Suns' decision to brutally dump Jusuf Nurkic just got even better

Few decisions have defined the mess that has been the Phoenix Suns quest to return to the NBA Finals quite like trading for Bosnian big man Jusuf Nurkic. At a time when the franchise had Kevin Durant - and needed even an above average center to pair alongside himself and Devin Booker - the front office instead opted for Nurkic.

A trade that ended up getting them Grayson Allen - who despite his own shortcomings has had a much better time of it in The Valley - and costing them Deandre Ayton in the process. Not that the Suns wanted to keep Ayton - he had to go - but the return of Nurkic and Allen is more underwhelming now than it was then.

National head coach blasts Nurkic's fitness ahead of EuroBasket.

Bosnia and Herzegovina are preparing for EuroBasket play later this month, and the belief was that Nurkic would suit up for his country. That was until their head coach Adis Beciragic came out with some scathing remarks on Nurkic's fitness, which if you've been a fan of basketball in Phoenix you surely won't have been surprised by.

The knock on Nurkic even before he landed with the Suns was that his body couldn't hold up to the grind of an NBA season, although he proved everybody wrong under Frank Vogel in his first campaign in Phoenix. He somehow anchored a league average defensive group and ended up playing more games than Booker, Durant or Bradley Beal.

That was as good as it got and last season under Mike Budenholzer the pair quickly appeared to fall out. Nurkic's conditioning looking to be at least part of the reason why, as he did not look healthy when on the court for much of that campaign with the Suns. He was promptly flipped to the Charlotte Hornets, and this summer was again moved to the Utah Jazz.

It is also worth noting that coach Beciragic also name-checked Xavier Castaneda as being out of shape, so this wasn't all on Nurkic. That does not look like a roster that is ready to compete with some of the heavyweights of European basketball in a matter of weeks. But it is also no surprise that Nurkic was mentioned either.

It is just a shame that he ended up being the big move to make to put alongside the "Big 3" the front office had assembled. Another package for Ayton would have come together eventually, even the Los Angeles Lakers have talked themselves into him this season after a mostly underwhelming stint with the Portland Trail Blazers.

In years to come we will look back on several moments that defined this decade for the Suns, and as of this moment they are all for the worst. Trading for Nurkic was one of them, and it is clear since leaving The Valley that he has only trended in one direction despite still not turning 31-years-old until later this month. A disaster.