Ryan Anderson was happy to talk. On the phone in a parking lot, fresh off his day-before-the-season-opener haircut, the Phoenix Suns stretch forward could hardly have sounded more pleased with his professional situation.
This might seem surprising: The Suns won 21 games last season, 24 the season before and 23 the season before that. Their coach, Igor Kokoskov, is the fourth person to hold that position in that timespan. Seven days before our conversation, Phoenix announced, seemingly out of nowhere, it had fired general manager Ryan McDonough.
Anderson, though, is all about the power of positivity. He believes adversity builds character. You might know about the personal tragedy he endured, but it is not just about that. After playing a huge role in the Houston Rockets' 55-win season in 2016-17, which helped them acquire Chris Paul, Anderson not only lost his starting job but was removed from the rotation entirely. He sacrificed $5.4 million in guaranteed money to facilitate the trade to the Suns, and he is thrilled to be where he is, alongside the up-and-coming Devin Booker -- he turns 22 at the end of the month -- and No. 1 pick DeAndre Ayton.
"I want to implement my personality," Anderson told CBS Sports. "I want to be a leader. I want to be good locker-room guy and I want to just be able to play basketball the best way I know how to. This team brought a new opportunity for me to do all of those things."
According to Anderson, Kokoskov taught his young team a ton of plays in training camp, challenging the players by throwing them into drills and forcing them to make quick decisions. Anderson called this "pretty brilliant," adding that all of Phoenix's new pieces, himself included, are doing their best to figure out how to work together. If he were to write a story about the team, he would call it "The new Phoenix Suns." He knows last year's Suns didn't trust each other, didn't communicate well and struggled on defense. A successful season would mean remedying all that.
This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity and flow.
CBS Sports: Fans might not be super familiar with Igor yet. What have you learned about him during preseason and training camp?
Ryan Anderson: Coach is incredibly smart. His ability to draw up plays and learn how to best use what we have on the court [makes him] one of the best coaches I've ever been around. He's very smart, but also he's a guy that wants to have an open-door policy and wants you to communicate with him, wants you to be open and honest. It's kind of awesome to have that inviting approach for players. He understands what he's getting into, also: It's not like he's coming in here expecting perfection. It's OK to make mistakes around him. He knows we're building something.
His ability to get us into practice and get our minds working straight out of the get-go, it's a great technique to teach new guys brand new things. I mean, our brains are going to be firing during the game, so he wants us to be ready to go, ready for anything. It kind of helps unite the group and unite the team and it forces us to communicate with each other and help each other out, allow each other to make mistakes and grow from there.
CBS: When you look at how this team is constructed, do you see a natural fit for you opening up space for other guys?
RA: Yeah, no question. Devin, we have this awesome chemistry. I can already feel it, just the few times we've practiced together and played together already. He's a great playmaker and a great passer, but he has this trust in me which I love. I think there's just some really amazing pieces -- obviously, D.A. has such a bright future, and he's so young. It's just crazy when you realize how young all these guys are and how much they have to grow. I think that's just how the world is right now: everybody expects instant gratification, and they're just hard on guys if they're not perfect from the get-go.
But I look at a guy like Deandre Ayton and I look at him and I look at others, Anthony Davis' -- everybody wants to compare with everybody now -- Dwight Howard, these guys were more raw talents and then they developed into something. He's advanced, man. This guy is a ridiculous player and he's 20 years old. It's crazy. There's just no room for people to understand that this kid is 20 and he has room to improve.
CBS: It's funny, the scouting report out of college was basically he's huge and athletic, but his game needs to mature, he needs to figure out how to be in the right spots defensively -- now everything coming out of Phoenix is that he's so smart and skilled. Was it clear right away that he's pretty mature for a 20-year-old?
RA: No question. The guy is just a monster. He's just a big basketball player. Physically, I think he's prepared to be dominant. I think there's little, tiny things that are different from the college game, from his standpoint, that he's going to figure out and he's going to pick up on. And he has already with a lot of different things. Like I said, coach is implementing so many plays into the system. What we're doing now is, especially at the NBA level, there's a lot of quick decisions, but what if that first play doesn't work? What do you do after that? He's learning that you gotta get into a quick pick-and-roll or you've gotta flash and get the ball and be a playmaker, rather than be a guy that just sits down in the post. I mean, that's just not the way the game is anymore. He's been doing that a ton in practice and we're harping on that, for our big men to be playmakers like that. It's just that change from the first couple weeks of camp and practice to now, it's instinctive for him to do that now. He picks up on things really fast.
CBS: It's interesting you said you already have chemistry with Devin. I know he hasn't played in an actual game yet, but do you already feel like you know what makes him tick and what he likes to do?
