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The 2025 NBA Trade Deadline is in the rearview mirror for the Phoenix Suns, and now, they’re left staring at a .500 ball club that may be approaching its breaking point.
Dreams of pairing Jimmy Butler with Devin Booker and Kevin Durant reportedly morphed into a potential deal that involved Kevin Durant before fizzling out completely…but one source who spoke with PHNX Sports categorically denies Phoenix ever considered such a deal.
In the end, the only moves the Suns were able to make before Thursday’s deadline were the Nick Richards trade from two weeks ago, and then dumping Jusuf Nurkic to the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday.
It was an underwhelming outcome for the Suns, and now, their quiet trade deadline raises questions about Phoenix’s immediate prospects and long-term outlook as well. From the Suns’ perspective on the Kevin Durant trade rumors, to adding Cody Martin and Vasilije Micic in the Nurk trade, to whether general manager James Jones is on the hot seat, here are five takeaways from the deadline.
1. The Return was underwhelming, but the Jusuf Nurkic trade creates some flexibility
As ESPN’s Shams Charania reported, the Suns dealt Jusuf Nurkic and their 2026 first-round pick to the Hornets for Cody Martin, Vasilije Micic and a 2026 second-round pick.
Getting Charlotte’s own second-round pick in next year’s draft would’ve been nice, but as ESPN’s Bobby Marks reported, it’ll actually be a second-rounder coming from either the Denver Nuggets or the Golden State Warriors:
That second-round pick went from likely being somewhere in the early 30s via Charlotte to the early/mid-50s via Golden State or Denver. We’re splitting hairs a bit, haggling over the value of second-rounders, but it’s still worth pointing out.
There will be time to dive further into his game, but for now, Cody Martin is a 29-year-old wing who is averaging 7.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.1 steals per game. At the very least, he’s a solid defender and well-rounded player who can shore up some of Phoenix’s wing depth, and according to a source, the Suns view Martin as a player who can contribute — or at least be more useful than Nurkic, who had fallen out of Mike Budenholzer’s rotation.
However, Martin is somewhat undersized for the wing at 6-foot-6. He’s also a subpar shooter, making 32.3 percent of his 3-pointers this year and 31.9 percent of his triples over the course of his six-year career. It’s hard to envision him moving the needle much for this Suns squad, but the worst-case scenario would be if he starts stealing minutes from Ryan Dunn, who’s only cracked 20 minutes once over his last five healthy games and was replaced in the starting lineup by Royce O’Neale for a few of them.
As for Micic, the 31-year-old point guard is putting up 7.5 points and 3.5 assists per game this season, and although he’s made 36 percent of his 3s, he’s only shooting 34.8 percent overall. He’s a poor defender, and his contract was likely included to make the salaries match. As of right now, Micic is expected to fill Phoenix’s 15th and final roster spot, but it’s hard to see this older, 6-foot-3 floor general carving out a role on a Suns team that already has two other undersized point guards in Tyus Jones and Monte Morris.
The main attraction in these returning pieces is flexibility over the summer, and according to a source, that was part of the calculus in flipping Nurkic’s larger salary into two smaller ones who could potentially come off the books this summer. Martin’s $8.7 million salary for next season — the final year on his contract — is fully non-guaranteed, and Micic’s $8.1 million salary for next year is a team option.
At the cost of a 2026 first-rounder — which the Suns viewed as their least valuable pick among the six first-rounders they owned, given that the Washington Wizards, Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies all had swap rights on it — the Suns dumped Jusuf Nurkic’s $18.1 million contract, avoided having to pay him another $19.4 million next year, and created a scenario where they could potentially duck the second tax apron next year.
As it stands, if the Suns cut Martin and declined Vasilije’s team option over the summer, they would be projected to have $198.1 million in salary on the books next year between Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, Royce O’Neale, Grayson Allen, Nick Richards, Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro. The second tax apron line for next season is currently projected to come in around $207.8 million, which means Phoenix would be about $9.7 million below that threshold.
The Suns would only have eight players on their roster, which means filling those final seven roster spots would undoubtedly push them back into second apron territory. But they could shed further salary with trades, if ducking the tax was the avenue they wanted to pursue.
In either case, the move in a vacuum isn’t terrible. But considering the context, it’s more difficult to swallow when one remembers all of this started with a botched No. 1 pick.
Back in 2018 — admittedly, before the current regime — the Suns landed the only first overall draft pick in franchise history, and they made the boneheaded decision to draft Deandre Ayton over Luka Doncic. Even if we look past that horrendous mistake and focus solely on that one time DA helped them reach the NBA Finals, they went and turned Ayton — and Toumani Camara! — into Jusuf Nurkic, Grayson Allen, Nassir Little and Keon Johnson.
