Latest intel on All-Star center makes Suns look like geniuses for Jusuf Nurkic trade

Let's be real for a minute, the Phoenix Suns fumbled the Kevin Durant era. Zero playoff wins to show across the two full seasons he called The Valley home, while the less said about Bradley Beal the better. Hard as it is to believe now - and it didn't feel it at the time - the franchise would have been better off sticking with Chris Paul.

Even he didn't want to come back to The Valley before he calls it a career - and how Devin Booker could have done with him around again - as the Suns now stare into an uncertain future with a ton of youth now on their side. The other sore spot from the previous version of the roster was center Jusuf Nurkic, yet trading him to the Charlotte Hornets at the deadline might not look so bad anymore.

Possible Nikola Vucevic buyout changes perception of Nurkic trade.

It's hard to know what was worse, that the Suns gave up Deandre Ayton for Nurkic - and Grayson Allen - in the first place, or that they broke up a valuable first round pick in order to send him packing to Charlotte before the team fell apart anyway. We've already covered why the organization would have been better off keeping the Bosnian after what's happened this summer, but it's too late for that now.

But if the latest intel on two-time All-Star big man Nikola Vucevic is true, then the fact the Suns got anything for Nurkic is a minor miracle. Not that it is a given that the 34-year-old is going to be bought out by the Chicago Bulls, as none other than Marc Stein himself - a man most certainly in the know - believes that a market still exists for him out there.

But with both Josh Giddey and Jonathan Kuminga - a pair of players the Suns should be pushing hard to try and acquire - seemingly stuck in limbo, it is hard to see how Vucevic has a bigger market than either of those guys at this stage of his career. He would have been a solution for the Suns at one point before they drafted Maluach and traded for Mark Williams, even if he is a poor defender.

But you might remember that in trading Nurkic to Charlotte, the Suns acquired both Cody Martin and Vasilije Micić. Both were let go this summer, which set in motion the ability for them to get under both aprons as they find themselves now. So actually being able to get out from under Nurkic - even if it cost a first rounder - looks even more impressive in this market from the front office.

Especially when you consider the bigger picture implications of saving a ton of money moving forward. Nurkic will go down in Suns' lore as a player who did more harm than good, even if Frank Vogel somehow created a league average defensive scheme with him in it. The fact the Bulls may have to buy out a player much, much better than him shows they dealt him at the right time too.