The Phoenix Suns have built a habit of making people look silly when expectations dip too low. Last season, they blew past the preseason noise, won 45 games, reached the Play-In Tournament and made the playoffs before being swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder. But The Ringer’s latest NBA power rankings are a blunt reminder that plenty of observers still aren’t buying them.
In a staff ranking posted to Instagram, The Ringer placed Phoenix at No. 21 overall, putting the Suns in the bottom 10 leaguewide. The ranking also had them behind nine Western Conference teams, which would leave Phoenix 10th in the conference standings. That would be two spots lower than where the Suns finished a year ago, though still good enough to land in the Play-In Tournament.
For a team that spent another unprotected first-round pick this summer to acquire Miles Bridges from the Charlotte Hornets, that kind of finish would be a brutal outcome. If the Suns end up where The Ringer projects them, the debate over whether that deal was anything more than a sideways move will only get louder.
There are reasons this team could slide. The Western Conference has some clubs that look improved on paper, including the Portland Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz. Even the Dallas Mavericks, whom The Ringer has behind Phoenix, could make noise if Kyrie Irving is healthy alongside Cooper Flagg, assuming the Mavericks don’t trade Irving.
Phoenix also enters the season with a problem right out of the gate: starting center Mark Williams is set to miss significant time while he recovers from surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder. That puts added pressure on young big men Oso Ighodaro and Khaman Maluach to handle the load in his absence. For a Suns team that already struggled on the defensive glass last season, losing its leading rebounder to start the year is a rough break.
If there’s a silver lining here, it’s that the rankings should give Devin Booker, Dillon Brooks, Jordan Ott and the rest of the Suns more bulletin-board fuel. They’ve spent enough time being underestimated to know how to use that.
Still, the larger picture is pretty stark. Phoenix looks stuck in the middle - not strong enough to be viewed as a true playoff lock, but not positioned like a rebuilding team that can simply reset through the draft, especially with so many of its own picks already gone. For now, the league’s early read is clear: the Suns have work to do before anyone is ready to believe in them again.
In Other News...
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 🡒]
Suns Open The Season With An Immediate Lineup Problem
The first injury report of the season already gave the Suns a reminder of how thin the margin can be in October. Phoenix is set to open against Portland without starting center Mark Williams because of a shoulder injury, which pushes Oso Ighodaro into the opening-night role in the middle. The Trail Blazers, meanwhile, brought their own list of questionable and unavailable players into the matchup, adding another layer of uncertainty to a game that was supposed to serve as a clean starting point.
There is also a bit of waiting attached to the backcourt, where Luke Kennard has been listed as questionable for the opener. Any early-season absence or limitation matters for a Suns team trying to settle its rotation quickly, especially with a new-look front line already under pressure. The opener may still be just one game, but it arrives with enough lineup questions to make the first answer as important as the result. [Read more 🡒]