{"id":478325,"date":"2025-12-17T06:45:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T06:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/478325\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T06:45:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T06:45:18","slug":"do-the-suns-have-their-respect-back-jordan-ott-seems-to-think-so-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/478325\/","title":{"rendered":"Do the Suns have their respect back? Jordan Ott seems to think so"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do the Suns have their respect back? Jordan Ott seems to think so<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SCOTTSDALE\u2013 The Phoenix Suns<\/a> have their identity so far in the 2025-26 season, in part due to head coach Jordan Ott. After skeptics said the Suns would be at the bottom of the barrel<\/a> in the Western Conference, they\u2019ve shut the critics up.<\/p>\n

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However, the team\u2019s expectation was, and is, far greater than what anyone could\u2019ve imagined. Rebuilding and retooling a team within one season isn\u2019t for the faint of heart, but Phoenix seems to pull it off.<\/p>\n

Although they sit seventh with a 14-12 record, very few imagined it would be this way.<\/p>\n

From the moment the Suns hired Ott to be the franchise\u2019s next head coach<\/a>, he\u2019s been everything they\u2019ve asked for: a savvy, intellectual X\u2019s and O\u2019s mind with a sense of understanding and empathy towards his players.<\/p>\n

During Tuesday\u2019s practice, he was asked if he feels the Suns have their respect back<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day, you fight for respect every day,\u201d Ott said. \u201cThis league changes too fast. Too many things can happen. LeBron (James) is still out there fighting, so it\u2019s like every day you get out there. We\u2019re all trying to be the best that we can, really challenge ourselves to grow. The only way to do that is to play, be in the arena.<\/p>\n

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\u201cLike it\u2019s easy from the outside. It\u2019s easy to say the only way to get better is to be in the heat, and our group enjoys it, and we want to be in those environments. We talked about it in Oklahoma City. We\u2019d love to be playing obviously in Vegas, but we\u2019ve had some of those moments where it\u2019s going to get like that because we want to be there, and that\u2019ll make us grow.<\/p>\n

The Suns are gaining respect with Jordan Ott<\/p>\n

Contrary to what Ott\u2019s thoughts are, his team is earning respect. Numerous coaches, including Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault praised Phoenix and who they are<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He talked about the defense, being scrappy and playing with urgency, along with the offensive pieces they have. In only season, things look quite well in the Valley of the Sun.<\/p>\n

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Mind you, this is without Jalen Green, who has only played in two games this season. In the one game he played, the Suns blew out the Los Angeles Clippers and showed major promise.<\/p>\n

Regardless, the respect comes from being competitive and not giving up. The 2024-25 iteration of the Suns didn\u2019t have the same fight and grit that the current version has.<\/p>\n

Some of that comes from roster construction, but a hefty amount comes from who\u2019s calling the shots, and Ott is doing quite the job.<\/p>\n

Guys like Dillon Brooks are helping push the Suns\u2019 agenda of being the team you don\u2019t want to play. They\u2019ve rallied around him, but Brooks has rallied behind Ott and his commitment and vision.<\/p>\n

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The 21.6-point-per-game scorer has gone on record with his vocal support of the first-year coach. Devin Booker has done more of the same, especially when Ott won his first game as the Suns\u2019 head coach<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still, in his eyes, there will always be more work to be done. It\u2019s the right mentality for Phoenix to have, considering the lackluster handful of prior seasons.<\/p>\n

Establishing this brand of Suns basketball has already taken place, and it\u2019s happening quicker than expected because of Ott\u2019s stamp on the facets of the organization.<\/p>\n

Related: Paul Pierce slaps \u2018low-IQ\u2019 Lakers, Suns with brutal playoff warning<\/a><\/p>\n

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Related: Suns\u2019 Jordan Ott calls out refs after getting screwed in Lakers game<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Do the Suns have their respect back? Jordan Ott seems to think so appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[7,2292,1195,861,3991,516,135,6,475,179,2065,472,4045,604,6445,574],"class_list":{"0":"post-478325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix-suns","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-devin-booker","10":"tag-dillon-brooks","11":"tag-jalen-green","12":"tag-jordan-ott","13":"tag-lebron","14":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-oklahoma-city","17":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","18":"tag-phoenix","19":"tag-phoenix-suns","20":"tag-phoenixsuns","21":"tag-suns","22":"tag-the-suns","23":"tag-western-conference"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115733562434696976","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}