Suns improve in NBA.com West offseason power rankings, Jalen Green key
· Yahoo Sports
The Phoenix Suns are seventh in NBA.com writer John Schuhmann’s Western Conference offseason power rankings that posted Aug. 3.
Nearly a year ago, Schuhmann ranked the Suns 13th out of 15 teams in the West heading into the 2025-26 season on Sept. 30, 2025.
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The Suns were coming off a 36-win season in 2024-25 with Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, who they traded to the Houston Rockets, and Bradey Beal, who they bought out.
They also fired Mike Budenholzer after one season as head coach.
Hiring first-year head coach Jordan Ott to replace Budenholzer, Phoenix wound up being one of the NBA’s surprise teams as they finished seventh in the conference standings last season, winning 45 games. The Suns fell to the Portland Trail Blazers in the Play-In Tournament for the seventh seed, but they beat the Golden State Warriors for eighth.
Top overall seed Oklahoma City Thunder swept Phoenix in the first round.
Led by Booker, a five-time All-Star, the Suns enter this season with raised expectations.
“I’m really proud of where we are and hopefully you realize that although I’m proud of where we are, we have a long way to go to where we’re going,” team owner Mat Ishbia said during his end-of-season press conference May 5. “I’ve got the right people and the right vision and the right organization here with me and we’re going to do it together.”
Phoenix retained most players from a season ago, but the franchise did trade Grayson Allen, Royce O'Neale and an unprotected first-round pick in 2033 to the Charlotte Hornets for Miles Bridges, a 2029 first-round pick and a 2027 second-round pick.
Schuhmann questions Jalen Green's usage going into this season. The Suns acquired Dillon Brooks, 7-footer Khaman Maluach and Green from the Rockets in the Durant trade last summer.
"After playing all 82 in each of the previous two seasons, Green was available for just 32 regular-season games last year, logging just 291 total minutes (regular season, Play-In and playoffs combined) alongside both Brooks and Devin Booker," wrote Schuhmann. Green dealt with a right hamstring injury most of his first season in Phoenix.
"But the offense worked with all three on the floor, with the Suns scoring an efficient 122.6 points per 100 possessions in those minutes, even though 37% of them came against the Thunder. With Brooks’ ability to play the four, they didn’t necessarily have to play without a real point guard, and Collin Gillespie was also on the floor for 64 (60%) of the trio’s playoff 107 minutes."
Schuhmann added that "the Suns can certainly compete with the second tier of Western Conference teams if they can score that efficiently in a larger sample size with a healthier Green, while also continuing to win the possession game. It’s a huge year for the Suns-Green relationship, with him having a player option for 2027-28."
The defending Western Conference San Antonio Spurs are first on Schuhmann’s rankings followed by the Thunder, Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers, Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves and Suns.
The Utah Jazz, Trail Blazers and Warriors are eighth through 10th.
The top six teams in each conference advance to the NBA playoffs while teams seven through 10 compete in the play-in for seventh and eighth seeds.
The Dallas Mavericks are 11th followed by the Los Angeles Clippers, New Orleans Pelicans, Memphis Grizzlies and Sacramento Kings.
Here’s Schuhmann’s West offseason power rankings from 2025 compared to his recent Aug. 3 rankings:
Sept. 30, 2025: Thunder, Nuggets, Rockets, T-Wolves, Clippers, Lakers, Warriors, Mavericks, Grizzliers, Spurs, Trail Blazers, Kings, Suns, Pelicans, Jazz.
Aug. 2, 2026: Spurs, Thunder, Nuggets, Lakers, Rockets, T-Wolves, Suns, Jazz, Trail Blazers, Warriors, Mavericks, Clippers, Pelicans, Grizzlies, Kings.
Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at [email protected] or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Suns improve in NBA.com West offseason power rankings, Jalen Green key