Evaluating The Good, Bad and Ugly for Suns Through All-Star Break

PHOENIX -- The Phoenix Suns are not living up to expectations at all entering the All-Star Break.

Phoenix closed the first half of the season losing six of its last seven games and now is 26-28 on the year, placing the Suns 11th in the Western Conference.

Let's examine the good, bad and ugly of the Suns season thus far.

Good: Kevin Durant

Feb 11, 2025; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant (35) reacts after making a free throw during the second half against the Memphis Grizzlies to amass 30,000 career points at Footprint Center. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images | Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images

The lone consistent bright spot for the Suns so far is the 36-year-old Kevin Durant, who will be playing in his 15th All-Star Game Sunday in San Francisco.

Durant, who recently reached 30,000 career points, is averaging 27.3 points on .532/.404/.825 splits, 6.0 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 blocks and 0.9 steals and has been relatively healthy, playing in 41 of the Suns' 54 games. Phoenix is 24-17 in games with Durant this season.

He has also remained a professional despite the Suns reportedly blindsiding him with a trade that was almost done with the Golden State Warriors before Durant said he did not want to go back to the Warriors.

Devin Booker has also been playing well as of late after a slow start of the season, but the Suns have not found any consistency from any other player on the team.

Durant is continuing to do what he has done his entire career, but his supporting cast has simply not helped him enough at all.

Bad: Defense and Rebounding

Feb 12, 2025; Houston, Texas, USA; Phoenix Suns center Mason Plumlee (22) and Houston Rockets forward Dillon Brooks (9) and guard Jalen Green (4) fight over a rebound in the second quarter at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Shea-Imagn Images | Thomas Shea-Imagn Images

Last season, coach Frank Vogel had the Suns right in the middle of the pack with a 113.7 defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions), which ranked 13th in the NBA for the entire year.

This year, the Suns are 25th in the NBA with a 115.6 defensive rating. They also allow the most offensive rebounds per game in the NBA at 12.4, including an abysmal 14.6 per game since Jan. 1 (22 games).

Opponents get a lot of easy shots against the Suns and it mostly stems from extra possessions night in and night out.

It's really hard to pinpoint just one area the Suns struggle in because there are a ton, but the team's defense and rebounding are very obviously a weak spot.

With that said, on paper the Suns aren't going to wow with their defense because of the level of offensive talent they have. It's no secret that their offensive production (12th in NBA with 113.9 offensive rating) has to step up as well.

Ugly: Record/Future Direction of the Team

Phoenix Suns guard Bradley Bea — Feb 1, 2025; Portland, Oregon, USA; Phoenix Suns shooting guard Bradley Beal (3) looks on before the game against the Portland Trail Blazers at Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-Imagn Images | Soobum Im-Imagn Images

There is simply no reason the Suns should be having the season they are so far.

They have the highest payroll in NBA history and made two significant moves this offseason that have not paid off as their record shows: hiring Mike Budenholzer as head coach and signing Tyus Jones to be the team's starting point guard.

As our Kevin Hicks wrote, it's hard to pin a lot of the blame on Budenholzer with the underlying issues Suns have, but there is no doubt they are in a rough spot.

Jones has played and started in all but one game this season, bringing some stability to Phoenix's offense, but it just has not been consistent. He has also really struggled defensively and teams have started to pick on him more and more as the season goes on.

Book + Tyus Jones, no KD: -9.9 net rating (528 min)

KD + Tyus Jones, no Book: -12.4 net rating (298 min)

All 3 together: +1.9 net rating (668 min)

KD + Book, NO TYUS JONES: +6.8 net rating (269 min)
— Sam Cooper (@scooperhoops) February 13, 2025

Phoenix has tried other moves, most notably sending Bradley Beal to the bench and trading away Jusuf Nurkic after benching him completely and trading for Nick Richards as his replacement.

However, neither of these moves have had any significant payoff so far. The Suns are 7-7 when Beal comes off the bench and 6-8 since acquiring Richards.

Additionally with Beal, who is making over $50 million this season, trade rumors surrounded him for a couple months before the trade deadline, but general manager and president of basketball operations James Jones said Phoenix never approached him about waiving his no-trade clause.

Even worse was Durant being involved late in trade rumors, potentially fracturing the Suns' once very strong relationship with him as they enter the offseason with only one more year on Durant's contract. Almost all signs point to this partnership coming to an end in the offseason if the Suns can't turn it around or somehow make a significant move.

As for the rest of this season, the Suns need to figure something out to make their way up in the crowded Western Conference standings, but it will be difficult considering they have the toughest remaining strength of schedule according to Tankathon.

The Suns have an 11-19 record versus teams over .500 so far and will play 13 more games against teams that are currently above .500.

With the deadline already passed, the Suns need to find some way to get it turned around this season and hope that the future after that would work itself out.

If not, there are going to be a lot of questions that need to be answered this offseason.