The Suns are back, and the first question on the table is the one every fan wants answered: how many wins is this group really good for?
Phoenix opens the 2026-27 season tonight in Portland, and it has been 177 days since the Suns last played a game that counted, when they lost Game 4 of their first-round series against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Now the slate is clean, the season is starting fresh, and the conversation is back where it always goes with the Suns: expectations, hope, and whether this is finally the year things break right.
Season No. 59 begins with championship dreams still hanging in the air, even if this does not look like a team with obvious title buzz. That doesn’t stop the exercise, though.
It just makes it more interesting. The roster is in place, the questions are real, and the win-total debate is already rolling.
For one prediction, the Suns land at 47-35 and finish sixth in the Western Conference. That would be a two-win jump from last season, and the case for improvement starts with the starting five.
Royce O’Neale is out, Miles Bridges is in, and that swap is viewed as a clear upgrade. Mark Williams is expected to miss most of the season, but the group behind him includes two young bigs who can give Phoenix different looks, so the starting unit still feels sturdy enough.
The bench is another reason for optimism. The second unit is being treated as a collection of “firecrackers,” with the kind of energy and edge that fits what Suns basketball has come to mean. There’s also confidence that the roster has more depth than it did a year ago, helped by development and the fact that so much of the team is still together.
Health may be the biggest swing factor of all. The final 30 games last season, when Phoenix went 14-16, are easy to point to as a warning sign.
But that stretch came with Devin Booker, Dillon Brooks, Jalen Green, and Mark Williams all missing significant time. With that many key players out, the record was never going to tell the full story.
Even with Williams limited for much of the year, the belief here is that the Suns have enough talent, depth, and continuity to stay in the mix. A sixth-place finish would set up a first-round matchup with the third seed, and the early guess is that Houston grabs that spot. The prediction doesn’t stop there: Phoenix would win that series.
The rest of the roundtable did not stray far from the same general neighborhood, even if the numbers moved around. Brandon Duenas picked the Suns to go 48-34 and finish sixth, just out of the play-in, while noting that the ceiling could climb as high as 54 wins if everything clicks and the injury luck cooperates.
Holden Sherman went with 44-38 and seventh place. Tom Mildenberger raised his preseason projection from 42 to 50 wins after looking at the bench, while still being uncertain about a playoff series and projecting Phoenix to avoid the play-in.
Mark Bowser also landed on 46-36 and the sixth seed, calling for a first-round upset. CJ Navage urged caution, pointing to the loss of Mark Williams and stressing that fans should keep expectations low, even while leaving room for the season to turn if the front office decides to act.
In Other News...
Suns Entering The Season With Doubts They Cant Ignore
The early buzz around Phoenix this preseason has been hard to ignore, and not in the way the Suns would prefer. The Ringers latest NBA power rankings slot them outside the leagues top tier and project a finish near the middle of the Western Conference, a step back from where they stood a year ago. Even with the addition of Miles Bridges, the broader read on the roster is that there are still more questions than answers.
Mark Williams situation only adds to the uncertainty. Phoenix was counting on the starting center to stabilize the middle, but surgery has put that plan on hold and left the team scrambling to cover a major hole before the season fully gets going. For a club trying to prove last year was more than a one-year spike, the doubts are already coming from everywhere. [Read more 🡒]
Suns Bench Battle Is Just Beginning With Opening Night Rotation Set
The Suns have settled on their opening-night 10-man rotation after preseason roster cuts, clearing the board for the start of the regular season and giving the coaching staff a first real look at how the group will fit together. The roster now has a more defined shape, with the starters and main bench pieces set for the early going as Phoenix moves from evaluation mode into games that count.
Even so, the back end of the rotation is hardly locked in for long. Players such as Ryan Dunn and Rasheer Fleming remain in the mix, but the Suns still have some flexibility if performance changes or injuries force a shuffle, and there are a few more names waiting just outside the first group. For a team trying to balance development and results, the real competition may be less about making the roster and more about holding onto a nightly role once the season starts. [Read more 🡒]
Suns Open With One Big Question About Their New Look Around Booker
The first look at Phoenixs reshaped roster comes in Portland, where the Suns and Trail Blazers meet for the first time since their Play-In Tournament clash in April. This is the kind of early-season test that can tell you a lot about what a team thinks it fixed over the summer, and the Suns spent the offseason trying to add more size and sturdiness around Devin Booker.
Phoenixs changes were built around that idea, from swapping out Grayson Allen and Royce ONeale to bringing in Miles Bridges and moving up in the draft for Koa Peat. Even so, the most immediate question is less about the shiny new pieces than the middle of the floor, where the Suns are still sorting out who is going to handle the starting center role while Mark Williams is sidelined. [Read more 🡒]