Here we are, staring straight at the halfway point of the season. 41 games in, the Phoenix Suns sit at 24-17. Seventh in the West. A half game behind Houston. One full game behind the Lakers for fifth. All those preseason takes about this being one of the worst teams in the league, or one of the worst defenses, those takes are already collecting dust.
That does not mean the road ahead is calm. This is still only halftime.
Plenty can break loose between now and April. Rotations change. Bodies wear down. Reality has a way of barging in unannounced. The vibes in Phoenix are good, no doubt, but the road is still long, and it does not come with guardrails.
After the loss in Detroit on Thursday night, my biggest takeaway was how impressed I was with the performance. No Devin Booker. No Jalen Green. And they still lost by only 3 on the road to the best team in the Eastern Conference, a team with the second-best defensive rating in the league, in their building. That tells me something real. What Jordan Ott is building translates. It travels.It tells you the culture is downloadable. Get the right players in the room, and this thing can be copied, sustained, and carried forward.
Before the season tipped off, the hope was a Play-In spot. That felt like the ceiling. But seasons have a way of reshaping expectations. Success changes the conversation. It shifts what feels acceptable and what suddenly feels disappointing. That tension, that recalibration, is exactly what this week’s community poll tapped into.
So, where did the community land on what would qualify as a disappointing season? Missing the playoffs entirely ran away with it at 64%.
And honestly, that is where I landed too. I did not come into this season with lofty expectations. Not even close. What this team has done so far has been a pleasant surprise, and then some. That does not change the bigger picture of what this season is supposed to be. It is a transition year. An evaluation year. And so far, the Suns have been passing that test with room to spare.
If they were to lose in the first round, I would not walk away calling this season a disappointment. This is not a championship or bust roster. Not like the version from a year ago, where anything short of a deep run would have felt like failure. That team did not even make the Play-In. This team is different.
Based on the way they started, based on the ground they have already covered, missing the playoffs altogether would feel disappointing. That is the line most of us seem to have settled on.
Sure, there are fans who have pushed the bar higher, who will only feel satisfied if this team goes further. I respect that. I admire the optimism. Expectations are personal, and disappointment lives wherever you decide to place it. But from where I sit, this season has already cleared the success threshold. The goal for the second half is simple. Keep building. Keep learning. Keep stacking proof that this thing is real.
