Phoenix is falling behind, and there’s no room for another slow start

There are plenty of things in life that give people anxiety. For me, it’s being late. Or even the threat of being late. Perhaps it’s the military man in me, somebody who made the mistake of showing up late to formation during basic training and paid for it in the front-leaning rest position, beads of sweat dripping off my nose and forming a puddle beneath me on the warm pavement at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, one June morning. If you’re not early, you’re late. That’s been my mantra ever since.

Unfortunately, that familiar anxiety is beginning to build regarding the Phoenix Suns. This team is 12th in the Western Conference standings after starting 1-4, something we’ve seen before. At this point last season, the Suns were also 1-4 and were 13th. The difference then is they were only 3.0 games out of first, and due to an odd scheduling start for the Suns and the fact that they have played the fewest games in the NBA, they are 4.5 games back of the top team in the league. That team? The Rockets…

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These slow starts create a significant barrier between the Suns and a proverbial train that’s already leaving the station, headed toward the postseason. That’s right, the Suns are in danger of being late for that train. Anxiety! Because with every passing day and every loss that accumulates, they find themselves falling further and further behind, making it increasingly difficult to hop on board and reach their desired postseason destination.

A season ago, we found ourselves in the same predicament, but the feeling surrounding the team was much different. A big part of that came down to expectations. Nobody really expected the Suns to be a team that could compete at a high level. The prevailing thought was to let the season play out, sell off assets around the trade deadline, and begin building toward the summer of 2026.

Following that 1-4 start, the Suns began putting things together. The sloppy basketball we’d witnessed early in the season became more organized, and the effort that was evident through those first five games finally started translating into wins. I had this to say after they lost 114-113 to…

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Publish date : 2026-11-03 18:00:00

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