What's next for Suns? After feel-good season, the Thunder remind them just how far they have to go

The Suns were a pleasant surprise this season, but they were no match for the reigning champion Thunder in the playoffs

Sam Quinn

Apr 28, 2026

1:14 am ET

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7 min read

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This season was, by any realistic measure, an enormous success for the Phoenix Suns. The standard was, of course, low. Years of self-inflicted wounds left the Suns stuffed in the NBA's proverbial dumpster. They needed to hire their fourth head coach in four years. Their three-headed offensive monster of Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal failed to win a playoff game in two seasons. One of them, Durant, was traded. Another, Beal, was waived. With no first-round pick control until the sun engulfs the Earth and a roster full of players nobody had heard of, the widespread expectation was another lottery season that wouldn't yield a lottery pick.

What the Suns did, in that context, was somewhat remarkable. They didn't just make the playoffs; they did so for basically all of the reasons they didn't win with their superteam. New head coach Jordan Ott and trade addition Dillon Brooks established a culture of defense, effort and toughness. Young players like Oso Ighodaro, Collin Gillespie, Jordan Goodwin and Rasheer Fleming thrived. Booker eschewed the standard, broken situation trade request, signed an extension and led a feel-good season.

What you take from all of that is a matter of perspective. For the NBA, as an entertainment product, it matters. This was a fun season for Suns fans, a team they can be proud of and enjoy supporting for the foreseeable future. But if you treat the NBA primarily as a competitive product in which the championship is perhaps not the only goal, but the one worthiest of pursuit, Phoenix's position really hasn't changed much over the past year. A feel-good season doesn't feel as good once the Thunder come to town. OKC finished off a first-round sweep on Monday night in Phoenix.

This is hardly a problem exclusive to the Suns, of course. Few opponents are going to register as much more than a speed bump to the defending champions. It's just one the Suns are uniquely poorly positioned to address.

Suns rising or setting?

Take the team Phoenix faced in its first Play-In game, the Portland Trail Blazers. The Suns emptied the clip for a 45-win season. They've given away control over literally every one of their tradable first-round picks. They waived-and-stretched Beal to duck the luxury tax and the aprons, incurring five years' worth of dead money in the process. The Blazers won 42 games with a full clip of assets. Other than 2026, they control all of their own first-round picks. They have control over three valuable Bucks picks as well. They have a clean luxury tax clock, a bevy of young players and the flexibility to build their roster in just about any way they can imagine.

This is what the Play-In Tournament and the seeds it can generate are supposed to be: a way station. Portland stopped there on the way to bigger and better things. For Phoenix, at least for now, it might be a destination. This team just doesn't have that many ways of getting better given the picks it has spent and the money on its books.

There are pockets of upside scattered throughout the roster. Jalen Green was a No. 2 overall draft pick, after all, and while his brief regular season was uneven and his Thunder series wasn't much better, his two spectacular Play-In games were hopefully a sign of things to come. Phoenix just picked Khaman Maluach at No. 10. He didn't play much as a rookie, but he was a fairly raw prospect. It'll be a few years before we know where he's going. Maybe one of the younger players who showed promise in smaller roles -- Gillespie, Fleming, Ighodaro, Goodwin, Ryan Dunn -- has more room to grow than we realize. The best player of the 2020s was drafted during a Taco Bell commercial in the second round. Never say never.

But think about where the bar is. The Suns just saw: it's the Thunder. Oklahoma City has reserves with more promising long-term outlooks than Phoenix's starters and the draft picks to supplement them with just about any sort of external talent they decide they need. The Suns are shopping in the bargain bin. The Thunder have every imaginable resource. There's not a gap here. There's a canyon.

That isn't helped by the subtle but noticeable decline Booker has endured over the past few years. He'll turn 30 around opening night of next season. He's never gotten to the rim much, and we now have a two-year sample of below-average 3-point shooting. He's relying more on drawing fouls than he ever has in part because he just isn't as explosive as he was at his peak. His Thunder series was... fine? He generated reasonably efficient offense. He also did little to create advantages his teammates could consistently capitalize on. Nobody expected him to win the series or even a g