Little, Johnson and now Nurkic are no longer with the team. Johnson was waived before ever suiting up for the Suns, Little was waived after one season, and Nurkic was just dealt — along with a first-round pick — for Cody Martin, Vasilije Micic and a second-rounder. Basically, all that’s left (of substance) from that former No. 1 selection is Grayson Allen.
The offers for Ayton in 2023 weren’t exactly rolling in, and the Suns did what they needed to at this deadline, getting rid of a player who had played himself completely out of the rotation and whose blunt words had become a potential distraction.
But even if Phoenix was better off admitting this trade failed than falling into the sunk cost fallacy, we cannot ignore the missteps it took for the Suns to wind up at this point, where their only move on Thursday was a Jusuf Nurkic salary dump.
2. It was Jimmy Butler or bust…and the Suns missed on Jimmy Butler
The Jimmy Butler saga was an ongoing storyline for nearly two months. We first covered how unlikely that path was back on Dec. 11. A month later, we took a look at how it could actually happen. Then came three-team Jimmy Butler trades, four- and five-team Jimmy Butler trades, and the Suns trading their 2031 first-round pick for more assets to help facilitate a Jimmy Butler trade.
This has been a thing for a while, in other words.
But the problem with putting all their eggs in the Jimmy Butler basket is the potential scenario where they didn’t get him. That’s exactly what happened, and Phoenix was left weighing moves on the margins.
In fairness, many felt like the Suns dodged a bullet by not giving up assets to win the right to pay age-35 Jimmy Buckets a lucrative, two- or three-year extension over the summer. With that being said, pairing Butler with Book and KD may have been the Suns’ last shot at salvaging the season. Maybe it wouldn’t have vaulted them into the contender category alongside the Oklahoma City Thunder, Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers, but it would’ve been something.
And maybe part of that thought process is what got the Suns into this predicament in the first place! But by missing out on Jimmy Butler, who went to the Golden State Warriors and immediately agreed to a two-year extension, the deadline just moved the Suns that much closer to a lost season.
The Warriors, who are currently tied with Phoenix at 25-25, got better with Jimmy Butler. The San Antonio Spurs, who are only two games behind the 10th-place Suns in the standings, got better with De’Aaron Fox. The Los Angeles Lakers got better with Luka Doncic and Mark Williams, the LA Clippers added Bogdan Bogdanovic, and even as the Sacramento Kings and Dallas Mavericks got worse, they still have enough to remain competitive in the interim.
The Suns…got three former Hornets and some added flexibility for the summer. We’ve seen enough to know this situation isn’t going to fix itself internally, and by missing out on Jimmy Butler, the last hope of the calvary coming over that hill to save the day is gone. And that leaves Phoenix facing some hard questions about where to go next.
3. Suns deny including Kevin Durant in any Jimmy Butler trade talks
Trading Kevin Durant for a worse player in the same age bracket never made sense, but hypothetically speaking, it’d get even worse if the Suns held these trade negotiations without his knowledge.
ESPN’s Shams Charania reported what we’ve been saying locally at PHNX Sports for over a year now: KD loves being in Phoenix and wants to finish his career here. However, Charania also reported that Durant was “blindsided” by being included in trade discussions that would’ve sent him to Golden State, and clarified that KD had not requested a trade to leave the Suns.
There were additional reports that when the Suns came to Durant with the proposed deal, he shut it down himself, not wanting to reunite with Stephen Curry and the Warriors. The night before the deadline, there was a palpable feeling that a KD deal was done, with multiple sources confirming to PHNX Sports that something was imminent.
But according to a Suns source, those leaks — which doubled as potential leverage plays from the Warriors’ side — were in accurate and took on a life of their own.
Phoenix was interested in Butler, and it’s true they would’ve had to move one of the Big 3 to make the trade math work for the Suns, who are a second tax apron team. With that being said, a source insisted Durant and Booker were off limits, and that reports suggesting they would consider dealing KD for Butler were “completely made up.”
Durant and Butler are close, so trading one for the other — especially when Durant is the better, healthier player — always felt nonsensical. After the Luka Doncic trade, and with those Durant-to-Golden State rumors building steam, the Suns did receive dozens of calls about KD, with one source saying, “It would take longer to name [the teams] who did not call than who did call.”
That included a few lottery teams, who were asked why they would even be calling about Durant’s availability. The response was always the same: “It’s Kevin Durant.”
