We’re not bitter, we swear. If anything we get a considerable amount of grief for being perceived to be overly negative about this version of the Phoenix Suns.
But Bleacher Report claiming that the Suns’ assumed starting five on the opening night of the 2026-27 season is not only the 20th best in the league, but worse than that of the Golden State Warriors, is ridiculous. Seriously, this shouldn’t even be close.
Entire league is sleeping on Suns to rank them so low
This is a team that made the playoffs last season and who turned Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale into Miles Bridges (an on court improvement only it has to be said) and Luke Kennard. But to really hammer home how absurd this is we’re going to list out both assumed starting fives and pick the five best players.
Warriors - Stephen Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Yaxel Lendeborg, Draymond Green, Kristaps Porzingis.
Suns - Devin Booker, Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, Miles Bridges, Mark Williams.
The backcourt is easy and requires no explanation, it’s Curry and Booker. That would also be such a fun duo to watch in action together if Curry ever does fancy a change of scenery. Is Green better than Podziemski as the backup? Currently no, but that has as much to do with injury than anything else.
By the end of this season that may have changed.
We’ll even give Golden State Porzingis at the five, although that is closer than it should be. Both he and Williams have their injury/health issues, although if anything the Suns’ center is trending in the right direction having played in a career high 60 games last season. For Porzingis, those mystery health problems continue to pop up, although we can’t argue against him being the better player because he is.
The frontcourt is where this battle is won however, as it is a clean sweep for The Valley. Sure Green is one of the best to ever do it for the Warriors, but Brooks is the younger, better version of him right now. There’s a chance he could be an All-Star this coming season, while Green never will be again.
Uncomfortable as it is to argue, Bridges is the better player right now than Lendeborg. Perhaps he’ll hit the ground running immediately, but we know Bridges can give the Suns 20 points on any given night, and is the much better and more varied offensive player. Lendeborg is going to have to stick with quicker forwards that Green no longer can either.
The fit between Green/Bridges may not be perfect, but it’s better than what the Warriors have going on. This isn’t even close, and it is going to take the games starting for Bleacher Report to realize how wrong they got this one.
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