As unfathomable as it seemed at the start of this season - and especially after a bright 8-1 start that had fans dreaming about what might be - there is a chance the Phoenix Suns aren't even going to make the play-in tournament this season. Not the playoffs proper, but the mini-series between seeds seven through ten to decide who will take the final two seeds in the Western Conference.
That's because the Suns currently sit 11th out West, with a 27-30 record that means - if you're any good at quick math - that this group have only won 19 games total since that hot start to begin the campaign. Ouch. They're 2-8 in their last 10 games, and are an insane 19 games back on the Oklahoma City Thunder at the top of the pile.
Things are about to get a whole lost worse in The Valley.
That's because with only 25 games left to play this season, the Suns have the hardest remaining schedule in the entire NBA. Which doesn't seem right, because there have been so many uphill battles and beatdowns from opponents already this season. Yet they're telling us the worst is yet to come?
That in itself is reason to shudder about the fact that the organization have zero draft capital for the rest of this decade to make any moves, while Bradley Beal's no-trade clause sure is holding up the show. It may be that Durant is moved on this offseason - and although that's hardly an ideal avenue to go down - it is clear that something has to change. They've got the fanbase acting like this right now...
The Phoenix Suns play basketball today pic.twitter.com/wKPbEqTG33
— Its RBover (@RyB_311) February 25, 2025
If anything it also shows that former head coach Frank Vogel didn't do a bad job at all last season, and that was without Tyus Jones and Nick Richards in the rotation. He also only got Royce O'Neale at the trade deadline as well. Yet with Jusuf Nurkic, some more Bol Bol than you'd like to see and Booker and Beal splitting point guard duties, the Suns managed to avoid the play-in tournament altogether.
Yes they were then swept by the Minnesota Timberwolves, but at least they got to the postseason at the first time of asking. Which makes what is about to happen an ever scarier thought than it already was. The Suns will see the defending champion Boston Celtics twice, while also having one more tilt against the Denver Nuggets.
They've had modest joy against Nikola Jokic and company so far this season, but it is clear they can't beat them in a seven game series. There's also one more game versus the Thunder and Cleveland Cavaliers, who are perhaps the two best teams in the league this year. Another matchup versus the New York Knicks will also be fascinating, as they already exposed the Suns' weaknesses this season.
Really it was Josh Hart who did the damage, playing with a level of intensity and desire that we simply haven't seen in Phoenix this season. The Orlando Magic then added to this - they won the season series 2-0 - by painfully exposing the fact that if you can defend at an above average level while also playing at a high pace, you are going to blow these Suns off the court.
The Suns on the other hand play at a slow tempo - the offensive flow that many expected never arrived - and that was even after moving Beal to the bench and trading Nurkic. To this point then superior opponents have easily handled them - teams that outwork them also tend to win - while younger and supposedly less talented groups are also able to pull out victories.
Which means this is going to get worse before it gets better. You might not buy into the strength of schedule as a true barometer of what awaits a team, but you're in denial if you think a higher level of opposition is going to help break these Suns out of a funk. Don't laugh, but all of a sudden going 13-12 the rest of the way to finish with only 40 wins doesn't seem a certainty.