Suns open second season under Ott with Booker leading and Williams sidelined
The short version
- Jordan Ott enters his second season as Suns coach after a first-round sweep by Oklahoma City last spring.
- Devin Booker led Phoenix with 26.1 points and 7.9 rebounds per game last season.
- Center Mark Williams is out roughly five months following September shoulder surgery; Oso Ighodaro is expected to start.
- Jalen Green played a career-low 32 games last season due to hamstring injuries and must be reintegrated into the lineup.
- Phoenix went 45-37 last season and projects to 44-38 with +15000 title odds at BetMGM.
Phoenix enters 2026-27 aiming for another playoff berth in a crowded West while center Mark Williams recovers from shoulder surgery.
The Phoenix Suns begin their second campaign under head coach Jordan Ott, who steered the club into the playoffs a year ago before Oklahoma City swept them in the opening round. Phoenix got there via the play-in tournament, where it fell to Portland before defeating Golden State. Devin Booker stays at the center of everything after topping the roster in scoring (26.1 points) and rebounding (7.9 per game) last season. Ott described him during the play-in as the culture driver of the group.
Phoenix will open the season without center Mark Williams, who had shoulder surgery in early September to repair a torn labrum and is projected to be out roughly five months. Williams averaged a team-best 7.9 rebounds plus 0.9 blocks last year, and Oso Ighodaro is expected to handle the starting center job in his absence.
The roster turned over in the summer: Miles Bridges arrived by trade, Koa Peat came over on draft night, and Luke Kennard and Duop Reath signed as free agents, while Grayson Allen and Royce O'Neale were traded away. A year after hamstring trouble limited Jalen Green to a career-low 32 games, during which he shot 42.2% from the field and 31.3% from three, the Suns must work him back into the first unit. His shot creation off the dribble would give Booker a needed second option.
After cycling through four head coaches in four seasons, the Suns have reached the playoffs in five of the past six years, including the 2020-21 NBA Finals. Coming off a 45-37 finish and an eighth-place seeding in the West, they project to 44-38 and carry +15000 title odds at BetMGM, positioning them as a team battling for one of the conference's final postseason slots.
