The Phoenix Suns have already gone through some wholesale changes this offseason, ending the Kevin Durant era while seemingly on the brink of somehow cutting ties with Bradley Beal and his no-trade clause. Devin Booker is still in town - and having just added two years to his current contract - could yet go down as the best player in franchise history.
Optimistic as all of this sounds - and really the front office has done a nice job this summer and re-tooling the roster around Devin Booker despite being in the second apron - there are still problems to fix in Phoenix that cannot be solved overnight. There's no guarantee any of their three incoming rookies hit, while there remains a serious point guard issue in The Valley.
Bill Simmons piles yet more misery on Suns.
Bill Simmons took to his podcast recently alongside Ryen Russillo, and they had a long debate about the organizations in the league with the bleakest futures for the rest of the decade. Despite all that the Suns have attempted to do to pivot out of their current situation, Simmons not only labelled them the team in the West with the worst future, he compared them to an infamously bad team.
Mikhail Prokhorov is a name that should still make fans of the Brooklyn Nets shudder, and his short-sightedness in trying to build a winner there after moving from New Jersey to Brooklyn was legendary. Just like Suns' owner Mat Ishbia - who traded away everything to acquire both Durant and Beal - Prokhorov went all in on the ageing duo of Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett.
The Boston Celtics fleeced the Nets in that trade, as it led to them having the picks and positioning to draft both Jalyen Brown and Jayson Tatum, eventually winning a championship in 2024. It took a lot of time to get there, and only now does it appear to have dawned on Ishbia that building long-term through draft picks and nailing free agency is the most realistic way of winning it all.
To be compared to the worst and most short-sighted run franchise of the last decade is never a good spot, and it drives home just how badly the Suns have been run since making the 2021 NBA Finals. If the idea of buying out Beal to create more flexibility is being met with as much optimism as it has by the fanbase - despite the longer-term implications - it tells you how bad things have been in Phoenix.
There is some silver lining here however, as Russillo did push back on the notion that Booker - fresh off that extension - could ask out in the next year once he realizes what he has signed up for. Booker continues to be the emodiment of the franchise and appears to love being a part of the Suns, a fact that was not lost on Russillo. The Nets never had a player like that during the Prokhorov era.