Suns fall to 25th in The Athletic’s latest NBA power rankings

Just like last season, the Phoenix Suns are off to a 1-4 start, except this time, the context is a little different.

Last season, the Suns came into the year with few expectations after trading away Kevin Durant, but they ended up making the playoffs. This season, there are more expectations around the team, and they’ve failed to live up to it so far.

The Athletic’s Law Murray released his latest NBA power rankings, and the Suns fell all the way down to 25th — even before consideration of Monday’s loss to the Golden State Warriors.

That’s below teams like the Brooklyn Nets and New Orleans Pelicans, teams that were widely projected to finish near the bottom of their respective conferences.

It’s been a light schedule for the Suns, but they would probably trade that for some opportunities to win games. Phoenix has been quite vulnerable on the defensive glass, which is bound to happen with a relatively small bench and poor rebounding wings in Green and Brooks. The Suns starting lineup has played 47 minutes together and has been outscored 131-96 in those minutes.

The Suns have only mustered one win: their home opener against a Warriors team missing nearly their entire roster, where Devin Booker poured in 43 points.

Last season, the Suns ranked 10th in the league in defensive rating, and they prided themselves on being the team that would make all of the effort and hustle plays needed to win. This season has been the complete opposite.

They rank dead last in the league in defensive rating at 125.8. Their latest loss against the Warriors was their best defensive showing of the season, and they still allowed 116 points.

The offense hasn’t been a huge issue — they rank 11th — but Jalen Green is having the worst offensive season of his career so far, averaging only 11 points on 41.8% shooting.

The Suns will look to right the ship on Wednesday when they’ll play host to the Portland Trail Blazers, the team that beat them by 41 points in their opening game.

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