Forgotten Suns player comes in from the cold to show he can still help this team

With the NBA's trade deadline now behind us the matter of playing basketball has returned - and unfortunately for the Phoenix Suns and their fans - not a lot has changed for them in that regard. Whereas long-term trade target Jimmy Butler (III) hit the ground running with the Golden State Warriors, it was business as usual for Phoenix in the worst way versus the Denver Nuggets.

Another dispiriting loss, made even worse by the fact starting center Nick Richards hurt his knee during the game. It is unclear at this stage if he will miss any time - but with Jusuf Nurkic now in Charlotte - the depth chart behind Richards reads Mason Plumlee and a name that has not been mentioned in months.

That would be Bol Bol, who was back again to entertain the masses.

We know, we know... we've been here before. Bol also seems to play some of his best basketball against the team that drafted him in the Nuggets, so perhaps we're reading too much into this. Yet with Richards limited to only 22 minutes of action, there was Bol coming off the bench and playing in only his 16 games of the season.

He managed a whopping 33 minutes on the court, unheard of numbers throughout his entire career to this point (13.4 average and 8.8 this season in Phoenix). His 19 points trailed only the 25 of Devin Booker, although he took an outrageous 10 attempts from deep - making three of them - as head coach Mike Budenholzer searched in vain for a way to win the game. Also, just look at this...

This was the peak Bol experience, and it had a little bit of everything. Some highlight plays and making shots from deep, all while posting a -13 on the game itself. Yet that was a better score than every starter bar the -2 of Ryan Dunn, which goes a long way to explaining why the Suns lost this game.

It wasn't Bol's fault they came up short, and if anything playing extended minutes against the likes of Nikola Jokic and even the bruising DeAndre Jordan is reason enough to give him more run in the coming games. But as has so often been the case with Bol - particularly going back to his tenure with the Orlando Magic - he is sadly just not a winning player.

If he's having an oversized impact on your game, then you're probably down several key players and are really up against it. Not only did Richards get injured in this one, both Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal were missing altogether. It was admirable to see Bol step up the way he did - and there were moments to like - but his time in the league continues to be a cautionary tale.

Which puts the Suns' coaching staff in a tough spot. There's no doubt he can be an outlet offensively, and he's capable of a bigger role than he's been given to this point. But if you're serious about winning games - and not being a complete disaster defensively - then Bol can't play 33 minutes in a run of games.

To do that this point in the campaign would surely see them fall away completely from playoff contention. As it is they are hanging on for their lives to a play-in spot. The happy medium here would be seeing Bol play some more once the likes of Durant are back and Richards is healthy, just not full "Bol-lercoaster" like we saw versus Denver. It was great to see him out there though.