The trade deadline came and went and Bradley Beal, prominently involved in trade rumors, is still with the Phoenix Suns after declining to waive his no-trade clause to facilitate a trade that would have gotten the Suns Jimmy Butler. Beal and his camp reiterated that he is looking to make his partnership with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker work, so here they are, looking to fight an uphill climb to make the playoffs in a loaded Western Conference despite not being able to make any major moves.

Beal's agent, Mark Bartelstein, clarified that the Suns guard would not have said “no' to every scenario, it's just that Phoenix was unable to find a trade framework that is acceptable for Beal.

“I'm never gonna say absolutely no to anything. But he really wants to make it work here. He's really not looking to be traded. If there's something that I find is really interesting and is like a win-win for everybody, yeah we're looking. But we're not looking to be traded. We don't wanna be traded. He wants to make it work. And that was really the gist of the conversation. And from there, nothing really developed that was even a conversation,” Bartelstein said in an appearance on SiriusXM NBA Radio.

So this just shows that the Suns didn't get too far in conversations that had Beal landing in one of his reported preferred destinations. It was always going to be difficult for them to trade Beal away, since the veteran guard has a full no-trade clause and his contract is arguably the worst in the NBA considering his health issues, and decline in productivity.

At this point, it looks like Beal and the Suns will be stuck with one another until the contract runs its course at the conclusion of the 2026-27 season.

Related Phoenix Suns NewsArticle continues below
Suns All-Star Kevin Durant with an angry face screaming Haters with a message box and the X, formerly Twitter logo in the background
Suns’ Kevin Durant makes ‘energy’ admission on calling out haters
Devin Booker smiling, with Suns rookie Oso Ighodaro and Ryan Dunn looking hyped beside him.
How ‘young, hungry’ Suns rookies have impressed Devin Booker
Suns' Kevin Durant smiling, with the picture attached below beside him
Suns’ Kevin Durant has hilarious reaction to 2021 NBA playoffs ‘PTSD’

Suns show the perils of rushed roster-building

Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant (35) looks on during the first quarter against the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena.
Reggie Hildred-Imagn Images

Make no mistake about it, the Suns made the right move in trading for Kevin Durant in 2023. But it's their moves after that that confound the mind. Trading away Chris Paul and a plethora of pick swaps to bring in Bradley Beal and his contract that continues to age like milk was the first blunder, and then they decided to deal Deandre Ayton and Toumani Camara for Jusuf Nurkic and Grayson Allen; Allen has been good for the team, but Nurkic wore out his welcome so quickly that Phoenix decided to dump him to the Charlotte Hornets, costing themselves another draft pick in the process.

Now, the Suns are struggling to separate themselves from the pack in the Western Conference, and it's only a matter of time before everything blows up in their face.