Dillon Brooks Helped Suns Reach 45 Wins Despite 2025-26 Sweep
dillon brooks was part of a Phoenix Suns season that finished with 45 wins and a first-round sweep loss to the No. 1-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder. The result ended the 2025-26 campaign, but the Suns still outperformed ’s preseason projection by 14 wins.
Phoenix Reached 45 Wins
The Suns were picked to win 32 games, ranked 26th in the league and 14th in the Western Conference before the season, then finished with a 45-win record. That was nine more wins than the previous year, when Phoenix ended 11th in the West. For a roster that had been pushed toward younger talent, the jump gave the front office a concrete season to point to after a full year of change.
The season still ended in a four-game sweep by Oklahoma City. The Thunder held the No. 1 seed, and Phoenix never extended the series beyond the opening round. That exit is the hard edge of the story: the Suns beat the expectation but not the bracket.
Brooks, Green And Maluach
The Kevin Durant trade brought Dillon Brooks, Jalen Green and the No. 10 overall pick to Phoenix, and that pick was later used on Khaman Maluach. Brooks delivered one of the team’s career-best seasons, along with Jordan Goodwin, Royce O’Neil and Colin Gillespie, while he brought intensity and toughness to each game.
Green played only 32 regular-season games because of injuries, which limited the payoff from the trade return. Even so, rookies Khaman Maluach and Rasheer Fleming showed flashes of greatness throughout the season, giving the Suns more evidence that the roster shift produced more than one useful piece.
Booker And Ishbia
Devin Booker played an All-Star season and was named a 2026 NBA All-Star, giving Phoenix a clear anchor through the transition. Mark Williams also proved to be a great fit in the starting lineup, adding another usable piece to a group that looked different by the end of the year than it did before the trade.
Matt Ishbia said he was really proud of what the organization had done and accomplished over the last 12 months, and the owner framed the season as a first step rather than a finish. “We’re not anywhere near where we’re going, but we’ve taken the first step for Suns basketball of, ‘Hey, we’re going in this direction,’” he said. That leaves Phoenix with a 45-win record, a playoff sweep on the books and a roster that has already shown it can beat the early forecast.
