Suns May Have Toughest Road Ahead in NBA

The Phoenix Suns have put themselves in quite a pickle.

After going all-in on trying to win a championship for the past two seasons, the Suns have swung and missed, putting them in position to need a change without having the assets to do it.

Bleacher Report writer Grant Hughes thinks the Suns have one of the five most difficult paths towards success in the league.

"A Kevin Durant trade probably won't return a better player, Bradley Beal still wields a tragically hilarious amount of power with the franchise due to his no-trade clause, and ownership continues to be unfathomably out of step with reality," Hughes wrote.

"Just try to digest the logic of owner Mat Ishbia responding to the capricious and future-mortgaging madness that has defined his control of the team by basically saying he's going to get more involved.

"On Ishbia's watch, Phoenix has traded away virtually every pick possible, constructed an imbalanced roster, cycled through coaches and essentially made some kind of connection to Michigan State the main hiring criteria for powerful positions.

"It's possible the Suns eclipse last year's 36 wins because the bar is so low. But the damage they have done to themselves over the past couple of years is going to wreck them for a decade."

The Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Clippers and Sacramento Kings were the other teams listed by Hughes that need improvement.

The Suns will have a much clearer path forward once Durant is finally traded, and that will set the team up for its next step.

What that next step is remains to be seen, but the Suns have the ability to reshape and retool their roster to get back in the mix among the top teams in the Western Conference.

The Suns will participate in next week's NBA Draft, where they will make a move towards getting better.