Jordan Ott’s adaptable coaching and a versatile offense could propel Phoenix past Houston and Los Angeles, shattering projections to secure a coveted guaranteed Western Conference playoff spot.
The Phoenix Suns have a definite chance to expand upon the 45-win benchmark the 2025-26 team set.
Phoenix - heading into year two of the Jordan Ott era - are equipped to break beyond the 45 wins, but questions arise as to how high the team can climb in the Western Conference standings.
The consensus from around the NBA world seems to be uniform from the vantage point of the top six of the West standings.
The Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Lakers, and Houston Rockets seem to be the uniform prediction.
Well, Phoenix has a chance to suspend disbelief here, as historical NBA precedent sets at least one uniformly respected team disappoints in the standings on a year-by-year basis.
The Suns own a higher floor in comparison to opposition that has taken more risks (such as the Portland Trail Blazers), making the range of outcomes more stable for Phoenix. The Suns should have the most direct opportunity to be the best team out of the purported "play-in" hopefuls.
It's not viable for Phoenix to usurp San Antonio, Oklahoma City, or Minnesota in the standings. While Denver's depth is being tested to an even greater degree this season, Nikola Jokic is enough of a floor-raiser to conclude that they are a safe bet to earn a spot in the playoffs.
This leaves the Rockets and Lakers as Phoenix's top competition. The same can be said about the Lakers as the Nuggets, however the experimentation done to their roster has a chance to backfire.
The focus here should be Houston. The games between the two franchises are already high-stakes, as the two rosters overlap with Kevin Durant, as well as Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green.
The Rockets got the best of the Suns in the regular season series between the two last season, but the potential for the Phoenix offense to become more versatile is speaking loud as a matchup advantage that they didn't own last season.
Sure, Houston's benchmark is 50+ wins. The Rockets have as much continuity as a team as the Suns do as well. However, the Suns have a roster that is facing a low-pressure environment, and have a path towards becoming an even more physical team in comparison to Houston.
Perhaps the biggest argument to swing the pendulum in favor of the Suns is coaching. Rockets head man Ime Udoka and his staff are notorious for a rigid approach to the game, while Ott is as adaptable as they come.
Phoenix faces an uphill climb to return to the upper echelon of the West, but they have a path to get back to that stage.
