Your weekly Inside the Suns analysis straight from the BSotS community who live and breathe the team.
Welcome to Inside the Suns, your weekly deep down analysis of the current Phoenix Suns team.
Each week the Fantable – a round table of Bright Siders – give their takes on the Suns’ latest issues and news.
Fantable Questions of the Week
Q1 – What are your general thoughts on Bud moving Beal and Nurk to the bench?
GuarGuar: I like the move Bud made to move Beal and Nurk to the bench. The Booker Beal lineups have not been working and moving Beal to a 6th man role is a great way to limit their shared court time. This team has played below all expectations and is in need of a shape up badly so I’m very okay with this move. We shall see how it plays out.
Brrrberry: It was a move that had to happen, though we’ve had two games since then with a mixed bag of results. Beal played great in the first game off the bench and then threw up a dud against Charlotte. Dunn is beginning to break out a bit offensively, we’re likely the most disappointing team in the league and it’s past the point of just hoping things get better.
Ultimately it probably doesn’t move the needle much in either direction as there’s a fatal flaw that exists with this roster right now and it seems to be deeper than roster construction. It’s gotten so ugly that I even broached the subject with a buddy of mine last night of trading Booker and what I’d consider adequate value. Obviously if you trade Booker, you also trade KD. Again I don’t necessarily believe Beal is even tradeable at this point. Everything is just going so poorly that blowing it all up and starting from scratch has to be on the table.
Booker is my favorite player of all time along with Amare so even putting this into writing is sort of painful but when it boils down to it I’m a Suns fan above all else and action(s) needs to be taken at this point, and with the CBA from hell over our heads, it may take doing something I’d have thought was unfathomable even a month ago. Dammit what a disaster! The West with teams like OKC, Houston and San Antonio are positioned galaxies beyond us at this point so far as future draft capital accompanied by impact your talent already making a mark in the league. It’s scary projecting into the future, in fact, it’s a nightmare of epic proportions.
Rod: I like moving Beal to the 2nd unit and starting Dunn but I’m not certain if also moving Nurk there makes much difference as neither Plumlee nor Ighodaro are starting caliber centers either. As far as the center rotation goes, I’d rather Bud just start whoever is the best matchup for the opposing team’s center in each game. It’s fine if he wants to designate someone as the starter on paper but I don’t want him to be rigid with that from game to game.
Q2 – If Beal continues too play off the bench as well as he did against Philadelphia (and it results in more wins), should the Suns continue to try and trade him?
GuarGuar: If we can trade Beal for Jimmy Butler we should do it, regardless of how well Beal is playing in a 6th man role. I don’t think the role will change a ton with his effectiveness but I could be wrong. He was pretty bad against Charlotte Tuesday. I think it’s pretty clear that the team wants Beal gone and Beal himself wants to be gone. I will be surprised if he is still on our roster post trade deadline.
Brrrberry: 100%. If there’s a way to get off the remaining 3 years/150M+ it MUST be done. I’m dubious it’s possible, as I cant imagine there’s an organization league wide that could see the benefit of bringing him in relative to his cost, and the unsightly player option he has in the 2027 offseason.
I suppose there’s always the chance he’d opt out and look to lock up more guaranteed dollars, say 4/100M but with the way talent is flooding into the league these days, I can’t see a situation where he’d even command that much about 18 months from now (come next summer), however I could be selling him short due to my overall outlook of the team as a whole.
Rod: First he has to show me that he can do it. Until then, keep on working to trade him. I don’t think he’s the problem though, just one part of it so trading him, even for Jimmy Butler, isn’t likely going to suddenly fix the Suns. The Suns are like a Rube Goldberg contraption, made up of odd, mismatched parts that only sometimes does what it’s supposed to without breaking down.
The problem with trading Beal – other than his NTC – is the possible cost in extra assets, both present and future (ie – draft picks), that it might take to get it done… especially if it’s Butler the Suns get in return. Miami’s made it clear that they don’t want Beal so at least a third team would be necessary to facilitate that trade and their price for doing so could be very high. If it turns out to be too high, I think it might be better to just hang on to him this season and try again when the offseason rolls around.
Q3 – How do you feel about the possibility of Dunn or Ighodaro being included in any mid-season trade?
Author’s Note: 2nd apron teams can send out more than one player in a trade IF only one of the players involved is needed for salary matching purposes.
GuarGuar: I am vehemently against including Ryan Dunn in any trade. This team lacks athleticism and defense so so much. He is like a breath of fresh air for this team and I am so against trading him. I’m high on him developing into a very good starting player.
Oso I’m more okay with if one of them has to go for a deal to make this team better. Don’t get me wrong I really like him too, but he’s the more expendable one for me if I have to choose. He’s undersized and that has its limitations given that he’s best valued as a 5.
Brrrberry: If Ighodaro played a part in getting off Beal’s contract then I’d consider that a major win. Losing Dunn to that end would be a pretty nasty blow. I’m pretty certain that it’s not even possible due to CBA 2nd apron constraints anyhow so I’m having a hard time imagining a scenario where they get traded in a one for one trade.
Rod: Unless Denver calls and offers the Joker for them AND Nurk back (which actually couldn’t be done but I think you catch my drift here), it’s likely that I’d say no to anyone wanting either of them as part of a trade. Pretty much everyone else on the roster is who they are and aren’t going to get much better as they age so I’m very much against trading the two guys on the squad that still have a lot of potential to grow and improve… not to mention the fact that both of them are playing pretty damn well right now!
As always, many thanks to our Fantable members for all their extra effort this week!
Rookie Report
Ryan Dunn – 19.6 mpg, 6.8 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 0.9 apg, 0.5 spg, 0.7 bpg, 0.5 TO, 2.3 PF, 43.8% FG%, 30.2% 3P%, 50.0% FT%
Oso Ighodaro – 15.7 mpg, 3.8 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 1.0 apg, 0.4 spg, 0.3 bpg, 0.6 TO, 1.7 PF, 57.8% FG%, 0.0 3P%, 57.9% FT%
Statistics courtesy of NBA.com.
Injury Report
Royce O’Neale (Ankle) – Expected to be out until at least Jan 11
Last Week’s poll results
Last week’s question was “If the Suns decide to go into full rebuild mode, should they start now or wait until the offseason?”
63% – Now.
37% – Wait for the offseason.
A total of 151 votes were cast.
Suns Trivia/History
The Suns’ current Luxury Tax bill for this season ($184,188,500) is higher than the entire active player payrolls of 24 of the NBA’s other teams.
Congrats, Coach! pic.twitter.com/Z9DmCIgASN
— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) January 7, 2025
Quotes of the Week
“Coach made a decision. I’m not going to sit there and argue with him. I’m not going to sit here and be a distraction. I’m not going to sit here and be an asshole.” – Bradley Beal
“They were completely transparent that they not looking to shop us or whatever, but also, we’re not kids. We understand this is part of the job. There’s nothing you can do, at least in my situation.” – Jusuf Nurkic
Important Future Dates
Feb. 6 – NBA Trade Deadline (3 p.m. ET)
Feb. 14-19 – NBA All-Star break
March 1 – Playoff Eligibility Waiver Deadline
April 13 – NBA Regular Season ends
April 14 – Rosters set for NBA Playoffs 2025 (3 p.m. ET)
April 15-18 – Play-In Tournament
April 19 – NBA Playoffs begin
This week’s poll is…