RA: Totally. I've watched him quite a bit over the years, but there are certain players where they just get how to play the game. They know the right places to be in, they know how to change speeds. You just know when they're going to be aggressive to shoot the ball or when they want to make a play. It's like an instinctive thing; rather than thinking a ton on the court, they're either going to pass you the ball or they're going to make a great play for themselves to the basket. With him, I know when I'm going to get a pass. There's great playmakers in this league that you just -- you see a guy like Chris Paul or something, you know he's going to make the right play, and if you're open, you're going to get the ball. He's just a special player.
CBS: As someone who knows Trevor Ariza the way you do, can you kind of take me inside his basketball mind? What makes him special in terms of the way he thinks and sees the game?
RA: There's a couple guys every once in a while that you're on the same team with that just understand the game and understand where the best play is, defensively and offensively. I think what makes Trevor that much more special is that he sees it on the defensive end better than, I think, anyone I've ever played with. His ability to read when a pass is coming to him -- and obviously he's got long arms, but his timing is like impeccable. He sees the court on defense so well. I'll make a mistake and he'll call me out about it and I'm like oh my gosh, I didn't even see that. But he sees that. Just like a great player on the offensive end, they see the court, they have great court vision, Trevor has great court vision and sees the court so well on the defensive end.
CBS: You don't know how it's going to play out with your option yet, but you potentially gave up some money to go to Phoenix. What went into making the decision?
RA: It's funny, I had a conversation actually today about this. This is an opportunity for a lot of things. Obviously, we're building for a few years down the line, maybe even when I'm not playing anymore. I have an opportunity to help build a culture on this team. I have an opportunity to help lead these younger guys. I have an opportunity to be myself. One of the first things Igor told me, he said, "You don't need to be anything else but yourself. I want you to just be you." And I could not be that in Houston. And that was tough for me because I play a specific style, I play a specific way. I was brought into that organization because of the way that I play, and it worked for a little while. And then, due to injuries and, obviously, different lineup changes that they had, they wanted to completely change that style that I signed up for. So it was an odd thing. It was hard. And that organization, if you're not a part of that small group of players that are involved in that, then you don't really feel like you're a part of the team.
CBS: How do you put that year in perspective now?
RA: I've been through a lot in my life, especially in my basketball life -- the past 10 years, I've had tragedy, I've had to obviously overcome quite a bit. But also I've had great basketball moments, I've had moments when I've had to grind and work and work for a role and all of this stuff. So, you know, I kind of look at everything I go through in life as having a purpose. And where do I learn and grow for something like that? Last year was the first time anything like that had happened with me in my career in basketball. I started 53 games or whatever it was, and then all of a sudden I'm not playing at all. The injury couldn't have happened at a worse time for me personally, but at the end of the day, we had a great team, a great organization -- the last thing I wanted to do is be a cancer or be a negative guy. So I had to bite my tongue quite a bit.
Media, no offense to you, you know how it is: the media is ruthless, and negativity was a part of a lot of articles written my way. People didn't understand it. I didn't understand it. But the last thing I want to do is be bitter about anything in my life. I've had enough moments of difficulty and struggle in my life. I just want to enjoy my life, enjoy playing basketball. Like I said, I want to be in an environment where I can be myself. It just feels so good to have that now. You can say what you want about me playing or not playing, I've remained the same basketball player. No matter what my percentage was or whatever it is, I've remained me, and if you don't like that, that's OK. That's just how I am. That's how I play. If you don't like a guy that stretches the floor and shoots the ball, then I'm not your guy. But, if you do, which, this team seems to like that, then I'm happy and that's great.
CBS: You've seen a lot of things in this league, but a GM getting fired in October is pretty unusual. What was that day like?
RA: Coach told us in the morning, as soon as he found out. We had a team meeting. We were going to watch film anyways, but he started the film off by telling us what was going on. He handled it in the most perfect way, though, because it's the truth: He says, "That's not my job, and it's not my job to figure out why or what's going on. It's my job to coach you guys and coach you guys to the best of my ability. And that's it." We need to just do our jobs, that's kind of like his motto -- at the end of film, it always says "do your job" after the film.
I've been through quite a bit of craziness in Orlando. Anyone who followed that story knows how wild that was. I learned a lot from Stan Van Gundy that year. It's the same as Igor: just do your job, don't worry about the outside things or what's going on that you can't control. Worry about the things you can control: Go to work, show up on time, play as hard as you can, go home, let the people who need to worry about that stuff worry about it. Luckily, you go through different things and it's not as much of a drastic craziness when you go through it in the future.
CBS: Last year, three games in the coach got fired. So when Devin is 30, he's going to be immune to everything -- he's seen it all.
RA: Exactly, exactly. I think that that's good. I think that's kind of a life lesson, you know? Nothing is perfect, jobs aren't perfect, life isn't perfect. Understand that when you go through something, it's to help you build character later on.