The Phoenix Suns’ brief run with Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal is already in the rearview mirror, but the fallout from those moves keeps hanging over the franchise.
Mat Ishbia made his first major swing as Suns owner by landing Durant in a blockbuster deal with the Brooklyn Nets. Phoenix gave up prized draft picks, Cam Johnson and Mikal Bridges to get it done, tearing apart the core that had carried the team to the 2021 NBA Finals. A year later, the Suns went back into the market and brought in Beal from the Washington Wizards, sending out more draft capital along with Chris Paul and Landry Shamet.
The result was a star-heavy roster that never won a playoff game together.
That reality has only made the two trades look worse with time. Bleacher Report ranked both deals among the five worst NBA trades of the last five years, with Grant Hughes offering especially harsh criticism of the Durant move.
“The price was too high under any circumstances, but this trade looks doubly bad because Phoenix was a mere six games over .500 across Durant's two full seasons. When KD predictably hurt the vibes with his fourth team and had to be shipped to his fifth (the Houston Rockets), the Suns only managed to get back a single first-round asset in the exchange.”
Even so, there’s a bit of context baked into the Durant saga. In the moment, passing on Kevin Durant when he wants to join your team is a tough ask. Phoenix also did manage to recover some value when Durant was eventually moved to the Rockets, though his time with the Suns still looks like a disappointment in hindsight.
The Beal deal has drawn even more heat.
Hughes pointed to the sheer cost of the move, writing: “Phoenix ceded control of every first-round asset it retained after the Durant deal, sending first-round swap rights on four first-rounders plus a heap of seconds to land Beal. The Beal acquisition rates worse than the Durant one because the former wasn't healthy or productive with the Suns and ultimately had to be waived and stretched. Phoenix got zero assets for cutting Beal loose and will pay him $19.4 million every year through 2029-30.”
That final point is what keeps the Beal trade lingering over Phoenix. The Suns are still tied to the money, and that future commitment continues to squeeze their flexibility as they try to reshape the roster.
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