It has been a weird few days for the Phoenix Suns. What began as us lauding the front office, and in particular General Manager Brian Gregory, for how they conducted business in the last year, ending with a trade nobody wanted.
Miles Bridges is officially in The Valley, at the princely sum of an unprotected first round pick, long-term continuity on this roster and a whole lot more that we covered here.
Suns have become Chicago Bulls of the West with short-sighted moves
But in giving away a pair of veterans who helped them to the playoffs last season in Grayson Allen and Royce O'Neale, plus that aforementioned first seven years from now, Phoenix appears content to have continued short-term success and making the play-in tournament over a chance at becoming a contender.
We're not quite at the levels of having Nikola Vucevic, DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine on the one roster yet, but Bridges, Dillon Brooks and Mark Williams are not far off.
Their mix of being in the news for the wrong reasons and not being able to play when it really matters as a result of injury exactly what you do not want to have around Devin Booker. The organization seemed content to build slowly alongside Booker 12 months ago.
The star seemed onside by the prospect and a first time head coach, solid veterans and some promising youngsters propelled the team to a surprising playoff appearance. So to chuck that all away in favor of Bridges, just like the much better Kevin Durant and even Bradley Beal before him, is as "Bullsy" (please let that stick...) as it gets.
About the only saving grace Phoenix has right now is the change to the NBA Lottery that rewards those teams in the middle of the pack with a higher chance at the top overall picks. Only the Suns have precious little draft capital to speak of, and giving up that 2033 unprotected first to bring in Bridges? Oh you better believe that was real Bullsy.
Chicago has not truly been relevant since Derrick Rose was in his prime, and even the New York Knicks made the mistake of trying to trade and spend their way out of trouble before going back to step one and eventually building a winner.
The Suns have never been nearly as desireable a franchise for players (although they do continue to punch above their weight) and the last time they built a contender was by bottoming out completely. It landed them Booker.
This really is the position no team wants to be in, yet the Suns appear to be loving it here.
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