Through the course of those conversations, the Suns could feel the league-wide belief that putting KD next to another good player could make any team a formidable threat — one that Phoenix still shares as well. Despite being .500 on the season, the Suns are 23-11 when Booker and KD take the court together, which would be good for a 55-win pace over the course of a full season.
The problem is the Big 3 hasn’t been able to stay healthy, and the new pieces haven’t meshed as expected. Phoenix looks lifeless, small and unathletic compared to their opponents on a frequent basis, and there appears to be an obvious lack of belief in this team’s prospects.
A source that spoke with PHNX Sports confirmed that the Suns and their ownership are unhappy with where the team currently sits. Everyone involved — from Mat Ishbia to the front office to the players to the fans — expected this team to be better. The Suns hoped to be 10-12 games above .500 heading into the All-Star break, and now they’re on the verge of falling out of the play-in.
But as much as Jimmy Butler wanted Phoenix and the Suns were interested in making a move for him if they could line up a sensible deal, they were unable to find a framework that made sense. As such, Bradley Beal was reportedly never approached about waiving his no-trade clause, nor did the Suns ask him or his agent, Mark Bartelstein, to do so. A few teams were interested in Beal, per a source, but the problem was more so that he’s producing like a $30 million-a-year player instead of a $50 million-a-year player.
Ishbia likely won’t accept this level of play for much longer, but the source said the Suns will take the final 32 games of the season to evaluate this group. If Phoenix finishes the year as a .500 team that misses the playoffs, and if they can’t climb into that 5- or 6-seed and put together a competitive postseason, ownership will have two years’ of data proving this Big 3 configuration doesn’t work.
As a source put it, if the Suns remain on their current trajectory, “you can bet your ass” ownership will make a bunch of changes, which could include anyone outside of Devin Booker.
If the Suns really considered becoming the first team to trade Kevin Durant without his consent, that would’ve been a massive gamble on their part. It’s unclear if ownership has had a conversation with Durant about what happened, but the Suns believe KD — like every other player in this league — understands how often these trade rumors are overblown.
Durant wants to be in Phoenix and has been vocal about wanting to retire with the Suns, but it’s worth wondering whether these trade rumors that have been circulating have changed his thinking at all.
According to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, the vibes in the Suns locker room are “toxic,” and the team’s last shootaround on Wednesday leading into the trade deadline was awkward. To be fair, that may just have been because players were on “pins and needles,” wondering about whether they were going to be traded, which is natural around the league this time of year.
If the Suns really were shopping KD near the deadline, or if they were doing more than just listening to offers, there’s a good chance Durant will feel some type of way about it, and it’s time for damage control. But if it was simply a leverage play from Golden State to destabilize Phoenix’s relationship with Durant and open up the possibility for a star-caliber trade — one they were desperate to pursue, with rumors popping up about everyone from Giannis Antetokounmpo to LeBron James — then hopefully there’s no bad blood between Durant and the front office.
This is a business, and Phoenix is right to listen to any and every offer that comes their way as a .500 team that is nowhere near meeting expectations. But it remains to be seen how much damage control will be necessary to repair that relationship based on these conflicting reports.
4. What comes over the next few months will be pivotal
All of this feels like we’re reaching a potential boiling point, looking ahead to the next few months. The Suns’ plan is to evaluate this team for the remainder of the season and see how they’re able to compete, but they have the toughest remaining schedule and are currently sitting in 10th place in the West.
Most of the teams in their vicinity made moves to improve at the deadline, and that’s not even counting the Portland Trail Blazers, who have been on a tear lately to put themselves within striking distance of the play-in. In short, there’s a chance the team with the highest payroll in NBA history could wind up as the 12th- or 13th-best team in the West.
That reinforces the league-wide perception that this group has nailed its talent acquisition with individual moves that make sense in a vacuum, but failed to construct a roster that actually works well together:
It also sets up a potential power keg of a summer where the Suns have to absolutely nail what comes next. Even a Jimmy Butler trade felt like an unlikely solution for salvaging a lost season, but if the Suns misstep from here, they run the risk of everything falling apart.
Kevin Durant is eligible for a two-year extension worth $123.8 million this summer, which was the reason he and the Suns decided to hold off on the one-year extension he was eligible for last offseason.
But after all these trade rumors — which, again, the Suns categorically deny — does KD view Phoenix’s reasoning for that differently now? Will he still be interested in re-signing with the Suns if he suspects they tried to move him?
