A 49-win season and a No. 6 seed in the playoffs wouldn’t qualify as a massive failure for most teams. Disappointing, sure, but not a straight failure. For a team featuring Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, though, anything short of an NBA championship constitutes failing. That’s how the Phoenix Suns ended the 2023-24 season.
Putting together the trio of Durant, a 14-time All-Star, two-time champion and the 2013-14 MVP; Booker, an All-NBA guard with experience playing in the finals; and Beal, a three-time All-Star and top-level scorer, should equal at least one playoff victory. Instead, the Suns were swept by Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round.
That type of disappointment necessitates change. The first domino to fall was head coach Frank Vogel, who was fired and replaced by Mike Budenholzer, who, coincidentally, coached the Milwaukee Bucks and beat Booker’s Phoenix team to win the 2021 NBA Championship.
Roster changes will surely come at some point this offseason, and rumors of moving at least one of that trio have already surfaced. But will the franchise go that far to shake things up?
GM James Jones weighs in on Phoenix Suns trade rumors
They may have a new head coach, but the Suns are locked into an enormously expensive roster without much room to maneuver. They will go into next year with a payroll exceeding $200 million and are one of only three teams in the league that have bypassed the second luxury tax apron, which limits their offseason options even further.
Phoenix has the No. 22 pick in this year’s draft and can deal a first-rounder in 2031, but unless he trades one of his stars, there’s not much else General Manager James Jones can do to fix a top-heavy roster. Regardless, Jones said he’s not open to moving any of Durant, Booker or Beal, per Arizona Sports:
Those guys aren’t going anywhere, those guys are part of the solution, they’re part of the answer. We acquired Kevin and Brad to play with Devin for a reason.
Knowing who they are, Olympic athletes, team guys, that if we put those three competitive guys together … we’d be able to compete for championships.
Beal missed 29 games last season and Booker missed 14. Jones acknowledged that the team needs a point guard to help facilitate and get three of the best scorers in the NBA involved in the offense.
Maybe with a floor general, a new head coach and better injury luck, the Suns could compete for the championship they believe they’re capable of winning next season.
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