The weekly recap is coming back for the Suns and the question is what should we track this year?
We’re almost there. The season’s shadow is stretching across the desert floor, and I can feel the heat of it in my bones.
For me, it doesn’t begin with tip-off or Media Day quotes. It starts when I sit down and carve out my calendar, when I look at the schedule and mark which games I’ll be covering, which previews I’ll craft, which podcasts I’ll steer into the storm. That’s when it becomes real: the graphics, the Bright Side Baller polls, the machine of content revving back to life like a V8 engine idling before the green light.
Part of that engine, maybe my favorite gear, has always been the weekly recap. A chance not to summarize but to pin down the fleeting chaos of a season into mile markers, the little road signs telling us where we’ve been and maybe where we’re headed.
Last year, that sign read ‘Tracking 40’. I was obsessed with the Suns’ flirtation with the three-ball, the promise of Mike Budenholzer’s system, and whether Phoenix could transform from a midrange monastery into a three-point cathedral.
So week by week, we checked the numbers. Could they hoist 40 threes a night? Could they keep the percentage north of 40%? Would that alchemy equal wins? By spring, the math was in: 38 attempts per game, 12th in the league. Nearly 38% accuracy, third-best in the NBA. And yet, no playoffs. The lesson, if there was one, rang like a cracked bell: the super shot alone doesn’t save you. It takes more. Defense, cohesion, communication, coaching. It takes a soul, not just a stat.
But this year is a different animal. I keep circling back to the same question: what should this column be? What thread do we pull, week after week, to stitch together the bigger story of the Suns’ season?
Part of me wants to go all-in on the youth. A Rookie Watch, a Youth Movement Meter, something that treats this season like a growth chart on the wall. We’ve got four rookies, maybe even rope Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro into the mix, and the temptation is to track their minutes, their points-rebounds-assists, their crawl toward becoming real NBA players. I want the graphs, the lines climbing (or dipping) across the page, the visual proof of progress or struggle.
Another part of me wonders if the cleanest way is to zoom out, to track the Suns as a team organism. Offensive rating, defensive rating, week-to-week rank compared to the rest of the NBA. It wouldn’t be about one player or one trend, but a rolling MRI of the franchise itself. Where are the strengths, where are the weaknesses, and how do they shift as the grind wears on?
And then there’s Jalen Green. He’s the wild card, the litmus test, the kid carrying the ghost of the Durant trade on his back. His season is both a short-term referendum and a long-term key. If he thrives, the Suns’ options expand. If he fizzles, the questions multiply. Tracking him would be fascinating, but dangerous. Too narrow, maybe, and if an injury hits, the whole experiment collapses. Still, the gravitational pull is strong.
So here I am, staring at the fork in the road. Do we chart the rookies, measure the machine, or lock in on the lightning rod? That’s where you, the Bright Side community, come in. Because the point of this column has never been just my obsession. It’s been our pulse-check on this team.
So, what would you like to see tracked this year in the weekly update (that used to be Center of the Sun, one upon a time…)? I’m interested to hear what suggestions you have.
Category: General Sports
