The Phoenix Suns have made pretty significant changes to the roster over the past couple of years.<\/p>\n
First, they traded Mikal Bridges<\/a> to the Brooklyn Nets in Feb. 2023 as part of the package for Kevin Durant<\/a>. To kick off the summer, they then moved Chris Paul<\/a> to the Washington Wizards to land Bradley Beal<\/a>. Then they sent Deandre Ayton<\/a> packing in Sep. 2023, acquiring Jusuf Nurkic<\/a> from the Portland Trail Blazers.<\/p>\n In a vacuum, of those transactions made sense as a basketball move. Durant is superior to Bridges. Beal is a more potent scorer than Paul. Nurkic is more versatile than Ayton.<\/p>\n However, the Suns used to have a homey atmosphere. Many players spent several years with Phoenix, allowing fans to feel a familial connection with them. Dan Majerle<\/a>, Steve Nash<\/a>, Alvan Adams<\/a>, Amar\u2019e Stoudemire<\/a>, and Kevin Johnson<\/a> are just a few who played in Phoenix for at least eight seasons. This current iteration of the Suns only has one player displaying that type of loyalty: Devin Booker<\/a>.<\/p>\n With that being said, if Bridges had his way, he\u2019d still be in Phoenix too.<\/p>\n \u201cI would’ve thought I was the last person<\/a> to be traded all the time,\u201d Bridges tells RG.org\u2019s Spencer Davies. \u201cIt kinda started when I was in Phoenix. I thought I probably never was gonna leave Phoenix.<\/p>\n Being the type of player I am, I feel like I’m kinda in a glue role\u2026 Once you get traded once, now it’s like it’s gonna be continuous. But hopefully, things go great [in New York] and I don’t gotta keep moving teams.\u201d<\/p>\n As Bridges now knows, he was naive to think that he\u2019d be with the Suns for his entire career.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been proven, time after time, that loyalty is less important in sports business than winning. This is why players like Beal and Damian Lillard<\/a> left the only franchises they had ever known. It\u2019s why the Toronto Raptors traded DeMar DeRozan<\/a> and why the Miami Heat are considering moving Jimmy Butler<\/a>.<\/p>\n At the end of the day, championships are the most important measure of success.<\/p>\n The phrase \u2018ring culture\u2019 gets thrown around pejoratively, as if NBA titles are only important on a superficial level. Yet, Bill Russell<\/a> leading the Boston Celtics to 11 championships is a major piece of NBA history. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar<\/a> winning six championships while with the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers helps him be in GOAT conversations. Michael Jordan<\/a> going 6-0 in the NBA Finals is part of his mythos.<\/p>\n So, when Phoenix had a chance to trade Bridges for a two-time title-winner who is arguably the greatest scorer in NBA history, there was little doubt that they would make that move. In fact, the question when the trade went down wasn\u2019t why would the Suns trade Bridges. It was why would the Nets accept Bridges as the principal asset in a return for Durant.<\/p>\n As it turns out, Brooklyn was wrong to think that Bridges could fill Durant\u2019s shoes. Though he initially played spectacularly, it became clear that the offensive burden was affecting his efficiency and defense. By the end of 2023-24, the Nets still saw him as a cornerstone, but not as their centerpiece. Before he got too cozy in Brooklyn, they sent him to Manhattan.<\/p>\n Because the Nets received several first-round picks for Bridges, it\u2019s hard to say they shouldn\u2019t have traded for him. Replacing a player of Durant\u2019s caliber isn\u2019t easy, but they now have the type of assets they need to acquire an All-Star. Frankly, they may even be the franchise that comes out on top<\/a> in the end.<\/p>\n The Suns, who still have Durant on the roster, have obviously been satisfied with his performance. However, they\u2019ve yet to make it past the second round of the playoffs since he\u2019s been there. Their postseason woes, salary cap situation, clunky fit among their stars, Durant\u2019s age, and his contract status lead to the possibility that he isn\u2019t in town<\/a> much longer.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Knicks raised their offensive and defensive ceiling with Bridges. They\u2019re now considered a Conference Finals, if not a NBA Finals, contender. They also added a player who has pre-established chemistry with three key players. Yet, they\u2019re now unsure of how Julius Randle<\/a> \u2014who many would consider to be a better player than Bridges \u2014fits into the equation<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Phoenix Suns have made pretty significant changes to the roster over the past couple of years. First, they traded Mikal Bridges to the Brooklyn Nets in Feb. 2023 as part of the package for Kevin Durant. To kick off the summer, they then moved Chris Paul to the Washington Wizards to land Bradley Beal. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":97721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,1608,6,62,12,3],"tags":[69,1484,1382],"class_list":["post-97545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-suns","category-basketball","category-nets","category-nba","category-knicks","category-news","tag-kevin-durant","tag-mikal-bridges","tag-nba-trade"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}NBA Star Mikal Bridges Thought He\u2019d Never Leave Suns<\/h2>\n
Winning Is More Important Than Loyalty<\/h3>\n
The Last Word On The Last Laugh<\/h3>\n