Welcome to Inside the Suns, your weekly deep down analysis of the current Phoenix Suns team. Each week the Fantable — a round table of Bright Siders — give their takes on the Suns’ latest issues and news.
Fantable Questions of the Week
Q1: What’s your opinion on the performance of this year’s team?
Diamondhacks: I saw a very motivated and impressive-looking collection of individual performances from a decidedly less impressive roster. Six of nine rotational pieces posted career best (or comparable) seasons, which falls somewhere between a positive and astonishing organizational accomplishment.
(Even Ryan Dunn, often perceived as stagnant or in Ott’s doghouse, performed measurably better than he did last year.)
The three non-career years were Booker, whose .507 eFG% was his worst in nearly a decade, but he mitigated that by getting to the line more than ever and was still credibly our most valuable player. You’d never project codgers like Royce or Grayson to deliver career years, but both still made significant contributions (5th and 7th in Win Shares) despite injury and even a few exaggerated reports of death.
Ashton: When I was a kid, I devoured any book written by Stephen King. Writing as Richard Bachman, “The Long Walk” is what comes to mind about the Sun’s season in a very dystopian ending.
It is not how you start the marathon but how you end it. And in the case of the protagonist who did win while limping with bloody feet and feeling of despair against a counterpart that would not quit (if you fall below a 4 MPH – you get shot). If you want summer reading, go for it.
The protagonist was limping into the postseason with no real chance of even stealing a game. Had the Suns won against Portland, I think they could have stolen a game or maybe even two while Oso goes home at night, crying in the shower, after getting “Wembied”.
Flowers for the first three months of basketball. The rest of the season was a slog that was hard to watch. And the Thunder is unstoppable.
OldAz: This one is easy. Not only did this year’s team overachieve by making the playoffs, they bettered last season’s record and put on a far more entertaining and competitive basketball. All of these fulfilled the promises Matt Ishbia made before the season and certainly went a long way to justify the front office moves last off season (despite the MSU jokes). I especially like the emphasis on defense and ball movement early in the season becoming the identify of the team.
Rod: In a word, they were phenomenal…especially in respect to the preseason expectations. Yes, the team faded somewhat toward the end of the year, but I really think that was largely due to them starting off the season playing games with a playoff intensity that eventually wore them down. I especially believe that’s what caused Gillespie’s drop off in production late in the season.
With even a lessening of the injuries that they suffered through, I believe they would have wound up an even better team near the end of the season. Not just because of the minutes lost due to injury, but due much to the necessity of having numerous players in and out of the lineups, which stalled the development of on-court chemistry.
I know a lot of fans are hoping for some big changes through trades this summer but I’m presently on the side of wanting to mostly run it back while making some smaller moves to, hopefully, make improvements in specific areas…such as adding more size. But adding size without talent will not solve anything which makes that more difficult than some may think. While it’s true that you can’t teach height, it also doesn’t matter how tall a traffic cone is.
Q2: What’s your opinion on the performance of rookie head coach Jordan Ott?
Diamondhacks: When a mediocre roster led by three overrated and oft-injured “stars” vastly exceeds industry expectations, the coach probably has something to do with it. And when essential parts of this wildly overachieving band of brothers methodically break down, like the 1975 Ford Granada they closely resemble, I don’t reflexively blame the coach.
I know what The Unhappies want. They want a coach who doesn’t play so small, who always has a 7 footer out there – even two at a time if possible. A more traditional coach, with a crustier demeanor who gets teed off and teed up, who plays younger guys like Ryan Dunn or Rasheer Fleming for balance, rebounding, defense, the American Way, and The Wins We Rightly Deserve That Were Stolen From Us By Jordan Ott! So, I know what they want. Just be careful what you ask for. Because his name is “Mike Budenholzer”.
Ashton: Surprisingly good for the first half of the season. I was among his detractors that a first-year rookie head coach could not handle an NBA locker room. Turns out that nobody could handle an NBA locker room that included Booker, Beal, and Durant.
