There are unintended consequences when your team starts rolling. The haters come out of the woodwork, loud, breathless, trying to discount every bucket, every run, every win. In the case of the Phoenix
Suns, that script is alive and well.
Yeah, they have not faced the nastiest schedule in the league. Per ESPN, they have had the second-easiest strength of schedule, sitting behind Oklahoma City. Fine. Cool. Wonderful. Isn’t it a somewhat circular reference, however? You know, considering that the Suns help some of the opposing teams find their way to bad records?
Regardless, what have they done against the bad teams? They are taking care of business. They are beating teams, and not with polite margins. They are beating the pants off them.
What is the alternative here, naysayers? That they play weaker teams and scrape by every night, hearts racing, margins razor thin, looking shaky? What would that prove? Should be losing to these squads? That would make the preseason doomers feel warm and comfortable, wrapped in the blanket of ‘I told you so’.
The reality is simple. The Suns have played subpar competition so far. And they have handled it like a team that knows exactly what it is doing. That matters, no matter how loud the noise gets.
There is another layer to this, something that shows up on the scouting reports and in the pregame meetings. The Suns are putting teams on notice. They look tough. They look gritty. They look like a group that will drag you into deep water and keep you there. As they move into the part of the schedule that brings real tests, those teams are not circling Phoenix as a night to breathe.
In the modern NBA, the schedule is a chessboard. Coaches hunt for soft spots. Back to back in Charlotte? Maybe you sit a guy. Maybe you steal some rest. That works when you think you can coast and still survive. Phoenix was supposed to live in that category. They were the team you could’ve penciled in as manageable, a place to steal some minutes of recovery.
Newsflash: Phoenix is not.
You watch how Phoenix plays now, the way they attack, the way they keep coming, possession after possession, wave after wave. You know you cannot take a shortcut. You know you cannot gift yourself a rest night. You know you are stepping into a game that will punch back. One that will test you. One that is never easy, not for a second. It will be fascinating to watch how teams start handling Phoenix from here on out.
There is another wrinkle in all of this. Phoenix does not have the kind of household names that make opposing players circle the calendar in red ink and get goosebumps during warmups.
Look at tonight. The Suns draw the Minnesota Timberwolves, and that means Anthony Edwards is in the building. And we know this much: Anthony Edwards gets up for the Suns. Well, he did when Kevin Durant was wearing that jersey. Why? Because Durant was one of his basketball gods. He loved that matchup. He loved staring across the floor at someone he grew up watching. That juice was real. That fire was automatic.
Case and point? Anthony Edwards averaged 28.6 points per game against Phoenix in 12 games (which includes the 2023 postseason) when Kevin Durant was on the team. Without KD? Ant averaged 22.0 points.
Now, that dynamic shifts. Phoenix does not give teams that same star-struck boost anymore. They are not the celebrity fight on the card. They are the grinder in the last bout, the one that drags you into uncomfortable territory and never lets you breathe. That changes how teams approach them. There is no magic name on the scouting report to climax the night. There is no built-in adrenaline rush.
Which makes this part beautiful and dangerous. You cannot lean on celebrity motivation to survive Phoenix. You have to be ready for the work. You have to be ready for a team that will test your lungs, your patience, your composure. And that is where the real chess match starts.
The Suns have shifted into a strange, beautiful place. They used to be a team other players circled on the calendar because it meant a chance to share the floor with an idol. A chance to test themselves against a legend. A chance to feel that electricity.
Now they are something else. They are the team nobody looks forward to playing.
Not because of star power. Because of discomfort. Because of effort. Because of the way they make every possession feel like a chore and every minute feel longer than it should. They have gone from being a bucket list opponent to being a chore on the schedule.
When the season opened, nobody had real expectations for this team. We did not know what we had in the new coach. We did not know what the new general manager had stitched together in the dark. We did not know if there would be any real cohesion, or how long an identity would take to form, or if the culture would even stick.
And somehow, it showed up early. Way earlier than anyone had the right to expect. And it has been fun. There is a twisted kind of joy in being the team nobody wants to see on the schedule. It is fun to be the game that makes opponents sigh when they scroll through their upcoming matchups. It is fun to be the team everyone wants to beat and quietly fears doing battle with.
There is still a long road ahead. The schedule coming up is not friendly. Not even a little. We are going to learn a lot about what this team actually is, what they believe in, how hard they can punch when the lights get brighter. That part is coming.
When you are beating the teams you are supposed to beat, and doing it with confidence, and doing it with teeth, you do not owe anyone an apology. You do not have to downplay your joy. You do not have to hide the fact that you are entertained. You do not have to pretend this is not real.
Enjoy it. This is what it is supposed to feel like.
