Windhorst: Suns among teams facing the most pressure post-NBA trade deadline

The Phoenix Suns’ NBA trade deadline was far from what a lot of people had in mind after missing out on now-Golden State Warrior Jimmy Butler.

As ESPN’s Brian Windhorst put it Monday, Phoenix’s deadline “fell flat.” Throwing out Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal as potential trade pieces didn’t help matters, either.

Because of those factors — plus Phoenix’s luxury tax situation — Windhorst has the Suns among five teams facing the most pressure post-NBA trade deadline.

They’re mired in the second apron of the luxury tax, limiting ways to change the roster, and sit at .500 with the toughest remaining schedule in the league. Beal’s no-trade clause is padlocked in place, and Durant has just a year left on his contract and appears headed for a showdown with the team if he doesn’t want to extend this summer.

What’s worse than underachieving? Being expensive and inflexible, too. The story writes itself. Getting out of this will be a chore.

Following Saturday’s 122-105 loss to the Denver Nuggets, the Suns at 26-26 head into this week hanging onto the final play-in tournament spot by a thread.

Golden State is right behind Phoenix at 26-26. The Suns sit ahead of the Warriors thanks to their 2-1 head-to-head mark.

And it’s not going to get any easier for the Suns having the toughest remaining schedule in the league on top of what could be an eventful summer.

The Suns’ actions indicate they know they’re in trouble, and they’re examining how to dig themselves out. They needed to — and did — explore trading Durant even though it upset him, and they needed to offload salary to get some future flexibility. And they moved in this direction, trading Jusuf Nurkic with a first-round pick on deadline day, saving $130 million in salary and taxes this year and next.

There will likely be more unsavory medicine to ingest this summer, when Durant’s future with the franchise comes back into question. How the Suns handle it and how well they execute a possible Durant trade is vital to their future.

Suns not the only NBA team facing the pressure

In addition to Phoenix, the Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks, Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks rounded out Windhorst’s pressure list.

Seeing Dallas crack the top five shouldn’t come as a big surprise following its surprise dealing of star Luka Doncic to L.A. in exchange for a trade package centered around Anthony Davis.

Davis left his Mavericks debut with a non-contact injury and will reportedly miss multiple weeks with a left adductor strain.

Before exiting, Davis had racked up 29 points, 16 rebounds, seven assists and three blocks across 31 minutes.

Doncic, meanwhile, will make his Lakers debut Monday night against the Utah Jazz.

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