I was duped as a Phoenix Suns fan two years ago, entering the first full Kevin Durant season, thinking that all that mattered was making the playoffs. I believed that once the Suns earned a top-eight seed out West, the rest would be history, that Durant and Devin Booker would make it look easy and bring home a championship. The regular season didn’t matter.

But that’s where I was wrong. Even back in the Deandre Ayton days, I always hated when fans and media members said the regular season didn’t matter for Ayton, that only the playoffs did. I pushed back, saying the season was what prepared him for the playoffs.

I don’t want to say I was right, but I think I’m onto something when I say the season does matter.

The Suns are in for a long season because the teams out West, even when resting, will have a backup plan. Even when injuries occur, their depth charts are loaded. Even when a team is tired from a back-to-back, every game will matter when it’s all said and done, and only one or two games separate the fourth and ninth seeds. It won’t come easy for any Western Conference team.

Ultimately, the upcoming 2025–26 season matters for the Suns and for every other team out West. Here’s why, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Starting with the juggernauts on top of the Western Conference, the Denver Nuggets and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Both teams still have something to prove, and I can feel a real in-season rivalry brewing after last year’s seven-game showdown in the Western Conference semifinals. The Nuggets look ready to take back control of the West, while the Thunder are coming for everything, led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a young group that plays like they’ve already arrived.

What makes it exciting is that every game between those two actually means something now. You can feel the tension building, like both sides know this season could shape who runs the West for years to come. The Nuggets are fighting to keep their championship window open, and the Thunder are doing everything they can to slam it shut by keeping Nikola Jokic silent. But that will likely be impossible.

The Thunder are scary, but the Nuggets are looking more and more like the favorites to come out of the West. That is why the number one seed is very precious. Game seven last year for the Nuggets ended in Oklahoma City. I am sure they would love to have that one in Denver in front of their home crowd.

When it comes to injuries, the next tier below the Thunder and Nuggets includes the Los Angeles Lakers, who will start the season without LeBron James, expected to return in mid-November according to Shams Charania.

The Houston Rockets will be without Fred VanVleet, the facilitator and leader of their offense, and the Dallas Mavericks will miss Kyrie Irving until the new year. Even with those major absences, all three teams are still projected to be top-five contenders in the West, which shows just how deep and competitive the conference really is.

If or when James and Kyrie return for their respective teams, both the Lakers and Mavericks will want to be near the top of the standings to have any real chance of making it out of the first round of the playoffs.

The San Antonio Spurs are now without De’Aaron Fox, but to me, that’s only a small bump in the road to remaining relevant in the West. The Spurs don’t need Fox. Honestly, I felt Fox wouldn’t last on the team anyway, given the emergence of rookie Dylan Harper, who I believe is just as valuable to his team this year as Cooper Flagg is to the Dallas Mavericks. These are rookies you can rely on to carry their teams on their shoulders and climb the ladder out West.

Even without their valuable starting point guards, both the Spurs and Mavericks will still dominate this league defensively and make any opponent want to give up before the third quarter even begins to wind down.

The only team that is on its own uncertain path is the Utah Jazz. A team that still has Lauri Markkanen and now future star Ace Bailey. A team that might be a fun watch, but still won’t know what direction they are heading until the trade deadline.

I want to say “let’s go back to the teams that matter”, but I am currently interested in what the Jazz can bring to the court and can be a sneaky hustle team that has a lot to prove in the early part of the season.

You can see in the chart below my predictions for how I expect the East and West to shape up this year. When it comes to the 6th through 14th seeds, teams like the Suns, Los Angeles Clippers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Portland Trail Blazers, Memphis Grizzlies, Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings, and New Orleans Pelicans could realistically fall anywhere within that range. The Kings might end up being the odd team out, but aside from them, any of these teams have a legitimate shot at competing for the 6th seed.

This season will be exhausting, but it will also be exhilarating—breathtaking, even—once we see how the standings look when it’s all said and done.

The Suns will compete this year, like the remaining teams in the Western Conference.