Opening Night proves Suns won previous trade fans hated

Competitive basketball finally returned to our screens on Tuesday night, and not a moment too soon as the Boston Celtics hammered the New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Lakers squeaked by the Minnesota Timberwolves. Two rivals that are firmly on the Suns' radar this season.

Despite playing in the Eastern Conference, the win by the Celtics was a timely reminder that - if the Suns were to somehow make it to the NBA Finals - right now they'd likely come face-to-face with a Celtics organization that is looking like the beginning of a dynasty. As for the Knicks, despite their major offseason acquisitions, they still have plenty of work to do.

Which only reinforced the notion the Suns won a now years old trade.

When they swung for the bleachers and traded for Kevin Durant in February of 2023, Mikal Bridges was without doubt the best player the Brooklyn Nets received in return. That deal may have been about first round picks - they received four of them from the Suns - than anything else, but Bridges hit the ground running with New York's second team.

For a minute there he looked like he could be the best player on a championship team, with his elite defending being joined by some out of this world scoring nights that we had never seen from him before. The Bridges came crashing down to earth, and returned to being the two-way monster that helped the Suns to the 2021 NBA Finals. He's now off to a rough start with the Knicks.

Bridges did say prior to the season beginning that he had once again re-worked his shooting form, something he claims to have done in the past. The thing is though - if you go back to 2021 with the Suns when he shot a sizzling 42.5 percent from deep on 4.4 attempts per game - there was nothing to fix.

If anything he's now taken a massive step back, and this was on full display in the loss to the Celtics. Bridges looking a shadow of his former self on the defensive end, with Reggie Miller commenting midway through the first-half of the game on TNT that the attempts from deep from Bridges to that point had been "way off".

He did go on to finish 2-of-7 from deep while managing 16 points, but all this performance did was prove that the Suns cashed in on Bridges at the perfect time in that Durant deal. Although he got off to a scorching in Brooklyn - and in theory his value likely rose some because of it - the front office in Phoenix got off Bridges at the perfect time and got a top 20 player of all-time in return.

As much as Suns fans love Bridges the teammate and player, they're kidding themselves if they think this version of him in place of Durant would give the team a better chance of winning it all. This is yet another victory lap for General Manager James Jones, who also ditched Deandre Ayton in what is increasingly looking like the perfect time last summer as well.

The organization hardly miss Bridges the player anymore, and rookie Ryan Dunn is a big reason for that. The comparisons between the two have already been made - and although Dunn is far from the finished product - he already looks like he could help some this season. The Knicks have a lot to figure out - but for the Suns at least - this was a reminder that the Durant trade was the correct move.