Happy Wednesday! We’re halfway home, and I hope your week is going well.
I’ll get to the Suns below, but first, the NBA season officially kicked off yesterday, and the defending champion Thunder treated fans to a 125-124 overtime win against the Houston Rockets. The Warriors topped the Lakers 119-109 in L.A., rounding out the action from the league’s first day of games.
Tonight is the Suns’ turn — are you excited for the season to start?
On to the show!
3 Things To Watch as the Suns Start 2025-26 Season
It’s a new era of NBA basketball in the Valley.
Again.
If it feels like we’ve done this before, well, we have. Last year a very different looking team began the season with a new head coach (Mike Budenholzer), and the year before that was Frank Vogel’s first at the helm.
Expectations are very different this season, though. No Kevin Durant, and no championship expectations.
So what should you expect from the Suns this season?
Suns Aim to Build Culture, Show Resilience
It’s not exactly a from-the-ground-up rebuild — Devin Booker is one heck of a player to build around — and Phoenix’s return from the Durant trade last offseason has certainly jump-started things. But with Ott, a first-year head coach, there will be some wrinkles to iron out as the team progresses through the 2025-26 season.
- When will we see a complete lineup?
It’s tough to know entirely, because guard Jalen Green will not be in tonight’s lineup against Sacramento. The 23-year-old has been dealing with a bad hamstring throughout the entire preseason, and his debut will be much-anticipated, as he is expected to make an immediate impact in the Suns’ lineup. Ott said Green will be re-evaluated soon, and will hopefully find his way back into the lineup soon.
- The kids can play
New general manager Brian Gregory made quite a splash at the NBA Draft, making three selections in the first two rounds: 10th overall pick Khaman Maluach, 31st overall pick Rasheer Fleming and 41st overall pick Koby Brea. These new faces are set to grow with the team and make as immediate of an impact as possible, offering versatility the Suns haven’t seen in quite some time.
- A little less pretty, a lot more gritty
KD and Bradley Beal were fun to watch, but the team never fully clicked like fans had hoped over the past few seasons. Phoenix has not advanced past the conference semifinals since its magical run to the NBA Finals in 2020-21, and failed to qualify for the postseason last year. No one quite knows what to expect this season, but Ott has had them showing hustle, grit and teamwork throughout the preseason. Expect that to carry over into the regular season.
My Take: Ah, the feeling of a brand new season is always a good one, but make sure you enter this season with tempered expectations. Fans shouldn’t expect a championship — even the playoffs feel like a reach this season — but it will be fun to see if this version of the team can build some chemistry as the season wears on. Whatever happens, enjoy tonight’s game!
Expensive Win: The Sun Devils football team was fined $50,000 by the Big 12 after fans stormed the field following a win over then-No. 7 Texas Tech last Saturday. Arizona State earned the season-defining win in dramatic fashion last week, and the victory also kept ASU in the Big 12 title race. There’s still a lot of football left to be played, but if the Sun Devils can roll off back-to-back titles, this will likely be looked at as money well spent.
Colby Cool: ASU women’s volleyball middle blocker Colby Neal was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week after recording a career-high 10 blocks in a win last week over No. 19 BYU, and has recorded double-digit blocks in five of the Sun Devils’ seven Big 12 matches this season. Congrats, Colby!
Hear it straight from coach Jordan Ott!
