It is no secret that the Phoenix Suns were active around the trade deadline this season in trying to improve their roster. The most surprising name that came up as the franchise was trying to claw its way into the postseason - an objective they failed to achieve - was that of Kevin Durant.
For a moment there it looked like he could head back to the Golden State Warriors, as the Suns became fixated on the idea of Jimmy Butler saving their season. Instead it was Butler who ended up on the Warriors - and although he did manage to get them to the second round of the playoffs alongside Stephen Curry - the Suns might just be glad they missed out on their top trade target.
The team almost added a dominant big man to help their cause.
The center spot was the position where the Suns struggled most, and they tried to fix this situation by eventually bringing in Nick Richards from the Charlotte Hornets. Prior to that - and in another trade with the same partner - they had finally managed to ditch their own big man in Jusuf Nurkic, but at the cost of splitting up their remaining valuable first round pick into three less attractive selections.
Hornets fans have become familiar with Nurkic's game by this point - quite possibly to their detriment - but it could have been a somewhat similar player in Jonas Valanciunas who replaced him in The Valley. That's according to the 33-year-old Lithuanian himself, who recently told Basketnews.com -
"Denver (Nuggets) came up, Phoenix (Suns) too - things were unclear there with Nurkic. San Antonio (Spurs) was also in the picture. So yeah, there were a few teams".
We know now that Valanciunas was traded from the Washington Wizards to the Sacramento Kings - where he got to team up with his national team buddy in Domantas Sabonis - but what is interesting here is Valanciunas bringing up Nurkic by name. It was no secret throughout the league that he was not getting on with head coach Mike Budenholzer, but this ironically might have saved them.
Had the Suns swung for Valanciunas - while the asking price wasn't going to be high - the outcome wouldn't have been any different either. He might be a more physically imposing big than Nurkic, but the limitations between the pair are similar. Neither is particularly athletic anymore, and Valanciunas wasn't going to be stepping out beyond that 3-point line much either.
So it may be that former coach Budenholzer didn't want to replace like-for-like, and in his defense there is something to that. He's neither a win now player or a building block for the future - and although he's only making just over $10 million a year across the next two seasons - that is a player and a contract the franchise did not need to be stuck with.
Richards is far from the perfect solution either, but he can at least run the court and has some more bounce, not to mention being six years the junior of Valanciunas. This is just further proof that the team were panicking about the direction of their season, and were reaching for ways to make it better. Maybe five years ago, but this is one deal fans should be happy didn't end up happening.