Patience has been a key term in relation to the Phoenix Suns, and they wisely showed some patience on Thursday’s trade deadline by keeping things minimal, choosing not to get a head-start on what will be a pivotal summer.
The lone move is a great one, if you’ll allow that positive of an adjective to be used on a move so minor.
Trading Nick Richards and Nigel Hayes-Davis for Cole Anthony and Amir Coffey is purely a logistical trade. Anthony and Coffey combine to make less than Richards, so this not only gets the Suns below the tax but also creates enough room to use the 15th roster spot on a two-way player like Jamaree Bouyea or Isaiah Livers.
If you look within several trades over the last few days, the primary motivation has been similar, whether it was the tax, the aprons or converting two-ways. The majority of organizations executing that have had to do so with some combination of second-round picks and cash, so it’s a win for the Suns to avoid that, considering their depleted pool of second-round picks.
Phoenix will now have a 2026 second-round pick, a selection that will be the second-most favorable between Dallas (19-31), Philadelphia (29-21) and Oklahoma City (40-12). It is currently the 49th overall pick. The Suns also have their own second-rounder in 2029, but that’s it through 2032. They do not have a first-rounder this year after using it in the Jusuf Nurkic salary dump last deadline.
Ducking under the tax was wise. While it’s only a money-saving move, the “tax repeater” process is brutal and has only been further intensified this last season, so nearing the reset of that cycle is important. Almost any owner is going to get wounded by those penalties if their franchise is repeatedly a repeater.
In addition, part of the reason to waive-and-stretch Bradley Beal was not only to escape both aprons but also the tax. Missing out on that benefit by just a hair would have been poor practice.
The acquisition of Richards at last year’s deadline was a whiff, a desperate one to heal the complete lack of a rim presence on both ends between Nurkic and Mason Plumlee. For the team’s nosedive as a whole, it was akin to putting a Band-Aid on a dismembered carcass.
Richards was essentially acquired for a pair of second-round picks, as three total selections were swapped — the salary of Josh Okogie was also used to facilitate the deal. At the time, the Suns had little to no draft pick capital, so this was not a small price tag to write off the way it would be for many other organizations.
The thought was that there was some potential hidden inside the irrelevance of Charlotte. Maybe the now-28-year-old would emerge in a better environment.
That did not materialize. While Richards did bring a level of rebounding and finishing that Phoenix was absolutely desperate for, his lack of floor acumen for positioning really stood out. Then again, he was tossed into the clown car as it had fully gone ablaze down the hill, with his mid-January arrival coming right before a dismal February that signaled the Suns were completely cooked. Under a new head coach in a new system with less pressure this season, could he emerge this season?
That did not materialize, either. Richards was initially the backup center to Williams and started a pair of games. But even with everything head coach Jordan Ott has done to maximize almost everyone on the roster, Richards could not elevate himself.
In a three-center rotation, Richards fell down a spot in the pecking order behind Ighodaro, who has thrived with the same opportunity. Richards could not stop making small mistakes on both ends of the floor, and that would add up in each of his shifts. Eventually, partially due to Richards’ form and Ighodaro’s breakout, Richards lost his role entirely at the start of December and began logging consistent DNPs.
Richards now goes to Chicago, and the third-string center spot now falls onto No. 10 overall pick Khaman Maluach, who could see real rotation minutes for the first time this season in the event of an injury to either Williams or Ighodaro. Either that or head coach Jordan Ott will explore small-ball lineups.
What’s next is obviously these final 31 regular-season games and the extremely likely postseason. It could be the play-in, but a top-six spot is certainly within play as well. Phoenix could have elected to trade for some size to address its biggest weakness in an effort to ensure a top-six spot, but with that, it would have had to change its dynamic that has allowed all of this to seamlessly fit together in a way no one could have predicted. It was smart not to touch a thing.
After this season comes the most difficult thing to do in the NBA, and we’ve been here before.
