The NBA took a page out of major league baseball’s book a few days ago, coming through with a highly entertaining trade deadline period that had everyone glued to their phones like a millennial in an airport. The Phoenix Suns of course participated, as did 21 other teams in the star-shuffling extravaganza.
Granted, the NBA should probably cease its mimicking of the MLB—we don’t want to see Devin Booker, Mikal Bridges, and others change their Twitter profile pictures to shadowy, black avatars, nor do we want to send Chris Paul into multi-hour negotiations with Adam Silver.
But regardless, the league now looks far different than it did this time last week thanks to this unconventional trade deadline phase.
With only a handfull of NBA teams set to acquire significant cap room during the coming offseason, it formed something of a powder keg around the deadline, as general managers saw it as their only opportunity to improve their teams. It of course exploded as the clock ticked down this week, leading to an abundance of new faces in new places.
James Harden now finds himself in the city of brotherly love, “Domas” Sabonis has moved out West, and C.J. McCollum is down in the bayou, just to name a few of the more notable modifications to the NBA landscape.
But with the dust now settled and after having made a few moves themselves, the Suns need to reassess their standing in the West, especially with respect to a few of their rivals.