PHOENIX — The Phoenix Suns are back in town after a disaster start to their regular season, being humiliated by the Portland Trail Blazers in their season opener on Wednesday night.
Thankfully, the organization has two days off before hosting the Golden State Warriors on Saturday, which allows head coach Jordan Ott plenty of time to address what went wrong and how the Suns plan to be better moving forward.
There's always going to be overreactions, and in fairness, we are just one matchup into an 82-game season. Last year's iteration started 1-4 before turning things around.
However, we do have three big questions after whatever you'd like to call last night's loss in Portland:
Just How Important is Luke Kennard?
The Suns are gambling on replacing their prior three-point prowess in Grayson Allen/Royce O'Neale with stars stepping up in that department, better paint play to bring more balance to the offense, and Luke Kennard.
Kennard, who was out last night, was the NBA's top three-point shooter last season, though volume wasn't exactly on his side. The Suns, after landing him in free agency, were hoping to see his attempts increase to help Phoenix retain their spot as one of the top three-point shooting teams in the league last season.
Without Kennard, the Suns shot below 20% from beyond the arc and struggled heavily to get anything going offensively. Newcomer Miles Bridges isn't quite known for his deep shooting while the Suns, without Kennard, are limited in terms of perimeter shooting.
Just how important is Kennard in Ott's plans to attack from deep?
While it was an overall bad shooting night from top to bottom, the Suns are a team that will clearly need Kennard to repeat his 2025-26 success (47.8%) from three to better win the coveted NBA "math game" in terms of shot-taking.
How Do Suns Steady The Ship at Center?
The Suns are down Mark Williams for the foreseeable future, pinning Oso Ighodaro and Khaman Maluach as prominent players for Phoenix down low while Phoenix hopes to get their starting center back from a shoulder injury sooner rather than later.
However, Ighodaro is now injured with a right hip ailment and Maluach wasn't impressive in the Suns' opening game. If Ighodaro misses time, Phoenix will rely on Maluach and Duop Reath as their 1-2 punch at the five spot.
Phoenix's depth at the position has taken a massive hit, and that showed against Portland. The Suns allowed 20 first quarter rebounds while, in total, being outrebounded 56-39 on the night. Perhaps more painfully, the Trail Blazers had 16 offensive rebounds.
Injuries play a big role here, but how does Ott navigate the coming slate of games in terms of addressing the obvious hole in the Suns' lineup? Maluach clearly still needs time and patience to develop, which would be fine if he wasn't being counted on for such a large role already.
Phoenix can't afford to be bullied down low like they were last night, and while issues don't all directly point to center, that's a major question mark Ott has to address.
What's Miles Bridges Going to Be?
This summer, the Suns sent arguably the best available future draft pick to the Charlotte Hornets for Miles Bridges in a trade that also sent the aforementioned Allen/O'Neale out. Phoenix wanted an upgrade for their power forward spot while also eying more physical play as well.
That was a risk, one that won't be truly settled until the end of the year, though the one game sample size left much to be desired. Bridges scored eight points on 3-11 shooting with four rebounds in 29 minutes.
The upside for Bridges brought a bully-ball approach to the desert. However, he was anything but last night, appearing more as a bystander for the Suns than the force he needs to be to justify his price tag.
So, what's Bridges going to be? Is he going to assert himself and help Phoenix improve from their 45 wins last season? Or is he going to be a regrettable move that might not even ink an extension in Phoenix?
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