November 17th at Minnesota Timberwolves
You get the sense the league knows what it is doing putting this one on a Sunday. This will be the first meeting between the two sides since that postseason hammering, and it will be taking place in the home of the Timberwolves.
At that point the Suns will have played 13 games - with the previous match an NBA Cup game versus the Oklahoma City Thunder - and this will be the true litmus test to see how good the Suns can be. They kept their core trio of stars together this summer - as well as key guys like Jusuf Nurkic and Grayson Allen - and they all felt the pain of defeat to this opponent last season.
Anthony Edwards appeared to have an amazing time with Durant at the Olympics. So much so that Suns fans were perhaps scared that Durant's head could be turned by what might just be the next face of the league. Make no mistake though on this night, the pair will not be friends.
If the Suns enter this game some way above .500 and they manage to carve out a win against the Timberwolves, then it really is game on for the rest of the season. If they arrive having stuttered and are once again given a beat down by Edwards and company, then serious questions are going to have to be asked about the direction of the entire franchise. No pressure then.