Indiana Pacers have thankfully shown Suns way to contend again in near future

The Phoenix Suns are stuck at a crossroads as the playoffs continue on without their involvement, and the road they take is going to define the rest of their decade. On the court it looks like Kevin Durant has played his last game in The Valley - while to the dismay of the fanbase - Bradley Beal almost certainly has not.

Then there is the issue of who their next head coach will be, a process that appears to be entering its final stages. The franchise will be hiring their fourth leading man in the last four seasons, in what is sure to be a development star Devin Booker did not envision for his career after the Suns made the 2021 NBA Finals.

Indiana Pacers have shown Suns blueprint to return to glory.

Right now the only link between the Suns and the surging Indiana Pacers - who are well on track to make the Finals themselves - is the fact that Phoenix could have drafted current Pacers' superstar Tyrese Haliburton and chose not to. In hindsight he would have been the final piece to their championship puzzle, although it wasn't the Pacers who drafted him either.

Instead it was the Sacramento Kings who were doing all of the right things there for a bit, before reverting back to the franchise we all know them as today. They got rid of Haliburton after nearly two seasons of watching him play, and have largely gone backwards since then save for their brief return to the postseason after the longest drought in the league.

But it was that trade by the Pacers to acquire Haliburton that has now given the Suns a pathway back to contention themselves. Haliburton was a part of the 2020 draft class, a year when the Pacers didn't have a first round pick. Their only selection coming 54th, when they took Cassius Stanley from Duke. Still only 25-years-old, he currently plays in France.

But rather than whiff on that draft altogether - which the Pacers clearly did on the night - they found a way to acquire one of the best players in a class that they didn't have a high pick in. Granted it took them moving on from Domantas Sabonis in order to do that, but this summer the Suns will have Durant to bring to any negotiations.

It gets better though, when you consider the Pacers also ended up stealing Aaron Nesmith from the Boston Celtics as well. Nesmith's heroics against the New York Knicks in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals will go down as the stuff of legend, and their front office smartly realized the Celtics couldn't afford to keep all of their players together, and so they pounced for Nesmith.

He was part of the trade that sent Malcolm Brogdon to Boston - and although the Celtics ultimately ended up winning it all and so the trade was worth it from their perspective as Brogdon helped them land Jrue Holiday - the Pacers won as well by getting a legitimate rotation player in Nesmith. Again from a draft in which they had no first round selections.

This is the way for the Suns. They need to target players that either haven't been given a chance with their current teams or else need a change of scenery in order to reach their full potential. This would surely suit Booker better as well, he won't want to waste his prime waiting for ping pong balls to hopefully bounce his team's way each summer. Be more like the Pacers, and great things will happen.