Vegas.

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