The Phoenix Suns have made many offseason moves to try and change the direction of the franchise, but that doesn't mean they're finished yet. Although Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal have been moved on - with a host of new players including Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks in the door in their place - the organization appear keen to add one more young player with upside.
That would be Jonathan Kuminga, who has been locked in a stalemate with his current employers in the Golden State Warriors regarding a new contract. Kuminga - alongside the likes of Josh Giddey - feeling the squeeze of a trade market that has settled after a flurry of offseason activity, and which has left them looking for the kind of money and long-term deal nobody appears willing to give them.
Ishbia's decision to trade away all assets will cost them Kuminga.
If you are to believe the rumors around a proposed Kuminga to Phoenix deal, then the Suns are willing to give the 22-year-old the kind of deal that he wants, and which nobody else currently will. Even if social media posts like this one from the player could evoke memories of Durant and his willingness to go at it with everybody on those platforms, Kuminga remains a player with a ton of upside.
But as Sam Vecenie pointed out on his Game Theory Podcast alongside Bryce Simon - while the Suns might be willing to pay up for Kuminga, they don't have the assets to interest the Warriors. The package on the table currently believed to have been Nick Richards, Grayson Allen and four second round picks. Not the most exciting haul.
But had the Suns not gotten rid of both Durant and Beal without canvassing the entire league at length, perhaps they could have worked Kuminga into moving on from both of those guys. Admittedly with Beal it would have been next to impossible, he had a no-trade clause and nobody rightly had any interest in paying him $110 million over the next two seasons.
The Durant trade that sent him to the Houston Rockets ended up being the first seven-team deal in league history - and while Durant himself didn't want to go back to San Francisco - a trade perhaps still could have gone down that also saw Kuminga head to Phoenix. There would have been five other teams moving stuff around that could have enticed the Warriors instead.
Failing all of that - and both are long shots - the Suns also could have potentially gotten something different for Durant too. Green could have an excellent season in The Valley, but let's not forget rumors persisted that the front office did ask around to see if they could flip the 23-year-old.
Green for Kuminga wouldn't even have made sense, but the Suns wouldn't have had Green to move in that scenario. Really though all of this is a painful reminder of the short-sighted nature with which the Suns continue to operate. This has similarities to the trade deadline, when the Suns were offering Jimmy Butler more than anybody else in order to try and secure his services.
By all accounts he wanted to go to Phoenix too - but because they were in the second apron and had no assets - he instead went to Golden State of all places. Prior to that, the front office sent Jusuf Nurkic packing while attaching a first round pick that they'd broken up from a more valuabe selection. The Suns are re-tooling now, so that doesn't make sense either. A worrying trend.