Suns coach describes Steve Nash’s impact, being ready for season
Phoenix Suns head coach Jordan Ott spoke to media about Steve Nash’s impact as a senior adviser and what he’ll be watching for in the 2025-26 season.
DENVER – The Phoenix Suns continued to fall short defensively in losing a second straight game, 133-111, to the Denver Nuggets before a sellout crowd of 20,025 at Ball Arena on Oct. 25.
The Nuggets (1-1) shot 51.2% from the field as seven players reached double figures. The night before, Phoenix allowed the Los Angeles Clippers to shoot 59.2%, L.A. going 16-of-29 from 3 in a 129-102 Suns loss to begin a three-game road trip.
On Oct. 26, the Suns (1-2) trailed by as many as 25 points and never led. They were without Mark Williams (right knee injury management) and Jalen Green (right hamstring strain).
Here are the takeaways from the loss at Denver. The Suns conclude their three-game road trip against the Utah Jazz (1-1) on Oct. 27.
Booker’s 31 points not enough
Devin Booker posted his second 30-point game this season, scoring 31 points on 10-of-16 shooting. He also had seven assists, but Booker matched a career high in turnovers with nine.
Grayson Allen scored 17 points while Dillon Brooks added 15 on 18 shot attempts (3-of-13 from 3).
Denver had seven players reach double figures, with Jamal Murray scoring a team-high 23 points and Christian Braun delivering 20.
Three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic generated his 166th career triple-double with 14 points, 14 rebounds and 15 assists. Aaron Gordon scored 17 points and former Suns forward Cam Johnson chipped in 15 points.
Suns injury update: Williams sitting ‘part of the plan’
Mark Williams was listed as out with right knee injury management after playing in the first two games.
“Just part of the plan,” Ott said. “I think to just continue to build up his strength.”
Ott is optimistic Williams will play Oct. 27 against Utah.
“If everything comes back,” Ott said. “We can continue to assess him. Everything looked good coming out. He didn’t play a ton of minutes (vs. Clippers Oct. 24) because of how the game got out of hand, but yeah, everything looked good.”
Jordan Ott said this was part of the plan is for Mark Williams (knee management), who is out vs Nuggets in 2nd of Suns back-to-back.
“Continue to build up his strength. We started with 3 games in 4 nights. Just part of the plan.”
Said Williams will play Monday at Utah “IF… pic.twitter.com/HlnSdwnMa7
— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) October 26, 2025
The 7-footer has been on a target number of minutes coming off the bench. Williams played 24 minutes in the season opener that Phoenix won over the Sacramento Kings, but he only registered 14 in the Oct. 24 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.
Williams scored six points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the opener. Two nights later, he managed just two points on 1-of-5 shooting, grabbed six rebounds and picked up four fouls.
Phoenix has had Williams on a conditioning plan dating back to July 1 to prepare him for the regular season. Williams played a total of 106 games in three seasons with the Charlotte Hornets, as he has battled foot, back, knee, ankle and thumb injuries.
Suns’ Jalen Green “closer” to playing
Jalen Green remains out with a right hamstring strain. Green didn’t play in the preseason and has yet to see action in the regular season. He’s day-to-day and hadn’t been ruled out for Monday’s game entering the three-game road trip that started Friday against the Clippers.
“Continues to progress,” Ott said. “Day by day, he gets closer to playing. We feel good about it. We’ll see how he progresses.”
Green is “a dynamic scorer,” as Brooks put it, and can alleviate some of the offensive burden on Booker, but the Suns still have issues defensively that their offense can’t overcome.
Royce O’Neale on Suns giving up 116, 129 and 133 points respectively in 1st three games: “We’ve made some mistakes. Miscommunication on a couple of things. They took advantage of our mistakes.”
Nuggets 28 points off 20 Suns turnovers in 22-point win. #Suns #MileHighBasketball pic.twitter.com/PqRSoGZn9b
— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) October 26, 2025What went wrong for Phoenix
The Suns committed 20 turnovers that led to 28 Denver points. Booker was more aggressive than on Oct. 24 when scoring 18 points on just 10 shot attempts, but he found himself caught between looking to score and make a play while in flight.
