With the eyes of the NBA shifting gears to international play and the Olympic Games in Paris, now is a good time to take stock of where the Phoenix Suns are at as an organization. Thanks to some solid moves by the front office, the team is definitely in a better place than it was a year ago.
Although Eric Gordon is going to be missed, adding some rookies for regular season juice and bringing back the trio of Grayson Allen, Royce O'Neale and Josh Okogie are all positive moves. Even the likes of Okogie may be traded down the road to improve this roster.
Yet despite all of the good vibes that are quietly building around The Valley, the Suns are still way down the pecking order in the league.
Last season proved that the franchise was not a true contender, and this was proven when they were swept from the playoffs in the opening round. Armed with a new head coach and the second year of the Bradley Beal experience, the hope is that things will be different this time round. Unfortunately for the Suns though, all of these rivals are better than them until further notice.
7. Minnesota Timberwolves
Why not get the most painful opponent out of the way first, and talk about the Minnesota Timberwolves. It is not just that they were the team doing the sweeping when the Suns were bounced from the postseason, there's much more to it than that.
If you had to build around one of Anthony Edwards or Devin Booker for the next five seasons, it is clear Edwards would be the answer. He's ascension caught some off guard - unless you were paying attention to Team USA during the World Cup last year - and he alone puts the Timberwolves among the better teams in the league.
But it is the fact they were one of the two best defensive groups in the league last season that the Suns just can't hang with. The tandem of Karl-Anthony Towns and the much maligned Rudy Gobert worlds better than Jusuf Nurkic, who admirably manned the paint against these two behemoths.
It is not a given that the Timberwolves are going to continue their forward momentum, and it may be that Towns is moved in the future. But when these two meet again in 2024-25, there is no doubt that the Timberwolves will be rightly viewed as the favorites in any matchup.