Suns dumping Jusuf Nurkic does little to help their main goal

The Phoenix Suns managed to do the one thing that fans were crying out for at the trade deadline, as they finally found a way to move on from center Jusuf Nurkic. It cost them a future first round pick to do so - although they did get a rotation player in Cody Martin back - but the organization can now move forward without the Bosnian sitting on their bench and not playing.

A win over the Utah Jazz on Friday night was a nice way to follow up the move - and it was needed after a battering from the Oklahoma City Thunder prior to that - but there is still a ways to go to save this season. Kevin Durant also remained in Phoenix when it looked for a moment like he could be moved, and it remains to be seen if that will have unsettled this group even further.

But the Nurkic move isn't going to help this group take a step forward.

Which is exactly what they need to do if they want to get close to winning a championship this season. When Nurkic was on the court this season he had largely been a disaster, but head coach Mike Budenholzer had removed him from the rotation entirely in the weeks leading up to the deadline.

To not get a player back in return who can actually help them win more games - while also giving up a pick in the process - is the kind of deal an organization makes when they know they have made a mistake. Which we can now say with certainty the Deandre Ayton for Nurkic and Grayson Allen deal was, and ditching Nurkic was designed to move on from this sorry episode altogether.

What is even more puzzling is why the Suns felt they needed to move Nurkic when they did, when it only makes their chances of improving their roster even more difficult. Granted having him sit there and not play wasn't great - and this interview with Duane Rankin the Arizona Republic wasn't ideal either - but he'll become an expiring contract as soon as this offseason.

That makes him a lot easier to move next season - it likely wouldn't have required attaching a pick - while doing so then could have brought back a better return that Martin, or the potential to carve open a bit more cap space to make deals. Had the team gotten a real player back right now, then it would have been a no-brainer to do the trade.

Instead the Suns are in the same place that they were a week ago. Good enough to beat the likes of the Jazz even if Durant isn't playing, but not on the level of the Thunder or the other elite teams in the Western Conference. Which is going to equal a play-in appearance or a possible first round exit in the playoffs proper at best, and Nurkic sitting on the bench stone-faced wasn't going to change that.

The organization did do a nice job of adding Nick Richards from the Hornets last month, but that is the kind of move around the fringes you make when your core is set and you're already a good team. Which the Suns are not, a point further hammered home when they seemed open to moving on from Durant prior to the deadline. Nurkic might be gone - but big picture in Phoenix - nothing has changed.