Denver runs its offense through Jokic, who was in passing mode early and didn’t work out of the post as the Suns anticipated. He found cutters and open shooters for 3s.
The Nuggets scored an abundant 62 points in the paint, nearly double what the Suns managed with 34.
Before the game, Nuggets coach David Adelman praised the Suns for “playing together,” but made an interesting point Denver wound up exploiting.
“Like all these teams, they’re crashing the glass like crazy,” he said. “They have some very exciting young big guys. Their guards aren’t really worried about getting back right now, they’re trying to find second possessions.”
Denver racked up 28 fast-break points to Phoenix’s 11.
In addition, the Suns generated 50 looks from 3, but they only made 17 of them.
Suns second-half pushes
The Suns went on a 13-2 run to cut the lead to nine points, but the Nuggets responded with an 11-0 surge to push their advantage back up to 20 points, 94-74, with 2:07 left in the third.
Phoenix made one final run in the fourth with a 13-2 run to trail 110-99 with 6:48 remaining, but Denver answered with an 11-0 run. The Suns had back-to-back turnovers and were then called for a delay of game that resulted in a technical foul.
Devin Booker on drawing a technical foul in 4th quarter: “The ball was off Cam (Johnson’s) foot in the first place. So just a compound mistake. He said he didn’t see it. If you didn’t see it, then ask for help. Don’t just say it was out on us.”
On his 31 points, 7 assists and 9… pic.twitter.com/br3NYXH0WV
— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) October 26, 2025
Booker took offense to the delay of game and was hit with a technical. The Suns ended up with three straight turnovers in falling behind, 121-101, with 4:12 left.
Battling Jokic
He’s the NBA’s best player, but Jokic looked a little annoyed with how the Suns were defending him.
Oso Ighodaro didn’t back down from the three-time MVP. He drew a foul on Jokic that was changed from a common foul to a flagrant one penalty.
The Nuggets center performed a wind-up, made contact with Ighodaro’s neck and shoulder area, and then followed through to meet the criteria for a flagrant.
Suns rookie Khaman Maluach on scoring first NBA points and first NBA field goal during road trip: “A blessing. I’m happy, grateful. It’s just a process.”
On scoring after Peyton Watson dunked on him: “I just let it go. At that point, there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s… pic.twitter.com/EYJno3dIgX
— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) October 26, 2025
The Suns have played all four of their centers, with Khaman Maluach scoring his first NBA basket against the Nuggets. Ott said it’s fluid on who will play in the middle, but the Suns need more production on offense and better defense at that position to compete.
What they said
“Just careless with the ball. Those could be more shot attempts. Still gauging it out. Still learning our spacing and just developing that chemistry.” – Suns star Devin Booker.
“The ball was off Cam (Johnson’s) foot in the first place. So just a compound mistake. He said he didn’t see it. If you didn’t see it, then ask for help. Don’t just say it was out on us.” – Booker on his technical foul.
“We’ve got to be better. There’s no excuse for that. We’re going to have to be better defensively. This is a defensive minded group at times and we just lose our way, but we’re three games in. There’s a sample size to all this. A lot of that is who you play. I think we’ve played some good offenses. We’ll keep looking. Find ways to guard better, find ways to attack better, but 133, doesn’t matter where you’re at, that’s probably not going to get it done.” – Suns coach Jordan Ott on Phoenix’s defense.
Dillon Brooks on Devin Booker being more aggressive: “I think he did great. Found a way to get to the line. Shot the ones he needed to. Had a chance to win, but we didn’t knock down 3s.”
Suns 17-of-50 from 3 (Brooks 3-of-13).
On what’s wrong defensively: “Communication.” #Suns pic.twitter.com/6gzdvZvm4G
— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) October 26, 2025
“It’s details, even small. Where to catch the ball, how to catch the ball, how to move. He’s talking about basketball, basketball cuts. From one simple action we can have so many different varieties. He’s just teaching the guys and telling the guys how to prepare, angles, this and that. So, it’s interesting.” – Nikola Jokic on Nuggets coach David Adelman.
“I think we can get a lot better. We’re still just getting comfortable with each other and the timing and all that, but I think we were pretty good on the defensive end talking and kind of just holding the lead for as long as we did. But I just see a lot of potential for the future with them.” Nuggets guard Jamal Murray.
Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
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