Watching Phoenix Suns basketball again has been great after all of the negativity around the Miles Bridges trade (which is now official), and it should give fans some excitement for the future.
Khaman Maluach, Rasheer Fleming and Koa Peat have all had encouraging moments on the court, although Koby Brea has unfortunately struggled to this point. He could go the way of Ryan Dunn yet in Phoenix.
Nuggets singing European standout a failed route Suns recently tried
While the action has been happening out in Vegas, the Denver Nuggets recently took a Suns-esque approach to roster building by turning their attentions to Europe. The franchise signing Alpha Diallo on a one-year, $1.4 million deal. Seems like a smart move for an organization that has been quiet this summer, right?
Not quite, and the Suns are proof of that. Nigel Hayes-Davis was brought across last summer to more fanfare than Diallo, having been a Final Four MVP of the EuroLeague competition. What most accept as the second highest level of basketball in the world after the NBA.
EuroLeague Defender of the Year Alpha Diallo has agreed to a one-year, $1.4 million deal to sign with the Denver Nuggets, agents Jared Mucha and Javon Phillips of Excel Sports Management tell ESPN. The former Providence standout and Euro star makes the NBA jump at 29 years old on… pic.twitter.com/aaN5t7AIFi
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 12, 2026
Hayes-Davis was supposed to come in and be a steady veteran presence (which admittedly he appeared to be), taking up some of the minutes left by Kevin Durant (even typing that now feels insane) and generally be a scoring forward off the bench for head coach Jordan Ott.
Instead Hayes-Davis was gone by the trade deadline, and has since found his way back to Europe. That was a move born out of the Suns being in the second apron at the time and trying to be creative with their roster building. You can’t blame them, but considering they were on the clock with Durant and Devin Booker as a tandem it did not pay off.
The Nuggets have one of the best players of all-time in Nikola Jokic, and are blessed that like Booker he seems content to ride out his current situation. Winning a championship will do that to you. But there is no way at a time when big players have been on the move that signing Diallo is going to move the needle the way it needs to in the Western Conference.
If Denver has one saving grace it is that Diallo is a defensive specialist, and that level of effort generally translates better to the league than scoring. Which is what Hayes-Davis was supposed to bring, and boy did he not.
At 29-years-old Diallo is of a similar age to Hayes-Davis when he made the jump, but maybe this time it can be different. Looking at the Suns in Summer League action however, and scrambling for European veterans feels likely a not too distant nightmare that eventually led to major changes in The Valley.
Could the Nuggets follow suit?
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