PHOENIX SUNS

Bill Simmons: ‘The whole league is annoyed by the Suns’

Jan 17, 2025, 11:15 AM

Bill Simmons had nothing optimistic to say about the Phoenix Suns turning it around this season when he rolled through his NBA power rankings during his latest podcast Thursday.

Simmons thinks only going back in time and not trading for Bradley Beal or Jusuf Nurkic would fix their problems. The addition of Nick Richards does not move the needle.

“This team’s just not good,” Simmons said on The Bill Simmons Podcast. “You can talk yourself into, ‘this team just got blah-blah-blah,’ I just don’t see it.”

In fact, Simmons believes the Suns’ canvassing the league searching for trade frameworks is wearing on other teams.

“The whole league is annoyed by the Suns,” he said. “It’s a really important point. Everyone in the league is like, ‘(Mat) Ishbia is on a bender and this team is insane. Stop calling us.'”

Simmons’ high expectations of the team were the same sentiments that Suns management and fans had at the beginning of the season. It’s no secret that Phoenix has underperformed with a 20-20 record compared to last season’s 22-18 start after 40 games.

“We thought they were going to get 47-plus wins,” Simmons said. “We thought they were going to shoot a bunch of threes … And then you watch them and I just don’t see it. They can’t rebound. They can’t protect the rim. The guys seem like they don’t like playing with each other.”

Simmons expected the Big Three of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Beal to take over offensively at a high clip, but the .500 record speaks differently.

“You watch them play a bad team, pick a bad team … they’ll play like Charlotte or Washington or whoever,” Simmons said. “And you’re watching the back and forth and you’re like, ‘I’m not sure they’re much better than this other team.’ The league’s just really good and really deep.”

Simmons was spot on.

On Thursday night, the Suns entered the fourth quarter in the nation’s capital with a 21-point lead. The Wizards cut that lead to three points with a minute left before the Suns survived in a 130-123 win.

Bill Simmons doesn’t think the Suns can trade Bradley Beal and Jusuf Nurkic

Beal sat out the game against the Wizards with a left ankle sprain. He has been involved in multiple trade rumors this season and became a hypothetical trade chip in a Jimmy Butler deal to Phoenix.

Simmons said that Beal’s contract is not only untradeable at $50 million, but that it would take more than Beal to send the disgruntled Butler to the Valley.

“Beal keeps getting mentioned in trades, as if anyone is trading for him,” Simmons said. “And it’s like, Jimmy Butler really wants to go to Phoenix, cool. You’re going to have to trade Kevin Durant or Devin Booker for Jimmy Butler because you’re not getting him for Bradley Beal.

“Nobody wants that contract, nobody wants Bradley Beal. I think he’s the number one trade asset you don’t want in the entire league. Sorry Bradley Beal, but it’s true.”

Nurkic is even more of a question now with the acquisition of Richards. Phoenix recently benched the veteran center, who has also dealt with injuries and a suspension this season. Just like Beal’s contract being undesirable around the league, the same can be said for Nurkic.

Nurkic is making $18.1 million this season and is under contract for one more year. Will a team be willing to take a chance on a center whose play has diminished?

“Nobody wants Nurkic,” Simmons said. “It’s like you’re not getting (Nikola) Vucevic for Nurkic and a couple of number twos. Stop. It’s not happening.”

Is Kevin Durant the problem?

Simmons used his rant on the Suns to question a pattern of unhappy teams that Durant has been a part of.

“It’s also another unhappy Kevin Durant team,” Simmons said. “So we have the 2019 Warriors — unhappy. The 2022 and ’23 Nets — unhappy, unhappy. The 2024 Suns — unhappy. The 2025 Suns — currently unhappy. I’m just flagging it. Maybe it’s a coincidence.”

The worst Big Three in history

When the Suns swung a trade for Beal, they were expecting a team that would be a whole lot better than .500 in their second year together. The Big Three played in 41 games in the 2023-24 season and were 26-15.

Simmons would put this Big Three in the Mount Rushmore of worst Big Threes in NBA history.

“We used the Big Three word with Durant, Booker and Beal,” Simmons said. “This is up there for worst Big Three of all-time.

“But I think the answer, as much as I love Steve Nash, is Kobe (Bryant) and Dwight (Howard) and Nash that one year with the Lakers,” Simmons added. “When people were calling them the Big Three and then Nash was like, his body just completely broke down. Kobe hated Dwight, that’s probably our worst Big Three.

“You could talk me into LeBron, (Anthony Davis) and (Russell Westbrook). Some people try to get it going when Russ and Paul George and (Carmelo Anthony) were on the same team that one year but this is like a possible Mount Rushmore (of) ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe we called them the Big Three’ kind of situation.'”

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Bill Simmons: ‘The whole league is annoyed by the Suns’