What Suns Must Do to Rebound from Recent Struggles

After a surprising 11-6 start to the 2025-26 season, the Phoenix Suns have faltered a bit and lost six of their last nine games as their schedule has increased in difficulty.

Throughout the entire season, the Suns have been dealing with injuries to key players, most notably Jalen Green, who has missed all but one complete game, but it has been magnified in this recent stretch.

Since the start of these nine games on Nov. 24, the Suns are 27th in offensive rating (109.0), 23rd in defensive rating (118.5) and 27th in net rating (-9.5).

Phoenix was previously in the top-10 in all three of these categories before Nov. 24, ranking 10th in offensive rating (116.9), seventh in defensive rating (112.0) and 10th in net rating (4.8).

Some of these numbers can be attributed to Phoenix's 138-89 loss to the Oklahoma City last week, which was the Suns' biggest loss in franchise history and worst by any team this season, but it is still very clear the Suns have struggled to find the same success they had early in the season.

So what do the Suns need to do to get back on track?

Find A Rhythm Offensively

The Suns' M.O. this season has been forcing turnovers and getting out and running in transition offensively to create easy baskets.

Phoenix is still leading the league in steals per game during a wide margin since Nov. 24 (11.1 per game), but is not finding the same success on the other side of the ball.

The Suns are only shooting 45.2% from the floor and 33.1% from 3 over the last nine games and are dead last in the league in assists per game (23.0) in this time.

Coach Jordan Ott and his team need to find a way to create more rhythm on offense if they want to replicate their success from earlier in the season.

Figure Out The Center Rotation

Mark Williams is clearly Phoenix's starting center and has been a huge positive most nights, but the Suns have struggled to find consistency behind him.

Nick Richards has gotten a few DNPs during this recent stretch, while Oso Ighodaro has become the clear backup, but had some really off nights of his own, which has really hurt the team in some games, such as Sunday night's loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Meanwhile, No. 10 pick Khaman Maluach has been playing really well in the G League, but still not gotten some meaningful minutes with the Suns.

Since Nov. 24, the Suns are tied for second-to-last in the NBA in rebounds per game (39.2), and there have been a few games where it is really apparent they are getting dominated on the glass, which in some cases means they are getting out-physicaled and is not what Ott wants to see.

The Suns are already a pretty small team, so they need to figure out something that works with their big men.

If they cannot solve this problem soon, it might become time for Maluach to get a look or another move to be made.

Get Healthy

Devin Booker was out for three games before returning Monday, and his injury was certainly a factor in some of Phoenix's struggles.

It's clear that teams are not taking the Suns lightly now after they exceeded preseason expectations early, so they simply need to see where they are at when fully healthy to get a better grasp on how to improve even more.

This of course means getting Green back, which could reportedly come around Christmas time.

There are changes the Suns can make before then to make it easier for him to return, especially with the next two games coming against a struggling Golden State Warriors team.

Phoenix will just have to hope it can clean up things on both ends of the floor, especially on offense, and no more key injuries pop up.

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