👋 GOOD MORNING – We’ve had to endure a lot of… sub-optimal sports in this city last year, and the unfortunate common theme of these letdowns has been an inability to live up to expectations.

Well, there’s one team here that’s gone above and beyond expectations in the early goings of their season — the Phoenix Suns.

They’re not just a surprise team, they’re actually playing consistently good basketball. So let’s take a look at one of the more positive Valley sports storylines.

Here we go!

— Alex D’Agostino, PHNX Sports Daily Editor

The Suns are Playing Above Expectations

It’s no secret the Phoenix Suns were quite the letdown in 2023 and 2024. Seriously, how do you have Kevin Durant on your team and struggle so much?

There were many reasons for that, but the past is well behind us now. The Suns may not be a perfect squad in 2025-26, but they’ve not only been exceptionally fun to watch, they’ve been straight-up good at basketball. Imagine that…

Phoenix sits 21-15 (with a game against the 15-20 Grizzlies tonight at 6:00 p.m.), and occupy the seventh seed in the Western Conference. That’s partially the consequence of playing in a loaded conference, though, because that record would be good enough for a five seed in the East.

Why are Arizona sports teams cursed to the most mind-bogglingly, annoyingly, persistently brutal divisions in sports? Seriously, it feels like some kind of conspiracy to farm wins for the state of California sometimes.

But I digress.

The Suns are playing like a complete, cohesive team. One might even say they’re aligned (ding!). They’re taking care of business against weaker teams, but they’ve also picked up huge quality wins over the likes of the Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Lakers.

And they’re doing it all while still not at full strength. They’ve gotten just over one game’s worth of action out of Jalen Green (who should be making his return soon), and have seen guys like Grayson Allen, Ryan Dunn and others miss time, as well.

It’s not like they’re doing this on the back of some Devin Booker hero-ball, either. In fact, Booker has struggled a bit this season. He’s been rounding back into his superstar form lately, but winning has been been a full-team effort by the Suns on a daily basis.

Phoenix, despite a rough loss Monday, has gone 20-11 after beginning the season 1-4. The Suns have won six of their last eight games, as well. If only the Rockets didn’t exist…

At this point, the Suns are on pace for somewhere in the neighborhood of a 47-35 final record. Ahead of the season, the expectation was somewhere in the low-to-mid-30s.

It made sense at the time, of course, but this team is clearly much better than anyone expected. Jordan Ott is doing an excellent coaching job, and a young, hungry team is working in unison (I didn’t say alignment that time!).

Some Suns Stats

Below are some of the top-performing members of the Suns this season:

Devin Booker – 25.7 points (leads team), 6.3 assists (also leads team) and 4.1 rebounds per game.

Dillon Brooks – 21.2 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game.

Mark Williams – 8.1 rebounds and 12.1 points per game in somewhat limited minutes.

Collin Gillespie – 13.8 points, 5.0 assists and 4.0 rebounds, mostly off the bench.

The beauty of this team is it’s been much more than just these players. Seriously, you could go up and down the lineup and find plenty of key contributors. Guys like Oso Ighodaro and Ryan Dunn have played excellent defense, while Jamaree Bouyea has been a bit of a pleasant surprise, too.

Quick Hits

Open the floodgates: After Jonathan Gannon was fired, the Cardinals have quickly gotten busy with their coaching search. They’ve already requested interviews with Vance Joseph (Broncos DC), Anthony Weaver (Dolphins DC), Robert Saleh (49ers DC) and Klint Kubiak (Seahawks OC).

And John Harbaugh just hit the market…

Battle of the Cats: The No. 1-ranked, 14-0 Wildcat men’s hoops squad will play its second conference game of the season, taking on Kansas State for the home opener at McKale Center tonight at 7:00 p.m. K-state is 9-5 and 0-1 in the Big-12 to begin.

The Arizona women surged back from a late deficit to secure a 75-72 win over BYU, outscoring the Cougars 24-15 in the fourth quarter. Senior Nora Francois led the scoring with 21 points.

Meanwhile, Arizona football has landed the No. 6 tight end in the transfer portal, picking up a commitment from Illinois’ Cole Rusk. The Cats also landed Georgetown EDGE Cooper Blomstrom, who has 16 sacks in three seasons.

Portal Power: Sun Devil men’s basketball will look to pick up its first conference win tonight at 7:00 p.m., but they’ll face a tough challenge in No. 9-ranked BYU on the road. The ASU women, meanwhile, will face off against UCF at home in a 6:30 p.m. matchup, as Molly Miller’s team looks to improve to 16-1.

ASU football landed Nick McLarty — a 6-foot-7 punter. That might be the most exciting portal add of the offseason, to be honest.