The Phoenix Suns are entering the home stretch of this NBA season in a bad place. Not only are they five games below .500 - if you're brave enough to continue to watch this team play each night - then you already know that there are more losses to come. It is frankly astonishing that a roster featuring Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal may fail to crack 40 wins.
In fact Fansided's own top 99 players in the league list - which you can check out in full here and we would strongly encourage it - already exposed the fatal flaw of this roster. They might have a pair of top 14 players in Booker and Durant - while Beal is sitting at 90th - but beyond that, no Suns players feature. No depth equals no success in The Valley.
It gets worse, because the Big 3 in Phoenix officially have to split.
This is an idea that the organization themselves have already flirted with, having appeared to dangle Durant in trades leading up to the deadline. A return to the Golden State Warriors emerging as the only real destination, although several reputable sources - including Anthony Slater of The Athletic - confirmed that Durant himself shut that one down late in the process.
It now appears that this version of the Suns is going to be split up this offseason, and the Game Theory Podcast with Sam Vecenie has broken down exactly why that can't happen quick enough. In an episode you can watch in full below, Vecenie and Bryce Simon (aka MotorCityHoops), revealed that the Suns' Big 3 have played 526 minutes together. They are losing those minutes.
It gets more ridiculous, as even the Charlotte Hornets' trio of LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller and Miles Bridges have a better net rating together on the court together than the Suns' stars. They've also won more of those minutes on the court than the Suns have, which is perhaps the lowest point the franchise have hit since adding Beal to the Booker and Durant combo.
This is the same Hornets organization that also took a first round pick off the Suns when they agreed to be landed with center Jusuf Nurkic, and they don't seem too upset about how that is going for them. The Suns on the other hand are probably going to move on from Durant this summer, but it is unclear how much that alone can fix things in The Valley.
The Phoenix Suns have now lost seven of their last eight games. pic.twitter.com/5DJSYhTOHK
— The Athletic NBA (@TheAthleticNBA) February 28, 2025
They rank a horrible 27th in defensive rating (116.3) right now, and Durant is actually one of their better defenders. Booker is cutting a more and more depressed figure when he speaks to the media each night, but he will never get moved unless he asks to. With Beal having that no-trade clause and appearing happy to live in Phoenix with his family, he's going nowhere either.
This breakup then is going to happen in stages, and it is going to begin with Durant. We could yet have the nuclear option of Booker deciding he wants out, although the hope would be to recoup some draft picks if it is Durant's time to leave. No matter what though the Hornets of all teams have officially proven that this experiment has not worked, and that they need to move on quickly.