The Phoenix Suns are no strangers to being underrated. Last season’s squad shattered all preseason expectations set for them en route to a 45-win campaign, the Play-In Tournament, and the NBA playoffs (where they were swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder). But if a power ranking of NBA teams from The Ringer is any indication, the Suns will need to beat expectations once again to repeat their success.
The Ringer shows little faith in Suns in NBA power ranking
In a power ranking from The Ringer’s staff posted to Instagram, the Suns are ranked among the bottom 10 teams in the league at No. 21 overall. Additionally, they slot the Suns below nine Western Conference teams, meaning Phoenix would finish 10th in the conference standings. That would be two slots below where they finished in the standings a season ago but still in the Play-In Tournament.
It goes without saying, but that would be a disastrous development for a Suns team that traded away yet another unprotected first-round draft pick this past summer in order to acquire Miles Bridges from the Charlotte Hornets. Those arguing the deal was, at best, a lateral move would be vindicated if The Ringer’s power ranking comes to fruition by season’s end.
It’s entirely possible this retooled Suns team is poised for regression, if only due to the fact that other teams in the Western Conference like the Portland Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz improved on paper during the offseason. Even a team like the Dallas Mavericks, who The Ringer’s staff has finishing below the Suns, could be in the conversation with a healthy Kyrie Irving teaming up with Cooper Flagg (assuming the Mavs don’t trade the former).
Phoenix is already in a tough spot before its regular season even begins, with starting center Mark Williams set to miss significant time recovering from surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder. Young big men Oso Ighodaro and Khaman Maluach will need to step up in his absence, but a team that struggled on the defensive glass a year ago losing its leading rebounder to begin the year is a tough spot to be in.
Suns need to use this as fuel
If nothing else, these power rankings are giving Devin Booker, Dillon Brooks, Jordan Ott, and the Suns yet more chalkboard material to motivate them to defy expectations once again.
At the same time, though, Phoenix is essentially floundering in NBA purgatory: not good enough to be considered a legit playoff team but not in a rebuild mode to get meaningful pieces through the draft (assuming the Suns still had their own picks, which they largely do not).
Pressure is on Bridges as the new addition to not only endear himself to a skeptical fan base but also to prove he was worth the price tag of an unprotected draft pick to raise this team's ceiling.
At least to begin the year, pundits aren't convinced that will happen.
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