So, he gets a passing grade from me. Let’s see what he does with the returning young talent next season. This is an easy meet and exceeds expectations for the HC.
OldAz: This one is tougher. I constantly have to remind myself to try and filter my comments on art through the lens of him being a rookie head coach. They started the season so well early, and Ott gets almost all of the credit in my book for the focus on defensive effort & energy and ball movement the offensive end. He played deep into his bench with two-way and minimum players and effectively mixed them in to create a solid identity of the team that resulted in a very entertaining brand of basketball. He also gets some credit in my book for his handling of the rookies early in the season and making them earn their playing time and splitting time in the G league to do that.
However, the late season criticism is also fair because a lot of of the elements that made the team successful in the first half of the season seemed to disappear, including the consistent, defensive intensity, the ball movement and the deep bench. Specifically on the last point, Ott told us repeatedly that he was shortening the bench because that’s what you do in the playoffs (why?). He also often said that “everything was on the table” but then made almost no actual adjustments. He was also the one who consistently put out lineups with a center surrounded by 4 undersized players when Brooks got hurt and stuck with that gameplan after a brooks returned. Despite these lineups getting abused by middle of the pack power forward and center combinations, Ott never adjusted back to using a deeper bench where additional bigger players could be found. This is especially true after Maluach and Fleming showed that they were capable of contributing.
Grading on the curve of a rookie coach, I still give Ott a high grade (B or B+ maybe). I would much prefer if the halves of the season were reversed and he struggled early and adjusted to the more effective options in the late half of the year. But overall, I still give credit for changing the culture and effort put forth by the team. These did not wane later in the season. Based on this alone, I am happy with the hire and look forward to seeing if he comes back next season with some introspection and big picture adjustments going into his sophomore season.
Rod: I’ve heard Ott called stubborn (and a lot worse things) often for playing small lineups as well as not giving the rookies more time, but I suspect he more likely subscribes to the belief that you should just play your best players. I think he did that mostly regardless of the size of the lineups. Whether he was right or wrong in some of his decisions is, of course, debatable, but he also wasn’t dealt the best hand in the game from the get-go.
Maybe he wasn’t flexible enough, but he always played talent and players who played hard. For that, he earned my respect and, from everything I’ve heard, that of the players as well. He wasn’t perfect but I think he was a really good fit for this team and I’m more than willing to give him time to grow and hopefully progress as the Suns’ head coach.
Q3: In general, what do you see as the most important things for Brian Gregory and the Suns to attempt to accomplish this offseason?
Diamondhacks: We saw what this group could do with a healthy, athletic and skilled NBA center, and we saw what they did without one. Centers with those attributes aren’t easy to acquire or cultivate, but they can cover up a lot of other roster problems. Which we have – and will likely have for a while.
Ashton: Dang Rod, How many generalist questions do we have here? I will not go essay hunting, yet.
First, send all the players to the Japanese hot springs to heal their wounds (a nod to anime – I have nothing else to watch except the D-Backs). And then replace the medical team and training staff.
Second, nail the 47th pick of the draft. This is a big ask as historic numbers of under classmen are returning for college NIL. And the good bigs in college are going for NIL record numbers. If you only follow NBA and not college, you will see where this is intertwined. NBA needs to raise their salaries for second rounders.
Third. There will be discussions around what Suns tradable assets actually exist. I assume most talks will revolve around RO and GA, or some combination thereof. But for whom? And I think the Suns need to stay below the luxury tax for another season. No need to go into that territory unless the deal is too good to be true.
BG is going have a hard time in front of him without a bunch of assets to work with. The Suns have painted themselves into a corner and I do not expect that to change next season. The chatter has already begun on how to fix an imbalanced and smaller team, but hard decisions will be have to be made with all the UFAs, RFAs, and extensions coming up.