And more importantly, if KD does decide to move on over the summer, what kind of return can the Suns get for him? Durant is still an All-NBA player putting up a 27-6-4 stat line on a nightly basis, and the number of calls Phoenix received about him over the last few days suggests there will be plenty of suitors. But as we’ve seen quite often lately, superstars have a lot of power in forcing their way to the destinations of their choosing. That could limit Phoenix’s return in a hypothetical KD trade if he only has one or two landing spots on his list.
Granted, Durant doesn’t have a no-trade clause like Bradley Beal does. But with KD only on the books for one more season, any potential suitor might be scared off from surrendering assets to acquire him if Durant tells that team he won’t sign an extension beyond the upcoming season.
Even if Durant understands the business side of things and still wants to finish his career in Phoenix…how exactly do the Suns build around him and Booker? Finding a destination for Beal would be the first step, but that no-trade clause looms large, even with more teams having extra flexibility this summer. Trading Beal would likely cost the Suns an additional draft pick of some sort to entice a team to take on his massive contract, especially if Beal continues to preserve his no-trade clause (as he’s entitled to do).
Beyond that, what can the Suns actually get out of useful but expendable role players like Grayson Allen or Royce O’Neale? How do they address the center spot if Nick Richards isn’t a starting-caliber big and Oso Ighodaro isn’t ready (or big enough)? How do they go about replacing all the vet minimum guys that could easily be out the door? Do they still need a point guard when starting the undersized Tyus Jones has been a massive problem on the defensive end?
All of those questions start with figuring out the KD situation, but there’s a trickledown effect no matter how that turns out. And if the Suns don’t find the right answers this time around, Thursday’s trade deadline could be the next major domino that sends them careening toward the worst-case scenario.
There’s no easy way to sugarcoat it: Even if it was unrealistic to expect the Suns to make some perfect move to salvage this season, by failing to land a needle-moving piece at the deadline, now we’re staring at the possibility of a rebuild, or at least a retool around Devin Booker.
And if Booker, the franchise’s new all-time leading scorer, doesn’t have the patience for a rebuild, or if he loses faith in the front office’s ability to put a winning product on the court, how long does he stick with the franchise that drafted him almost 10 years ago?
Granted, Booker bears plenty of responsibility in how this disappointing season has gone so far. But whether you believe Book can be a No. 1 option on a contending team or not, the Suns’ relevance starts with their 28-year-old star who’s still in his prime. He’s been loyal through the absolute worst years this franchise has seen, he’s helped attract star talent like Chris Paul, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal to the Valley (not to mention Jimmy Butler wanting to be here), and he’s the face of the franchise.
Ask Dallas Mavericks fans how they feel about trading Luka Doncic right now. Booker is not on Doncic’s level as a player, but he means more to the city of Phoenix than anyone outside of maybe Steve Nash, Larry Fitzgerald and Diana Taurasi. He envisions himself becoming the Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki type who spends his entire career with one organization, and while he’s obviously not on that level in terms of accomplishments or championships, all it would take is one title to cement himself as the greatest Sun of all-time.
That means a great deal to Devin Booker, and even guys like Kobe, Duncan and Dirk had to stick it out through some losing seasons. But at a certain point, every star wonders if the grass is greener when his team repeatedly falls short. The last two years have been just as taxing for everyone in the Suns locker room as they’ve been for the fanbase, and if Booker isn’t interested in a full-blown rebuild, or if he doesn’t buy into whatever the Suns get in return if they decide they have to trade Durant and/or Beal, how long before he asks out in order to compete for a championship before his prime ends?
The Phoenix Suns are caught between a rock and a hard place, and there’s no easy solution. Their options are either pulling off a miracle Bradley Beal trade to build around Book and KD (which, again, Beal’s salary and no-trade clause make exponentially harder), or making the difficult decision to deal Durant and hoping the return is significant enough to help Phoenix contend again in the near future.
Whether it’s building around Devin Booker by himself, or possibly facing the worst-case scenario where the face of the franchise wants to leave as well, Thursday’s trade deadline could very well signal some radical changes in the near future.
5. James Jones is not on the hot seat for the time being
A source who spoke with PHNX Sports confirmed that general manager James Jones is not on the hot seat. From the Suns’ perspective, they believe in the thought process behind many of Jones’ moves, even though some of the more significant ones clearly haven’t panned out.
With that being said, Jones’ contract is up at the end of the season, and it’s unclear what his future will look like at that point. He won’t be getting fired midseason based on the team’s underwhelming 25-25 record, but even if he’s not on the hot seat, a potential contract renewal might be a different conversation.
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