Phoenix will be back where those 2013-14 surprise Suns were
When the 2013-14 Suns won 48 games and were an even bigger surprise than this current iteration, they had to figure out what was next when they were already within close sight of their ceiling. There would be no more free serotonin provided to the fanbase via an incredible surprise run and no more house money. Expectations were now arriving.
And how would the roster get better? While there was the All-NBA-caliber play of 24-year-old Eric Bledsoe and actual All-NBA play of 27-year-old Goran Dragic, the roster was light on talent and didn’t have much contending upside.
The Suns were rumored to have interest in then-Bulls star Pau Gasol but stood pat at the 2014 deadline.
Last time the Suns were this surprising and could have done something at the deadline … pic.twitter.com/tucU08gH03
— Kevin Zimmerman (@KZimmermanAZ) February 5, 2026
The development of No. 5 pick Alex Len after his rookie season added to the hope, as were the three first-rounders featured in the upcoming draft (T.J. Warren, Tyler Ennis, Bogdan Bogdanovic). On top of that, the Suns were armed with loads of salary cap space. They went big-game hunting, infamously meeting with LeBron James’ agent Rich Paul.
The best the Suns could do, however, was Isaiah Thomas on a four-year, $27 million deal. It was thought of as a low-risk add of someone who, at worst, could be traded on a bargain contract if it didn’t work out. Channing Frye left in free agency for Orlando, and his replacement was Anthony Tolliver.
Diehards know what happened next. The team dynamic wasn’t the same after a 12-14 start, but once things started to click across a 16-7 surge from that point on through January (even while Bledsoe was injured for most of them), Dragic demanded a trade. The three-guard “Hydra” experiment with Thomas had lessened his role further, and the Suns had no choice but to trade Dragic since the upcoming free agent was about to leave for nothing.
In response, Phoenix went for its biggest swing anyway at the trade deadline. It traded Thomas and acquired Brandon Knight with a deal that included the shiny top-five protected first-round pick asset that had been a prized possession for years.
From there, the Suns finished the year 10-18 post-deadline. Then, you know the rest and how the following years went. It was Knight’s cataclysmic drop-off largely contributing to a 23-59 record, then a year of hair salons, goat feces and so on. Hey, at least prior to that, they drafted that Devin Booker fella.
Point is, it’s extremely hard to go from zero expectations and a plucky darling to something more serious, a true contender.
Ishbia has made it clear that his goal is to win championships. How he and his staff go about the next efforts in achieving that goal this summer will be fascinating.
There is the long-term approach, selling high on the players in their early 30s like Grayson Allen, Dillon Brooks and Royce O’Neale, a trio that realistically will never have higher value leaguewide than they do right now. Is there enough runway with Booker for that vision, both in his age and his acceptance with a patient approach?
There is the short-term approach, hitting the trade market hard with the younger assets available to try to make a run at it with Booker, that trio and a few key others. Would that mean entertaining the possibility of trading Maluach and/or Rasheer Fleming? How about Jalen Green and/or Williams?
The most likely path is a split down the middle. Collin Gillespie and Jordan Goodwin are re-signed as two of the biggest “culture drivers” in the purple and orange. A call is made on the likes of Maluach, Fleming and Ryan Dunn, whether or not to write them into pen for the rotation next year, like Ighodaro already is.
If either young wing is deemed a “go,” make room for ’em in the rotation. If Maluach is deemed a “go,” make room for him in the rotation. That would mean trading one of those veteran wings, and then either Williams (a restricted free agent) or Ighodaro. If some of those youngins aren’t go’s, are they then expendable?
I’m sure the thought of that impending future is not very pleasant for a lot of Suns fans enjoying this current ride. And to be honest, even from this position, it’s kind of icky over here, too.
The incredibly low stakes of this season have been intertwined with a squad that plays like there are only the highest of stakes, and it has been a beautiful juxtaposition to experience. For now, Phoenix has chosen to keep that experience pure for at least a few more months. Make sure to keep enjoying it.