Which of these trades ruined the Suns?

Both trades set the Suns back, but which one was more catastrophic?

The 2024-25 Phoenix Suns have finally drained all the fans’ hope with their loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder last night. This officially makes this the most underwhelming season in the Suns’ recent history. A team that made its latest NBA Finals appearance in 2021 has failed to make it back after numerous trades to try to better the team.

These moves have now put the Suns in a situation they did not think was possible. They are the only team next year that is NOT in the playoffs or the lottery next season. Adding to this being their first season of missing any postseason play since 2020, it has been a train wreck. With three players wrapped up in $50+ million deals, it is clear the Suns will be abandoning this experiment of a Big Three. I presume changes will come to this team at all levels in the following months.

Now, how did the Suns get here? Well, they have made some drastic changes and trades that have definitely left a sour taste in the fans’ mouths. We will rewind, look back at those two trades, and ask which was worse.

Adding a Third Scorer

The first questionable move was trading for Bradley Beal. The Suns sold off two players and sent away too much draft capital for Beal.

When this trade went through, I was not making Suns content then, but I was furious. It was precisely what Brooklyn had done with building around Durant previously, and I did not like the mold of those teams.

The Big Three with the looming second apron was not a great idea, and it ruined the Suns ‘ flexibility for the future. Especially that Beal had a no-trade clause attached to his contract, which ONLY one player in the league has, LeBron James, for the right reasons. Bradley Beal does not deserve a no-trade clause; he was only given that as a last-ditch effort by the Wizards’ front office to not lose their star for nothing.

Once that front office was canned the following year, Beal was the priority target to be shipped due to this asterisk attached to him. Of course, though, the Suns felt that it was them who needed to attach themselves to him.

Since Beal has been added to this team, the Suns have gotten worse, and he has not fit into the team at all. The team has had two seasons in which it has underperformed. Last year, they were swept in the first round of the playoffs, and this year, they are not even lucky enough to see the play-in. Clearly, this trade did not work or solve any issue the Suns had on the offensive side of the ball.

There is also another concern with Beal, and that is his injury history. Since arriving in the Valley, he has suited up in 105 of the Suns’ 162 games they have played so far. In those games, the Suns are 54-51, which is not a great result for adding a $50+ million player who is supposed to help.

The icing on the cake? Without Bradley Beal, the Suns are 30-27 over the last two seasons. Clearly, this move was not a great one, as it has not worked out, but not only that, by adding draft capital, the Suns make it more challenging to retool.

The Suns also moved off from players in Chris Paul and Landry Shamet to trade for Beal. Both of them were on contracts that did not represent their value (representative of the Beal contract now), but that did not mean they were useless. Look at the season CP3 is having this year; he is worth his value contract-wise. Once again proving that being desperate to make moves to shake up a roster to add points per game does not win you championships.

This trade made by Phoenix and Washington set the team back. It has limited the ability for Phoenix to make moves in the future, with Beal’s albatross of a contract. That being said, some think that this trade would have worked just fine if it were the only move made almost two summers ago.

Trading Due to Relationship Ruptures

The second questionable trade happened right before the season started. This was the blockbuster Damian Lillard deal that the Suns got involved in by including DeAndre Ayton and Toumani Camara. This led the Suns to get four players in return.

This once again was another disastrous trade for Phoenix before they knew it.

They had finally decided to move off of Ayton, who had some frustrating relationships in Phoenix. With that, he was not living up to his number one pick in the draft either, which was also frustrating fans. This led to a crazy departure, and Phoenix desperately tried to move him to get the headache out of town. Yet they got no value in return and could have gotten better deals.

Dating back to the previous offseason, they had the opportunity to do a sign-and-trade with him to Indiana but decided against it. This led him to sign the offer sheet out of pure frustration. Leaving Phoenix to match it and making it more complicated for another year.

All of this boiled over into trading him to get rid of him, which led to this return. Keon Johnson was waived before the season had started for Bol Bol. Nassir Little would not find himself a positive role in the rotation. This would lead to the Suns exploring trades for him this offseason. The team ultimately bit the bullet and decided to stretch and waive him for the remainder of his deal, when failing to trade him. This will cost the Suns a little over 3 million for the next seven seasons. Just like that, two players are gone after one season, and when you think this trade cannot get worse, it does.

The Suns would have frustrating seasons with center Jusuf Nurkic, thinking they solved it with this deal. Nurkic would not fit the scheme of both coaches and was also injury-prone, similar to how Beal has been. Is there something in the Arizona water that leads to injuries? Anyway, Nurkic had on-court issues and off-court issues with the Suns’ newest coach, Mike Budenholzer. This would lead to him being traded for Cody Martin and Vasilije Micic.

Both players took a month to suit up, and only one made any impact this season. Once again, solidifying this move did not help Phoenix at all.

With that being said, there was one decent part of the trade, and that was getting Grayson Allen. Since the Suns had no point guard last year due to Booker and Beal being in that role, he was their best three-point shooter. This led to him getting a considerable extension and getting moved to the bench by recruiting his college teammate, and it all resulted in worse shooting splits this season, YAY! Even in the best of the trade, Phoenix has no winner post these moves.

Sadly, this sob story does not end for Phoenix, as in this deal, they arguably gave up one of the best players in this deal, and he was a throw-in. As you all know, the Suns wanted to part with Ayton. The former first-round pick has still not lived up to his potential in Portland post-Phoenix. He could see another change of scenery with other talented centers in their rotation. That being said, Toumani Camara has been a game-changer for their team. He has unlocked their defensive identity, which the Phoenix Suns genuinely lack.

Many people in this fanbase think a lineup of the Big Three with Ayton and Camara would have worked. While I don’t wholly side with the decision to keep those two with the core three, which would make them a top-tier team, I think it is drastically different from the construction with this roster, and would have been more positive than we have now.

Ultimately, both trades set this team back and put them ahead of us in the difficult offseason. Now, the real question is, which one ruined the Suns more?

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