Basically, Brian is not going to Cancun with Brooks anytime soon.
OldAz: The easy answer is that the team needs more length and athleticism. However, we don’t know the full impact of the length and athleticism that Maluach and Fleming can provide. Still, these are items you can never have enough of in the modern NBA so I still think this needs to be the focus for Gregory. If a deal materializes to move Green and his salary for a similar front court player, then I think he needs to explore it (I won’t even go down the road of trading Booker, as that is inconceivable for many reasons). However, such a large move would completely change the this answer depending on that deal.
So barring any big move, I think Gregory needs to explore moving Allen and or O’Neale for actual forwards (size, length, athleticism) that would slot in about the same place in a lineup (capable of starting or significant contributions off the bench). After that, I think it needs to be a priority to resigning the three free agents from this year because of what they bring: Gillespie, Goodwin and Williams.
Rod: First and foremost is the decision on the direction the team takes moving forward financially. They made a conscious effort to get below the luxury tax threshold in 2025-26 but, unless they do it again this coming season, they would still have to pay the repeater taxes again if they go over that threshold this year. I believe Mat Ishbia won’t hesitate to do it IF he’s convinced the team has the potential to be even better this year if he keeps his wallet open. I don’t think it’s a matter of spending like crazy as he did in the past though, just a willingness to pay some taxes again rather than possibly take a step or two backward just to avoid paying luxury taxes.
Re-signing Collin Gillespie, Jordan Goodwin and Mark Williams without going over the tax threshold won’t likely be possible without some cost cutting measures elsewhere, such as trading away some other players that bring back much less salary in return…and that’s more easily said than done with so many teams now trying to avoid going over the tax aprons like the plague. I won’t say it can’t be done but I do doubt that any such move by the Suns will actually improve the team significantly and might even be a backwards step.
Whether they decide to largely keep this team together for 2026-27 or make some moves to significantly reshape the roster, how they will go about doing either of those things will be greatly influenced by that 1st decision.
As always, many thanks to our Fantable members for all their extra effort this week!
Quotes of the Week
“I appreciate Coach Ott for giving me that leeway to explore the basketball floor.” – Dillon Brooks
“From the starting five to the bench, every single person comes in and does something special for us.” – Jalen Green
“I think we brought a new life. After not making the playoffs last year, we exceeded everyone else’s expectations, but not ours. We still have some learning to do.” – Devin Booker
“I’m glad that we got that foundation and now it’s time to grow.” – Oso Ighodaro
Losing is never easy, but I feel really good today about our team and am already thinking about where we go from here.” – Mat Ishbia
Suns Trivia/History
On May 3, 2019, the Suns hired Monty Williams as Head Coach. In his 1st season he would lead the Suns to a much improved regular season record, the now historic 8-0 run in The Bubble, and just missed making it to the NBA’s new playin tournament. In his second season, he would lead the team back to the NBA Finals for just the 3rd time in franchise history.
On May 4, 2006, with time running out and the Suns down by three points, Tim Thomas hit a buzzer beating 3-pointer to send game 6 of the Suns’ first round playoff series with the Lakers into overtime. The Suns out scored the Lakers 21-13 in OT to win the game, tie up the series 3-3 and send it back to Phoenix where the Suns sent the Lakers packing for the season with a 121-90, 31-point blowout win.
On May 6, 1968, the Suns acquired their first player during the NBA Expansion Draft, selecting 6-5 guard Dick Van Arsdale from New York. Van Arsdale is still affectionately known as “The Original Sun.”
Important Future Dates
Mid-June (date TBD) – Teams can begin negotiating with their own free agents (following the Finals)
June 23 – NBA Draft First Round, 8 ET (ABC/ESPN)
June 24 – NBA Draft Second Round, 8 ET (ESPN)
June 30 – Free agency begins
July 6 – Moratorium ends, official free agent contract signings can begin
July 9-19 – NBA 2K Summer League 2026 in Las Vegas
