Suns unsurprisingly left off two key lists ahead of 2024-25 season

We have hit what is without doubt the quietest period in the NBA calendar. Training camps are still over a month away, while all of the major player movement is already in the rearview mirror. The Olympic Games were a tremendous watch, but Team USA has again been disbanded for now.

Which is why you are going to see a ton of lists and projections for the 2024-25 season, and as you might expect the Phoenix Suns feature heavily. Any roster boasting Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and even Bradley Beal are worth talking about. Right?

Actually perhaps not, as the Suns have been snubbed in a big way in one recent survey.

That's because Tim Bontemps of ESPN has once again put his feelers out there with many individuals around the league, to take stock of how every player and team are perceived heading into a new season. Nikola Jokic in line to win a fourth MVP award in five years? Sure, why not. Boston Celtics to become the first repeat champion since the Golden State Warriors? Some think it will happen.

But the Suns were notable in their absence from two key questions, and that was who will win the Western Conference in 2024-25, and also who will win that aforementioned championship. Beginning with the latter and alright, it is hard right now to make the case the Suns could win a first ever title.

Surely any roster with Booker and Durant has a chance though, and the Suns did just have a sneakily good offseason in which they added a pair of point guards in Tyus Jones and Monte Morris, and upgraded the backup center position with Mason Plumlee. The world also collectively fell in love with Booker in Paris, but he'll be back to his elite self in The Valley next time out.

You can understand the Suns not getting a vote and the Celtics leading the way with eight - they're the defending champions after all - but it gets murkier from there. Other teams that received votes included the Oklahoma City Thunder (yet to make even the Conference Finals with this group) and Dallas Mavericks.

The Minnesota Timberwolves and Milwaukee Bucks (who haven't gotten out of the first round in a couple of years) also make an appearance, and it is hard to see what they that which the Suns do not. Anthony Edwards just spent the summer gushing about Durant - and even Booker - but is he that much better than the Suns' pair?

The Suns did underwhelm last season, yet still managed to win 49 games with a head coach in Frank Vogel who is already gone and only 53 games of Beal. Perhaps he'll be more healthy next season. The organization have the likes of Royce O'Neale on the roster now even if he is not, while bringing Beal off the bench might be the eventual solution here anyway.

Not getting a single vote to win the West means they're being slept on, which is exactly where new head coach Mike Budenholzer will be trying to keep their mentality. Somehow making Durant and Booker believe they're underdogs could be the catalyst needed to go on and have the best season in franchise history. Just another example of these Suns already being written off in 2024-25.

Really though it is hard to blame anybody for not featuring the Suns here. The West is as competitive as ever, and the Suns are going to continue to have depth issues as long as they have three players on max contracts. We've seen this movie before, and right now the belief in the NBA is that it will be more of the same next season.