The Phoenix Suns are good enough to make things interesting, but not good enough to make anyone forget how hard the road back to the top really is.
That’s the uncomfortable truth hanging over a team that showed real life with its surprise postseason run and has enough talent to stay in the conversation. Head coach Jordan Ott has a roster headlined by Devin Booker, with Dillon Brooks, Jalen Green and a blend of veterans and younger pieces around him. There’s no shortage of reasons to think Phoenix can compete.
But competing and contending are two very different things.
ESPN’s latest tier placement drives that point home. Ben Golliver put the Suns in the second-to-bottom tier, labeled “never say never,” and his reasoning was blunt about where this franchise stands after its 2021 Finals breakthrough. He wrote:
"The Suns have been riding the treadmill of mediocrity -- or something slightly better -- since their incredible run to the 2021 Finals. After Durant's brief tenure sputtered, Devin Booker became the face of a one-star team with too many holes and not enough remaining draft picks to fill them.
"While Phoenix owner Mat Ishbia has shown a willingness to spend what it takes to acquire talent, his ultra-aggressive approach has proven to be a double-edged sword given the long-term costs of his biggest swings. Remarkably, Phoenix doesn't control any of its first-round picks through 2033. With Booker turning 30 in October, the Suns are running dangerously low on time and assets to get back in the mix."
That’s the sobering part: Phoenix may be set up to be a playoff team in the near term, but the Western Conference is brutal. San Antonio and Oklahoma City sit at the top again, with Denver and Minnesota just behind them in the next tier.
The Suns’ place in the broader league picture is just as telling. On DraftKings title odds, they’re sandwiched between the Charlotte Hornets and Washington Wizards. In ESPN’s tier system, they were grouped with the Portland Trail Blazers, Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Clippers.
So yes, the Suns are in a strange middle ground. They’re good enough to stay relevant, and bad luck or a hot streak can always change a season fast. But outside of a miracle run, the championship ceiling is limited right now.
Booker is getting older, Phoenix does have ownership willing to spend, and there are draft picks in the picture even if the team doesn’t control them. If the younger players hit, the outlook could brighten.
For now, though, the Suns remain exactly what ESPN’s placement suggests: not a bad team, just one with a very clear limit on how far this version can go.
In Other News...
Dillon Brooks Just Put Westbrooks Free Agency Drama In Focus
Russell Westbrooks free agency has lingered into the summer with the kind of uncertainty that tends to follow a veteran who still brings name value but no simple fit. He is not expected to return to the Kings, and while there is still reported interest out there, the list of teams willing to make the basketball puzzle work has not exactly grown long. For the Suns, it is the sort of market reality that matters because every possible move around the edges of the roster has to be measured against fit, role and how much control a player needs to be effective.
Dillon Brooks added a blunt layer to that conversation during a recent stream, pointing to Westbrooks ball-dominant style as a challenge for coaches and suggesting it may be part of why the market has been slower to materialize. It was not hard to see why the comment landed: Westbrook remains a player with a track record and a reputation that can still draw attention, and a reunion with the Rockets has been floated as one of the more intriguing possibilities, especially with Kevin Durant in the picture. Even so, the bigger question hanging over all of it is whether a team believes the upside is worth the trade-offs. [Read more 🡒]
Suns Summer Moves Put Phoenixs Biggest Roster Questions Under The Spotlight
The Suns spent much of the offseason trying to stabilize a roster that kept changing around the edges, and their latest wave of moves gives the front office a clearer picture of what this group is supposed to look like entering the new season. Collin Gillespie, Mark Williams and Jordan Goodwin were brought back, giving Phoenix continuity in the rotation and some familiar pieces around the core, while Luke Kennard arrives with a very specific job after the departures of Grayson Allen and Royce ONeale.
Kennards fit is the easy part to understand, since the Suns have been looking for more perimeter help and reliable shooting after those trades opened up a hole on the wing. The harder questions now sit in the balance between keeping useful role players, managing the books and deciding how much flexibility Phoenix is willing to sacrifice to preserve depth, especially with salary analysis already poking at the long-term cost of these deals. [Read more 🡒]
Dillon Brooks Just Added Fuel To One Big Lakers Debate
Dillon Brooks has a knack for turning offseason chatter into something a little sharper, and his latest take on the Lakers fits right into that lane. With Los Angeles reshaping its roster after LeBron James departure, the Phoenix Suns forward pointed to the obvious pressure point: a team built around Luka Doncic may have to lean on him to do a lot of the scoring if it wants to stay in the Western Conference race. The Lakers have added pieces and brought back Austin Reaves, but the conversation around them keeps circling back to whether the roster has enough balance to match up with the leagues best.
The bigger issue, as analysts and insiders have framed it, is not just offense but whether Los Angeles can hold up defensively against the top teams in the West. Brooks comment only adds more fuel to a debate that has followed the Lakers all summer, because even if the talent level is improved on paper, there is still real skepticism about how the pieces fit in meaningful games. For a Suns team that expects to be part of that same conference fight, it is exactly the kind of early-season noise worth watching. [Read more 🡒]