The Phoenix Suns have one goal in mind when approaching the upcoming season - reaching the playoffs for a second consecutive season.
The 45-win mark that was set a season ago is now the benchmark heading into 2026-27 - and the schedule is officially setting the stage for that to become a reality.
Follow our month-by-month record prediction below.
October: 2-2
The Suns are off to a relatively average start to the season here. In this exercise Phoenix wins the first two games of the season against the Portland Trail Blazers and Golden State Warriors before falling to the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets.
November: 11-4
This is the month where everything should start clicking for the Suns, particularly when it comes to fully onboarding forward Miles Bridges into operations.
The Suns are set to face a prolonged string of games that they *should* win over the second half of November, but they concurrently have opportunities to make statements, including with F Dillon Brooks and G Jalen Green getting a chance to exact revenge on the Houston Rockets.
December: 6-7
The Suns have a week-plus stretch of their December schedule that is still to be determined due to NBA Cup play.
The month begins in relatively favorable fashion, but the difficulty truly picks up on the back-end. Phoenix plays the Minnesota Timberwolves, Indiana Pacers, Philadelphia 76ers, and New York Knicks.
This is quite possibly the only month all season where the Suns finish sub-.500.
January: 8-7
The month of January is essentially the inverse of January. The Suns begin the month with their most substantial challenges prior to closing out January facing opponents such as the Memphis Grizzlies and Utah Jazz.
February: 7-4
February is a manageable month for the Suns, but head coach Jordan Ott will be tasked with keeping the team focused coming out of the All-Star break in the final two games of the frame against the New Orleans Pelicans.
March: 9-8
March is absolutely crunch time for the Suns. They face two grueling back-to-back sets (Miami Heat/Orlando Magic, Oklahoma City Thunder twice), but this is the point where Ott's team will be resilient to a tee in a perfect world. The Suns weather the storm in a high-intensity month.
April: 4-1
The Suns finish off the regular season in an absolutely ideal fashion, as they take down the Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers to potentially win the Pacific Division.
Total Record: 47-33 (pending play-in games)
47 wins should be enough to qualify for the top six in the standings, but only time will tell if this does the job.