This trade deadline was about hitting the pause button.

Hello to the Suns community! I'm more of an outsider than a Suns diehard but have respected the Suns since the Nash days which I grew up watching. He and Amare were so fun to watch. I consider myself a Suns appreciator.

Obviously the Suns have been a team that has garnered a lot of interest the last week and change and will throughout the rest of the season with the KD saga, the attempts to trade for Butler, and the Beal situation. The KD saga likely has only just begun. Teams like Houston, Memphis, and yes, even Brooklyn, will have the ability to make trade packages that will be very enticing to Phoenix during the offseason. Usually players of that caliber don't get moved in-season but obviously, this season isn't a normal season.

There's been so much dissent and a lot of back and forth on this sub the last 24 hours especially and the last week and I think it's really important to take a step back and look at this from the vantage point of where the Suns FO clearly appears to be at this stage, how they're operating, and where the Suns are at this stage. The bottom line is....yes, the Suns wanna make the playoffs. They'd rather not end up with an egg on their face with the Rockets, a WC rival, having a lottery pick. It also makes it trickier to do a deal with them re: they being willing to give up pick control.

But they're no longer making decisions that are short sighted. And with the report from Gambo that the Suns would be seeking draft capital/young talent/etc. for KD, the direction this franchise appears to be headed toward unless things turn around this season now looks to be clear. So is the report that the FO is planning a full evaluation of the roster come the offseason barring a turnaround, from Shams.

All of that leads me and should lead us to this takeaway----the front office recognizes that they've put themselves in a tough spot. They recognize this team isn't a winner. They recognize they're not good enough and have few avenues to be good enough to compete with this current squad. And that means they're hitting the pause button.

I don't think they've given up on this season....not one bit. They're going to do what they can with what they have. They still are 23-11 with KD and Book in the lineup. Beal has been good off the bench. They have lacked so much lineup continuity and that has really hurt them. They have the toughest schedule in terms of winning percentage left in the association. At .500 after 50 games, with attempts to acquire Butler extinguished, and Beal skeptical on waiving his NTC and having no trade value, the FO made a prudent decision....recognizing there is no magical wand that's going to turn this ship around for this season, making a move that allows for some flexibility for next season for the first time in many years, and standing pat and evaluating exactly what they have and making a plan of attack on what they're going to do come the offseason.

Making a short term move to try to save this team is exactly why they're in the position they are now, which I won't get into, as that's been litigated endlessly.

They're hitting the pause button. Accepting defeat? Not quite yet. But they are hitting the pause button on this team....and that is the best decision this franchise has made the last year. Allow this team to navigate this period with some of these new additions and see how they mix in, get healthy during the ASB, and....be able to breathe a little bit. Locker room has been toxic, and understandably so. This team and the FO honestly needs to be able to breathe and just go out there and play basketball for the time being. There's really nothing else you can do now. Go out there and play ball; the chips will fall where they fall. They've hit the pause button on this squad, which could of course be the precursor of a tear down, where everyone bar Book would be on the table. But you can now aggregate in trades, you can of course trade your draft pick come draft night if it comes to that....Beal is one year closer to being an expiring contract, FWIW. Easier to plan a deal surrounding him during the summer. KD too for that matter.

It's the right decision to hit the pause button for this team and start thinking forward. Fans should do the same. That includes rooting for this squad going forward this season rather than longing for things that aren't here or wishcasting. Nothing that any of you can do, and the FO recognizes there's little they could do with what they have this season....they've done their best, and now we gotta see where that takes this team.

Long post, I know, but think as an outsider I'm in a better spot to really break it all down without as much emotional attachment to what's occurring....but I do wanna see the Suns be competitive because it's always good for the league to see the Suns competitive. And I like Book and KD.