The Phoenix Suns may have spent Christmas off the national stage, but they’ve quietly built a season worth paying attention to. Sitting at 19-16 and holding the seventh seed in the Western Conference, there’s a growing sense that something is starting to click under first-year head coach Jordan Ott. And when you look at where this team was just a year or two ago-cycling through coaches and struggling to find consistency-this version of the Suns feels like a step forward.
Ott has already brought more structure and buy-in than his two predecessors, and that stability is showing up in the standings. The Suns aren’t just holding their ground-they’re doing it in a crowded Western Conference where the teams below them haven’t exactly made strong cases to leapfrog them.
That’s not to say Phoenix is in the clear. Far from it.
The road ahead is going to test just how real this early-season success really is.
A Brutal Stretch Still Awaits
The Suns have already weathered a tough early-season schedule, and while things lighten up a bit, the grind is far from over. According to strength-of-schedule metrics, Phoenix still faces the seventh-hardest remaining slate in the league.
That’s actually an improvement from a few weeks ago, when they had the third-toughest path ahead. But in the Western Conference alone, they’re still looking at the fifth-hardest schedule the rest of the way.
And when you zoom in even further, the Pacific Division isn’t doing them any favors either. The Suns have the second-toughest remaining schedule in the division, a group that includes the Warriors and Lakers-two teams with playoff aspirations of their own and plenty of experience to lean on.
The good news? Some of their closest competition is dealing with their own uphill battles.
The Dallas Mavericks, currently sitting at 12-20, are showing flashes behind rookie standout Cooper Flagg, but they’re still finding their footing. The Golden State Warriors, meanwhile, are just behind Phoenix in the standings and have rattled off three straight wins.
That said, Golden State has looked every bit its age for much of the season, and the ongoing Draymond Green saga continues to hang over them like a cloud.
That kind of volatility could work in Phoenix’s favor. The Suns, in contrast, have a locker room that’s locked in. The players are clearly buying into what Ott is building, and that kind of internal cohesion matters when the schedule gets tough.
Road Warriors-or Road-Weary?
If there’s one factor that could define the Suns’ season from here on out, it’s the road. So far, Phoenix hasn’t traveled east of the Mississippi River-a rare quirk this deep into the year. That’s about to change in a big way.
The Suns are set to begin a four-game road trip that includes stops in Washington and Cleveland. And that’s just the start.
They’ve got not one, but two six-game road swings still ahead before the regular season wraps. Those stretches are going to be grueling, not just in terms of travel but in the level of competition they’ll face along the way.
These long trips will test the team’s depth, resilience, and chemistry-three things that have looked encouraging so far but haven’t truly been put through the wringer yet. If they can hold their own during those stretches, it’ll go a long way in solidifying their place in the playoff picture.
The Play-In Path Feels Likely
Even with a solid 19-16 start, the most realistic route into the postseason for Phoenix is through the play-in tournament. That’s not a knock-it’s just the reality of a Western Conference that remains deep and unforgiving. But if the Suns can maintain their current trajectory and navigate the tough stretches ahead, they’ll have every chance to make some noise in the postseason.
This team doesn’t look like a title contender just yet, but they’re building something. And in a league where momentum and belief can carry you a long way, that’s a pretty good place to be heading into the new year.