The Suns are about to find out exactly where the emotional landmines sit on their 2025-26 schedule.
With the NBA slate expected to drop about a week from now, Phoenix’s opponent list already points to a handful of games that should carry extra weight. The dates aren’t known yet, but the storylines are easy to spot: old grudges, recent heartbreak, and a few familiar names in different uniforms.
Start with the Lakers, because that matchup has a built-in jolt now that Luka Doncic is in Los Angeles. Phoenix and the Lakers played five times last season, and the Suns won the season series 3-2. Two of those five games went to the final possession, which is exactly the kind of detail that keeps this rivalry feeling a little too alive.
The headliners have changed, but the tension hasn’t. LeBron James is on the Sixers, and Booker versus Doncic still sits at the center of this one, just like it did when Doncic was with Dallas and the two teams met in that dramatic second-round series in 2022.
The Suns and Lakers have met 13 times in the postseason, with the latest clash coming in 2021 when Phoenix won in six games. Los Angeles also spent the offseason reshaping around Doncic and Austin Reaves, adding Walker Kessler, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Quentin Grimes and Collin Sexton after a second straight 50-win season.
And Booker seems to rise into the matchup as much as Doncic does. Against Booker, Doncic averages three points per game more than his career norm, and Booker also scores more than his usual rate when he goes up against Luka.
The Knicks also loom as a potential measuring stick, even if Phoenix already handled them last season. The Suns swept the season series, and in the first meeting, strong late play from Devin Booker plus a 20-point first half from Dillon Brooks pushed Phoenix past the eventual NBA champions. Jalen Brunson did not play in the second meeting.
That matters because Phoenix didn’t exactly cruise through the league’s elite last season. The Suns went 7-11 against the top three seeds in the Eastern and Western Conferences in the regular season, then got swept by the West’s top-seeded Thunder in the first round of the playoffs. New York was the only one of those six teams against which Phoenix finished with a winning record.
Even with Mitchell Robinson leaving for the Celtics, the Knicks’ roster is mostly intact. They also kept Landry Shamet and Jordan Clarkson, which gives that matchup a chance to say something real about where both teams sit heading into the 2026-27 campaign.
Then there’s Portland, which comes with a much more immediate sting. For most of the regular season, the Suns were sitting as the West’s seventh seed. They didn’t end up there, and the Blazers were a big reason why.
In April’s West 7/8 Play-In game, Portland erased a double-digit deficit and took the seventh seed from Phoenix in one of the most memorable Play-In games ever. Deni Avdija went off for 41 points, outplayed Booker, and forced the Suns into a second Play-In game just to reach the playoffs.
That alone would be enough to put Portland on the revenge list. Add in the fact that newly acquired Ja Morant hit a game-winner against Phoenix last year as a member of the Grizzlies, and there are a few more reasons the Suns will be looking hard at those games when the schedule finally arrives.
Not every date on the calendar will carry this kind of charge. That’s just the nature of an 82-game season.
But some matchups jump off the page immediately, and Phoenix has plenty of those waiting. The schedule will tell us when they happen.
The intrigue is already here.
In Other News...
Dillon Brooks Just Changed The Tone Of The Suns Roster
Dillon Brooks has already changed the feel of the Suns roster, giving Phoenix the kind of edge and edge-of-the-seat volatility that can reshape a teams identity in a hurry. The fit has been strong enough that his arrival is being discussed in the wider NBA conversation, not just as a useful move for the Suns, but as the kind of addition other contenders can look at and wish they had made first.
For a Warriors team dealing with its own questions, Brooks has become the sort of wing presence that stands out even more in contrast to where Golden State is now. The comparison inevitably drifts toward Jimmy Butler, whose injury and contract situation have complicated the picture, and it is hard not to notice how much cleaner the Suns situation looks with Brooks in place, even if the full long-term payoff still has to play out. [Read more 🡒]
Suns Just Showed How Much Dillon Brooks Matters In Phoenix
The Suns locked in one of their most important tone-setters this week, agreeing to a three-year, $73 million extension with Dillon Brooks that keeps the forward in Phoenix through the 2029-30 season. The team confirmed the deal in a press release, and general manager Brian Gregory singled out Brooks competitiveness and the impact he has made since arriving from Houston, a sign of how quickly he has become more than just another rotation piece.
For a roster trying to build toward sustained postseason relevance, Brooks gives Phoenix the kind of edge and edge-of-the-seat presence teams tend to notice most once the games tighten up. His fit has already been clear enough for the Suns to make a fully guaranteed commitment, and the bigger question now is how much that kind of reliability will matter when the playoff stakes get higher. [Read more 🡒]
Suns Fans Are Split On What This Offseason Really Fixed
The Suns spent the offseason trying to sell continuity, keeping key free agents in place and making a point of staying familiar rather than chasing a full roster reset. They also made a draft-day move to land Koa Peat, a bet on adding another young piece while trying to address their interior play, but the broader reaction around the league has been mixed enough that some analysts still handed the summer a low grade.
Much of the pushback has centered on the trade for Miles Bridges, a deal that cost Phoenix a future first-round pick and immediately invited debate about his legal history, contract situation and fit on a team still trying to clarify its needs. For Suns fans, the question is less about whether the front office was active and more about whether the moves actually solved anything meaningful, or simply rearranged the same problems into a new shape. [Read more 🡒]