Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NBA. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Suns fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
The trade deadline has come and gone for the Phoenix Suns, and no splashes were made. And honestly, no splashes were needed.
Across the league, this deadline was shaped less by talent chasing and more by balance sheets. We are three years into the current CBA now, and teams are feeling it. Financial discipline won the week. Phoenix was no different. They moved out $7 million in salary by sending Nick Richards and Nigel Hayes-Davis elsewhere and took back $4.6 million in return. Mission accomplished. Under the luxury tax.
And that brings us to the real conversation.
In a Western Conference that is unforgiving and packed with teams trying to separate, the deadline can be a chance to fortify. Add talent. Raise the ceiling. Push chips in for a postseason run. The Suns chose not to do that. Instead, they stayed the course they set back in October. Compete, develop continuity, protect flexibility. Keep the long view intact.
Did the Suns get better at the deadline? Did they stay the same? Or did they get worse by standing still while others shuffled pieces around?
That is the question now that the dust has settled and is the subject of this week’s Suns Reacts poll.
Cast your vote below. Then hit the comments and tell me why you landed where you did.