The Phoenix Suns are entering the 2026-27 season with a real chance to catch people off guard again, even with a bunch of preseason projections pointing the other way. That’s despite the fact that Phoenix kept 11 players from last season and already beat expectations a year ago.
There’s also a path for a few Suns to start showing up in the league’s year-end conversations, and coach Jordan Ott could have a hand in that if the season breaks the right way. With opening night just one day away, three names stand out as candidates to pop.
Collin Gillespie looks like a live Sixth Man of the Year candidate. He probably would have been in that mix last season if injuries hadn’t forced him into 58 starts, which changed the shape of his year.
Once the roster got healthy and he went back to the bench, his production dipped some, but he now has a full offseason behind him and another year in Ott’s system. The departures of Grayson Allen and Royce O'Neale also open the door for more of Gillespie’s 3-point shooting to matter.
Last season, he posted career highs with 12.7 points, 4.6 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 1.2 steals, and that kind of line should keep him on the radar all year long. There’s also precedent here: the last four Sixth Man of the Year winners all averaged fewer than 15 points per game, so Gillespie doesn’t need huge scoring numbers to stay in the race.
The only real problem would be if injuries push him back into the starting five.
Jalen Green is another name worth watching closely. After being traded from the Houston Rockets, he looked like a player set up for a big year before a hamstring injury cost him 50 games.
Now healthy, Green enters a season where the fit next to Devin Booker in the backcourt still raises questions, but Ott’s system helped so many Suns players find their groove last year that it’s easy to picture Green doing the same. His game brings the kind of burst and scoring punch that can thrive in the right setup.
For Green, this is a true make-or-break season, and the Suns are positioned to see whether his consistency and accuracy can take the next step.
Then there’s Jordan Goodwin, who didn’t hide his goal at media day. He wants an All-Defensive team nod after feeling he was "robbed a little bit last year" when he didn’t make one.
The case starts with his defense: he averaged 1.5 steals per game in just 22.5 minutes last season and was clearly Phoenix’s best on-ball defender and energy source. More minutes would only strengthen that argument.
Even after signing a new three-year, $19 million contract this offseason, Goodwin still seems driven, and the intensity he showed in the preseason suggests this isn’t just talk.
In Other News...
Suns Entering The Season With Doubts They Cant Ignore
The early buzz around Phoenix this preseason has been hard to ignore, and not in the way the Suns would prefer. The Ringers latest NBA power rankings slot them outside the leagues top tier and project a finish near the middle of the Western Conference, a step back from where they stood a year ago. Even with the addition of Miles Bridges, the broader read on the roster is that there are still more questions than answers.
Mark Williams situation only adds to the uncertainty. Phoenix was counting on the starting center to stabilize the middle, but surgery has put that plan on hold and left the team scrambling to cover a major hole before the season fully gets going. For a club trying to prove last year was more than a one-year spike, the doubts are already coming from everywhere. [Read more 🡒]
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 🡒]