The Phoenix Suns might actually miss Jusuf Nurkic (yes you read that correctly)

The Phoenix Suns might have had a poor regular season, but one correct move they did make at the trade deadline was getting rid of center Jusuf Nurkic. The big Bosnian starting the campaign with head coach Mike Budenholzer believing he could become a 3-point threat, before ultimately falling out of the rotation - and favor with the coaching staff - altogether.

The decision to get Nick Richards instead looked a smart one, with the Suns doing a pair of deals with the Charlotte Hornets at the deadline. It was Josh Okogie who was moved for Richards, while the costly decision to break up a valuable future first round pick to jettison Nurkic to the same location was eventually what the franchise ended up doing.

The numbers suggest the Suns might actually be missing Nurkic.

That sounds outrageous, because not a single fan has wished for him to come back to Phoenix since leaving. Richards is far more mobile and capable of making a difference on both ends of the court every night. Besides - with Kevin Durant out with an ankle sprain and Bradley Beal due back soon from his hamstring issue - the Suns have bigger problems than their starting center anyway.

But if you look at the numbers, the Suns actually had a better defensive rating when Nurkic was on the team. Before delving into those figures, this tracks with what we saw last season as well. Not only was Nurkic one of the team's most consistent players, then head coach Frank Vogel built a league average defensive scheme around his plodding ways.

On the season as a whole in 2024-25, the Suns sit a horrible 27th. They give up 117.5 points each night, although when Nurkic was in The Valley earlier in the campaign, that number was a slightly better 116.2. That is obviously not a good enough reason to keep him around, but what has come next with Richards in his place possibly is.

That's because with Richards out there, the Suns give up 123.8 points per game, by far the worst mark in the entire league. To make matters worse - since arriving in Charlotte - the Hornets are conceding 110.7 points when he is out there. That's a top 10 number in the league, and miles better than the 115.1 points the Hornets as a whole give up.

There are obviously other factors at play here, and the Hornets have younger and more athletic players to cover up the way in which Nurkic protects the basket. But this is not nothing, and quite frankly is a disaster when you consider the organization broke up a valuable pick just to get rid of him.

Then again, Richards was a backup in Charlotte for a reason, and we might just have figured out when that was. For all of his desire to be everything the Suns need him to be, he just doesn't move the needle that much each night. Even worse, Richards doesn't have the kind of teammates who can raise his defensive game for the good of the team.

This is why rookie Oso Ighodaro has gotten some run as the season has progressed, and it is also why the Suns have been so awful defensively. There's plenty of missed rotations and blown coverages - but once you get beyond that - there isn't an anchor who can mask some of these issues. Nurkic was never quite that either - but at his best - he helped this team win 49 games.