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Ryan Dunn Continues Hot Start to NBA Rookie Season | UVA Basketball

Matt Newton

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Ryan Dunn's brilliant start to his rookie NBA season continues. After putting the league on notice with surprisingly sharp three-point shooting during the preseason, the former UVA basketball star has proven that those numbers were not a fluke. Through the first five games of his NBA career, Dunn has knocked down 11 of 25 three-point attempts for a mind-boggling 44.0% clip considering he shot 20.0% from three in his final season at Virginia.

Thursday night was his best game yet, as Dunn scored 16 points on 6/12 shooting from the floor and 4/9 shooting from beyond the arc to go along with 16 points, four rebounds, and one steal to help the Phoenix Suns defeat the Los Angeles Clippers 125-119 to improve to 4-1 on the season.

Dunn was drafted for his defensive prowess and he has been as advertised on that end of the floor, already being tasked with guarding some of the league's best scorers. He defended James Harden in Thursday's game, and although Harden scored 25 points, he shot 42% from the floor and 30% from three, continuing Dunn's trend of doing an excellent job defending against some NBA legends early in his rookie season.

Dunn isn't just shooting well as compared to the lowly expectations everyone had for him as a perimeter shooter. He's shooting extremely well just in general. With 11 three-pointers made so far this season, Dunn ranks in the top 50 in the NBA in total threes and leads all rookies in that category.

In five games (including two starts), Dunn is shooting 44.0% from three, 51.4% from the floor, and is averaging 9.4 points and 2.2 rebounds per game. Even if Dunn contributed half that much on the offensive end, he'd still be surpassing expectations and what the Phoenix Suns hoped they'd get out of him offensively in his rookie season. When combined with the production that he is, less surprisingly, delivering for the Suns on the defensive end, that recipe could make Ryan Dunn a star in the making.

Just like everyone else, we're still trying to figure out where this renaissance in three-point shooting came from. Was it simply a confidence issue in his time at Virginia? Or did the Cavaliers misuse or mismanage him? How much of a factor was working out in the offseason with an all-time great NBA scorer like Kevin Durant? They certainly seem to have developed a good relationship.

Dunn is brimming with confidence and that undoubtedly has played a role in his strong shooting, but even he has surprised himself with just how quickly he has emerged as an impact player at the NBA level.

Is it too soon to start the campaign for Ryan Dunn as the NBA's Rookie of the Year?

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Matt Newton
MATT NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.