NBA veteran Jared Dudley will begin his second tour of duty for the Phoenix Suns when the regular season tips off.

The last time he was at the desert, Dudley found little success after only reaching playoffs once in a span of five years. The future prospect wasn’t so sunny back then as the team were often hanging somewhere behind the final playoff seed.

This time around, things are expected to be different. There is better hope for the future, as told by Dudley in an article by Tyler Emerick for NBA.com.

“You need to stars to win in this league. When we won, we had Amar’e and Steve. So they’ve done a good job drafting Devin Booker. That’s their next star. And I’ve seen him. He has the work ethic and the talent for that.”

“Now they’ve had two top-10 picks. But they have to hit on at least one of them. If you find another star to put next to Devin, then it’s easy to find role players. You can find role players everywhere, but you can’t find stars everywhere.”

The fact that the Suns also have Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight help a lot in preparing for the future. Devin Booker seems to be the keeper here, so one of the two highly-talented point guards could eventually be shipped.

If that happens, it will be for good value. Something that can significantly boost Phoenix’s chances of finally rising from the ashes and becoming significant once again the the West. Not to mention their other lottery picks over the past few years, the Suns are definitely in good shape.