The Phoenix Suns are last in the NBA in defensive rating early in the 2026-27 season, and their offense over three games has not been anything to celebrate either.
You can point the finger at a lot of different people as to why this season has started slowly, and that there are too many fatal flaws on this roster to overcome. Devin Booker, Brian Gregory, Mat Ishbia, and injuries at center all share some level of blame, but it is Miles Bridges who sits at -17.0 in net rating this season, only trailing
Booker with a -17.7 net rating on the Suns.
When Bridges was brought in this offseason, the hope was for him to be a 6’8” version of Jordan Goodwin in the starting lineup. A guy who plays with an elite motor, defends and rebounds at an elite level, and is capable of knocking down open threes. That has not materialized early on defense at all, while the rebounding has been fine at 6.3 per game, but not where it needs to be for this Suns team to win. The entire team shares the blame for their inability to rebound and defend on the defensive end this season, but Bridges’ athleticism was supposed to give that group a boost, and instead, it’s dragged them down to the bottom.
Because of the injuries to Oso Ighodaro and Mark Williams, Bridges has been called upon to be a small-ball center, which has not gone smoothly for anyone, especially Bridges.
‘Offensively, it has gone as poorly as anyone could have imagined so far for the Suns this season, with no Suns starter shooting above 33% from three. Bridges is the worst shooter on the Suns right now; he is taking 6.7 long-distance attempts (second on the team) and connecting on only 20% of them. Many of those attempts are late into the shot clock, heaves that have even less of a chance at going in. The hope for Bridges this season was that he could at least make teams pay when opposing teams left him wide open, but that has backfired.
It would be easy for us as a Suns community to declare this trade a catastrophic failure. We gave up Royce O’Neale and Grayson Allen, plus an unprotected first-round pick, for someone playing this poorly. And if this trend continues from Bridges, Mat Ishbia and Brian Gregory’s management of this roster has to be examined under the microscope because it has Bradley Beal levels of stink to it right now.
But before I make any certain claims about this trade, we should give the Suns more time. Bridges is one of three new rotation players on this roster, and he missed a significant portion of the preseason with an ankle sprain. It has only been three games, and a week of good shooting and better defense from Bridges will turn his season around in a hurry. He is a better player, or at least has been a better player than what he has shown so far, but the level of patience for him to figure things out is dwindling fast because of the price the Suns paid to get him, on top of the off-the-floor issues he has to overcome to be accepted by Suns fans.
The nonnegotiable for Bridges to win Suns fans over and help the team win is that he has to play with incredible effort. He has to be the spark plug for the starting unit as the guy who creates extra possessions for the Suns and sets the tone with toughness and physicality. If he brings that consistently, the Suns can work through the rest of their mess and survive if he fills that role this starting unit desperately needs. On top of the motivation to win games, Bridges is also playing for a contract extension this season and is in prove-it mode on a new team, so there are no excuses for not getting his best effort on a nightly basis.
However, if Bridges and the Suns’ play does not improve before the calendar turns to December, then this season, which is quickly spiraling out of control, is only going to get messier, and Bridges’ time in the Valley will be extremely short. That would be another F on Mat Ishbia’s report card during his short time as owner of the Phoenix Suns.
