It’s been a polarizing season for the NBA. While a plethora of young stars like Victor Wembanyama, Anthony Edwards, Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, and others push the league forward, we’re again forced to discuss tanking, all while commissioner Adam Silver seems to push for league expansion. (When a number of teams are already being scolded for tanking, we want to add more cellar dwellers?) Even the Phoenix Suns’ surprise campaign contributes to what’s objectively been an odd year in the NBA, as noted by The Ringer’s Bill Simmons.
In a recent basketball rant with Zach Lowe, Simmons broke down a number of reasons why 2025-26 may be the “weirdest” NBA season we’ve ever had.
Simmons lists the San Antonio Spurs’ turnaround from last season and Wemby cementing himself among the faces of the league. Bam Adebayo had an 83-point game, leading to bizarre backlash from fans and pundits nitpicking what scoring outbursts are worthy of praise (largely in defense of the late Kobe Bryant, who notably scored 81). The Los Angeles Clippers are dealing with an ongoing scandal that says nothing of their decision to cut ties with franchise icon Chris Paul during what was supposed to be his farewell tour. Yet another burner account hullabaloo followed former Phoenix Sun Kevin Durant to All-Star Weekend. And he didn’t stop there.
Phoenix Suns among Bill Simmons’ reasons why NBA is having a ‘weird’ season
“Phoenix, Stephen A. Smith called (Mat) Ishbia the worst owner in the league a year ago, now they’re going to be in the playoffs,” Simmons said.
It speaks to the Suns’ fortunes in recent years that merely being a competitive team constitutes one of the “weirdest” NBA happenings of the 2025-26 campaign, but that’s the state of things in Phoenix.
Of course, Suns fans won’t complain about getting back to playoff basketball after the disaster that was the 2024-25 season with Durant under head coach Mike Budenholzer. That team never seemed to develop chemistry and finished 28th in the league in defensive rating after ranking 13th in the category the season prior under Frank Vogel, who got the boot before Bud was hired.
The 2024-25 team finished 10 games under .500 and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2020.
So, yes, the Suns being competitive during a season when prognosticators did not expect them to win games with anywhere near the frequency they have can be categorized as "weird," but Suns fans will no doubt take it.
Now, the focus in The Valley will be building as much team chemistry as possible with a roster that's been hampered by injuries all year ahead of the play-in tournament.