This is it, the final bow on the gift that was the 2025-26 Phoenix Suns. Over the past few weeks, our team has worked diligently to author player recaps for every member of the roster, and now that everything is complete, we have the final report card for this version of the Suns.
The first thing that jumps out when looking at the grades is honestly how good the report card looks. This is the kind of report card you’d actually want to bring home and show your parents, assuming that’s even still a thing anymore. It’s been so long since I was in school, I’m assuming everything is online now and kids no longer have to make that dreadful walk home from the bus stop holding an envelope that you know is about to disappoint your parents.
When you scan through these grades, the lowest mark handed out was a C- to Ryan Dunn. No D’s. No F’s.
Think back one season ago, and the report card was flooded with C grades (Tyus Jones, Monte Morris, Cody Martin), D’s (Bol Bol, Vasa Micic, Damion Lee), and an F+ (Bradley Beal). That wasn’t the case this year. Across the board, both the Bright Side writing staff and the community largely agreed that what we witnessed from this Suns team was a quality season.
And honestly, it was.
It’ll be fascinating to look back on this season a few years from now and determine what it actually represented. Was it a flash in the pan? Or was it the beginning of real organizational growth and development tied to a consistent vision?
Night to night, you could feel it. Even though the season stumbled near the finish line, you still walked away feeling like the organization was finally moving in the right direction. Only time will tell if that feeling proves accurate.
As the story of the 2025-26 Suns goes though, it was fun. It was enjoyable. It was digestible. I found myself excited to tune in every night rather than emotionally preparing for disappointment before tipoff. That alone qualifies as success to me. In the grand scheme of things, this season absolutely felt like a step in the right direction.
Maybe that’s the biggest takeaway from this entire season. For the first time in a while, the Suns actually felt like a basketball team again, rather than a collection of expectations duct-taped together, hoping talent alone could solve everything. There was an identity forming. There was a visible progression from the younger players. There was an understanding of what this organization wanted to become, even if the finished product still feels miles away from championship contention.
No one is hanging banners for “encouraging progress,” and nobody should. Still, after the chaos and frustration of recent years, simply restoring a sense of direction and watchability felt like an important first step toward building something sustainable.
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