The Suns’ start has gone from disappointing to downright alarming.
After the preseason ended, nobody expected this kind of unraveling in the opener against Portland. But that’s where the trouble began, and it hasn’t let up since. Instead of carrying over the habits that were supposed to define this team, Phoenix has stumbled through three bad games and left more questions than answers.
At the center of it all is Jordan Ott, who is suddenly coaching like a man whose seat is warming fast, whether he sees it that way or not. Continuity was supposed to mean something here.
Instead, the Suns look like a team that has lost its way before the season has even had time to settle in. If this is Devin Booker’s final window in Phoenix, the standard has to mean more than just having the same people in the building.
Right now, it doesn’t look like everyone is pulling in the same direction. Dillon Brooks wants to shoot.
Miles Bridges wants to shoot. Booker wants to pass, but the Suns want him to shoot.
Jalen Green wants to shoot, but the Suns are asking him to pass. That kind of disconnect doesn’t just hurt an offense.
It exposes a locker room that hasn’t found its footing.
Ott’s first season went so well because he got buy-in from his veteran group and made the culture feel real. This year is different.
New problems have surfaced, and they’re not the kind that disappear on their own. Ego is in the mix now, and if that keeps spilling onto the floor, the culture gets buried under everything else.
The simplest answer is also the hardest one: hold the line or lose it. A coach can only enforce a standard if he’s willing to use the bench when players drift away from it.
The message has to be clear - the guys who meet the standard play, and the ones who don’t sit. That’s how accountability starts to matter.
The defense has been the clearest problem. Phoenix has looked lost when it comes to keeping teams out of the lane and getting into position to rebound.
That side of the ball was supposed to give this team a chance to be dangerous. Instead, it has been ugly from the jump.
The move from Royce to Miles Bridges hasn’t produced the defensive boost some expected, but Ryan Dunn has stood out by doing exactly what the Suns need: he’s been locked in, physical, and dependable.
That’s why the first real statement Ott needs to make is to start Ryan Dunn over Miles Bridges.
Dunn is still limited offensively, but he’s no longer a complete nonfactor. He’s showing real promise as a rim threat, and he plays with decisiveness and force.
His cuts away from the ball help the offense without hijacking possessions from Booker and Green. When Dunn gets the ball on the perimeter, it keeps moving.
That matters.
Bridges, for all his scoring talent, can bog things down. His post-ups and drives can take the Suns out of rhythm, and Booker and Green do not need that kind of complication around them.
There’s also a question about what role fits Brooks best. Some people have been calling him “the Culture” after the online back-and-forth involving Ishbia and KD, but Jordan Goodwin is the one embodying it.
Brooks can still provide scoring off the bench, while Goodwin supplies the culture plays and the clutch threes. The difference in Brooks’ game was noticeable once Green came back - he looked different with just Booker beside him than he did with more mouths to feed.
A bench role that asks him to score without demanding the ball so much might suit him better, and maybe even help prolong his career.
The first 10 games may not define a season. That much is true.
Slow starts have happened before, and they don’t always tell the whole story. But what’s happening in Phoenix isn’t just a bad patch.
The bigger concern is that the Suns haven’t even been competitive enough to make anyone feel better about what comes next.
Doing nothing would be the wrong move. Ott needs to reset this now, before the culture becomes a talking point for all the wrong reasons and the whole thing turns into a one-hit wonder.
In Other News...
Suns Still Have The Same Problem But This Loss Felt Different
The Suns keep saying the emphasis is on defense, but the early returns have been hard to ignore. In their NBA Cup opener against Denver, Phoenix fell 127-120 and gave up a season-high point total, a familiar issue for a team that has spent the first stretch of the season trying to dig itself out of the leagues basement on that end of the floor.
What made this one feel a little different was the way Phoenix stayed in the game offensively and still came up short. Miles Bridges posted 24 points and 10 rebounds, but Jamal Murrays 39-point night kept Denver in control when it mattered most, leaving the Suns at 1-3 and still searching for a defensive answer that has yet to show up. [Read more 🡒]
Suns Rotation Squeeze Is Putting Jamaree Bouyea In A Tough Spot
Jamaree Bouyea was a useful piece for the Suns last season, getting into 46 games and carving out a role with his defense. This year, though, the path has narrowed fast. Phoenixs rotation has tightened as head coach Jordan Ott tries to sort through a defense that has been a problem, and Bouyea has only gotten into two games so far, with his minutes kept to a minimum.
The squeeze could ease if the Suns make a change on the perimeter, and Jalen Green is the name to watch there. If Green ends up moving to the bench, Bouyea would have a better chance to work his way back into the mix. For now, though, his situation is a reminder of how quickly a dependable depth option can get pushed to the edge when a team is still searching for answers. [Read more 🡒]
Kevin Durant Is Making The Suns' Early Problem Look Even Worse
Kevin Durants move to Houston has done more than change the Rockets ceiling. It has also sharpened the contrast with the Suns, who are already dealing with an early-season defensive mess while watching their former star fit into a team that looks far more organized around him. Houston has paired Durant with Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson, Reed Sheppard and Fred VanVleet, and the result has been a fast start that puts the Rockets near the top of the league in scoring while giving them a defense that has held up far better than Phoenixs.
For the Suns, the bigger issue is not just losing Durant. It is that the same roster questions that have hung over them are still there, especially the search for a true point guard to complement Devin Booker. Houston solved that problem with VanVleet, and the difference is showing up in the standings and in the way the two teams are being discussed this early in the season. Phoenix still has time to steady itself, but the gap between what the Rockets have built and what the Suns are missing is already hard to ignore. [Read more 🡒]