One ugly night in Portland was enough to spark the conversation, even if it’s way too early to make it final. The Phoenix Suns do not look like a team climbing fast, no matter how often Mat Ishbia says they are ascending.
The warning signs start with Devin Booker. If Wednesday looked anything like a trend, the Suns have a real problem on their hands.
He finished at minus-43, never took a 3, and spent much of the night struggling to get separation or look comfortable with his jumper. For a team built around him, that kind of outing is hard to brush off.
The decline over the last few seasons is getting tougher to ignore, even if plenty of people have tried to blame other factors along the way.
Then there’s the group of veterans and established role players who can help, but don’t exactly scream future growth. Dillon Brooks, Collin Gillespie, and Miles Bridges all bring something to the table, but they also come with clear limits.
Brooks had a career year last season and could put up a lot of points this year, though he isn’t suddenly becoming a major playmaker or rebounder. Bridges has lived with defensive lapses and modest rebounding numbers before, and expecting him to become a better shooter or a stronger defensive nuisance seven years into his career feels like a stretch.
Gillespie remains what he’s been: a dangerous 3-point shooter, a solid backup guard, and maybe even a capable starter, but not someone who is likely to blossom into an elite creator or efficient three-level scorer.
That’s the point here. These are useful players, and they’ll probably look better once they’ve had more time together.
December could tell a very different story than preseason and one regular-season game. But none of them fit the label of “ascending players.”
The younger pieces don’t cleanly solve that issue either. Ryan Dunn and Rasheer Fleming look more like defensive specialists off the bench than future starting wings.
Dunn still won’t shoot 3s, and Fleming’s ugly corner miss against Portland - the one that went off the top of the backboard - only reinforced the concern. Toumani Camara, meanwhile, was knocking down threes and defending at a level that made the contrast even sharper.
If Dunn or Fleming are going to become true 3-and-D starters, they’d need a major offensive leap, the kind that turns them into Royce O’Neale-level snipers. That doesn’t feel close based on what they’ve shown so far.
Oso Ighodaro is easier to define. He looks like a backup big with a high basketball IQ and a real motor, someone who can defend, connect, and do his job. That’s valuable, but it also looks like his lane unless he develops as a shooter or becomes an elite finisher at the rim.
Koa Peat is the mystery. There just isn’t enough there yet to know what he can become.
Even so, the shot is a problem, and it seems to get more broken with each attempt. That’s not a trait that travels well in the NBA.
If there are two Suns most likely to rise into something more, they’re Jalen Green and Khaman Maluach. But even there, the path isn’t clean.
Green has the burst and the talent, and there have been flashes, but his processing and vision remain major questions. One sequence against Portland stood out: he came off a screen, got downhill against a Portland big, and then threw the ball back through his legs right into the trailing defender for an easy steal.
It was the kind of play that lingers because it was so far outside the normal range for an NBA player.
Maluach brings size and effort, and that gives him a real chance to become a good NBA big. Still, the flaws are obvious right now.
He’s struggling to grab rebounds cleanly, run dribble handoffs, and find his man on defense. The best case is that he simply hasn’t played enough basketball yet, which leaves him room to grow.
But the Suns can’t wait forever for that growth to arrive. By the time he gets there, Booker, Brooks, and Bridges - who will likely sign an extension with the Suns, yay! - could be well past their primes.
That’s why the overreaction lands on something bigger than one bad game. This roster can still be good this season.
It can even be a solid team over the next couple of years. But it is not an ascending team.
The best players are already in their primes or beyond them, and the younger pieces mostly project as useful contributors rather than future stars.
Outside of Booker, the question is who on this roster even has a real All-Star trajectory. The answer might be Green or Maluach, but only if everything breaks right for them over the next few seasons.
So yes, the Suns may improve. But they’re improving in inches, not in leaps. The ceiling is not the roof here.
In Other News...
Suns Fans Already Have A Brutal New Reason To Hate This Trade
The Suns first night of the season did not offer much comfort after the front office sent out an unprotected first-round pick in the deal that brought in Miles Bridges. Phoenix got blown out by Portland, and Bridges debut only added to the unease. He finished with eight points on rough shooting, the kind of opener that immediately puts a spotlight on both the player and the price tag attached to him.
For a team already under pressure to justify its roster construction, the early returns are hard to ignore. The Suns were hoping the move would help stabilize the rotation and add a piece that could fit quickly, but instead it left fans looking at the long-term cost and the short-term output at the same time. When a win-now swing starts with a lopsided loss and an unconvincing debut, the questions around what Phoenix gave up tend to get louder fast. [Read more 🡒]
Devin Booker Already Faces A Suns Problem Fans Know Too Well
The Suns were staring at a familiar kind of trouble almost as soon as the season began, digging an early 21-0 hole against the Portland Trail Blazers before Devin Booker had even settled in. Booker looked like Booker, which is usually enough to keep Phoenix afloat for stretches, but the bigger issue was the rest of the roster around him. For a team trying to reset its footing, the opening minutes offered a blunt reminder that one star can only cover so much ground.
What made the start feel so uneasy was not just the slow opening, but the broader question it revived about the Suns' current build. Phoenix has spent recent eras trying to pair Booker with another true difference-maker, and the concern now is whether this version of the roster has enough reliable support to keep teams from loading up on him. The opener did little to ease that worry, and it leaves the Suns with a problem they know all too well even before the season gets rolling. [Read more 🡒]
Suns Season Opener Exposed A Problem Fans Were Already Fearing
The Suns 2026-27 opener could hardly have gone much worse, with a 124-83 loss to the Trail Blazers laying bare problems that had been hanging over the roster before the season even tipped off. Phoenix was outplayed on both ends, and the performance fit the kind of uneasy first-night script that raises familiar questions about whether the team has enough balance, shot-making and physicality to hold up against stronger opponents.
Oso Ighodaros exit with an apparent hip injury added another layer of concern, especially for a frontcourt that was already under pressure to absorb minutes and protect the glass. For a team trying to turn the page, the combination of a lopsided loss and a health scare in the same game is not the kind of opening night anyone around the Suns wanted to see. [Read more 🡒]